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At the beginning of the month I set some goals for myself and I wanted to see how I was doing.
- Put at least $600 into vacation fund. So far I’ve been able to put in $351.51, which doesn’t even include $400 in scheduled deposits! So $251.51 of that was all in unplanned snowflakes! Doing well. Even if I don’t get any other snowflakes before we leave for vacation, I will have $1,064! All the extra that we don’t spend on vacation ($700 budgeted for the week) gets thrown at credit cards.
- Don’t charge anything on credit cards. Everything that’s been charged (gas, groceries, Christmas gifts) has been paid off before it even hits the bill.
- Only buy drugstore items if they are free after rebate or relatively close to free. Try to keep to $15 per week out of pocket after rebates and coupons. So far, so good! I spent $12.97 the week of August 3rd. Last week I used the $10 RR from Walgreens to buy a ton of Sobe Life Water and Arizona Tea for our trip to Chicago ($0 out of pocket), and I haven’t gone yet this week.
- $40 per week on groceries, plus one $80 trip to Sam’s Club for meat. I spent $83.82 at Sam’s Club, which was $3.82 over budget. $65 of that was on meat, the rest was for some canned goods, cereal, and tortillas. I spent $21.73 ($10 of that was the cereal and Poptarts from Walgreens, which I also took into consideration for my drugstore goal) the first week in August. Nothing was spent last week because we were in Chicago all week. And this week will be minimal because I have my menu planned with stuff we already have on hand at home, all we’ll need is bread and milk…possibly eggs. So under $10 probably.
- Keep dining out to a minimum - $50 or less. Currently at $47.01. This included one late night trip to Taco Bell after an evening of drinking and Rock Band with friends (don’t worry, we had a sober driver among us!). And then $40.92 last night here in Chicago. We went to Weber Grill Restaurant and our plan of sharing an entree on Dave’s food allotment from work went out the window when we got there, haha. I decided to pay for my own meal and drink, and his job paid for his meal and drink. It’s the one place we decided to splurge while here and just have a good time. My meal was $22.95 (a pick-3 meal that had black Angus meatloaf, BBQ ribs, and pulled pork — because I couldn’t decide on just one, haha. And no…I couldn’t eat all of it) and drink was $7.50 (mango Mai Tai). After tax and 20% tip, I was at $40.92. Eek.
Not so shabby. I’m sticking to my goals rather well. Just means no more dining out for the rest of the month!
