Updates on the Budget

Sticking to the new grocery budget has proven difficult. Getting down to a smaller budget each week is going to take some getting use to and some changes to the way we deal with meals.

As you know I don't have a steady schedule so meal planning is difficult. The past couple months, with changes going on at work, my schedule has been even more unsteady. And coming up next month my schedule will be changing even more.

So how to adapt your budget to an ever changing schedule? A stock pile.

My stock pile is really dwindling right now due to my lack of dedication to my coupon binder. It unfortunately is almost empty.... It is amazing the impact of not having a full or even semi full stock pile. I find it very difficult to plan meals in tight budget months. We have limited options for eating at home and then we end up eating out and going over budget.

Here is my goal for the rest of the year, October, November and December: ReStock my Stock Pile!

How and I going to achieve this: Coupons! and Sales!

It's time to get back to basics, and when a coupon guru tells you how important a stock pile is, trust me, believe them!

New Budget

This month I will trying out a new plan for my husband and my grocery budget. I have been trying to cut our grocery bill for a while and did great for a while on coupons but have found that I am lacking success lately. Or at least the success that I need to achieve to make my time cutting and organizing coupons worth it.

I was reading an article from my LearnVest email digest that showcased a couple different peoples' real budgets and one of them stuck with me. A young couple around the ages of my husband and myself spent around 100$ a week on groceries by planning out their menus each week. Right now I can spend up to $300-$400 a month on groceries, and our budget just cannot take it any more. So I am going to give this method a try.

Seeing as my grocery budget is the same as this couple, I am going to shoot for around $50 a week. I know its an ambitious cut, but I think it's manageable. Today is going to be my first trip and I plan on making sure I have what I need in my house for the next week of meals.

I think the most challenging part will be keeping my husband and myself to the meal plan we create at the beginning of the week. We have a tendency to do the impromptu dinner out.

I plan on keeping everyone posted as to how it goes. So wish us luck!

Best Saving's To Date

I have been couponing for awhile and I will be the first to admit that I am not a coupon queen. But I have been getting better and better at saving at the grocery store.

Lately I have been collecting all the coupons that I can and waiting for one big shopping trip in the month (usually surrounding my monthly commission check). The day of, I have been pulling up the Giant Eagle ad and making sure I grab all the coupons that have items on sale. Just these two simple things have helped me increase my savings.

My last greatest savings was around $50, but now I have surpassed that and am now at $73.41! It's not a free grocery bill but that s a huge savings for me and my fiance'. Since I bought quite a bit I probably wont have to go back to the grocery store to do a big shop till at least next month if not the month after that! Of course I will need to pick up the essentials every so often, like milk, eggs, and banana's.

This proves that you don't have to go crazy with coupons to save some money. I don't spend hours everyday organizing my coupons and calculating my savings, dumpster diving for coupons and other methods coupon queens use for their savings. I simple cut coupons, keep them in an organized binder by expiration date and pair them with weekly specials and last but not least save my food perks from Giant Eagle until I have a large % available.

I may not ever get to a free bill, but I'm saving money and that's what counts!