Day 14: Time to Do the Budget (Finance SR)

I have been working on my budget 15 minutes a day. In that 15 minutes a day I am looking at set bills I pay each month and other cost such as grocery's so I can create a solid budget. I am putting all this information in spreadsheet and will plug into a very cool budget sheet I downloaded FREE from Microsoft templates.

This evening I took my last four bank statements and calculated my grocery costs each month so I could project what I need to put in the monthly budget. I always use my debit card for grocery's so it was easy to track. All I can say is -- WOW!! I had know idea how much I was spending on grocery's. My monthly average is $900 for a family of four.

I think this budget category is one that has lots of flexibly. I am going to work so hard to to drop this monthly average by 20%. It might even need to be more once all is said and done when looking at total monthly expenses. Expect to read a lot about how I am going to get this budget category down!

If you don't know how much you spend on grocery's each month - figure it out!! Even if you do know - what can you do to save money each month on grocery's?

More to come on this subject!

To Do List:

1. Purchase tickets for Mount Vernon Tour - NC
2. Work (as many hrs. as I can sneak in.) - 2.5 hrs. so far - C
3. 15 min. paper declutter - C
4. Bag stuff for Thursday pickup - PRIORITY!! - C and will do even more!!
5. ChaLEAN Extreme Burn 2 - COMPLETED!! WHOOT! WHOOT!
6. Lunch with my little girl!! - C
7. (1) Load of laundry (washed, dried & put away.) - C
8. 15 minutes on budget - C (more like 25)

Always TD:

1. What's for dinner? -  NC so had to order pizza! Not a good thing!!
2. Refer to weekly calendar. AM/PM -  C
3. Put new apt. on the calendar -  C
4. Clear Command Central (desk) - Needs a good 20 minutes. - c
5. Make Thursday TDL - C
6. Any thank you notes to write? Y Two to Write!! - C

Scheduled Events:

1. Dropoff/Pickup from School - C