Last week I wrote about how I was spending too much money on food and I wanted to stop eating out for an entire week.
One week later I can report that I made it almost all week without eating out and saved a bunch of money.
In June I spent $939 on eating out and groceries (which also includes paper towels, toothpaste, and anything else that I don’t eat but buy at the grocery store). In the last week I spent about $42.
I did have to buy food when I went into the office twice (I could have packed a lunch but I wanted to eat in the cafeteria with work colleagues), but I spent $8.18 combined on both days. My work has a pretty good cafeteria where I can get 2 tacos, a drink, and a bag of chips for $4.09. Technically that’s “eating out” but it was cheap.
Everything else I ate this week came from groceries that I already had in my house or the $34 worth of groceries I bought during the week. My girlfriend Tag made some awesome lime chicken and a casserole that fed me for about 4 or 5 meals during the week. It does get a little tiring to eat the same exact meal a bunch of times during the week, but when it’s something really delicious like Tag made then it’s easier.
She even put some vegetables in there so I’m going to assume I’m 1000% healthier this week than I was last week.
It’s Easy Saving Money When You Identify a Spending Problem
The hardest part about finding ways to save money on spending is to identify where you have a spending problem.
Scratch that. It’s ADMITTING you have a spending problem.
I hadn’t looked at my food budget for months because I KNEW what I found would be terrible. It’s that stupid theory that if you don’t see something it’s not really happening. It makes absolutely no sense and makes me feel like an idiot, but I know I’ve done it before and I’ll probably do it again.
Readers: Are you spending too much money on something? Are you ready to make a change?
Carnival Links
Y & T’s Weekend Ramblings at Young and Thrifty
Carnival of Retirement at My Personal Finance Journey
Carnival of Fin. Camaraderie at The University of Money
Yakezie Carnival at The Ultimate Juggle
Wealth Artisan’s FinCarn at Wealth Artison
Carnival of MoneyPros at My Family Finances
Canadian PF Happy Hour at Canadian Personal Finance
Carnival of Financial Planning at The Amateur Financier
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Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
I think I have my budget under control for the most part. We have been spending money to fix our house up but it isn’t outrageous and it isn’t a recurring expense so we should be OK.
The other end of the spectrum that I have noticed in myself is shopping at the bulk stores with the goal of motivating myself to eat at home, but ending up wasting a lot of food. Moderation is a virtue!
I am on my first month of hardcore budget tracking so I haven’t really been able to identify anything specifically that I can cut back on. I know it’s there, so when those numbers add up at the end of the month and Excel shows me a ($xxx.xx) then I know I overspent in that category. I sort of guess on how much I should be spending in certain areas, and I know I underestimated and overestimated some parts. I always always always underestimate gas. I budgeted to fill up twice this month. I’ve already had 3 tankfuls and hoping to keep it that way! I guess 2 trips to Lubbock, TX (180 round trip) didn’t help any…
I bet you feel better knowing that you killed two birds with one stone on the food thing. Really is a great feeling knowing that not only are saving a ton of money, but you are also getting your food pyramid in check!
Just FYI if you’re looking to cut back further – you shouldn’t be prevented from eating a brownbag lunch in a campus cafeteria. I’ve done this at all of my workplaces and never had an issue. Did you look around to see if anyone else there had lunches from home?
Most areas in our budget are pretty under control, but sometimes the food does get blown out, as does petrol. Instead of making do with what we have we will run down to the shops sometimes to pick up a couple of things, end up buying more etc.
Also, we get lazy and drive my daughter to school instead of walking. This really ups our petrol, even though it is not far, doing it twice a day every day adds up.
Good job on reducing yours groceries.
“Are you spending too much money on something? Are you ready to make a change?”
Can’t figure a way to make a change yet, but food is absolutely a pet peeve of mine. I feel like The Wife is always wasting food. I am always cleaning out the fridge, throwing away old leftovers that could have easily been dinner/lunch.
Knowing how to cook and doing more of that instead of outsourcing it to someone else is one of the more significant impacts to the personal bottom line.
Growing your own is pretty good too, but I’m biased that way.