Cheap Challenge 2013- Lessons Learned

Total spent: $290.47

 

	Groceries	Eating Out	Gas	Household	Entertainment	Clothing	Dog Needs
Week 1	$25.10	$13.86	$0.00	$5.34	$4.99	$0.00	$0.00
Week 2	$5.23	$22.71	$44.65	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$22.98
Week 3	$43.59	$15.47	$20.08	$0.00	$2.76	$7.34	$0.00
Week 4	$0.00	$0.00	$20.00	$5.37	$31.00	$0.00	$0.00
TOTAL	$73.92	$52.04	$84.73	$10.71	$38.75	$7.34	$22.98



 Groceries and Household Items:

I am so proud of our grocery spending considering I can easily spend $75 or more each week on these items and there are definitely times where I spend even more. We had so much food in our freezer and pantry that needed to be eaten, but we had simply been piling more and more new items on top of it all so it was just lying around forgotten and at risk of freezer burn. I am glad to say we are starting with pretty much a clean slate at the end of the challenge and I definitely plan to make wiser decisions about what to purchase in bulk and what to purchase as needed.

Jake and I have both learned the value of planning out our meals and shopping trips so we do not come home from the store with a lot of unnecessary items that will potentially go unused and ruin because we did not have a plan in place to use them. For household items, we were actually stockpiled in this area as well because I make purchases when I have coupons. If we did this more often, we could definitely save even more. I just need to make sure to only purchase things we actually need because even if I get it cheap, it is money wasted if it wasn't something we needed.


Eating Out:

 

On average Jake and I each eat lunch out three days a week at roughly $8 per meal. By cutting that out for this month we saved over $190! This is something I definitely think we should keep up in the months to come. We saved so much money by bringing lunches from home and we had far less food waste than we normally do in a month because we actively planned to use leftovers for lunches.

 

We tend to do really well about cooking at home during the week, but we realized we use being tired from the workday as an excuse to eat out/order in. This month we just toughed it out and cooked even when we did not feel like it. We ate a lot healthier this way and we both actually lost a little bit of weight (bonus!). Declan also got to try some new foods since I was planning a variety of meals so we would not get burned out on having the same thing over and over. Weekend dinners out are where we normally spend a good bit of money since it is what our groups of friends tend to want to do when we hang out. After taking the time to see how much we spend here even though we don't do it all that often definitely has me planning to invite folks over for dinner parties/potlucks on occasion instead of always eating out.

 

Gas:

 

I hope we can find a way to cut our gas expenses in the future because it ended up being nearly 34% of the original $250 budget. This was with us being fairly conservative about where we drove, but we still had two trips home during this month, which meant we had an extra 312 miles driven outside of our normal routine. For my car that is a little over a full tank of gas worth of driving. We own both of our cars which is a huge savings for us each month since we do not have car payments, but when the time comes to purchase a new one we will definitely be looking into better mileage options.

Entertainment:

We normally keep our spending pretty low in this area, but we do have times where we spend more than we should. I tend to justify these expenses though since we do not pay for cable or go out all the time. Jake and I actually have not gotten to go to a movie together since February 2012, just a few months before Declan was born. Since we have a young child, we always have to be mindful that dinner and a movie or going to an event that is not kid friendly also means paying a babysitter since our families live more than an hour away. We have a zoo membership and a children's theatre membership so we save money by covering Declan's entertainment for the year in advance.

Clothing:

Purchases in this area have been my weakness for a while. I really don't spend a ton, but $30 here and there adds up over the course of the year. I have lost weight since Declan was born, but am not back to my pre-pregnancy size so some things still fit from my original wardrobe, but a lot doesn't. I tend to go out and buy something for myself when I feel stressed about a specific event that is coming up and I need something to wear. This month was helpful because I was forced to make things work without running out to buy something new and I realized I can make more of my old wardrobe work than I thought. Plus, even without purchasing anything new in the near future, I have a pretty decent wardrobe as is so I need to save my clothing purchases for things I really want. Jake never buys new clothes so he is good here...he could actually stand to spend a little more and be fine. As for Declan's clothes, I will continue shopping consignment sales, clearance racks and couponing like crazy. We still get really cute clothes and it doesn't break the bank when he outgrows it all 6 weeks later.

Dog Needs:

Wade and Fia are our furbabies and I probably spend way more getting them treats than I should, but I only get them treats when I have a coupon so I am glad to splurge a bit because they really are great dogs. They hated the cheaper dog food and refused to eat it for a bit even though it was from the same brand we normally get so it looks like we are back to Purina One and the occasional canned food. I am sure they had a celebration about the Cheap Challenge reaching an end.

Closing Thoughts

 

I would definitely like to try the Cheap Challenge again in the future, but it needs to be a month where we know we do not have any major travel plans or trips home to visit our families. We will also have to be more diligent about not eating out at all during the month. It was really hard for us to say no when people we do not get to see very often asked us out for a meal, but we could have easily told them to go ahead and eat so we could just meet up with them later. I am confident we will be able to stay under the $250 limit after going through it and knowing where we can improve for the next try.