I’ve had a long, on-going debate with myself as to how to manage the food budget.
On the one hand, there is always a lot of flexibility in the food budget. You can buy hotdogs for $3.29 or you can buy them for $0.89
And I’m pretty sure that they both come from the same unnamed parts of the cow. (Shudder)
You can get hamburger helper or you can get T-Bones. There are a lot of choices to be made.
But because I grew up with not always enough to eat, I’ve always been hesitant to skimp on the food. I’ve taken the attitude that I’d rather pay on the debt for a longer period of time than to let my kids be hungry. So my food bill has always been somewhat of a higher number than what it could be.
But I still see a lot of areas where I could make cuts.
A lot of the excess could be easily solved by buying bigger, less frequently. By shopping less frequently there is less waste, because people tend to buy something that they don’t need every time they go into the store.
So I over-budgeted the food this time and stocked up.
I’ve seen people blog about shopping for the month, and I’m hoping that that is what I just did.
Of course, I’m sure that I’ll be back in the store before a month is over, since we will need the little things, such as bread, milk, or whatever. But as far as meal planning, I just bought a month’s worth of food.
I am now completely at capacity.
I have to admit, I am a bit nervous about it. I spent more than I am used to on food, because I am trying to make it twice as long. Some of the items that I bought will probably still be there longer than a month though.
I still have some bugs to work out to organize the menus for a month at a time, but I’m getting there.
Today is Payday and I worked some good overtime during the payweek.
After paying my mortgage payment and my insurance premiums and taking out for our living expenses, I actually have money left over. I have a whopping $1488 left over.
So let’s do this.
I transferred $542.00 into my savings account bringing my new balance to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!
My Emergency Fund is now COMPLETE!!
(happy dance)
But what is this???
There is still money left over. In fact, there is still $946 left over. Something is going to get paid off today.
Let’s see. Who looks lucky? I want to put it all on my B of A account, but there is a debt that I have where you have to mail the payment in every month. It’s a major pain, because I usually don’t have stamps around the house, and they have mailed my payment coupon later and later every month until finally it is getting here so late that I only have one or two days to make the payment after I get the coupon. It drives me nuts. So then what are my choices? Let’s get rid of this sucker once and for all.
I’M MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!
Fry’s Electronics. Wonderful Products. Competitive Prices. Bad Debt.
Balance Owing: $632.71
Today’s Payment: $632.71
New Balance: ZERO! PAID IN FULL! KAPUT!
Goodbye Fry’s. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
That leaves me just over $300.00 in cash. Normally I would want to pay on another debt, but Sunday is my son’s birthday. I am going to keep this money out for his birthday. Last year we were paying off debt and the birthday’s were all very small, and I told him that I wasn’t going to spend a lot of money on birthdays, and he was very good about that. But at the time, I promised him that it would just be that one time. And since I promised, I will keep this money out for his birthday.
On another note, my birthday is tomorrow. I will be 29 again. And what do I want for my birthday?
Well, I just got it. I want to have a fully funded Emergency Fund. That’s my birthday gift to myself. $1000.00 in savings. And I got one less credit card, to boot.
That’s the best birthday present I have ever gotten.
