Thursday, May 19, 2011

Project: Food Budget (Week 1)


Week 1 has come and gone... and I still haven't figured out how to keep track of everything we spend.  My husband balances the checkbook and pays cash for little guilty pleasures like Starbucks and eating out.  I'll do my best to be as true as possible.

Weekly budget: $100.00
Beginning of the month BJ's trip was $284.54 ($149.54 of it was spent on food)
That leaves us with an average of $62.62 for each week
Ok, we totally spend more than that weekly [sigh].

This week we spent: $45.00 eating out and $26.16 buying ready food like pizza and Starbucks which adds up to $8.54 overboard :(  plus I am sure there're a few things I am missing because we paid cash.

I went out on Wednesday with my ministry team but paid out of the cash that someone owed me and gave me back... considering it an unexpected blessing ;)

The good news is that BJ's trip has fed us generously so far and we didn't have to buy any extra food.

Goal for Week 2: figure out how to keep track of our food-spending better ;)

Considering: moving Starbucks and pregnancy-related snack shopping into my Mad Money Fund ($20 cash I take out each week for splurging).  However with Starbucks thrown into my Mad Money mix my $20 will be gone much faster.

Let's chat in the comment section:  
Do you have a separate budget for eating out?  
or a secret cash stash for things like Starbucks?

2 comments:

Deanna said...

Hi there.
When we are doing well with a budget ( not necessarily now ), Sean will take cash out when he gets paid and then we separate it into categories like: Eating Out, Groceries, Gas, and we each get an amount for whatever we want. That way when the cash is gone we know we are done with that category. It is super helpful to spend cash instead of card. I am way more mindful about my spending if I am handing over cash as opposed to plastic. Have you guys done Financial Peace with Dave Ramsey? He has some good advice on Food Budget and Budget in general.

Emily said...

we don't include eating out in our food budget. we just track what we spend on groceries each week.

if you will be including those items, you might want to adjust your budget, if you can.

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