Well, I'm going to be truthful and I'm going to make you all feel good! I am OVER budget by $153 on groceries! How can this be I ask myself? I worked so hard to use coupons with sales, make the best of every promo and I even got many things FREE! I have to console myself by saying I did a ton of stockpiling and it WILL get better over time as I get more practice at the whole "game". Can't fault a girl for trying eh? Maybe I'm a little "too" overzealous for the deals!
I am happy that I have a written budget and I am keeping up with tracking all my expenses on my own homemade spreadsheet. It helps a ton to see the expenses in "real" time. It's very motivating and gives me a great incentive to work hard to come in UNDER budget for February!
Don't beat yourself up! My first month of lowering my grocery bill as my goal resulted in the same. The payoff came the following month and it evened out. Stick to it...the deals are exciting but you will get to the point that you have so much stockpiled that you won't see the need to take advantage of all the good deals, only the best:) For example, I have over 25 tubes of toothpaste, so if toothpaste isn't totally free, I don't get it!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same as you - overwhelmed by my January spending! I spent about $100 more than I would have liked. But I did my menu plan for the remainder of the month, and with only $30 in groceries bought thus far for February, I'll be able to go the rest of the month w/o buying anything!! Apparently I did a great job stocking up on the basics last month. Hopefully you'll find the same true for you.
ReplyDeleteThis is for breakfast/lunch for one and dinner for two.