Sunday, I posted my December zero-based budget results. Although I technically came out ahead, I have consistently spent more than allotted in the 'Fun' and the 'Grocery' categories. Specifically, last month I budgeted $200.87 for Fun (the .87 cents is added to make the end result of the entire budget equal to zero) and spent a whopping $377.03! In the Grocery category, I budgeted for $125, while I ended up spending $236.76. Granted, I spent more on groceries because I was stuck at home for about a week, and didn't have access to the cheaper stores I usually frequent.
Given that I'm now sending 15% of my gross salary to my 403b account, and that I've set a goal of saving at least $4500 by September of 2009, it's more important than ever that I get these categories under control. This month, I'm going to use the Cash Envelope System, which I've read about on other blogs, but first heard about in Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover
This is a system in which you create a budget, allocating amounts to each category (which I do each month already), and then use only cash for those categories. I'm going to modify this system, in that I'm only going to use cash for Fun and for Groceries. I should note that some pretty strange items fall under the 'Fun' category, since I use this for items that don't fit in any other category. For example, last month I thought I would need to buy a new tire for my car (I didn't---Les Scwhab kindly removed TWO screws from the tire at no cost). The expected tire purchase would have come out of the fun budget. . . . although new tire don't exactly fit my definition of fun!
In any case, for the month of January, I've allotted an extremely frugal $100 for groceries and $199.71 for fun. Now, as of today, January 5th, I've already spent $69.17 on groceries (!!!) which only leaves me $30.83 for the rest of the month. I guess now is as good a time as ever to lose that five pounds! I've only spent $5 on fun so far, which leaves me $194.71 (this feels like a fortune, compared to the grocery budget).
I'll be sending these amounts (I'm going to round down, just to make it easy) to my WAMU account, at which time I'll take the cash out of the account and that's what I'll have for the rest of the month. No using my debit card for groceries or for items that will fall into the 'fun' category, whatever those items may be.
It's a good thing I like a challenge, because I think this month is going to test my frugal skills like no other!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
A new strategy. . . .
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3 comments:
Definitely a challenge! What menus do you have planned?
I don't know what you are doing for fun, but almost $200/month seems like a lot to be going thru ($2400/year) when you are trying so hard to save for a specific purpose. Any chance you can relook at that figure?
I doubt I spend $25/month on "fun" yet I think I do more fun things than most anyone else I know - but so many of mine are free or just for the gas money to get there.
The secret to keeping the grocery bill down would be to make a lot of soups or stews. Heavy on the beans, rice, barley, etc - some veggies, and a little meat if you want, spices, and they are such low cost meals! Take for lunches also, and freeze in meal size packs. Good luck with the grocery budget - you should be able to do it! (And check out some container gardening books - it's time to start planning!) :)
Hi there. Thanks for visiting my blog! My combined food/fun/incidental budget is $8.70/day so it's similar to yours. I really recommend "one-pot wonder" meals that you can eat for several days to stretch out your food budget. (This week was curry and next week will be corned beef and cabbage for me!) Good luck!
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