Budgeted spending and planned spending are not the same thing! You can budget $50 for the week, go to the store, grab some reasonable items, stop shopping when you've hit the $50 mark and call it good. I shopped this way forever (okay, really, I'd budget $50 and spent more like $150 but you get the idea). For some reason the $50 that you budgeted is just never enough.
Or, you can get the ad for your local grocery store, go through it, pick out items that are on sale that you can make meals out of for the week, add some things to the list that are on really good sales that you know you'll need in the future, make sure to take advantage of extra deals the store is offering (but ONLY if it's on items you need or regularly use) and I bet you the $50 budget get's you twice as much stuff.
This past week of pretty reckless spending (totally blaming this one on the flu) has shown me that I've done a really great job of "planned spending" this year. It's a good deal of extra work to plan out pretty much all of your purchases but it's SO very worth it. I have not been having a very difficult time sticking to my budget so far this year and I also have not been left feeling deprived at very many moments. I've been able to afford ice cream bars here or there, chips for my hubby, an absurd amount of Cadbury Creme eggs, a very good variety of different meats, lots of fresh fruits and veggies... we've been eating good and not breaking the bank at all. I have a feeling that most people reading this do a great job of planned spending on top of budgeted spending but I was inclined to write this post because I am just now realizing the huge impact it makes on the budget when purposed spending is the only spending (for the most part) that you do.
Average daily spending for 2015: $17.17
$53.13 left to spend in March
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I think planning is definitely the key - if you don't have a plan (or goal for that matter) you have nothing to work toward or work with.
ReplyDeleteI used to make up a monthly menu day-by-day - that didn't work for me (I don't FEEL like chicken today so lets go out)....now I make up a list of meals that I know I have the ingredients for and I just pick on at random in the morning and take the meat out. So far that has worked really well for me.
I couldn't never do the monthly or weekly meal plan either. We were the EXACT same way. The plan would say "meatloaf" tonight and then we'd say, "nah, don't want that, let's go out to eat." Haha, we're so similar!
DeleteI do the same as you. I'll plan for three or four meals and then I let my hubby know that's what food we have in the house. He gets to pick one out of those.
A very wise post - very perceptive. I think you have also planned for the unplannable in that you seem to have been able to handle the emergency of having 'flu without it becoming a disaster.
ReplyDeleteAfter adding up the "unplanned" spending I'm pretty happy at how much restraint I actually had during those haze days. I spent less than I thought.
DeleteWe've been off budget and no plan for two weeks but I know things woll normalize once the shock of FIL loss moves off.
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely times in life when the budget goes out the window. You'll get back to normal soon enough, that's for sure. Right now you've got to do what you've got to do.
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