A Failed Experiment

I thought I'd follow up on how our spending fast went for the month of January. The short answer is we didn't really save any money. But that's only because what we would have spent on eating out, a babysitter and leisure expenses went towards groceries and a going away party for our friends. Not to mention the monthly gas expenses have doubled with the rediculous cost of fuel right now.

If I were to add it up, we almost doubled our grocery bill during January. Which is why I feel like the experiment failed. I was hoping to walk away from January feeling more financially fit, like we had a cushion that we didn't have before the month started. And that is a resounding no.

There is still some lessons learned as I think the eating out will still be less as the months creep on simply for the fact that it fits in with my healthiness goals for this year. And we use the website Mint to track our budgets. If you don't use Mint or a similar website, I highly encourage it. We have used it for over a year, and you can really track your trends in spending. And if you are a turbo tax user like us, they are linked so your taxes are a bit easier.

Going forward, we have a new goal for February. Since I spent a significant amount of our monthly budget on groceries last month, our cupboards and deep freeze are quite full. Our goal for February is to eat our way through the groceries in the house. No taking advantage of double coupon days, or Buy 1 get 2 free deals this month. I am going to have to pull out the recipe books and get creative. I'm not saying we won't buy groceries, obviously the fridge will need restocked with fresh foods, but I'm going to try and avoid the freezer isles at Trader Joe's and work our way through the grains we have at home.

I'll fill everyone in on how it goes. I might just be putting off the big grocery bill, as once the pantry and freezer are empty I'm going to have to restock them.