This month I vowed to track all of my variable expenses. (This report does not include our fixed expenses like rent and school tuition.) I am doing that, and I will share with you each week every expenditure we had. I hope you will link up your spending reports too.
(Note: I round up my totals to the nearest dollar because I use the change for laundry money and eventually to give me a snowflake.)
Tuesday, May 1
$9 – Jewel
$61 – organic delivery
$50 – husband’s transportation money for two weeks
Wednesday, May 2nd:
$47 daughter’s clothes
$37 wedding present
$10 son’s allowance
$7 Jewel
Thursday, May 3rd:
$12 library fees (we forgot about some DVDs we checked out, so the fees racked up quickly!)
Friday, May 4th:
$110 babysitter
$62.20 gas (on a Costco cash card)
$135 Costco ($96 groceries; $39 diapers)
$11 Jewel ($9 husband’s spend money; $2 groceries)
Saturday, May 5th:
$13 Whole Foods ($3 groceries; $10 my spending for son’s First Communion cake)
Sunday, May 6th:
Tithes–private
$25 Qdoba (son’s restaurant of choice to celebrate his first communion)
Total for the week – $552.20
By category, our spending broke down like this:
Groceries–$178(almost half my monthly total already! Time to eat from the freezer and pantry!)
Gas—112.20 ($50 for my husband and $62.20 for family vehicle)
Toiletries/Diapers–$39
Husband’s spending–$9
My spending–$10
Clothing account–$47
Son’s allowance–$10
Babysitter–$110
Miscellaneous–$37 library fees & gifts
What did I learn so far?
The little trips to the grocery store are killing our budget. I stopped to just pick up a few things 4 out of 6 days this week.
This week we plan to eat from the freezer and pantry to curb grocery spending. Also, last week was my son’s First Communion, which is part of the reason why our expenses were a bit higher than normal. This week should be rather uneventful, so I am going to aim to have 2 to 3 days this week where I don’t spend anything.
For those of you who also tracked your spending, link up your post or share in the comments.
Thank you so much for hosting this challenge! This is working great for me!!!
I live pretty close to a grocery store, so we do tend to pop out for small trips. Last week, my sweetie came home without sorbet (after saying she’d pick some up), and I had such a craving that I made her go back for it!
But usually our grocery trips are pre-planned because we have a menu in advance (or because the store has a sale on a specific day — all throughout May, a dozen eggs are 69 cents on Wednesdays). With your menu-planning skills, it shouldn’t be too hard to list out groceries and stick to the list. (Your pantry/freezer meals are way better than anything I could put together, even with a grocery trip.)
You’re right. 🙂 I just need to check the pantry before I shop. I often think I have something when we really don’t, or we use it up faster than I think we will and I get more.
You did pretty good. I spent $163 on groceries this week (I am making them last for 2 weeks I hope). My daughter had a school project a forgot to tell me I was feeding 6 hungry tennage girls on saturday. Oh well. Gas was kinda high to but we did ok.
I understand about unexpected expenses! My husband thought we could get rid of our miscellaneous budget line, but I knew we needed it. 🙂
My husband trys to cut to the bare bones but from running the house I know there will always be something we don’t plan for. Better to be ready than to play catch up. 🙂
I’ve been keeping track of my daily exenses for a while..it’s quite eye-opening. I use an online tracker called spendingdiary.com. It’s free to use, and has helped me curb my spending.
Congrats on your son’s first communion!! How exciting!!
I’ll have to check out that online tracker. Thanks!