Help, I’m Over-Budget!

Q:

I over spent my grocery budget by $120.00.
What do I do now?
 

A:

If you read my post here, you saw that I’m WAY over budget for our groceries this month. I was discouraged, but it made me reconsider the budget and why we even have grocery budget in the first place (so that we can live off one income and I can stay home with my children).

Remembering my purpose in setting this goal helped me renew my commitment to it. In order to get everything back in line I looked at my purchases from the last month to determine where I went wrong.

Here’s what I found:

I bought more gluten free items: We have been busier and I have baked less, so I have had to purchase ready made gluten-free items (my daughter is severely allergic to wheat).  Even on sale these items are $3.00-$6.00. These purchases quickly add up.

I bought more meat: I kept finding great deals on meat and I know from experience to grab them when I see them. Sometimes there will be a two month period with very few good sales on meat. During these lean times we can use what we have in the freezer, rather than paying full price.

I was under budget for the month of April: I only spent $368 on food in April and we were running low on several items. May was definitely a stock up month.

After looking back and determining why I was over budget, I saw that my overspending wasn’t due to irresponsibility. I have A LOT of food in the freezer and pantry and we should see a decrease in next month’s budget as we eat this food.

Thankfully, the $120 I overspent was covered by a huge drop in our electric bill (nice weather= no heat or air conditioning!), which is important because we don’t have credit cards to fall back on when we go over the budget.

I may have “failed”, but I will just learn from my mistakes and start again next week. After all, there will be plenty of opportunities!