The Results Are In!!!!

Even though September has two days to go, I am doing my October shopping tomorrow, so today I tied off my months' spending/budget, updated my checkbook, etc, and here are the results!

Groceries:

Remember that when I started this experiment I went through five months' receipts to get an average baseline of spending? During those five months I averaged $784.00 per month on my groceries.

This month I spent $546.00.

Savings = $238.00!


Gas

Normally I spend about $100 per month on gas. My dh spends another $100.

During the past month and a half we each put $50.00 in the tank. There is still a half-tank left.

Savings = about $150 - 200 total, or $75 - 100 apiece.


Personal Spending

Here's where I faltered, big-time! I budget $400/mo. for personal spending. This includes fun stuff for me and the kids, clothes for all of us, school expenses and so on. I spent between $600 - 700 in September. Remember those shoes? Oy vey!

Actually, the biggest expense was $472 for an accounting class which I HATE. I have to not think too hard about that money down the drain. I'll finish it up and get an $100 deposit back, at least, at the end of it, but I'm really rueing that particular purchase.

I also bought cold-weather clothing for dd, who had outgrown all her pants and shirts, and some miscellaneous stuff. All of this ate up my gas savings and more.

Savings

Due to the above circumstances my personal savings went down by $179. I will need to do better next month if I want to spend May in California (and I do).

College savings, on the other hand, went up by $200! If I can keep this up, I could add more than $2000 per year to our college savings account. That won't get it done, but it will certainly help things along.