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We’ve come to the final two days of September, and I have to say that I feel awesome about this month! We really felt like our changes weren’t that big in the grand scheme of things (though I do know going back to using two cars will be nice).
This week we did well, but we also knew we had some wiggle room with being ahead already. After not shopping for two weeks I needed every penny of our grocery budget to get what we needed. My husband and I also went out for a date night and ate dinner out, but we used a Restaurant.com voucher so our dinner only cost $18 including the voucher and tip. Pretty sweet!
Weekly Savings:
$37 – not eating out (normally spend $55 a week for the whole family)
$50 – no miscellaneous cash purchases (snacks, fast food, etc.)
$80 – gas savings from one car living
Total Savings: $167
To recap, the goal this month was to try to squeeze down your budget to save an extra $1000 (or 10% of your income) over and above what you are already saving. We did this through reducing some spending, but also through finding ways to make some extra money. I also managed to save $200 by re-pricing our insurances, something everyone should do at least once a year.
Our extra savings total for the month: $1072
This is a sweet blessing going into the winter months. We already have an emergency fund, but to know that we have extra padding just helps you to feel a little more relaxed. It was also great to see that we can tighten down the hatches and find money if needed.
Sadly my children didn’t agree with the ease of this and have been begging for a sale on juice and snacks… and to eat out. Obviously we need to do a better job of showing them that many things in their lives are luxuries. Maybe we should spend our extra savings to take them on a mission trip to third world areas…
I do have more goals to continue putting extra money aside each month. We still have a few things to sell on craigslist, and also am working on switching our cell phone carrier to a much cheaper plan.
How has this month gone for you? Were you able to put some money aside? Share your joys (or frustrations) below in the comments or link to your savings.
