That worked for a number of years, and as we got comfortable with this new money management routine, we got lax on these rules we gave for ourselves.
This past year has had so many changes, living apart for six months, getting pregnant and having Little Man, selling our house and moving - that we've fallen off the wagon a bit - as seen by going over budget by $250 last month.
I was chatting with my mom a bit about it, and I think she thought - and perhaps some of you - that we were putting eating out (for example) all on credit before paying it off. But that's not the case.
What's been happening, is by the end of the week when we were running out of cash in the day-to-day, we would wind up using credit (then paying it off), and going over budget by spending on gas/groceries at the END of the week instead of the START.
So! We're going to go back to spending how we did when we first started. Gas, and groceries first. Starting on this coming Friday, we'll make sure we've got the groceries list and fuel up all the vehicles.
Hopefully, getting back to this strategy will help us get back on track.
We all get off track now and then. It's tough to be perfect with so many changes happening in our lives. Finding a routine that works really is a big help. We try to grocery shop once per week, but with my insane schedule, it doesn't always work out. We count on meal planning and having a detailed grocery list to keep us on track financially with respect to groceries.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right and I don't think it'll work out 100% of the time, but I'm sure that it will help us get back on track and help us stop going over budget quite so frequently. I've never been a big meal planner, but that might be a next step as well.
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