One Trip Wonder

How to overspend 101

The biggest down fall of our budget every month was the unplanned shopping trips. We budget around $800 per month for groceries for our family of 6. That includes everything we consume, including baby formula. At the end of every month, for about 3 months, we found that we were about $100 over. Here’s the kicker, it was never on food we actually needed. It was always 1 random trip for “just 1 thing” that would quickly turn into $50 of God knows what. My husband joked that I couldn’t walk into Walmart without spending $50.

Crank it down!

Once we determined that the overspending was not because of a genuine need for an increase in the budget. Then came the hard part. Change.

What helped was making sure that when I went grocery shopping on Sunday’s, I got EVERYTHING I needed. The great thing about being on a tight/strict budget is that when you end the shopping trip with an extra $100 that you don’t normally have, it’s safe to assume that something was forgotten and the list can be reevaluated. Knowing how much I need to spend to feed the family for the week and then being skeptical if I was under that amount helped make sure that I didn’t have to walk into the store come Wednesday afternoon for things I forgot to put on the list.

I also had to work hard to remind myself to buy a few nice treats for the kids and ourselves. So that we didn’t feel the need to go out and buy ice cream or chips for movie night. We had already. (It did take a few weeks for the kids to get used to just having treats in the house)

By making this small but meaningful change we have been able to stick to our grocery budget. Being able to do different/more fun activities with the kids. Putting that extra money to good use, instead of it being spent on my poor planning.