It's been almost a month into the budget and I'm doing really well. Using my "it's really like" total that assumes I'll get all my rebates back, I'm only on track to spend about $800 this year! Not to mention I'm going to end the month with more food and drugstore goodies in our stockpile/freezer than when I began. We've been eating a good variety of meals and snacks so there's no feeling of deprivation, either.
So...since I'm a glutton for punishment, I've decided to make the rules a little bit more challenging by adding our kitties' food and litter into the budget. After all those bags of Goodlife Recipe at Kmart the cat food won't be too hard, but litter is a significant expense. With 4 cats, we have to clean the litterboxes every day, which means scoopable litter is a must. I happened to stock up on litter in December, but our last box is starting to get low.
Since I'm saving all my receipts now, I can go back and subtract what I spent on cat food this year so far:
1/11/09: Kmart, $3.21 total for 8 3 lb bags Goodlife Recipe, 1 3 lb bag Purina Healthful Life, and 1 Pounce cat treats
1/16/09: Kmart, $1.20 for 1 3 lb bag Meow Mix Wholesome Goodness
1/17/09: Kmart, $3.08 total for 22 3/2.7 lb bags Goodlife Recipe
Total: $7.49 spent
With this change in effect, I'll keep wheelin' along and monitor the situation as I go. There's a good chance I'll lower the total yearly allowance, but I'll probably see how February shapes up first. I want to leave room for us to go out to eat once a month or two. We haven't gone out so far this year, but I haven't really missed it, either. Every once in a while both of us get the itch to go out, so I'd like to keep that an option.
Oh, I was billed for my Sunday paper subscription the other day, so that's another $11.85 gone.
Total spent so far: $166.87
Remaining on Acme GC: $35.22
Pending rebates: $51.48
"So it's really like": $83.17 spent this year
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