Budget Control

As many of you know we are a single income household. Back in October of 2009 I went part time with my job, in October 2010 business was really bad (I worked at a real estate attorney's office) so I was let go permanently. Working part time didn't bring in a lot of money, but it was better than nothing. So for almost 2 years all the financial responsibilities have been on Freddie. Some days are okay, some days are a struggle. Several times we had to make hard decisions in order to make ends meet. Going back to work wasn't really an option for me because I don't have a college education and have only had two full time jobs. In order to go back to work full time I would have had to find daycare for Kameron. Between daycare costs ($500 per month), gas, etc. I would basically just be working to pay for Kameron's daycare and my gas to and from work. So, we stuck with me staying at home.

As time went on Freddie began to have to work more and more overtime. We didn't go out to eat that much, the only money we spent on entertainment was Dish Network and we rarely spent money on ourselves. Every thing we bought was necessary. Freddie works at Michelin Tire Plant, so he is required to swing shifts. 75% of the time I feel and am a single mom. Add in working over time and I was alone even more. Typically if he worked over time it would be night shift as that shift is usually available. I was really missing my husband.

Last week as I was paying bills online, once again wishing we had more money, I realized that my bank had this new program. This program would organize your expenses and show you how much money you are spending and where it is going. I thought....this will be pretty neat. I clicked the button, it ran numbers and up popped this nifty pie chart. I began to scan the numbers, one number really stood out to me $1011. What did I spend $1011 on? Groceries!!!! What?!?! Between Wal-Mart and Food Lion, I had spent $1011 in one month! One month!! How was that possible?!?! I sat there and thought about it. We buy groceries once a week, sometimes twice. Usually our grocery bill is between $95 and $200 a week for a family of 4, one of whom doesn't even eat food right now!!

So I talked with Freddie and we sat down and made up a plan. We would make a list, we would buy food for a whole month (excluding bread, milk, fruit and some veggies) and we would eat all the food in our cabinets/freezer before we went back to the store. So I sat down and I made out a list of what food we currently had and what food we needed to buy.

Friday we grabbed my list and off we went shopping. Our first stop was Aldi, our next stop was Caughman's Meat Market. Yesterday we got our final things we needed from Wal-Mart and Food Lion. My goal was to cut our grocery expense in half for the month. My total after visiting all 4 stores was $426!!! What we bought should hopefully last us a full month if not longer. Buying from a meat market we were able to get a ton of meat (including steaks) and save a lot of money! We got 5 lbs of ribeyes, 5 lbs of ground chuck, 5 lbs of cubed steak, 5 pounds of pork chops, 5 pounds of chicken breast, 5 pounds of chicken legs and 5 pounds of bacon for $158!!

I am so excited that I might possibly be able to help Freddie financially in a way. It hurts me to see him worry about providing for his family all the time. If I can continue to do this every month and stick to it, hopefully it will save us money and hopefully it will mean Freddie will be home more often instead of working overtime.

I am beyond excited that my freezer is full and that my cabinets are full all with just $426 worth of food! :-)