Week 1: Budget Confession

Week one of our budget diet is coming to a close, and I am happy to say that it went very well. I have no plans to spend any money tonight (except perhaps one orange to add fragrance to a plum-apple pie when I get home), and so I can say with relative certainty that we stayed within our budget 100% and even had a little leftover. Wowza.

Highs:

• Using coupons and sales, I was able to save 44% at the grocery store. I stayed under the $100 budget, and really bought enough staple and protein items to last two weeks. Next week should be a relatively small shopping trip with perishibles and a few higher-ticket items like bath tissue and the like. I think if I really tried, I could get away with $50 budget most weeks. But that is a challenge for another time.
• I didn't go shopping for any "miscellaneous" stuff. At all. No quick trips to Target to get one thing and then ending up with $85 worth of crap. No running to the grocery store because I forgot that jar of pasta sauce or that head of cabbage. Nothing was purchased that wasn't thought-out ahead of time and planned for.
• I really thought about every dollar, and therefore didn't want to spend them on stupid, temporary things.
• We kicked ass using coupons, not just for groceries, but also for meals away from home and other things we needed.
• I didn't eat out for lunch a single time this week. We only ate out as a family once, and I got one bagel this morning (with a coupon!) -- a VAST improvement.
• There is money LEFT OVER in the miscellaneous, retail, and restaurants jars. Maybe $25 total. That is about 15% of our weekly budget. We will put that into our "Christmas Tree" mini-savings fund.

Lows:

• Apparently unskilled in the world of cash transactions, I completely lost the $8 in change I received at the grocery store on Sunday. Or maybe the teller never handed it to me. Or maybe I left it in the cart. Whatever the case, I lost $8. And I felt like an idiot.
• We decided to get lunch on our way to the pumpkin patch on Sunday, but we overbought in drinks. Could have gotten two drinks, or smaller drinks, and been just fine.
• I impulse-purchased a bag of potato chips at the gas station. Still within the budget, but totally unnecessary.
• I'm still getting used to the whole "cash only" mentality. Also, planning ahead. Preparing lunches. Cooking dinner every night. Those last two things create a lot more dishes to clean, which causes a lot more annoyance between Jon and I. We just need a better system.

All in all, I'm happy to say things went well. And there is money in our checking account! Plenty! Just waiting to pay off bills!

Here's to a new mentality. Cheers!