I'll admit that being eleven days into May (WAIT! ELEVEN already; wow) I have not been paying super close attention to my spending but my average daily spending for the month is only at $14.35 a day right now. So far so good anyway! My average daily spending for groceries which generally sticks around $12 a day is at $10.25 a day right now. I've spent in three categories so far this month: groceries, gifts, and food out (which I'd hoped to avoid but killed the third day of the month). We're almost out of dog treats so pets is inevitable. I give them dog treats when they come in from the backyard so I'm afraid the less intelligent of the two dogs would revolt/ become totally untrained if I made them go a month or two weeks without treats.
I guess that means, if I truly want to stay within four spending categories no cleaning, toiletries, garden purchases, or stuff. The other categories I track are easy to avoid. I'll be honest, food out should not have been one of the four and I'm probably not going to get away with not purchasing either a cleaning or toiletry item. We shall see. I won't pass up a great sale to stay within just four categories, that's all I'm saying.
Average daily spending for 2015:$18.05
^almost below that dreaded $18 a day spending. woohoo!
I did buy dog food from the vet today but I don't include that in the average daily spending around here (it's for our girl dog who gets bladder stones). I consider her food a medical expense and I don't put medical expenses in the average daily spending (well except for tiny things like bandaides). If we didn't feed her the vet food she'd end up needing more surgery down the road. So I figure the extra cost of the food is worth her not having to undergo more surgery and us not having to pay for more surgery.
I guess that means, if I truly want to stay within four spending categories no cleaning, toiletries, garden purchases, or stuff. The other categories I track are easy to avoid. I'll be honest, food out should not have been one of the four and I'm probably not going to get away with not purchasing either a cleaning or toiletry item. We shall see. I won't pass up a great sale to stay within just four categories, that's all I'm saying.
Average daily spending for 2015:$18.05
^almost below that dreaded $18 a day spending. woohoo!
I did buy dog food from the vet today but I don't include that in the average daily spending around here (it's for our girl dog who gets bladder stones). I consider her food a medical expense and I don't put medical expenses in the average daily spending (well except for tiny things like bandaides). If we didn't feed her the vet food she'd end up needing more surgery down the road. So I figure the extra cost of the food is worth her not having to undergo more surgery and us not having to pay for more surgery.
The way I look at it - if we attained every goal we set right away, we would have nothing to work toward, right? You are dong absolutely fantastic even if you go over 4 categories :)
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right :)
DeleteHave you considered baking dog treats yourself? Might be worth a look to see how they compare in price to store bought and how involved this would be in your day.
ReplyDeleteVery good suggestion. I'm not sure I'm up to it right now but I am definitely going to look into different recipes, cost analysis, and such. I haven't made dog treats before and had not thought about it either.
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