How I did for February (budget crunch)?

My grocery bill did go up a little bit. (as I predicted).  It was about $150 increase.  I lump gas and groceries together.

My shopping budget improved by 83%.  Meaning I saved a lot of money here.  My goal was zero dollars, but I cheated.  I bought a $81 / rug for my son's room that was on a super sale and I had been looking at for months.  I decided to buy it as it was the lowest price I have seen.  I cut spending by a ton!  I hope I did the math correctly.  I saved a ton and won't put my actual values on here, but know I didn't do zero, but did save a lot. 

My 7.50 a day work day budget was super hard.  I ended up doing pretty well on that.  I cheated in that I counted toward an order that I sold in February and also counted my ebates quarterly check (which was $69 - mainly from holiday shopping).  I tried to get on ebates anytime I bought holiday gifts online. 

My comparison was based on December where my budget is pretty high due to holiday shopping.

I said that I would not book travel, but did spend this much on travel.  Not much, but still beyond my plan.  I did this because I wanted to go to a city where travel would book quickly due to an event in April. 
7 - Travel -230.44
I also got satellite radio - and paid for one year - which was not part of my plan.
For me, I have to network for work and go to happy hour, so I did spend more money on that - than December.  December my work lunches were less likely due to holidays and also I didn't go to happy hour much due to the holidays.  I counted this under my eatingoutwithoutkids budget. 

I actually came up under my $175 a month budget, but like I said I cheated a little.  My husband took me out to lunch two days.  I counted my happy hour budget on this - I believe - and I brought down the spending by counting my left over money (really lots of change from all of january). 

--------
Positives:
1) using money that I received and my ebates check to counter my lunch spending.  (as stated previously).  I don't get an ebates check every month, so I can't. 

2)  Another positive.  I hand made all gifts for 3 parties that my kids were invited to.  I had the tshirts already, but I did spend time workign on them.  I will say try to set a budget for kid parties.  $10.  Of course, if they are a close friend, I spend more.  We were invited to more parties than I anticipated due to lots of parties due to turning 4, etc.

3)  I also made home made valentine cards to save money. 

4)  Understand how much you are spending.  I categorize everything into buckets. 

5)  I took all my change (mainly my husband's change, but part of my change) from the month of january and took it to coin star.  It was $35.08 in change and that was including all the change in my purse.  So I subtracted 35.08 from my shopping budget.

I'm doing another month, but won't be as strict on my $7.50 a day budget.  I will be mindful of it, but continue to save.  I will say that I do have some items that I planned to buy in March for my son's room.  I know they will go beyond my shopping budget, but I may try to buy stuff in pieces (like I bought the rug in February). 

What do you do on Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day is next week.

Do you buy your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, signficiant other something expensive?  Flowers?

My husband usually doesn't get me flowers and I'm fine with that.  We usually do a card and some chocolates.  If he does get me flowers, it is from the grocery store (not delivered).

We do not buy each other expensive jewelry, etc.

How much do you spend on this holiday?  it is nice to get your significant other something once in awhile, but does it have to be on 2/14?
Go to lunch or dinner another day when the restaurants don't charge an upcharge.  Buy her flowers when they are also not jacked up prices - maybe on February 1st.  My parents have an anniversary in February around Valentine's Day and I just sent thm flowers on 2/1 to avoid expensive flowers/upcharges.

Right now, Ebates has 20% cash back on Teleflora or FTD.  I don't know if it will be going on - on 2/14, but why do you need to celebrate on a day that companies take advantage and charge people more money for dinner or flowers.

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=43NFNJ3KT02nsPut0%2FwDtg%3D%3D

My husband and I will never go to dinner on valentine's night.  We may go during the day while the kids are in school. 

How much do you spend on lunch?

Several coworkers have said that they cannot do $7.50 a day.  How much do you spend on lunch?  If you work at home taking care of kids or work from home or work at work - how much do you spend a day?  Do you know?  If not look at your monthly expenses.  Most credit cards companies do tell you how you are spending, but I think that is done every year unless you run your own reports.  I pay for a lot via credit card, so don't know how much I spend on lunch daily.

I'll be paying cash each day during February while at work. 

As part of my budget challenge starting in a few days, I'll be limiting myself to $7.50 a day (for all meals during the day at work - snack, tea, coffee, lunch,etc).

Many have told me that $7.50 is just too little.  I selected that amount because I decided to cut my monthly expense by a certain amount.  Some of my coworkers  are doing $10 a day. 

I can get tea at work by brining my own and getting hot water for 11 cents.  I think they even hot water from a free dispenser.  I bring coffee in the morning from home most days, so I'm fairly good at that.  If I feel like being social at work in the afternoon, I do usually get tea, but try to avoid starbucks coffee that is a minimum of 1.94.  11 cents is much better.

Lunch is hard.  At my work cafeteria most meals will put you over 7.50 just by themselves.  I try to do a half sandwich with chips or even a sandwich is under this amount usually with a drink (tea).

Going out to eat while at work is extremely hard.  I used to get iced tea all the time because I live in Texas and even winter is hot.  I'm trying to get more waters at restaurants.  I ate at Chipoltle one day - before my budget crunch started - and it was 6.75 plus tax I think for a entree.  With no water, that is close to my budget crunch.

A lot of people won't sacrifice their lunch and feel that eating something than at a sit down restaurant will add more calories for them.  That's ok, I get that.  I'm trying to lose weight with my challenge too.  Let's say you go somewhere that has an entree for 11.50 and you get a water.  You don't have to eat the whole thing and maybe you can split your meal for tomorrow's lunch (or for dinner).  In that way, you have met the 7.50 budget per day.  You are also saving calories that add up over time if you only eat half your food.  Sometimes I have the restaurant give me a to go container before I even start eating, so I can stick to my half amount. 

Also try to save on tips by going to counter service restaurants like chipotle, jason's deli, etc. 

How much do you think is appropriate for lunch?

Even if you bring your lunch every day, you are spending money buying groceries to make your meal.