$30 A Week: Crunching Numbers

I always thought I was frugal buying food, just like with the rest of our spending. We rarely buy meat, expensive frozen meals, or pre-packaged stuff (cereal, cookies, etc.).

Admittedly, we are not incredibly frugal buying liquor. Seems like there's always something to celebrate, people coming over, or a new concoction to try. We buy mid-range brands, but never really put a cap on how MUCH we buy - hey, it's not gonna go bad, right?

I keep a close record of our monthly spending, to see where it all goes, and today I calculated that we average $425 a month ($98 a week) on food & liquor. The total over at 30 Bucks a Week doesn't include liquor, but I'm still not sure how they do it. We've spent $30 already this week on groceries and had a bunch of stuff already in the fridge and I can see we're not gonna make it. Of course there would be enough to survive on, but I'm not willing to reduce the amount of produce I want to eat for the sake of saving $$.

So here's my modification and justification: If we can save $200 a month, that'll be fantastic. $200/mo. = $2400/ yr. = price of the fabulous cruise we took in January. Essentially it gives us a guilt free big vacation every year, which I'd already decided is non-negotiable, because I will go crazy without some warmth to look forward to in the brutal MN winter.

Final calculation: Roughly $52/week, or $225/month is what we'll name as our food & liquor spending caps. The savings will go in a fund to put us here:

Cheers,

- Kelly