11.5.09

Since October has come and gone (is it just me or did it fly by?!) I thought I would post what my totals were for the month. Although it is mostly for me to keep track of what I am spending, for those of you interested I have begun posting my running total for the month of what I have spent and what I have saved on "useable" items (that is my term for anything we will use up like food, toiletries, cleaners, paper products). This month I have also included a few other things in this total like air fresheners and candles, some birthday party preparation items as well as a new pair of shoes for Naomi simply because I didn't want to separate them out. I started doing this so I could get an idea of exactly how much I am spending now on these items. I was so excited about the results. My budget for these items was $700 a month or what I rounded down to $150 a week. I have been doing this now for 3 full months and my totals for this month are

$448.59

Total Out of Pocket!!!

I could hardly believe I was already at this point. Remember my goal in starting this was just to save $100 a month. Anything more was just gravy. Now for how much I saved...

$751.82!!!!!

Can you believe that!? I couldn't. I recalculated it like four times to make sure it was correct. This means that not only did I save myself $251.41 this month in actual cash...BUT I purchased more food. $1200.41 worth of food to be exact! In addition to this I am mailing my rebates in for this, this and 3 rebates for this to total an additional $45 I will get back.

I personally did not think that I would ever enjoy grocery shopping...much less LOVE IT! I also love that I am able to purchase things for my family that were luxuries before. We are eating more at home because we like what is on our menu. If you want to know more about how to save a little dough each month. I amtrying to organize a small get together later this week @ my house to go over some of the basics. If you are interested in coming please leave me a comment with your email and I will let you know when we have the date and time set.