Family Budget Challenge – Day 3

Happy Fourth of July! With our new family budget of $20 a day I was worried that our 4th would feel more like a “fizzle.” But never fear – it is a good time to shop for produce specials, and sure enough I was able to buy quite a lot for our 4th of July feast. Using the supermarkets “saver card” I was able to buy melon, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, nectarines, potatoes and a few other festive items for under $10. I actually used the scale at the grocery store to keep tabs on how much each item cost – again something I haven’t done for a long time. I even found myself putting a few items back to keep our costs down.  Our family decided to use the organic meat & buns we have in the freezer instead of purchasing new items (another thing we never really used to do). And although we are starting to feel a bit of the $20.00 squeeze (especially when window shopping) we were encouraged by our wrapping of coins last night (which I actually almost forgot how to do) only to discover we had exactly $20 to wrap up and take to the bank. Talk about serendipity. So although we are now feeling things are tight, we realize things should feel tight. Grand total spent yesterday $15.00 out $5.00 to our piggy box.

Family Budget Challenge – Day 2

I am starting to feel the pressure of trying to keep to $20 a day. I grabbed lunch “to go” and the total of $7.25 left me reeling – $7.25 for a sandwich, apple & granola bar? Maybe that is a good deal, but all of a sudden it didn’t feel like it. Then I realized that all those times I have spent money on food to go, I never once thought about what else I could buy for that amount. Yesterday, I thought about it. I dreamed of the chocolate bars I could have bought for $7.25 or the basics we probably will need this week, like milk or bread. So although I know our $20 can include a meal out – I think we will be more picky about what kind of meal this is. After all peanut butter & jam still works for me, and at a fraction of the cost. So “Mom’s Family Budget Challenge” lesson of the day was to be careful of meals to go, because they really might not be worth the cost.  At the end of the day with a few groceries included $15.25 out, $4.75 to the piggy box.

Family Budget Challenge – Day 1

Yesterday we launched our “Mom’s Family Budget Challenge” to see if we could spend less & save more. I am happy to say that I felt particularly vindicated yesterday, as we only spent $10 on groceries – and because I was paying by cash I made sure to check my receipts. Sure enough, I discovered on my way out of the store (from now on I will check while I am still in the store) that the apple I bought was rung up as an “organic ugly tomato” – at 3.99, so I promptly got my refund and left with three more bucks in my pocket.   Yes, it pays to pay attention & to pay by cash. Another bonus that netted me 5 cents (as I said we are counting pennies) is the fact that I brought my cloth bag with me to the store and I made sure that I brought it to the attention of the attendant. Many stores now pay you to bring your own bag. 

I understand this is only going to get harder, not easier as time goes by, especially when the novelty of all of this wears off and the family wants pizza or I want to sit outside a nice cafe and there is no money left in the $20 budget – but so far so good. Family budget update – 10 bucks out, 10 bucks to the “piggy box” – thirty dollars now available.

Mom’s Family Budget Challenge

This month our family decided to see whether or not we could scale back drastically from our spending. After tallying all of our expenses and seeing what is leftover we were shocked at how much we spend at the grocery store and on other “incidentals.” Given the state of the economy and the price of gas, we have set ourselves quite a challenge this month – to live on $20 dollars a day. I will be chronicling our progress and sharing cost cutting tips with you as well. Hopefully we (and maybe you) can learn ways to recoup money and put more into savings, and less into other people’s pockets. So here are the details of our challenge:

1. We are paying as many bills as possible at the beginning of the month. That doesn’t leave much left, which is the point really. When we were spreading the payment of our bills over the entire month we noticed we weren’t capturing the “left-overs” as we should be. So now we hope to put the money from the middle of the month in our savings account.

2. If we know we have a monthly expense, such as gas, or church offering, we now consider this a bill that we have to budget in. This way we have a more realistic idea of how much money we really are spending. 

3. We now are going to earmark any amount that we have left after paying bills as “family savings” so that we start to see any excess in the month grow – not be spent.

4. Once we pay our bills – we are going to use cash. Why? Because we realized that debit and credit cards were divorcing us from the value of money. If we were using a plastic card to pay for expenses, we were hardly noticing where the money went, and we were always shocked to see the end of month statement (how many times have we said – “did we really spend that much?”). Another reason to use cash is because if you pay cash for something you are more willing to scrutinize your bill, use coupons, and want to hold on to as many bills and coins as possible.

5. We set ourselves the average of $20 a day to live on. That figure needs to include groceries, going out, hair cuts, toys, books, and dry cleaning.  If we have money left over that day it goes into a “piggy box” that we can borrow from another day. If we run out of money for that day – too bad (unless of course we deem something as an emergency). That means we need to use a bit of fore planning – do we need to do the dry cleaning? If yes, then we know that day the money will go to the dry cleaners and not the grocery store.

6. We are going to start paying attention to where our money goes. If you only have $20 a day and you realize you are spending $5 on gas just running everyone around, then you might think about walking, biking, or limiting trips (which is exactly what we have done).

7. We are going to save our pennies (yes, and count them too). Honestly, my husband is going to pick up coin wrappers from the bank today. I remember as a kid it was a special treat to wrap up pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters – all the excess change – and deposit them in the bank.

8. We are taking the time to comparison shop, examine receipts, collect coupons, take back cans – i.e. make sure our $20 goes as far as possible.

9. We are cutting back on what we now see as “luxury items” – that means “non-essentials” – including (sniff sniff) chocolate, any bottled drink, gum, condiments, magazines, lattes, etc., etc., etc.

10. We are changing our psychology about money and hoping it makes a difference! Every time we buy a latte that costs $3.50 that is actually $5 we had to earn in our paycheck before tax to pay for that latte. Does that mean we can’t have a latte? Of course not – but it means we will make it a treat not a norm.

We realize that some families don’t have the luxury of $20 a day nor the time to make sure that it is well spent – but for our family we knew that we needed this sort of challenge because with two full time professionals in the house we should have more to show for all of our work. We want our children to realize that money spent comes from money earned – and if we can’t do this, how will they ever be able to? So here goes Mom’s Family Budget Challenge. Wish us luck, and share your cost saving ideas with us, as we will share ours with you – because honestly every penny counts!