Last week I started a Thursday Money Saving Tip post...and it was very well received, so I think I will continue. Please understand, I am not an expert on anything, and there are many people out there that could take what I do and do it a million times better! These tips are just a few of the things I have learned to do to save some money for my family.If you read the post last week with a few tips on saving money with your grocery budget...how did that work for some of you? Did you try any of the tips? Have you made out your menu? Have you deviated from your menu? I did...last night was supposed to be Chicken Tortilla Soup with leftover roasted chicken...but I ended up wrapping Christmas presents and burned the beans I was cooking for the soup. :( I know. I hate wasting food, especially when it's something silly like burning food. *sigh* But it happens, so moving on.
Instead of making something else, we decided to go out to dinner. Please note, this is NOT our solution to anytime dinner doesn't go as planned! We have a monthly eating out budget too and we still had enough to go out as a family once more. So we went to Souplantation. I love that place!
Anyway, today I'm going to talk about budgeting. If you don't have a monthly budget for everything, you won't end up saving anything. It's true. Most people, myself included, dislike the thought of having a budget. Wouldn't we all LOVE to just spend whatever money we want, whenever we want, on whatever we want?! Of course! However, unless you are related to Bill Gates, it's probably not going to happen (or it will get you into a lot of trouble financially, and we don't want that)!
1. Keep Track of ALL Your Expenditures. This one is hard for some of us. I know it was for me! I am a spender by nature. My husband is the saver. Even though I consider myself to be cheap, I still love to buy lots of cheap stuff! I actually have to forceably remove myself from stores at times. I LOVE shopping! However, my love of buying stuff was killing our finances! So, we had to start keeping track of EVERYTHING we spent! You know that coffee at Starbucks...write it down. That quick trip to the store to get milk that ended up costing you $75? Write it down. As my husband likes to say, "If you can track it, you can manage it." If you aren't paying close attention to what you are REALLY spending each month, you'll always wonder where the money went. It's not enough to just know how much your mortgage/rent, utilities, and car payment are. You MUST know where you spend everything. Only then can you set reasonable limits and keep track of your money.
2. Set a Budget. A lot of people think this is the first step. But it's not. If you haven't figured out that you spend $200 a month eating out, you'll neglet to put this in the budget...and then wonder what happened to $200! Once you know where all your money goes, then, and only then, can you allot certain amounts to each category. For example, every month you know a certain amount of money goes to set items...rent, utilities (these may fluxuate, but you can usually guestimate based on past experience), car payment, etc. Set this money aside for these things. Then, since you kept track of what you actually spend on other things, you can set a budget for those.
If you realize you spend $900 mo on groceries, you can decide that this month you will only spend $800. You probably won't even notice the difference...maybe you will. I can bet that you'll see that you ate pretty well even without that $100. And then you could do it again next month. And if you only save $100 each month, that's $1200 at the end of the year! What could you do with that $1200???
If you see you spent $200 eating out, try looking at when and why you ate out? Was it because every Wed the kids have soccer and dance practices until 7pm and you swing through and grab something? Do you fail to plan and prepare dinner and so you order pizza 2 times a week? Can any of these be cut out? Can you prepare ahead of time and have a cooler with sandwiches and cut fruit and veggies in the car for those late days of the kids' practices? Here is where a menu will help also. There won't be any guessing as to what's for dinner and you will have already gotten the groceries.
My suggestion is to set a limit to eating out 2-3 times a MONTH, max. And use those times as family date nights versus a quick trip to a drive thru. Decide how much it would cost your family to eat out 2-3 times and put the money aside for that amount only...and STICK TO IT! It's easy to just grab something out, but resist...you'll save money and be feeding your family healthier food by eating at home.
This will shock some of you, but we have a $50 a month budget for eating out. This usually gets us 2 family dates. Granted, we have a 2yr old who doesn't eat much, but we actually still have to pay for her at most of the places we go to, so it's isn't like she is free. We also don't do 5 star restaraunts. How do we do it? Well, we use coupons when we can.
For example, last night, all 4 of us went to the souplantation for a late lunch (dinner starts at 4pm and prices go up. Go in at 3:30pm, have an early dinner, pay less, and then if the kids get hungry later in the evening, a light snack will usually suffice...fruit and yogurt, popcorn, etc). We paid $25 for all of us last night. We used a coupon for 2 adults (w/ drinks...if drinks aren't included we get free water...saves $2+ ea AND a few calories) for $17.99, and the kids were a few bucks each. We spend a couple hours there enjoying some quality family time and eating (we are big eaters!). It was a great time out and still in our budget. And we could do this twice a month. So, every other week we get to look forward to a great family date. Get creative...your kids will appreciate the family time spent together more than they will the food anyway.
3. Stick to Your Budget. If you don't stick with the budget you just made, what's the point? Will it be easy? Maybe. Depends on how much you adjusted what you typically spend to what you plan to spend. If your groceries dropped from $900 to $800, maybe it won't be very difficult. If you change the eating out from $200 to $50...yes, it will be difficult. You'll have to change habits, which is the most difficult. But, it's doable! Don't give up! Even if you slip and spend $75 instead of the goal of $50, keep trying. Set the budget again next month and try again. If you find that you are consistently spending $75 eating out instead of $50, then maybe you need to adjust your budget. Nothing is set in stone, and everything can be adjusted. And that's ok! It's a learning experience. Just keep working your budget and you will get to where you are consistently sticking to it.
Whew! That was a lot of info! I hope some of it helps you and your family! Please remember, these amounts given are what works for my family...adjust accordingly or your own.
Happily Homemade
Sandra
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