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). 

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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. 

Thinking about Retirement

You may not be in your 50s, but you should start thinking about retirement.  There is some good advice in here on how to save.  Contribute to your company's 401K or start your own if you don't work.  Pay off something.  Put $50 away each month. 

http://money.msn.com/baby-boomers/c_galleryregular.aspx?cp-documentid=250412236

I definitely didn't start when I was 25 like you should.  I did save some, but needed to pay for college, etc.  I was also barely able to afford my living and work and go to school. 

Save now and enjoy later.  I would much rather take vacations when I am retired than take a vacation every month now and spend way too much money.  This is one thing that my husband and I are good at.  We do vacation, but we don't go as much as some of my friends and we try to do stuff that is cheaper (stay with friends or family to save money, etc). 


One of the top items on here is talking about budget.  I think I'll take my februrary crunch and budget check beyond the month (of course we haven't started yet).  I do think the article makes a point that if you wait to check what you spent at the end of the year - you have spent too much.  Do it month by month and be on a budget. 

Of course there are times when you need to spend - you need a new car, etc.  You should do that, but just keep an eye on what you are spending on.  Little things add up over time.  If you are like most moms or dads I know, you go to target or other stores and you make many impulse buys.  You are not sticking to a list and you buy stuff that is just there or just on sale.  I do this a lot and sometimes buy things on sale and only just because they are on sale.  It really adds up especially if the sale is 30% of less and you really didn't need the item to begin with.