Well…..I overspent by $20, but it was delicious! I apparently misplaced a receipt for money spent on groceries and forgot about it, so I thought we had an extra $20 in the budget (If it doesn’t make it into my wallet or on the fridge…its gone). This led to me buying some barbecue to have for a quick dinner on a busy night. Besides that we did pretty well overall. We hardly went anywhere this month due to weather and our crazy schedule, so that helped out a lot. Every year during Frugal February, I remember that we can live on less money than we do during the other parts of the year, which is of course the number one reason I do this challenge every year! I think going forward in March, I am going to try and set a reasonable grocery spending goal of $500 (but hopefully less!), stick to the fun money budget I set in February ($50), and raise the eating out budget to $100. This budget plan gives me wiggle room to adjust it if needed, but it also shouldn’t be too restrictive causing everyone to complain.
Here is the final spending report for February:
Groceries
Week 1: $100
Week 2: $52
Week 3: $146
Week 4: $102
Money left: $0
Eating out money
Week 1: $24
Week 2: $0
Week 3: $5
Week 4: $63
Money left: -$20 (I actually goofed and overspent by $20!)
Fun money
Week 1: $11.50
Week 2: $9.75
Week 3: $0
Week 4: $0 (Transferred my remaining $21 to the Eating out Budget)
Money left: $0
How did your Frugal February go this year?
The Thrifty Educator 