I think I might have exceeded my No-Spend food budget
between last weekend and yesterday. And we were doing so well, too.
We had $289.70 remaining in our budget. I went to a local
shop in town and bought scones and clotted cream. The total there was $27.98,
leaving us with $261.72. Then we went to Target over the weekend to buy some
appetizers to bring to a small dinner party and we spent another $13.49,
bringing our running total down to $248.23.
It’s this next trip that really got us. We went to Costco
yesterday and spent a fortune. We needed a lot and bought even more. We were getting low on snacks (things for
lunches at school) and, truthfully, could have waited until October, but we
just bought what we needed because we had the money. (Although our goal is $500
for No-Spend month, we had money left over in the envelope from August that
carried over. That is how we literally had the cash on hand.) At Costco, we
bought 10 gallons of milk, yogurt, sliced cheese, 4 loaves of bread, 2 packs of
baby bel cheese, granola bars, granola biscuits, cereal bars, almonds, trail
mix, cheese-its, grab bag chips, salami, butter, wheat thins, 2 boxes of
cereal, and several kinds of fruit. We also bought a few things we will save
for our Christmas party, but we wanted to start buying them now, so we could
spread the cost out over several months. At Costco, we spent a total of $262.35,
so we did exceed out No-Spend goal. However, if you subtract what we bought for
the Christmas party, which totaled $21.37, we were a little closer to our
budget. Taking those out of the equation actually would have left us with about
$7.25. (But actually, we then had a small Target trip where we spent another
$13.55 so we still would have been over budget.)
We didn’t buy anything at Costco that wasn’t food and that
is another win in my book.
Oh well, another No-Spend September, another month going over
our grocery budget. I will continue to work on our grocery budget and continue
to carry over any money from month-to-month. I would like to have just one
No-Spend September where I actually stay within budget. J
Hopefully I won’t need to buy any more food for the month of
September.
Overall, our No-Spend month was still a success because we
sent more money towards debt than we normally do. We spent less money on
groceries than we normally do. And we were able to pay for some unexpected
expenses in cash rather than reaching for the credit card.
We bought very little that wasn’t food during No-Spend
September. We did not get any massages or haircuts. We didn’t go clothes/shoes
shopping. We didn’t buy and dish or laundry detergent. We didn’t buy toilet
paper or paper towels. We actually did really well this month.
We bought some things that were needed, however. The Girl
needed new pointe shoes for ballet and we bought those. She also needed a shirt
for Leadership, and obviously we bought that. There might have been another odd
thing here or there, but overall, we really didn’t buy much during our No-Spend
month. It was really just that blasted Costco trip that messed us up! HAH! J
Regardless, the biggest win here is that we got farther out
of debt because of our no-spend month. It might not have been by much, but it
was definitely more than it would have been if we hadn’t have had a no-spend
month!
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