February Budget Review

My monthly budget is normally $160 per month for groceries and household goods for my family of three.  Most months I stay well under the budget but this month was a little crazy since I got a lot of shopping done early in the month with the sales that were currently on at Harris Teeter and Target so by the 5th of the month, I had already broken the $100 mark.  I started to get a little worried since that was super high so quickly.  Who knows what the rest of the month will bring right? 

Well, super doubles hit at the end of the month which is always a bad thing for me when I peak early in the month.  I stocked up on tons of cereal, rice, Snapware and soda (I know that it wasn't something I needed but it was a money maker and that will be a nice special treat for Mommy for a long time).  In addition, Aldi's had the $1.69 per pound chicken right at the end of the month.  I just decided to throw the budget out the window and stock up with the hopes that we wouldn't need anything in March to get through (and there wouldn't be any great deals for me to pass up).

Total Monthly OOP $248.59
Total Monthly Savings $710.49

The Great news is that I did some damage to the list of things that we needed.  Plus most of the others can wait for awhile!!!!  Here is the list that I put up at the beginning of the month so I will be trying to figure out if there is anything else that I need to add to my list other than oil and tissues.  I will most likely be getting those with my Giant credit for the month.

Chicken
Ground Beef
Flour
Parmesan Cheese
Turkey lunch meat
Ham lunch meat
Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice
Frozen Corn/Veggies
Corn Tortilla
Cheerios
Egg Noodles
Soup
Ritz Crackers- I bought some Townhouse, Zesta and others that were super cheap at HT
Blue Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese

Total YTD OOP $133.58+ $248.59 = $382.17
Monthly Average Spending= $191.09
Total YTD Savings $571.93+ $710.49 = $1,282.42

* Please note that savings doesn't include cost savings from buying at Walmart or Aldis because they don't have a discount off the shelf price normally.

The bad news is that is far and away the highest month that I have had in ages.  I am not sure if it was due to bad planning or too much stocking up.  Luckily, the month is over and I can breath easy that this month should be really light.  Here is hoping that I have a little better planning for the upcoming month and don't start off so quickly and end so badly :)  Of course, looking back to the old days, I used to spend this in one trip to Target so it quickly put this into perspective. 

I hope that you had a better month than I did but I know that means that I have to be super creative in the months to come to bring that monthly average back down where it is supposed to be!!  Lots of home cooked meals and living very frugally :)  Going to be tackling some snacks this month so any recipes or suggestions are appreciated!!!