3rd Quarter Budget Update

Have you been keeping track of what you are saving and spending this year? You can follow along with me on the right hand side of my blog where I update my totals every other week of what I've spent and what I've saved as well as the rebates I've submitted. He we are at the end of the 3rd Quarter and in for the home stretch of 2010 - I thought I would share my progress and you can share yours!!

Here's where I ended up through the 3rd quarter of 2010:

Savings - $6850.56

Spent - $1520.82

That puts us at an average of about $39 a week for groceries! And a savings of 81% off retail!! My weekly average has gone up almost $10 a week from where I was at Midyear. As many of you know I took a break for about a month during the summer and during that time I wasn't really couponing like I normally do. Even still I will continue with my weekly budget of $50. This includes all of our food, health/beauty products and household consumables (no liquor)!

I was keeping track the first half of the year what we were spending on eating out - and well it was just depressing to see that we spent more eating out than we did on groceries, even going out only once or twice a month for dinner and snacks/lunch here and there. I realized for me - I like to eat out. I like the break of not cooking, and its important for the hubs and I to have a date night once a month which was bumping that total up even higher!

How have you done so far this year? Are you keeping track? Did you stay within budget?

Midyear 2010 Budget Update

Have you been keeping track of what you are saving and spending this year? You can follow along with me on the right hand side of my blog where I update my totals every week of what I've spent and what I've saved as well as the rebates I've submitted. I thought since we've rounded out the first half of the year I would share my progress and you can share yours!!

Here's where I ended up for the first half of 2010:

Savings - $5136.01

Spent - $798.92

That puts us at an average of about $30 a week for groceries! And a savings of 86% off retail!! I'm not sure how I managed to stay SO under-budget in the 2nd quarter especially since the first quarter I was averaging around $35 a week (maybe its all that eating out we did that you'll see below)! I will continue with my weekly budget of $50 and hope that the catalina deals continue to roll in!

This included all of our food, health/beauty products and household consumables (no liquor)! Looks like I'm a little under where I was in 2009, especially in the rebate category. And I still haven't been able to get those Costco receipts on my log...perhaps I should make that a 2011 goal at this point! I will tell you though that we don't do large shops at Costco like typical Costco shoppers, just little things here and there like bananas, rotisserie chickens, beer and a few staples if I can't manage to score them for a rock bottom price elsewhere (granola bars, apple juice, frozen breaded chicken).

I also promised to keep track of our eating out expenses too and were at just under $1000 midyear or about $165 a month. Eek that's more than we spent on groceries and we typically only go out 2-3 a month (although this summer has been more like once a week)! Can you imagine what I could have done with that money at the grocery store! And that doesn't include eating out while "on vacation" since that money is budgeted from our vacation fund. But looking at that number I know we need to cut back - how do you manage to avoid eating out if you LOVE to eat out!! How much do you spend a month eating out?

How have you done so far this year? Are you keeping track? Did you stay within budget?

1st Quarter 2010 Budget Update

Have you been keeping track of what you are saving and spending this year? You can follow along with me on the right hand side of my blog where I update my totals every week of what I've spent and what I've saved as well as the rebates I've submitted. I thought since we've rounded out the first quarter of the year I would share my progress and you can share yours!!

Here's where I ended up for the first quarter of 2010:

Savings - $2794.09

Spent - $422.30

That puts us at about $35 a week for groceries! A savings of 87%!! I'm not sure how I managed to stay SO under-budget except that I started with a full freezer and the catalina deals have been fruitful! I don't plan to lower my weekly budget of $50 but it sure feels good to be so under!

This included all of our food, health/beauty products and household consumables (no liquor)! I said in my 2009 annual report that I was going to add in Costco trips and I failed to do that. Our membership actually expired at the end of January and we just renewed in March. We have been twice but my oldest son swiped the receipts to get a darn smiley face and now I can't find them! Since not everything we bought was food (I planned to subtract out household purchases like clothing/decor), I couldn't use my debit log as a resource.

I also promised to keep track of our eating out expenses too and we ended the quarter at $388.35 or about $130 a month. I can't decide if this is high or low yet - I mean, we spent almost as much eating out as we did on groceries and I feel like we only went out for a few nice dinners! How much do you spend a month eating out?

How did you do this quarter? Did you stay within budget?