Okay, this weekend I didn’t do so well, budget wise. But I’ll get to that in a second.
I went to Harris Teeter again Friday night. I know that I would get a better deal at Food Lion, but HT is right on my way home, so it’s more convienent for Friday night shopping. The boy was with me this Friday, so not only was I having to mentally calculate my total in my head, I had to also have a conversation and figure out supper!
My total? $16.98. So I now have $3.02 left over, which I will probably use later this week to pick up another half-gallon of milk (I don’t know why I’ve blown through milk this week, it’s almost gone!). Savings: $4.71. That was just shopping sales, again, no coupons this week. I bought Apple Jacks this week because they were on sale (instead of cheerios), and store brand meat, milk and pasta sauce because it was cheaper. I could have found cheaper bread, but I felt a little rushed (I was also hungry, which you should never go into a grocery store while hungry).
This is what the boy cooked. Steak (with a delicious Montreal Steak Seasoning and Red Wine), corn on the cob (actually, I cooked/bought that), and salad (I’m the only one who ate the salad). He spent $23 on a 6-pack of beer, bottle of red wine, steak and seasoning! I felt kind of bad letting him spend that money, but I only had a steak.
So back to my budget blunder. I took $60 out on Friday, like usual, then went to Barnes & Noble. Without even thinking about it, when I purchased my GRE flash cards ($20.13), I swiped my card! #Fail. This weekend was also the Southern Women’s Show, so I worked Friday/Saturday at it. Friday, I ended up buying a harness for my cat, so that I can start taking him outside. That was $13, which I put on my credit card (ugh). I bought $17 worth of stuff from my own booth (cute earrings, headband and tie-dye tunic), but that I paid in cash. But I did also buy a drink, slice of coconut pie, and pork sandwich while I was there ($10). So this weekend, I was bad. I wanted to go back today, but I’m just going to sit here and not waste the gas/spend money. I still have my $20 in gas money left, so I must have spent the $5 I had leftover from last week, my real entertainment budget (which should have went to GRE flash cards), and my leftover grocery money.
I’m so done spending for the week, I swear!
Friday is payday. So Friday evening, I went grocery shopping. I pulled my $60 out of my bank account ($20 each for gas, food and entertainment) and headed to Harris Teeter – no list or any coupons in hand.
All of this cost me $20.83, which I was impressed that I got so close to my budget, I even got ice cream to spoil myself (yes, that could have bought me more actual food, but I tend to eat ice cream as an entire meal anyway). Savings: $2.51 (I think, I misplaced my receipt) . I tried to buy items that were only on sale, but I didn’t do that well. I feel that I seriously need to do some coupon shopping and browse through the sale paper before I go shopping this Friday.
For supper that night, I used some of the meatballs (the rest will be later cooked in the crock-pot with BBQ sauce), leftover Ragu spaghetti sauce, spaghetti noodles that I found in the back of my cabinet, and leftover rolls from Easter that were starting to stale (under the broiler with some butter and I would never have guessed). This corresponded to leftovers on Sunday as well.
Saturday, I got up and went to the Farmer’s Market for the first time this year. I forgot my camera at home, which is such a shame, but I think I will try to head out there at least twice a month, so expect more pictures than one from a grainy camera phone. If I hadn’t had bread at home, I think I would have purchased mine from there (though I want to try to make bread sometime soon). Here is all of what I got and the pricing breakdown:
$2.50 – Bunch of Asparagus
$0.75 – 3 Turnips (I wanted to cook something that I hadn’t cooked before)
$4.00 – Pint of strawberries
$5.63 – Locally raised pork chops (from Wells Pork and Beef in Burgaw, NC)
With what was left over, I purchased a cupcake and a soda when I went downtown with my roommate later that day (after the NCSU Red/White Game). So now, I have food to last me the week, no entertainment/eating money, but money for gas. I moved my rent money to my savings account and will pay credit card money today.
It was slightly disappointing to me, when I got gas this morning, that at $2.79 a gallon, $20 barely gave me half a tank of gas! Hopefully that is enough to last the week!
As you can tell, this southern belle has not been doing a lot of cooking lately, or really anything for that matter. I have a good excuse (no, really). I’ve been broke. Major broke! Like creditors were calling my phone. So I’ve really just been surviving on chicken stir fry, which would just have made a bunch of repetitive posts. No one wants to see that, right??
But I’ve been working on a budget this morning which will hopefully help me out some. I have no savings account at this moment, which is how I got into this predicament. In the same week, my car AND my laptop died, so both carved a huge whole on my credit cards.
Here’s what I’m currently thinking:
Weekly Income – $300 (sometimes more, rarely less)
Bills – $116.25/week to rent (which this is for my rent of $465 which will start in August. Right now, I’m paying $400, so hopefully the extra $65 can be thrown into my savings account), $120/week split between 3 credit cards. This doesn’t include smaller bills, such as prescription pills ($23/month), Cable ($15/month), and car insurance ($27.77/month). If I can stick to my credit card budget, one card should be paid off in 18 months, one in 2.5 years, and the last one in probably two months.
However, this is provide that I don’t put anymore money on my cards. I’ve cut up the two biggest cards and have the smallest for my trip to Los Angeles in June. Realistically, that trip should be all paid off by the end of this year.
Necessities – After I deposit my bill money into the appropriate accounts, I will have $63.75 left a week. Since I usually just drive back and forth to work, $20/week for gas should be enough. I think $20-23/week for groceries is sufficient for a single female + cat/hamster. A pack of chicken breast will last me a week and I just need to learn how to shop sales and use coupons (man, my mom was right!).
Entertainment – Whatever I have left ($20), will be my entertainment money. So if I want to go out to dinner, go to a movie, buy alcohol, or anything like that, it will come out of this money. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
Savings – Any amount that I have left by the time the next payday comes around will go straight to savings, even if it’s just $1.
