Budgeting woes - Too much eating out!
Posted 06-06-2008 at 09:58:44 AM by queenofthehivemomof5
I went over our spending and budgets and I am sad to say that we have been eating out WAY too much. We have a budget of $30.00 a week for dinning out and have been going over it too much. Part of that is because DH likes to stop on the road and buy a burger or a Coke while at work (um you work for Coke why are you buying one at full price??)
And then another part is laziness and not feeling like cooking. Both DH and I cook dinner about 50/50.
In the last 30 days we have spent $181 dollars on dinning out and only $143 on groceries. Thats a little over on the dinning out budget and a lot under on the grocery budget. But it still freeks me out that we spent more on dinning out than groceries. But I guess overall we are saving money on feeding the family...:shrug7:
Monthly Budget:
Groceries: $400.00
Dinning: $120.00
Total: $520.00
Actual Spending for month:
Groceries: $181.00
Dinning: $143.00
Total: $324.00
So in the end there is a savings of $196.00 right?
Still I think I need to tweek the spending a bit and spend a little more money on buying some supplies to make our fast food at home. This weekend I plan on organizing the freezer and seeing what all is in there and seeing what kind of room I have for some things like frozen pizzas and other meals that I can cook quickly and painlessly on busy nights or nights I don't feel like cooking.
I also want to GASP at how much money Home Depot has gotten this month due to our garden and yard projects.
$1447.00...HOLY HOME DEPOT!
Although I did think it was funny that the cashier at Home Depot was shocked that we did not want to use our Home Depot card or open an account and we were paying CASH...yeah baby. That feels really good to be able to save the cash to spend almost $1500 on yard projects
And then another part is laziness and not feeling like cooking. Both DH and I cook dinner about 50/50.
In the last 30 days we have spent $181 dollars on dinning out and only $143 on groceries. Thats a little over on the dinning out budget and a lot under on the grocery budget. But it still freeks me out that we spent more on dinning out than groceries. But I guess overall we are saving money on feeding the family...:shrug7:
Monthly Budget:
Groceries: $400.00
Dinning: $120.00
Total: $520.00
Actual Spending for month:
Groceries: $181.00
Dinning: $143.00
Total: $324.00
So in the end there is a savings of $196.00 right?
Still I think I need to tweek the spending a bit and spend a little more money on buying some supplies to make our fast food at home. This weekend I plan on organizing the freezer and seeing what all is in there and seeing what kind of room I have for some things like frozen pizzas and other meals that I can cook quickly and painlessly on busy nights or nights I don't feel like cooking.
I also want to GASP at how much money Home Depot has gotten this month due to our garden and yard projects.
$1447.00...HOLY HOME DEPOT!
Although I did think it was funny that the cashier at Home Depot was shocked that we did not want to use our Home Depot card or open an account and we were paying CASH...yeah baby. That feels really good to be able to save the cash to spend almost $1500 on yard projects
Total Comments 11
Comments
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Way to go at the Home Depot! (Feeling a little Dr. Suessy right now). Cash only!Posted 06-06-2008 at 12:56:49 PM by BigDog
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those gardening supplies must be made of gold!! lol
yea can't wait until that check is here...time for new glasses that i have been needing for years :(
We go over our eating out budget a lil too..thats because my hubbie comes home with food without asking if i cooked anything yet..his excuse well i thought you would like a day off..lol yea but how much you spent on two items is enough to feed us for two days on groceries :(Posted 06-06-2008 at 01:54:34 PM by lifeskills13 - I understand the dining out scenario. It wasn't until we sat down and tallied it all up that I realized how much we spent. I thought we had been pretty "frugal" by getting take-out (saving on drinks, tip, etc).
Now I am constantly looking for easy/good recipes. Of course it would be easier if my DH would actually eat (gasp!) a casserole!Posted 06-06-2008 at 02:23:57 PM by secretsavertoo -
Well the home depot expences did include a new $800 garden shed and an $80 tiller attachement. The rest was wood for 4 8x4x12 raised beds, garden soil, weed block fabric, paving stones, new hose and sprinker, and then some plants.
I saved for the garden stuff by cutting expences elseware so it did feel good (yet sort of sick) to drop that much cash in one place. But I loved the cashier reation on us saying that we were paying cash for it all. She was just flabber gasted. We live in a charge it society.Posted 06-06-2008 at 03:26:11 PM by queenofthehivemomof5 - As I was typing the above my 11 year old walks into the room
"Mom can we go out to dinner tonight to use my coupon for a free meal for getting all A's"
Now she has me on a guilt trip to go out for dinner tonight. But with her coupon we can afford it and stay within our 30 dollar weekly budgetPosted 06-06-2008 at 03:28:31 PM by queenofthehivemomof5 - I understand the eating out. We used to eat out about 3-4 times a week until I had my baby. Now we only eat out maybe once a week. Maybe not even that much. But we save SO much money. And since I started using coupons and started shopping at Super Walmart I am saving big time!Posted 06-07-2008 at 05:06:41 AM by autumnz1114
- autumnz1114 you have gutz! to be able to shop at Swalmart like that :) Im avoiding those stores and only will shop maybe once every two months lolPosted 06-07-2008 at 12:54:45 PM by lifeskills13
- Whats wrong with Walmart?Posted 06-08-2008 at 05:52:34 PM by autumnz1114
- just that they have a reputation for dislike of couponers (really cashiers who don't know anything about coupons)..but if you found a good one im jealous :)Posted 06-08-2008 at 08:45:13 PM by lifeskills13
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i work at walmart as a cashier it just depends on when u give them the coupons i find it easier to do all the coupons at the end of the order but then i get some people that they dont bother checking that the coupon brand matches the brand they r buying like giving me a roberts milk coupon and buying great value or dont bother checking that it takes two items of the same thing or different things to use the coupon like u have to buy a bag of charcoal to get money off of bbq sauce and arguing with me when i tell them they dont have the right thing so i have to dig through their bags to find the thing to show them that it isnt the right thing and please give the cashiers the buy one get one free coupons first it really does help a lot especially when there is a long line of people and always check ur when ur coupon expires i had one lady one time give me back half of her stuff cause she didnt bother to see if her coupons were still good before she got to the register stuff like that ticks off the cashiers so avoid doing that and u will be fine
Posted 07-13-2009 at 08:30:47 PM by kansascountrygirl66002 - and another thing to avoid if u have cloth bags give them to the cashier first so they dont put them in plasitc bags and then have to pull all of ur stuff out of the bags and put them in the cloth bags or if u have two or three different orders so the cashier doesnt have to void off half ur stuff and keeping all the cold frozen stuff together it helps if we keep all of ur cold stuff together and it doesnt thaw out on u on ur way home or invest in some of the stay cold bags or buy a cooler and keep ice in it in ur trunk so if u have a long drive then ur not worrying about the food melting on u on the way home just some stress free tips that i use that i got from friends and family members they really do help a lot and have ur id on u in case they need to see it for a check or if ur buying beer or tobaccoPosted 07-13-2009 at 08:38:08 PM by kansascountrygirl66002
