In conjunction with the Living on Less Than $28,000 A Year series, I started sharing periodic Financial Updates about our family’s finances. I don’t always give specific numbers, but I thought it might be helpful for those of you in a similar situation to take a peek at how things go at our house.
Spending
March was a good month for us in that most of our expenses were close to our budgeted amounts. We spent $61 on toiletries and household items ($50 budgeted) including a great deal on toilet paper from Amazon (48 double rolls of Angel Soft Toilet Tissue for just $21.50 shipped or just $.45 cents per double roll!).
Our utilities were $270 ($300 budgeted) and we spent $615.90 on groceries, which was slightly under budget ($125 per week) because there were five Fridays in March. We did spend $100 on eating out with friends a couple of times, but we budgeted ahead of time for those outings.
I also spent $53 on a piece of luggage for my upcoming trip to Guatemala (read more here). I normally check the thrift store first, but I was looking for some very specific features, so I purchased it at a discount luggage store.
Saving
The good news is that we were able to save $500 over the past couple of months toward a needed car repair. The bad news is that when we took the van into the mechanic, the problem was worse than was first diagnosed and we are a one car family again (read more here).
Since we did not spend the car repair money, we rolled it over to our emergency fund which now has $1600.
April Goals
We will keep adding money to the emergency fund to get to the $2000 mark, and then start saving for another vehicle.
In the meantime we also have my son’s graduation party to plan and pay for. With our current financial situation, we will be having a very low-budget party in our home rather than a bigger celebration in a rented facility. The important thing is for my son to feel loved and to have fun with friends and family, not the amount we spend on the party.
Were you able to meet any financial goals in March? Leave a comment so we can encourage each other! 🙂
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You are right.. having a goal does motivate us to save more and (work harder).. I’m planning a trip to NZ next year with a few friends of mine.. In my pursuit to save money I hardly ever eat out and haven’t shopped also in a while. My grocery bills are a little under $300 a month.
One of my very best friends in the entire world got engaged New Years Eve/Day of this year. While I’m so excited, she lives in England. Talk about expensive! Thankfully she won’t be getting married until June of next year, allowing me ample time to put money back. Because of this, I have become very serious about my finances and really watching where my money goes. You are actually one of the people I read and get tips from. Because of tips from you (and various other places), I have been able to keep my grocery bill for the month around $200 for myself and my room mate. Because of my diligence, I was able to put money back this month! This is the first time I’ve been able to do this in a while and it was a great feeling knowing I had paid everything off, was able to take a small trip away from my hometown for the beginning of break from my job and splurge a little while still putting some back for my trip to England next year. That is one of the best feelings I’ve had in a while. My goal now is to be able to put even more money back in the coming months and hopefully I’ll have enough for England and some cushion by this time next year. 🙂
Congratulations Maryanne! I find it much easier to save money when we have a specific goal to save toward. I hope you have a wonderful time at your friend’s wedding!
Thanks to your tips we spent less than $110 on groceries total for the last 2 weeks for our family of 3. Good thing too because of a surprise astronomical tax bill due in 11 days! THANKS!
Very happy for you about cutting the grocery bill Beth. Sorry about the taxes. 🙁
As a note on the graduation party: We held one last year for our son. Money was very tight. I fixed all of the food – BBQ pork, coleslaw, fruit, veggies, etc. I did not order a cake – my extended family bought donuts for him instead. A friend offered to do a sound system for us. We held it at a park, which sits across the street from our house. The fee for the park was $10. So, the food came out of the grocery budget (I set aside a little bit each week in order to pay for the big expense all at once). Our only extra expense was the $10 – and he said he had a better party than his friends who spent $100’s of dollars! 🙂
Love it! Our idea is to have a hot dog bar with grilled dogs and lots of toppings like chili, cheese, onions, bacon, cole slaw, etc. My daughter loves to bake so she will probably make the cake, and a friend will do the music for us. I think it will be fun, and my son does too.
You were talking about your son’s graduation party and I thought I might share the following. At our church the parents of all the seniors who are graduating get together and plan 1 party for them all in the fellowship hall. This is not only wonderful for the friends and family of the graduates, they only have to go to one location; it is also grand for the graduating families. All the cost are divided among each of the graduating families so the cost is really low. I hope that made sense, I just thought I would share it.
Thanks Kimberly!
My husband and I have embarked on a “No-Spend” month for April… our budget didn’t do so well in March :-/ However, we have a fresh perspective and are excited to actually see how much we can save this month! We aren’t spending money on ANYTHING except bills, grocery, and gasoline. Will be hard, but worth it 🙂
Sounds like a great plan Katie. Way to take control of your money!