November Budget Review

I had a rough month on the budget but it still did keep the monthly average under the budget.  I posted my not so middle of the month budget update here with all of the items that I bought for the first 3/4 of the month.  I guess that is why it took me so long to get my act together to post this because I was ignoring the receipts hoping that they would go away.

Here is the last week of the month to add to the total:

CVS

Even though I was still over budget, I went to CVS and grabbed a bunch of their Thanksgiving deals on my card and my husbands.  They had a few deals before the holidays so I couldn't help but grab them up.  I went in without a plan and only a few coupons in my bag.  The store was out of shopping carts so I had to carry all of my thing around the store (including my whole coupon basket) with me which was a little heavy but I got a bunch of deals.  I had 7 check outs when it was all done (and had to wait in a long line each time to do the next check out which I have never had to do but they were super busy).

Total OOP $11.16
Total Savings $62.94

Harris Teeter

The even better news is that I have the ECBs to buy a lot of things at CVS going forward which I have to make sure I spend before they expire (at least $16).

I went to Harris Teeter with my mom and got some flour and sugar on her card and mine.  I added in some of the free Mentos gum and my mom got the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and Sweet N Low.  Then, she kindly paid for both transactions so it was no more money out of my budget!  I didn't get to take a picture because the counters were a mess and stuff went every where when we got home so this was putting it together after the fact and we already ate the cranberry sauce so it didn't make it in the picture.

Total OOP $4.16- $4.16 cash from mom= $0
Total Savings $25.26+ $4.16 cash= $29.42

CVS

I went to CVS with my dad and I got the battery deal on my card and my husband's card.  I also helped my dad get it on his card.  We also added in the Milky Way bars with the buy one, get one coupon.  I had one transaction where the wrong card was scanned so instead of returning things, I just got it on the correct card with the correct card.  So we ended up with a bunch of batteries and candy.  Perfect for Christmas!!  I paid $0.54 for the first transaction (which was my fathers) and then my Dad handed me his pocket of change.  I paid for all of the rest of the transactions and ended up shoving the change back in my pocket so I might have made a profit on all those transactions, not purposely.

Total OOP $0.87- $0.87 cash from dad= $0
Total Savings $16.37 + $0.87= $17.24


With the full month of over spending and the last week to throw it over the top, here is how we ended for November.

Total Monthly Retail Cost $895.89

Total Monthly Savings $701.60

Total OOP $194.29 ($34.29 over budget)

The great news is that this is the second most that I have saved monthly all year with the bad news being it is second highest spending month for the year.  My monthly average is still under $137 so I haven't upset the monthly average too much.  If I stay on track for budget next month, we will end the year with a great total so it all depends on how things go with having both sides of the family in town for a week.