April 2008 Budget Update
Well, we did it! We stayed within budget and then some this month! We had budgeted $800 for groceries and restaurant meals for the month for our family of four and came in at $775. We were helped along by a $50 gift card to a restaurant chain that we got from our rewards credit card. Other than that we did not go out to eat at all, except one trip to DQ for ice cream after the kiddos went to sleep (and who can give up that??!!).
The $775 we spent was way less than we usually spend. I know that we could still potentially save even more money, judging by what I see other people reporting on other financial blogs, but we do tend to frequent a more upscale grocery store which we know charges higher prices. Our reasons for going to that grocery store are threefold: 1) There are never any lines at the check-out counters so we save valuable time, 2) We often see people we know there and feel it is worth the social and networking opportunity, and 3) Great produce from local farms.
Our budget looks great when we look at it on Mint. The numbers on the right show our average spending on those categories for the past 3 months (since that’s how long I’ve been a member of Mint) and the numbers on the left are our totals for this month. There is a $55 grocery bill that isn’t reflected in this yet since it is still pending in our checking account (we just spent that $ last night). Here’s to hoping we can keep ourselves at this level of spending for the rest of the year!
