March Wrap Up...

It's the end of the month....the bills are done, and all of our purchases/expenses have been put into their little homes in my little excel spreadsheet. This is such a chore!!! I dread it, but it really helps me to see exactly WHERE the money went from month to month and the time I spend doing this is worth it.

To re-cap real quick....there was a $300 difference between our basic household/grocery expenses from January and February. Our overall spending between the two months was pretty substantial as well. Our dining out cost was unchanged, which was bad because it was high.

I was certain that with the kind of month we had that my expenses were going to be through the roof. Between a sick baby and the big boys being on Spring Break I didn't have as much time for my planning and research that I've been trying to do. I had My Sweetie pick things up for us a couple of times, there was one shopping trip that I didn't even have my coupons with me and I let (not intentionally!) $15 of RR from Walgreen's expire (I thought I was going to throw up...what a waste!)

However, much to my surprise, although it wasn't as significant of a drop there was STILL a $90 drop this month in our basic household/grocery expenses from the previous month!!! Not only that, but our dining out dropped by over 50%!!!! When I went over all the numbers with My Sweetie from the past three months he was still wondering where all the money is going. BUT, we are THRILLED that we are continuing to DROP in the areas that we know we can actually have some control over.

I think part of the success of the month is from having things stocked up and on hand. Having a full freezer, pantry and overflow cupboard HELPS!!! I still might not ever get as good as some of the other people I've seen out in blogville, BUT as long as we can continue to improve where we can...I'll be happy!!