Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A Shout Out for the $1,500 Grocery Lady in NH!

A lot of my readers might not remember this - but there was a very nice lady out there in NH (Weare, I think...).  In the beginning of 2009, she started a goal to spend only $1,500 on groceries and other stuff for the house.  She was featured on Fox 25 news.  She had a blog, but ended up taking it down shortly after the newsbroadcast.  I guess a lot of people were bashing her for "making up" that goal.  I don't know why people would waste their energy commenting to her that she was lying or whatnot - but whatever. 

Although my family probably could never accomplish a goal like that - I can see how some families could.  I don't remember the lady's name, but I remember that she was very nice and used to make comments on my blog - so if you are still reading, a few of us are curious as to how you did!  Were you able to stay at $1,500?  Did you give up?  Anything you learned by it?  I'd love to hear how you did, as well as most of my readers!  Even if you decided to give up the goal - we'd love to hear how it all went down - without judging you one bit!

I did make my goal of $5,000 - I have a $25 Stop & Shop trip to record here - but I'm still around $4,800.  It was very hard to keep up with in the month of December because I felt like I was always running to the store to pick up this, that and the other thing (darn holidays!). 

If you want the chart I used in 2009 to track your spending in 2010, CLICK HERE.  Afterwards, click on File and Create a Copy.  Then name it whatever you want.  Just enter the date, the amount you spent, the amount you saved (if you wanted) - and the sheet does the rest for you.  I found this year that if I started to try to delete rows, the formula gets messed up.  So try not to delete rows.  I also didn't pay attention to the "Qtr" column.  Many, many thanks to MommySnacks for posting this last year!

7 comments:

Lena Trombly said...

I think about that NH lady all the time. She is the reason I got into couponing. My husband caught the news clip and showed it to me. Little did he know what would have come out of it. Hehe!!! I was so sad to see that she was forced to shut her blog down.

Pamela said...

I also think about this lady. I am in NH also and I was reading her blog daily for a couple of weeks before it got shut down. Hers was the first blog I was reading and now read quite a few daily so that I can learn more and more about how to save my family money. I feel so bad that she had to shut her blog down because of jerks! I hope she is doing well and replies to your message.

maryanne said...

I never heard about the NH lady, but I'd love to hear how she did.

Congrats on meeting your grocery goal for the year!

Queenbuv3 said...

Congrats on reaching your goal! I think I would love to set a specific amount to spend for the entire year, maybe it would keep my spending on groceries more under control. Happy New Year!

I think $5000 is reasonable but do you have any kids or pets? I have a family of 4, 2 cats, a hampster and 3 goldfish.

Amy said...

I remember hearing about her too and thinking what a great goal that is.

Queenbuv3, I have a $5000 budget for the year also, and I have a family of 4, with a 2 year old and a 7 month old both in diapers but no pets. Formula for the baby is not included in my budget because it is covered by insurance for medical reasons. But I allot about $96 a week, and I am running at about $70.

I got to $5000 from looking at my weekly grocery spending and tried to make it reasonable. Next year, I am cutting my budget by 10%!

Anonymous said...

CONGRATULATIONS BECKY!
I met my goal 4 the year thanks to u! Your hints gave me sanity and allowed me to increase my contributions to charity!
Blessings to you and your wonderful family.
IF in Fairfield

Unknown said...

Thanks Fairfield lady! I guess the NH lady is no where to be found.

Queeny - I have 2 kids (2 & 3) and 2 cats. Setting a goal is good, but I pulled $5K out of my butt. It definitely made me cut down on impulse purchases. Thanks for all your healthy tips!