Sweet Shoppe Designs

My husband and I recently accepted a "Spending Awareness" challenge. The goal was to look at Aprils spending and see how much you spent on food to include groceries, restaurants, snacks from snack bars etc. Then, give yourself a grocery bBarrow (Bundle)udget and with proper planning, not eat out the entire month of May.

After seeing what we had spen in april, we were shocked. So my husband I and I started by sitting down and figuring out the weekly "food" budget. To make sure we stuck with it we pulled cash out Sunday mornings and put it in the cash purse. I made up these weekly cards to go in a small zippered change purse I carried with us when we went grocery shopping. I would write down our beginning balance at the top and then with each purchase I would subtract the sale from the total leaving us with the weekly funds available.

At the end of the week if I had any cash leftover, I got to go splurge at the farmers markets. I made a few different cards for that occasion as well

For the first time in a long time I shopped with a grocery list and a calculator and I got to say, I wasn't liking it too much. But it did teach me a lot about planning, budgeting and being a little more resourceful. All in all it was am educational challenge that my husb and I decided to continue doing since we ended up with several hundred dollars back in our house. Of course it didn't seem like much when we were spending the money until we added it up.