February Totals

So I am finding that trying to reduce my budget by the goal I wanted, to be a difficult challenge for many reasons. First and for most, we eat meat. Secondly, I give a lot of food away. Easily $300.00 to $400.00 worth (before saving) per month. So by giving that much away, I have to replenish to continue to give away. Thirdly, when my kids want a particular healthy food (i.e. Babel cheese, fruit, etc.) I will buy it whether I have a coupon, sale or not. I do stock up when it is on sale; however, many times that kind of stuff just does not go on sale.

So for the month of Febraury I increased my budget back up to $275.00 per pay period $135ish per week. I am still going to try to reduce my budget as the months progress, just not guite so suddenly. A drop by $100.00 for two weeks is a big jump. And as I stated when I start this crazy adventure to reduce my budget, I would not hesitate to increase it back up if we were not eating the food we enjoy eating.

So here are my totals of February.

Shelf Cost $1,366.67
Coupons Savings $383.40
Discount Savings $454.71
Rebates $17.98
Total Saved $856.09
Total Spent $528.56
Percentage Saved 61.32%
Amount under budget ($550.00) $21.44

So not terrible. I am going to stick with the $275.00 per pay period (two weeks) for the month of March and see how that goes first. If I continue to be under budget, then I will try reducing just a touch more. That is slow I guess you could say.

As you can tell, Little Man and his Little Woman are still hanging out together. I took this picutre the last time we were in Tennessee. Little Woman came back to the house with us after church to pay with Little Man.

Just for kicks, can you tell that Little Woman is taller than Little Man. And probably always will be. Her parents are much taller than the Hubby and I.

More pictures to come. Little Woman's parents brought her to our house so that the two of them could go to the circus together. I have some great date (HAHA) pictures.

Saving update...

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Time really gets away from me now days. So here is the updated savings for the month of January. As you may remember I am trying to reduce my budget from $300 every two weeks to $200. However, for the total month, I had a total of $500, due to weeks and what not. For the month of January here are my totals.

Shelf Cost $1,187.91
Coupon Savings $314.80
Discounts $372.34
Rebates $14.98
Total Saved $702.12
Total Spent $501.33
Percentage Saved 57.84%
Amount over budget $(1.33)

The challenge of reducing my budget my $100.00 per pay period or $50.00 per week is a bite difficult. For the month of February, I believe I budgeted $275.00 per pay period or $135ish per week.

I will post February's total in a day or two.