Sunday, June 5, 2011

Budget Smudget

Long time....no blog...... Rather than tell you all the reasons why I haven't blogged for months I'm just going to dive right in and write about my current focus.

Given that I desperately want a new bedroom suite, a Tasmanian holiday with the kids and then a solo trip to Europe all in the next eighteen months I really needed to take a serious look at the budget and try and work out how to trim some of the fat out. My wonderful bank has an automatic budget tracker which records and categorises all my expenses which has certainly been an eye opener!! One area that I am currently trying very hard to get under control is my grocery bill.

Over the past six months my average spend has been between $500 and $600 now for a family of three which has two small children who don't eat that much I really think that it's too high. Looking at all those transactions it's not that I'm spending alot in a few shops but I'm spending $20-$30 every day or two and clearly all those little trips add up to a BIG bill. This pay fortnight is almost over with three days to go but so far my spend this fortnight on groceries is $148.39 and while I might need to buy a loaf of bread and perhaps a potato or two before pay day I'll definitely be coming in under the $200 limit I had set myself.

So - what's changed?? I'm menu planning which has been good both in terms of the actual shopping but also for the 'OMG what am I going to make tonight' thoughts. Planning has also meant that there have been significantly fewer left overs being thrown into the bin. This disturbs me in two ways - firstly that is my hard earned cash going into the trash and secondly it is a complete waste of food and that does not make me feel good. I've gotten more creative with ways of using left overs and it probably helps that I've had some great food bargains this fortnight - I found drumsticks on special at my local butcher and managed to score 12 drumsticks for $4. I baked them as a tomato based traybake with veges and that has made a meal for all of us plus another dinner for Izaak and I've just stripped the meat off the final two to add to some risotto to take to work tomorrow night.

I AM going to go to Tasmania

I WILL be getting a beautiful new bedroom setting

Europe IS GOING TO HAPPEN FOR ME

Dream. Believe. Plan. Achieve - I CAN DO IT!!

2 comments:

Bron said...

yay - good for you Bec!
Tomato baked drumsticks sound delish - on their own AND in risotto! mmm

Michelle said...

Menu planning really does work - and we started making bulk meals and freezing them earlier this year. Works really well with mince meals, and curries too.

Hope you're doing well otherwise! You'll have to tell me all about your holiday plans next time I see you.