You know how tracking your spending and budgeting are important things to do. These are the only ways that you can make the changes necessary to achieve your financial goals.
After suggesting that you track your spending, I did a month of tracking for my family. It was an eye-opener. Here are some of the changes we made:
- Decreased our TV bill by eliminating channels and services
- Eliminated some of our cell phone services that we didn’t use
- Used a local pet store for some of our pet’s vaccinations (instead of the vet)
- Planned our meals a week in advance using the supermarket sale flyer
- Cooked ahead on weekends so that there was food available to eat for lunches
These reductions in cost saved us enough money that we were able to make some necessary home repairs without having to stress about tapping into savings to pay for it Our furnace is cleaned and tuned up for the winter, our roof is repaired, and the car had a tune up – all things that needed to be done, but were things I would have considered “budget-breakers” before reducing our expenses.
Our food spending is still higher than I would like, and I need to get that down even more. Next week, I will tell you what I did to reduce our grocery bill while still cooking meals at home.
Did you do the budget exercise with me? I know that several of you requested my budget worksheet. What did you learn about your spending? Let me know.
Leave a Reply