Our Menu for the week:
Homemade Tacos
Boca Burgers
Broccoli Alfredo
Homemade pizza
Salmon patties
Cavaitini (double batch...one goes into the freezer)
We bought a lot this shopping trip and I'm going to be lazy and not list it all this time around. I can't think of a single unhealthy thing we bought though, except a package of Little Debbies that my hubby threw into the cart. Guess I haven't been making enough homemade goodies for him! We spent $97.17 this week...which is under the $100 weekly goal and we spent less than $45 last week so if all goes well this week we will be well under $400 for the month.
I've learned a lot this month, such as to buy the vegetables and fruits that are on sale that week instead of buying whatever we feel like. We get a lot of variety that way and can afford a lot more produce as well. I hope each month to gradually change things so that hopefully in a year or so we can be where we want to, diet wise.
I hope to highlight a few more recipes for you all this week...and then on to the $1,200 challenge next week!
Beth -This is Aunt Pat. I am surprised that you are exempting anything from your challenge for August. I was really enjoying reading your blogs until you started to mention "exceptions to the rule." Reality just isn't like that. Life throws us punches sometimes and we just have to work with it. Maybe you should just see how little you can spend in the month of August despite school supplies; those supplies are part of everyones budget for August. You wouldn't have to have a set amount to go under for the month; just try to get the best deals you can and show what a person can do to cut costs daily. It would be nice to see what you get FREE even if they are sample size products; or what you can do for FREE for summer time fun. We all enjoy reading about the challenge of living on less; you could tabulate your months expenditures; you might surprise yourself!!
ReplyDeleteHi Aunt Pat-
ReplyDeleteIf you go back to my "$1,200 Is Back" post and read the comment I left for Leanne you will see my explanation, but Atheist Mama explained it just as well.
My $1,200 Budget Challenge is just that...a budget challenge. My challenge is from going from spending several hundred dollars more than $1,200 a month to trying to cut our monthly expenses down quite considerably. Saving $600+ a month by cutting back on everything is a huge challenge. :)
I suppose I should have left the school supplies out of my post entirely (besides, I bought all the supplies yesterday so it's a moot point now anyhow!) because it had nothing to do with my monthly expenses. To me, and you may disagree, my challenge involves seeing if I can cut my "normal" monthly expenses down to $1,200. You are right when you say that life throws us punches and there are many added expenses every month. To me, that is what a savings account is for - the items that can't be written into a typical budget. The unexpected things or the extras that happen just once or twice a year.