A good old fashioned money challenge!

As I think about the upcoming holidays and our never ending list of birthdays, we have 13 family members/friends birthdays coming up in the next three months, it is clear that I need to get more extreme with our budget.

 A couple weeks ago, I jotted down some ideas about how much I am willing to spend on gifts for both birthdays, holidays, and our anniversary. It soon become clear that I should have started saving up back in January! My grand total came to around $1700. I am someone who thoroughly enjoys buying and giving gifts to friends and family. And please remember this number includes 13 birthdays, our wedding anniversary, and gifts for Christmas for our family and friends: a bargain, really! I know that some people, when on a money/budget journey, tend to do homemade gifts or they simple tell family and friends that they are cutting back. I am not going to be taking that route at this time. I don't feel like our personal finances are so extreme that I cannot continue to do gifts as part of our budget. I think each person has to decide what they are okay with when entering into this whole world of tracking every dollar.

 In our family, September is basically the calm before the storm. We don't typically have much going on that month and no real celebrations in site. I think in the past I have started buying gifts in September. I always start around this time because there are so many celebrations that quickly sneak up on us.

 I recently read some stuff online, on pintrest of course, about really getting serious with your grocery budget. Someone said they are spending only $50 a week on groceries! When I first began my budgeting journey, I decided that $150 a week was fair and that would include dog food, cat food, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. I decided that in September I am going to do two things:
  1. a no buy month (outside of essentials)
  2. a STRICT grocery budget and really shop my pantry ($50 a week).
Our current average spending on groceries is about $400-600 a month. This new budget would make it only about $200-250, which is a huge difference. It will be fun to have a challenge and really force me to look at the ads before I shop. I think I could make it happen.

This would then help me really start my gift fund for the upcoming holidays. $1700 is no chump change!

 How do you get started?

  • I am doing a few things to kick us off on this $50 a week grocery budget. First things is tracking the money and I am going to just use good old fashion pen and paper. Secondly will be meal planning for every single meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Third I will only buy food we are eating that week. 
  • Things we will be skipping on this month in order to save money: soda, or any other flavored beverages (ice drinks, flavored waters, tea), ice cream/sweets (chocolates, cookies, candy), single serving meals and products (bags of salad, frozen pizza, or other frozen meals)
  • The best bang for our buck will be to get meats that will allow us to make 2-3 meals, fresh veggies and fruits on sale, rice/beans, and frozen veggies. We will also shop our pantry as well because we have a lot of foods that will work and help create a meal.
  • Another way to make this happen is to use our leftovers for a second meal (dinner or lunch the next day). We will also do things like breakfast for dinner (which is super cheap), and also doing simple dinners (sandwiches, quesadillas, hot dogs etc.).


 Wish me luck. I am going to track it and report back how it all goes. September 1st (Sunday) will be kick off day!

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