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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Daily Damages

I've seen other bloggers utilizing the concept of "Zero spending days" and a visual accounting of what they spend each day. I'm going to do this as well from now on. Tallying up everything that I spent over the last 5 days is actually very upsetting. I don't realize how much I actually spend on stupid stuff.

I'm only accounting for purchases that either I made or was directly involved in making, like going to a movie with my husband. Here goes the last few days:

Thursday’s Spending:
$10.23 – Target
$5.07 – Sonic (Breakfast)
$5.43 – Taco Bueno (Dinner)
$35 – Hair Cut
$12 – PTA Membership & School T-Shirt
Total: $67.73

Friday’s Spending:
$30 – School Pictures
$32 – Cookie Fundraiser
$17.25 – Movie Tickets & Snacks
$4 – Movie Snack
Total: $83.25

Saturday’s Spending:
Total: $0

Sunday’s Spending:
$17 – Coin-op Laundry (Washing all the sheets and the comforter)
$76.13 – Target (Household items)
$133.80 – Wal-Mart (Groceries)
$30 – Prescriptions
$2.81 – Taco Bell
$5.63 – McDonald’s (Kid’s meal and ice cream)
Total: $265.37

Monday’s Spending:
$23.76 – Domino’s Pizza
Total: 23.76

Five-day total: $440.11!

Wow! It really does add up fast. The thing is, we don't have an extra $440.11 in our budget; in fact we're seriously over budget for the rest of the month and if the husband doesn't get his bonus next month (not looking good, sales are really down) we're completely screwed. What's even worse, this is in addition to the bills that were paid last week as well.

I do have an item to take back to Target with will be a credit of about $30, if I can find the receipt. Last night we really shouldn't have eaten pizza but the husband is sick, I was exhausted and I didn't want to mess with making dinner while my dad was over visiting with us.

No more eating out for the rest of the week. The kids are home this weekend, as opposed to the older 2 being at their dad's so I will have to cook every day this week.

I was hoping that today would be a "no spend day" but just realized that I'm completely out of gas. I need some fresh thyme for a recipe tonight but I'm going to try dried instead and hope for the best.

I'm also going to make a large pot of vegetable stock to freeze for later use in soups and stews this fall/winter. I'm sure this will only be the first of several batches over the next few months. Hopefully making my own vegetable and chicken stock will save a little money there. I also plan to prepare some soups and stews to freeze; hopefully this plan will help with nights I don't feel like cooking. Thankfully the kids all love soup.