Seeing as it is the1st of March, it is time to wrap up February's spending freeze and see how we did.
Spending Freeze recap
Day 1 - $0
Day 2 - $10 (drinks with the girls)
Day 3 - $133 ($12 McDonalds, $38 Thai food, $13 Target, $20 Hubs gas, $50 my gas)
Day 4 - $0
Day 5 -$0
Day 6 - $0
Day 7 - $1.75 (hubby got a snack a work)
Day 8 - $17.20 ($3.20 for meds, $14 for lunch for the boys and I)
Day 9 - $0
Day 10 - $29 ($20gas for hubby's car, $9 pizza after rough hospital visit)
Day 11 - $0
Day 12 - $19 (groceries)
Day 13 - $0
Day 14 - $20.00 (hubby bought my roses for the 1st time in 8 years, so we will let this break in the spending freeze slide :) )
Day 15 - $20.00 (gas for Hubby's car)
Day 16 - $0
Day 17 - $57.50 ($56 in groceries, $1.50 for Hubby's snack)
Day 18 - $22 in groceries
Day 19 -$0
Day 20 - $0
Day 21 - $0
Day 22 - $0
Day 23 - $7 (milk and toilet paper, we needed more, but Logan bet me I couldn't go to the store for just 2 things)
Day 24 - $41 ($6 trash bags and tortilla chips, $35 gas in my van)
Day 25 - $0
Day 26 - $30 in groceries
Day 27 - $8 gas in hubby's car
Day 28 - $20 gas in hubby's car
Day 29 - $0
The goals I set were :
Gas $115
Groceries $120
Gifts or eating out $50
for a total of $285
Actual spending-
Gas - $153 ($38 over budget)
Groceries - $153 ($35 over, not too bad)
Gifts or eating out - $106.25 ($56.25 ouch!)
Total - $412.25 ($127.25 over budget)
I knew we were over budget.. and I am not too happy about those numbers, especially the eating out category, because that is the one we have the most control over. It really is a temptation for the whole family, we like eating out. I suppose one could argue we don't do much else in the way of entertainment we have to pay for (we don't go out to the movies or theme parks whatnot) But we really do need to be better about this. In this season in our lives we simply cannot afford to eat out as much (and this was a 'good month'). I think that is the biggest lesson I learned from this year's spending freeze.
Going forward I am going to try and plan our eating out nights, so when we get the urge we can look forward to a special night out rather than going on a whim.
One area we did really well in, was impluse buys. You know what I mean, you go to Target to pick up a prescription and come out with $50 in random purchases. In fact, saying no has become more of a habit. We aren't big spenders normally, but I can get pulled in by clearance racks and such. Not today, I went to Target, to pick up a few things, and left with what was on my list. Sure, I browsed the clearance racks, even put stuff in my cart... and 2 aisles later, put it back. Yeah me!
How did you do? Did you learn anything? Change any habits? I would love to know.
