Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Forum on Finances
Greetings! Thank you for popping in. Through our study of Feminine Appeal, by Carolyn Mahaney, we've been motivated to commend the gospel and to serve God and our families by managing our homes well. As home managers, we do a lot of purchasing for our families...general necessities, groceries, gifts, etc. I, for one (and I know a few of you have the same or similar questions), am searching for some really practical advice from anyone who can provide it. Please click on "comments" and share some spending tips that you have found really useful. If you have no tips but want to share a financial question, please do--maybe someone else will have an answer!
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4 comments:
I feel that Matt and I have gotten a slightly better grip on excessive spending, but I'm still having trouble in the grocery department. I make my menu in advance, shop once a week, and stick to my list...but I'm still overspending my grocery budget! What can I do to better control that spending yet continue to feed my family meals that are yummy and healthy?
I go shopping once every two weeks (with fruit, veggies and milk every week). I don't tend to meal plan... because I plan meals and then they don't sound good to me, so then I'm tempted to order pizza or eat junk. I keep my pantry/freezer stocked with the basics of what it takes to make the majority of my meals.
When I grocery shop, I have my budgted amount. I know, from shopping enough, how much each item costs (approximately). When I make my list, I write down everything I would like to buy - essentials and wants - and I put the estimated price next to the item. I then add up the total. If I am over budget, I cut the items from my list that I don't need, but simply want. Rarely do I come in over-budget when I grocery shop - and more often than not, I'm under-budget (since I tend to be generous with my estimates).
I've also made an Excel spreadsheet with everything I could ever possibly need on it. I go over the spreadsheet before I shop. That way I know I'm not forgetting something and am less likely to buy impulsively, which helps me stay within budget (I'd be happy to send the spreadsheet your way if you'd like to see it).
Yes--spreadsheets are my friends, especially if someone else took the time to put all the info in! ;) Amy and I have toyed with the idea of figuring the cost of each of the meals we make...it just sounds like SO much work to me...but the spreadsheet would give me a good starting point. I like to plan my meals in advance, and I'm just enough of a disciplined legalist type to stick to my menu. ;) Thanks for the ideas!
I try to plan my meals out, but I also try to be flexible if what I planned isn't what I want that night. While I do not have an excel spreadsheet (though, if I could also get a copy, Kirsten, that would be awesome), I do have a word doc that has my past shopping lists with the items broke down in sections based on the layout of the commissary. I kinda do what Kirsten does with buying the basic items to keep my freezer/pantry stocked so I can make whatever on the fly. And I shop every two weeks. We don't plan a budget. We should. We're working on it. But I usually keep my grocery shopping around $100-120. It helps that Josh will eat anything, so it isn't hard to please him as long as I feed him. =) And it's also just the two of us. I'm sure once we have kids, budgeting will get a lot harder. My problem is buying things to bake sweets. We really don't need sweets, but I love to bake, and so I buy unnecessary items in the hopes of baking a particular item. And then, because we want to moderate our intake, the said baked good will just sit there and go bad and I'd have to throw it away. Sad day. I don't know if this helped any, but I felt compelled to share. =)
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