Less Than A Week To Go!

I'm glad to report that I have 5 days left of this month and still have $140 in my grocery budget!  There is no way I will spend $140 this week.  I might spend $40.  Tops.  Even though I'm glad I have managed to stay well under budget this month, I do know that birthday months are going to kill me.  Plus, a good budgeter (not a word - I know!) actually gets very close to his or her own budget.  For instance, if I only spend $4,000 this year on groceries, then the husband will expect me to spend this every year.  

Honestly, I don't know where I picked up "$5,000 is my goal for grocery spending this year."  It's not some percentage of income.  It's nothing I read about on the Internet.  I guess it's just a challenging, yet realistic goal for us.  I always tell people I spend about $70 a week on groceries.  I have to say - yeah, I probably average $70 a week at Shaw's.  But I never took into consideration my random trips to BJ's (which almost always go over $100), Target, CVS and Walmart.  So even though in the past, I probably did spend less than $300 at the grocery store each month, I probably spent close to double that if I included my other stuff.  This year, I'm trying to see what I actually do spend on groceries.  This includes everything - from garbage bags, to makeup, to diapers, to cat stuff, and food.  For the most part, anything disposable.

It's still pretty early in 2009 if you want to jump on this bandwagon!  Someday, I hope to be able to budget all of our money.  I have tried and tried in the past, but I get overwhelmed and bored so I stop.  I'm hoping if I just stick to groceries, I will stay focused and energetic about it.  I might add something to track next year if I can stick with this one expense this year.

If you want the spreadsheet I use to track my grocery spending, Click on my "A Whole Lot of Babble" label on the right and within one of those past posts, you will see a link to a Google Document you can download.  Thanks to MommySnacks again!