A New Budget Month is Upon Us

Note:  this blog post contains no affiliate links.  I just really, really like these sites.

It's the last day of August (how did we get here already???), which means that another budget month is coming to a close, and a new month is upon us!  I'm a bit of a geek about our budget, and when I actually follow it, it works really well and we are able to save some money!  I've switched things up in the last month to make it even easier for me. 

This is the way I used to budget.  It was long and complicated and involved way to much moving of money during the month (it was all automated, but still, lots of money moving around).  Also, because I worked off of my pay dates, my month didn't follow a calendar month, which tended to confuse things just a bit. 

One of my favorite blogs is Six Figures Under.  I love how transparent she is about finances, and they have used their budget to do amazing things to pay off their debt!  She often talks about how they live on last month's income.  This intrigued me, but I never thought I needed it because we don't have the irregular income that her family does.  We get regular paychecks that are usually the same amount, unless my husband works overtime.  That and his occasional third paycheck (he gets paid every two weeks) were the only variances. 

Then, I started listening to the YNAB podcast (available here).  He also talks about living on last month's income.  Then, suddenly, one day I realized that it would make sense for us to live on last month's income.  And we had enough in savings to be able to do that and still have a nice cushion. 

So, last month I switched.  And it was glorious (hey, I'm a budget geek.  I can say glorious!). 

Here's the new system.  A few days before the end of the month, I transfer a budget month's worth of expenses from our general savings account to our online checking account (we have a local checking account and two savings accounts, and an online checking account and 11 savings accounts - more on that in another post!).  From there, the amount we need for spending is forwarded on to our local checking account, and the rest is divided up among our "sinking fund" accounts.  By the first of the month, when our mortgage is automatically withdrawn from our local checking account, all the money is there. 

As we get paychecks or any other extra income throughout the month, I transfer them directly to our general savings account, to be used the following month.  I record that income in an Excel spreadsheet so I can see exactly how much we have to work with the following month.  

Tracking expenses is, of course, key to the success of a budget.  I find that if I stay on top of it, it literally takes me less than five minutes a day to accomplish this.  When I get up in the morning, I get my coffee, sit down at my computer, open my bank accounts online and pull up my budget spreadsheet.  I record any expenses or income we had the day before.  Voila.  Tracking done.  With few exceptions, all of the actual moving of money between accounts is done automatically, so I also make sure this happens on schedule and then track it accordingly.  If it's a payday, I set up those transfers to savings.  Easy peasy. 

This month, the expense tracking will be made even easier.  I have switched our budget from Excel to the free version of EveryDollar.  It's essentially the same as my spreadsheet, but it has an app so I can track spending on the fly with my phone.  I like to have redundancy when I'm trying out new systems, so I'll still keep my budget in Excel, but I won't track daily expenses - I'll just go back at the end of the month and put down the total spending in each category.

There you have it - our (very long) budget update.  What's your favorite budgeting tip? 

In the Kitchen...Menu Plan May 4 - 9

I wonder how many of these "time to get back on the menu plan!" posts I have on this blog.  It's one of those things that I know I *should* do, but sometimes I just get lazy.  Actually, even when I don't have one posted here, there's usually a list on the "board of possibilities" on the fridge that I can work from.  At the moment, that board is empty as we've eaten everything that was on it.

About six weeks ago we looked at our spending and decided if we were going to move forward with any of our plans, we needed to really focus on sticking to our budget.  Next to the mortgage, food is our biggest expense (and depending on how the month goes, sometimes it even surpasses the mortgage.  So we're trying hard to stick to the budget.  Last month I was within $60.  This month, a trip to Costco with daughter in tow completely blew it out of the water. 

So now my focus is on using what we have.  I've been slowly whittling away at our over-stuffed pantry.  I found room to put my new ice cream maker in there, so that's progress.  Eventually I hope to have a whole section dedicated to kitchen equipment, because my cupboards are overstuffed with pans and small appliances (gadget girl here!). 

In a couple of months, I'm going to be getting five farm-raised local chickens, so I need to make room in the freezer for those.  I'm really excited about that - local chicken is hard to come by around here!

This week, I need to use up sprouting potatoes and broccoli.  Speaking of broccoli, which makes me think of broccoli beef (word association!), I need to find a new cut of beef for making broccoli beef.  We've been using hangar steak, which we LOVE LOVE LOVE, but it's $8 a pound now or something ridiculous like that, and I can't justify that while we're trying to scale back.  Flank steak would be perfect but it's even more expensive.  Thinking about bottom round but I need to do a little research online and see what other people are using. 

And so, without further adieu (er, total babbling), I present...our menu plan.

Scalloped potatoes and ham (this will only have two cheeses this time!)
Chicken and Broccoli impossible pie
Chicken Strips and Oven Fries
Spaghetti
Grilled sausages with black bean and rice salad (salad recipe from this  cookbook)
Ham and Beans (I will likely use a different kind of beans as I'm not fond of limas, though I do have butterbeans (large limas) in my pantry).

What's cooking in your kitchen?

Have a great week!  And, as always, remember to visit Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com for more menu planning ideas than you ever imagined!

How I Budget

Grab a cup of coffee…this is going to be a long one!

I love our budget.

There, I said it.  I love our budget.  We don't always follow it, but I love looking at it and knowing that we at least have a PLAN for where our money should go.  Sometimes we're impulsive and go wildly over in some categories (I am, after all, a compulsive grocery shopper, and my husband can't get within 10 miles of an electronics store without deciding that SOMETHING needs upgrading).  But, through it all, I have my little spreadsheet that tells me where, when we're paying attention and giving it thought, everything should go.

My budget is...complicated.  It's long.  It's detailed.  It requires daily maintenance.  It is accompanied by 14 (yes, 14 - I just counted them again) different savings accounts that ensure that we have money set aside for big purchases, special projects, and expenses that come around less frequently than once a month.  And I love it.

I get paid twice a month.  My hubby gets paid every other week.  I thrive on consistency, so I have built our budget around my pay schedule, rather than a calendar month.  So our budget month runs from the 8th of one month to the 7th of the next. 

My budget is divided into two sections.  One for the first half of the month, and one for the second.  Some budget categories, such as utilities, show up only in one section, because we only pay it once a month.  Others, like groceries and gas, show up in both sections, because we spend on those throughout the month. 

Here are my budget categories:

1^st half of the month:

•           Garbage Bill

•           Gas Bill

•           Water Bill

•           Gift Fund - auto transfer to savings

•           Clothes/Dry Cleaning –auto transfer to savings

•           Car Repair/Replace –auto transfer to savings

•           Groceries

•           Eating out

•           Gas

•           Misc. Household Stuff

•           Home Improvement Fund- auto transfer to savings

•           Pet Emergency Fund - auto transfer to savings

•           Netflix

•           Phone Bill

•           Day Care

•           Dog Food

•           Weight Watchers

•           Car Payment

•           Vacation fund - auto transfer to savings

2^nd half of the month:

•           Mortgage/taxes/insurance

•           Auto/Earthquake Insurance - auto transfer to savings

•           Allowance

•           Gift Fund

•           Eating Out

•           Groceries

•           Life Insurance - auto transfer to savings

•           Electric Bill

•           Internet

•           Investments

•           Day Care

•           Gas

I have this worked out so our expenses are basically balanced about 50/50 between the two. 

You probably noticed quite a few categories marked as “auto transfer to savings”.  As I said, I have 14 savings accounts.  Early on I decided it was going to be too difficult for me to keep track of all our separate funds on paper with all the money in one account.  So, I started working with an online bank (which pays slightly higher interest than my regular bank) and set up a separate account for each of our different savings needs.  Then, I took the annual amount we anticipate spending, divided it by 12, and set up automatic transfers from checking.  The only exception to this is our gift fund, which transfers weekly.  All money for birthdays, Christmas, and other gift-giving occasions throughout the year comes from this fund – I just transfer it back as I need it.  I realize there aren’t 14 accounted for here – I have some others that I put money in from time to time, and others that have built up so much money that we’ve stopped transferring till we need it. 

All of this is set up in a spreadsheet.  Every day, I write down what we spent the day before, and check our checking account and credit card to make sure we’ve accounted for everything and haven’t had any unauthorized charges.  Leftover money at the end of the month (we always budget to have padding) is transferred to our general savings account. I add new columns each month, so I can go back and easily look at our spending over time.  It sounds arduous, I know, but it really only takes a couple of minutes.  I find that if I don’t do it daily, I don’t do it, so I’ve just worked it into my morning routine.  Get up, get my coffee, check the bank account.  It works for me. 

And really, that’s the important thing.  Find something that works for you.  Some people use cash and the envelope system.  We’ve decided not to do that because we enjoy getting points (traded in for gift cards or cash) from our credit card, which we pay off weekly.  Also, I find it easier for cash to slip through my fingers without a record – at least with my credit card or debit card there’s a note on my account if the receipt disappears. 

This past month I’ve been challenging myself to stay within our budget (it’s been a while).  We’re not going to make it, but we’ll be close.  I’ll be posting next week about how we did, where we went over, and why. 

How do you budget?

What to eat, what to eat.

Gah, here it is, Sunday again, and I need to plan a menu.  The stomach flu paid us a visit last week, and food still isn't sounding too good right now.  And can someone please explain to me how a three-year-old with the stomach flu can be bouncing off the walls, while a 37-year-old with the exact same illness can barely get off the couch???

Fortunately, though, we didn't eat much from the menu last week (hubby, who won't cook for himself, basically subsisted on leftover pizza and Burger King all week), so I can pull from that again.  I made the turkey tetrazzini on Tuesday, and that was it.  So here we go...

Monday:  Chicken casserole
Tuesday:  Pork fried rice
Wednesday:  Crockpot ham and potato soup
Thursday:  leftovers
Friday:  Cabbage roll casserole

I'm also happy to report that I'm doing REALLY well in the grocery shopping arena.  So far we've spent $121.22 at the grocery store, $8.99 at Costco, and $25.32 at Trader Joe's.  I think the rest of my Costco and Trader Joe's money for the month will probably be spent on a trip I'm planning to Bob's Red Mill with my friends next week.  I love this store with all my heart - it's a cook and baker's paradise! 

But enough about my budget.  Have you planned your menu for the week yet?  If not, why not?  Need ideas?  Click on the pic above to go to Menu Plan Monday at orgjunke.com, for a ton of great ideas!

Grocery Challenge Recap & A New Challenge

Last month, I challenged myself to only buy fresh food for our regular meals, leaving the rest of our budget for all the extra food we always buy during the holidays and other special December celebrations.  I did...ok.  I was really, really good at the beginning of the month, only truly buying what I intended, but somewhere along the line I strayed off course and ended up failing miserably by the end.  Case in point - my husband and I were off work all last week, and we decided we were going to get out the smoker and smoke some meat, something we haven't done in far too long.  So off I went to the grocery store, to buy full-price roasts on a whim.  Something I normally wouldn't dream of doing.  Then we got lazy and didn't get the smoker out.  So I added two more roasts and another pack of chicken thighs to my already-overflowing freezer. 

Then, I got the brilliant idea to start couponing again.  Nothing wrong with this, really, except when I used great coupons that were about to expire and were combined with a sale price, every item I bought went straight into the pantry.  Kind of defeated the whole purpose of using the stockpile, right?  Sigh.


So, this month, I'm going to try a new tactic.  I'm going with the cash system.  I'm going to take the money out of the bank at this week, and that's going to be it.  We don't have any parties or celebrations planned this month, but I'll hold back a bit in case something comes up (we sometimes want candy or ice cream for "movie night" at home, or we'll get snacks for impromptu get togethers with family).  Here's how it should break out:

Total budget:  $350
Regular grocery store @ $60/wk:  $240
Meat market:  $20
Costco:  $30
Saved for unanticipated activities:  $20
Specialty stores (Trader Joe's, Asian market, etc):  $30

Obviously, we're still well stockpiled, so we won't need much more than fresh food at the grocery store this month.  I'll need to pick up a bag of chicken tenderloins and a bag or two of chicken strips at some point during the month, and the rest of my budget can go toward taking advantage of coupons and loss leaders.

I will need to pick up some ground beef at the meat market.  It's a small meat processing plant a few blocks from my house.  All the beef is grass fed, hormone and antibiotic free, and raised not too far from my town.  Costs a bit more, but it's worth it.  They also have pork - I just wish they had chicken! 

We don't need much at the specialty stores this month.  My mom goes to Costco for me, and I only need one or two things, so if I don't spend it all, I'll save the remainder for a future month when I need more.  I really want to go to the Asian market, but I can't think of anything I actually *need*, so I'll probably skip it and avoid temptation.  I will pick up some things at Trader Joe's, and I may organize an expedition across town to Bob's Red Mill - we'll see. 

That's the plan!  Stay tuned for updates!

Sticking to the Grocery Budget

Hi, my name's Karen, and I'm a compulsive grocery shopper.  Seriously.  The only time I ever stick to my list is when my husband is with me, and that's just because he hates grocery shopping so much it's quick in, quick out.  I, on the other hand, consider grocery shopping a recreational activity.  In fact, it's the only kind of shopping that I enjoy.  So it should come as no surprise that I have a heck of a time staying within the budget. 

We budget $300 a month, which, in writing, I've broken into two amounts - $175 for the first half of the month, and $175 for the second.  That way I don't spend $250 up front and have no money left for milk and bananas at the end of the month.  Not that I haven't spent $250 up front and gone on to spend another $175, don't get me wrong!

Last month my husband and I took a good hard look at our spending, and decided something needed to be done.  So we dropped cable, got a VOIP phone service, and made a commitment to getting our spending back on track.  Not only did I recommit to sticking to my grocery budget, but we also (at that point) completely eliminated our eating out budget.  We've since seen the folly of our ways, and have added a small amount back in for restaurants, but nothing at all like we have been. 

So here I am, trying to stick to my grocery budget.  It seems like no matter what I go into the store to buy, I end up spending $110+.  I will admit that I go to one of the more expensive grocery stores in town, but I buy a lot of organic, natural, and/or local foods, which they have there, and that all costs more.  But really, after visiting a couple of the cheaper grocery stores in town, they aren't really that much cheaper, and the quality is a lot lower.  I also buy local, natural pork and grass-fed beef from a local butcher, which costs a little more (but, again, not that much more considering the difference in quality). 

This weekend, when I went on my regular shopping trip, I had a little over $21 left to spend until the 15th.  Fortunately, all we really needed was milk, fruit, and yogurt (my daughter eats Cheerios, yogurt, and fruit for breakfast almost every day).  I could have made yogurt, but I had a coupon for a free pack of YoBaby and found some organic on manager's special (orange tag) for $1.49.  I also got a gallon of organic whole milk (that's what my daughter drinks) on manager's special for $2.49.  Those combined were less than I was planning to spend on her milk alone, so I was ahead of the game.  I usually buy a gallon of organic milk and a gallon of regular for hubby and me, but got two gallons of regular instead - they're half the price of organic.

Knowing we have plenty of canned fruit in the cupboard, blueberries in the freezer, and apples in the crisper drawer, I skimped a bit on the fruit.  Hubby said he could do without his usual daily orange as long as there are honeycrisp apples in the house (I buy them from a local farmstand for about $1 a pound less than at the grocery store), so I just picked up a few bananas.  That left enough for a pint of heavy cream for a dessert I was making to take to the neighbor's last night, and a carton of ice cream to go with the apple crisp I knew I'd be making today (with the last of our backyard apples, which are only good for cooking!).  We buy the store brand version of premium ice cream - at $2.99 a carton, it's less than half the price and tastes exactly the same. 

At the last minute, I ran back to the produce aisle to pick up a bag of organic grapes - they're from California and SO GOOD right now!  That was my real splurge - two pounds cost $4.20.  My total came to $20.53.  After all that, if I stay out of the store, I have $1.13 left to carry over to the second half of the month! 

Budgeting, meat, and a (sort of) pantry challenge

Tomorrow is June. A new month, another chance for me to get serious about sticking to our budget and tracking our expenses. It needs to be done. Hubby has a layoff on the horizon - we don't know when, but sometime in the next year, year and a half. Which means we need to sock away as much as we can, while we still can. Mainly, this means that I need to quit buying so darn many groceries, because we do pretty well in all the other areas!

I used to track our budget from my first paycheck of the month, rather than the first day of the month. Now that my paychecks don't matter so much, I'm going to go by the calendar. It's all put together and ready to go, I just have to do it.

Like I said, grocery shopping is my biggest weakness. I can easily plunk down $150 a week for groceries, and that's basically for the two of us. Needless to say, we have a very well stocked kitchen, but we also waste a lot of food because I lose stuff and don't remember that it's there. Well, that has to change. I need to keep better track. Thursday I'm cleaning out the freezer, and all the old meat that was never repackaged (I should *always* repackage my meat!) is going in the garbage (Friday is garbage day). And then, we start over.

But first, a pantry challenge of sorts. Today while I was grocery shopping, I found a bunch of clearance meats, with a sell-by date of tomorrow. I didn't go completely crazy, though I wanted to! I did, however, get six meals worth of ground beef, three meals worth of pork chops, and a very nice looking round steak. This, of course, represents even more meals, when you consider leftovers.

So, for the month of June, we're living on this, plus another bag of chicken tenderloins (we eat a lot of chicken tenderloins because they cook so fast), plus whatever else is in the freezer. My challenge will be to combine these with things that we have in the pantry (and there's a lot to work with there!). So, I'll just be making meals with what we have on hand.

This means that my grocery budget for the month will be spent on perishables - dairy products, fresh produce, and bread, mainly. The rest of the budget I can use for sale and coupon items. Hopefully this will help with the rotation - getting rid of some older food while making room for some more inexpensive purchases. We'll see how it goes!

Back up and running

Phew - it was just the router. We're back in business, folks! Yay! Thanks to the good folks at Verizon and UPS for getting us back up and running just when they said they would.

On another note, we're getting quotes this week to replace our furnace and put in an air conditioner. Them suckers are EXPENSIVE! Apparently we're lucky our furnace has lasted this long - both people who've come out to give us estimates said that most last 15 - 18 years, and ours is 24. I guess it's time! So, just when our income is about to be drastically cut, we're going to plunk down a huge chunk of change to put in the new system. Oh, and we ordered a new garage door opener last night, because it hasn't worked since we moved in and the door spring finally broke a few weeks ago. Ka-ching!

Between those and the stock market, my kitchen remodel is getting farther and farther away. It's ok, I can wait. I'm comforted by the fact that, once these purchases are made, about the only thing in this house that we haven't replaced since we moved in four and a half years ago is the water heater, which isn't original so hopefully it will hold out a while longer!

This homeowner stuff sure gets expensive sometimes...

On another note - tonight we start birth preparation class. Time's flying by!

Budget recap

Tomorrow is payday, and so we have officially reached the end of another budget month. I worked really hard to track everything this month, so I have a good feel for where we are. We did really well in some areas, and not well at all in others! All in all, we ended up about $60 over budget, which still left us $220 to send as an extra truck payment, so that makes me happy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - for two people, we spend an obscene amount of money on food. I think a lot of this has to do with my love of cooking and my desire to constantly try out new things, and to use high quality ingredients whenever I can. I'm also a stock up shopper, so if I see a good sale I'll tend to buy it, even if it's not in my plan. This is something I need to work on! I budget $300 a month for groceries (which usually includes over the counter medicine, cleaning products, paper products, and stuff like that, but not pet food or supplies). We were about $86 over this month.

I also budget $200 for eating out. Usually we blow this figure out of the water, by $100 or more. We made a concerted effort not to eat out as much, and we actually came in under budget by about $5! Yay!

We also went way over budget in gas. I knew we would, with the new gas-hog truck, but I didn't know where to put the benchmark so I left it alone for this month. I budgeted $250, we were over by $57. I'll bump it to $300 for next month, though I think we would have come in close to budget if not for a few extra trips across the river because of my grandfather's death, including one in the truck because of ice. These things happen, though, so it's important to plan for them when budgeting!

Our other over-budget areas were donations (I made an extra donation this month), electric (our electric bill shot up $15 and I still haven't figured out why!), and water (just a couple of bucks). We came in right at budget or with a couple of bucks to spare on most of the rest of the categories.

Our saving grace overall was our car insurance - because we traded in two cars when we bought the truck, we got a credit and our bill was $100 lower than we expected this month. This won't last but it sure helped fill in some of the gap this month!

So, it's time to rework things to start over fresh with a new month. I may try to go cash-only on groceries this time to see if it helps, we'll see. We're coming to the bottom of the freezer (finally!), so I'll probably need to buy some meat this month, but if I make a concerted effort to use more pantry stuff, we may come out ok.

Getting back on track

New Year's is upon us, and, for me, the new year always brings thoughts of a fresh start. I think it hit hubby this year, too - he seems to have this sudden urge to get our things tidy and organized. Of course, this just means more work for me, as it always seems to be MY stuff that he wants to organize, LOL! Over the weekend, we took the Christmas money we got from my aunt and uncle and bought some shelving and storage boxes for the spare room. For the first time since we moved in four years ago, you can actually see the carpet in there! My sewing and craft stuff is all neat, tidy, and put away. With the exception of one small box that doesn't fit, the books are all on shelves. There's still a stack of magazines I need to sort through, but I'll get to that...eventually.

But really, the new year (and every new month, really) brings me the opportunity to get back on track with our budget, and tracking our finances. Hubby got a new truck the weekend before Christmas, and we are now officially back in debt. That was an interesting experience for me. I knew it was coming, but I still had a pretty strong emotional reaction. I'm probably the only person in the world that gets physically ill after taking out a loan!

Don't get me wrong, we can well afford this loan, it's just cutting significantly into the amount of money we have been putting into savings each month. And, naturally, I have the urge to throw lots of money at it and pay it off as quickly as possible. It'll still take a few years, but I know we'll be paying it off early. But, we're still putting money into all our different savings pots each month so, barring any emergencies, our savings will continue to grow.

One area of the budget that I forever have problems is food. We have a HUGE food budget each month. For two people, it's practically obscene. We eat out a lot, and I tend to be a stock up shopper - we have a very well stocked pantry and freezer! In fact, the only meat I bought in December was a bag of chicken tenderloin and a couple of packages of ground beef. In January I shouldn't even need to do that. So I'm getting back on track with menu planning and cooking, and eating out a lot less.

I started by taking a freezer inventory. I have a spreadsheet on the front of the freezer, and I'll mark things off as I take them out. Then, I did a menu plan. Here's what this week looks like, starting from last Friday:

Friday: cube steak and spaetzle
Saturday: dinner out (we got a gift card for Christmas)
Sunday: Pork, cabbage, and rye casserole (this was great - I'll post the recipe later)
Monday: leftover casserole, then munchies at my sister-in-law's house)
Tuesday: scalloped potatoes and ham
Wednesday: chicken and black beans
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: green chile stew with pork
Saturday: tuna casserole

We have an over abundance of pork, so we'll be eating that twice a week for a while. Otherwise, I try to hit different kinds of meat once each week. Hubby's not a big fan of meatless meals, so I have to sneak them in when I can, which isn't very often.

On the eating out less front, I have one friend that I meet for lunch once a week. She's on a budget too, so we've made plans to bring our lunch and meet at her place. It means I have to take a slightly longer lunch hour on those days, but I'm fortunate to have a job that is flexible and allows me to do that. I do meet another friend from time to time, and those lunches will probably come out of my allowance, which is no problem.

There's my plan for getting back on track for now. Happy New Year, everyone!

So tired of being responsible...

Hubby and I are struggling lately with a serious case of the "wants". We want...

- a flat screen TV
- make that TWO flat screen TVs, one for the bedroom and one for the living room
- a woodstove with a nice hearth pad and a mantle on the wall
- a fully landscaped front yard
- a new car
- an up to date kitchen
- hardwood floors throughout our house
- a new couch (one that doesn't make my butt go to sleep in five minutes)

and the list goes on and on. Lately we find ourselves drooling over ads, stopping into stores, and whining about being responsible adults.

Don't get me wrong, I'm GLAD we're responsible adults. We worked hard to get out of debt, bought a house that was within our budget, and keep on top of our credit cards. We have a budget and, for the most part, we stick to it (I'm still working on that pesky food thing). It would just be so much EASIER to just say screw it, rack up a bunch of debt, and just make payments.

But nooooooooooooooooooo, responsible adults we must be. Saving our money, budgeting, buying one thing at a time as we have the dough.

*sigh*...responsibility. So hard...

A new month...

A new budget. Our budget month runs on my pay schedule since hubby gets paid weekly and that has the potential to screw me all up.

December was a nightmare - I wasn't allowed to look at the bank account for about three weeks, so I wouldn't ruin any Christmas surprises (yeah, because everything was SUCH a surprise by the time hubby got done with it!). So I gave up, and we spent WAAAAAAAAY too much money.

So, in anticipation of having a really good budget month this time, I went out and spent what felt like a bazillion dollars at Winco on Saturday. At a regular grocery store, I'm sure it would have been an actual bazillion dollars! I love Winco...

Bugs me to no end that the only way I can keep on top of the budget is to update it every day. Or sometimes every other day, if I'm careful. You'd think we'd have "no spend" days, but for some reason it just doesn't happen. I have to track everything by category in an Excel spreadsheet. I don't even use Microsoft Money anymore, since just about everything goes on our Visa card and we pay it off every week. I just download the bank statements and save them in case there's ever a problem.

Tonight's task is to transfer all the monthly savings pots into their respective ING accounts (clothes, doctor bills, pets, home improvement).

I guess it's worth it in the long run, though, because, while we never stay exactly in budget (though we would I'm sure if I could just restrain myself at the grocery store and not be so freaking lazy when it comes to cooking), it does help us considerably in our quest to save a large chunk of change every month. With hubby's uncertain job situation, and all the projects we want to do around here (like actually putting some landscaping in the front yard, or fixing the Blazer YET AGAIN), it's a big goal of ours to sock away as much as we can. Hubby's raise should help with that, too - I'd like to up the savings amounts in certain categories, plus overall.

Another pay period, another budget! Happy payday!