Budgeting

I'm sure Ryan is almost laughing that I'm writing this post as he would say I live to shop.  I don't live to shop.  I love to shop.  I typically have 2 or 3 browsers open with items in cart waiting to be purchased.  That doesn't mean I always buy them but I contemplate it.  And I'm a sucker for a good deal.  But now that Colin is in our life, I need to be better about spending and saving.  And so, I have done a little budgeting/planning.

Meal Planning

A few weeks back I decided that I should probably do some meal planning since our biggest area that money is spent is eating out.  I don't particularly love cooking and I'm horrible about bringing my lunch to work so you do the math.  I like to eat out.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy either.  So anyways, I decided to start using this...

I plan each meal for the week and take an inventory of the groceries I need to make these meals.  Ryan and I have agreed that two nights can be non-cooking meals PLUS Ryan and I like to sneak in a lunch date once a week if we can when we are both at work.  It's a mini-date for us (we're lucky we work together)!  So 3 meals are week are not in our kitchen but the rest of life is budgeted and planned.  When I started this, Ryan was shocked and I think he fell a little more in love with me.  Ryan is much better at saving and budgeting so the fact that I was even trying was impressive to him.  I've done a pretty good job of sticking to this and I'm hoping we can make this our normal routine for the months and years to come.

Online Shopping

Okay so this is totally contradictory of my meal planning speech BUT when I do online shopping, I make sure to have coupon codes and free shipping.  Having a baby makes it more difficult to run errands so I tend to do as much shopping online as possible.  So free shipping and 5% Target discount are almost always MUSTS!  AND if I online shop, I'm not wasting gas or driving time.  It's the little things.

Coupon Clipping & I've Got an App for That!

Again Ryan fell a little more in love with me when I signed up for Cub Foods coupons and Target Cartwheel.  Every little bit helps and secretly, it's kind of fun to see how much I can save.  I get a little competitive with myself.  I'm a dork.  But it's really nice to pair this with my meal planning.  

AND LASTLY... drum roll please... I'm going to challenge myself for ONE month.

Kristin got me thinking when she did a No Spend Month.  I was blown away by this idea and I have accepted my own challenge to do this!  Yes Ryan you read that correct.  I am going to do a no spend APRIL.  In the month of April I will not spend any unnecessary money.  So unless it is gas, household necessities, or groceries, I can't buy it.  This is going to be hard people.  I'm a shopaholic but I need to be better about budgeting.  I will let you know at the beginning of May how successful and difficult this challenge was for me.  I know it's going to be hard!  I actually can't believe I'm going to do this!

Happy budgeting!  Ryan keeps reminding me that money saved now will help for retirement and I can't wait to be a snow bird in retirement!

Cheers,