This is the first of what I hope will be 52 weekly posts detailing where in the hell all my money is going.
I am using an envelope system and budgeting monthly. Most of my expenses are fixed, so for the most part, it’s that handful of discretionary envelopes that I’ll be tracking.
Groceries: $25.83 spent. We needed toilet paper this week and my favourite stuff was on sale. We didn’t need much else.
Monique: $25.65 spent. I bought a digital download of a record and a scarf from the Sally Ann; 3x takeout coffees.
The Kid: $26.72 spent. The Sally Ann had kids’ clothes on ten for $5, so I got a few back-to-school outfits. The rest was a birthday gift for a kid in his class and a very small Millennium Falcon. (I made a budget envelope to cover some of his wants and needs each month. He also gets a weekly allowance, which will get its own post at some point.)
The Dog: $226.00 spent. This dog has chronic ear problems, and we’ve been treating him for infection for much of the last year. This is just the latest in a string of vet bills I’ve had to pay for him. I had budgeted $100 per month for his expenses, hoping we’d seen the last of the vet for a while. I was mistaken. This one appointment emptied not only his envelope but mine too. It got me down, since it was so early in the new year and I was so committed to staying on budget. I didn’t expect to see my resolve so thoroughly tested this early on.
Savings/Goals: I have my $1,000 emergency fund in place, which should keep me from going further into debt.
This week’s takeaway: Shopping is fun; Dogs are expensive.
Monique Makes Do 
My brain does not compute $25 for groceries… How ? Why? How? I’m embarrassed to admit my monthly grocery bill, I think you need to show us the workings of a $200 monthly grocery budget when some of us spend more than that per week .
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My family is like one-third the size of yours, for starters! We get most of our food from our CSA, which is $125 a month. And I am always on the lookout for pink 50% off stickers. After this first month, I’ll do a food budget post but I have to see if I can actually stick to it first!
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I have to admit, I am curious. I am trying to find way to save so seeing food budgeted by someone in the same province (same cost of food) would be amazing
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Our family of 4 (though admittedly my girls are only with us 50% of the time, and my hubs is away every other weekend — spends considerably more on food every month than it seems you do. I consider myself to be a fairly frugal shopper, too, scanning for those pink stickers and the like. We don’t eat a lot of convenience foods, either. I would love to see a breakdown of your grocery spending, there might be some good info for me in there.
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I’ll put something together once I know the budget is working. It’s the CSA, I tell ya.
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