My husband and I always end up talking about the same thing when it comes to money…We NEED to set a better budget.
I recently sat down and installed Quicken on my computer and after looking at the categories I am embarrassed with how much we spend per month eating out. I’ve never really sat down to think about it all adding up like it does. My first step with budgeting is going to be cutting out all the fast food and eating out. I am going to be sitting down cutting coupons and writing out a meal plan. I know I will still have nights I’m tired and don’t want to cook so I need to make sure I have some freezer crock pot meals put together for those nights. I know if I have my meals better planned when I go to the store I will spend less there too. I am hoping to drastically drop the amount of money we spend eating out as well as cut back our grocery budget a bit. That is my first step to setting a better budget. With the beginning of a new month and a new year its a great time to start. I am going to sit down and write a meal plan for the next 30 days and then head to the grocery store! When I do a meal plan I like to plan a few extra meals so if I am doing a weeks worth I do 10 meals instead of 7…I also never plan certain things for certain days because I don’t want to feel like I HAVE to make something on a certain day. If I’m craving something and its not what I had planned for that day I’m more likely to want to just go out to eat to get what I’m craving. Setting a grocery budget is a little new to me. I’ve always tried to shop smart and coupon but I’ve never set a certain dollar amount and tried to stay under it.
I’m really hoping to make some good changes for my family financially and for our health.
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