Not Happy

Ive fallen of the bandwagon. Where did the grocery money go?? I really need to get my self more organised. So far with the $170 I had for this weeks grocery money I bought fruit & veges and did a little bit of shopping and the money is gone. I did not even buy the meat. I forgot to menu plan so a lot of the grocery shopping was impulse buying. Im so angry at my self.

Repeat repeat repeat: I must be more organised....... If I really want to buy that dream house for my family one day I must get myself more organised and start to seriously look after our money.

Grocery Money 2

Money for Grocery this week: $150

Chips for school: $3.80
Owe Lyn for book: $8.00 (not a grocery item, will pay back from other a/c)
Lunch $5.45 (not a grocery item, will pay back from other a/c)

Looks like a sad sally grocery record. Never mind I will contine to improve. Baby steps!!

Forgetting to record where $$ is going

I have been forgetting to record where our grocery money is going eg: meat, fruit & veges etc. Need to discipline myself more I think. Otherwise I think I have been completely tight with my money this month. I have been shopping and picked up a few things that I have liked, walked around and then put the things down before walking out empty handed (feels really good) and when I get home I dont even miss what I wanted to buy. Its amazing on how much money goes on stuff that you dont even need. I received my tax return last week and I have been really carefully with it, so far we fixed the van $700 and I payed off my Coles Myer card (yipee). I think I will get shoes for the kids as they really need them and then I might no I will put the money into my ING account so its not too easy for me to take out at the drop of a hat.

Goal for this week: Remeber to record where grocery money is going....

Barganing Power

I am so proud of my self. Today I went on the hunt for a Sunbean Magic 4 Pie Maker after hearing some great reviews from the girls on the Simple Savings forum. My first stop was Big W they had the pie machine there on Special for $85, that was too expensive I thought so off I went to a house speciality store next door to Big W and they had the pie machine there for the same price as Big W but the lady said she would give it to me for $80, still to expensive. I went home and told hubby and he suggested Bing Lee so off we went. Bing Lee had the pie machine for $69 dollars and when I asked the assistant what was the best price he could give me he said $63 hmmm not bad but we still had a few other shops we wanted to look at. Our last shop was a Betta Electrical shop which was across the road from Bing Lee. The pie machine there was $70 and when I asked the shop owner what was the best price he said $60, SOLD..... I cant believe that the same exact pie machine was $85 on special in one place and then in another it was $60 thats an $25 difference. Before I discovered Simple Savings I would have bought the machine at Big W no questions asked. Im really proud of myself and my new frugal life. Even hubby was impressd with my barganing power.

Grocery Budget 1

Well I did it, I stayed below my grocery budget last week.
Grocery budget is $200.00 and I spend:

Aldi: $65.50
Coles: $25.33
Woolworths: $3.19 (including the newspaper)
Meat: $18.15 (1kg of diced beef, 1 kg of mince)
Fruit and Veges: $30.00

Total: $142.17
under by: $57.83

(What happened to the $57.83, who knows..... this is why I need this blog, so I can keep track of our spending habits. Our credit card could have looked a little healthier if the $57.83 I saved on groceries was paid into it)