Year End Reading 2019

I set a goal every year to read 100 books.  I used to do really well tracking and knowing where I am but this year went off the rails because I didn't track it monthly.  I had no idea where I was year to date and it was near the end of the year.  I may have missed posting reviews of some books but I counted up the book review posts of the year and I got my grand total.

104 

To the best of my ability and hoping that I posted all the reviews on my blog of the books that I read, I read 104 adult books and quite a few more children's books that weren't counted.  Do you have a goal to read a certain number of books or certain variety of books??

Year End Grocery Spending

I haven't been tracking our year to date spending on an ongoing basis but I have a notebook with all my numbers recorded.  This year seems to be missing a lot of savings amounts like last year because I was too busy to track all that I saved.  I am hoping to be better next year tracking my savings but it is less important then just making sure that the spending is under control.

My goal is to spend under $160 on all of our household expenses for groceries, paper supplies, cleaning supplies, and medicine (except prescriptions) per month.  This gives me a total for $1920.00 for the year to spend on our family of three.  Below is the monthly totals that I spent on those items:

                                                            January                     $155.93
                                                            February                   $101.57
                                                            March                       $154.63
                                                            April                         $139.69
                                                            May                          $89.17
                                                            June                          $277.59
                                                            July                          $105.85
                                                            August                     $128.65
                                                            September               $92.32
                                                            October                   $259.92
                                                            November               $130.46
                                                            December               $156.56

                                                            Total OOP              $1792.34

I spent more then I have in the last four years but I think that I got a lot of things to take care of my family and still stay under budget.  It has been very hard to maintain the spending that low while working two part time jobs this year because there is very little time to put into following blogs and planning shopping trips.  I normally throw together trips at the last minute and possibly in the store to be honest.  I have had trouble keeping up the coupon cutting but mostly maintained the best that I could!!

                                                           Monthly Average     $149.36

I am happy to start a new year and try my best to do it again.  With my son getting bigger and eating more, we might have an increase in the budget to maintain that but the $160 monthly budget has been working for over 4 years and I know that the method is going to work to come up with the new budget.  Hope you have a great year and look forward to sharing for another year to come!!!

Thinking Foward to 2016 and Saving Money

Tons of people have been setting goals for 2016.  I don't normally have resolutions but there are certainly things that are in my head so I figured that I would share.  They are normally the same every year and I usually add a few each year...some drop off but that is a great place to start.  I am probably going to be blogging on most of them too so you will see how I am doing.

1. Read 100 books:  I would rather get to 150 but as long as I am over 100, I will be super happy with myself.  I like reading and it is way to make sure that I am taking time for myself with a frugal habit because I get all of the books for free at the library.

2. Meal Planning:  I have been meal planning for a few years and I feel like it is really helpful to know whether I need something when I am at the store because I know what I am having for the week.  I would like to say that I am going to do monthly meal planning but it frequently doesn't work out that way.  I get to use all of the items in the fridge and freezer before they go back and I don't buy more then our family can use.

3. Spend under $1800 in groceries:  I have my notebook with the last three years in it and there were two near $1500 and one at $1100.  I am going to continue to track each purchase that I make with the amount, store and date for each month to come up with the total amount spent in the month.  I think that this is totally doable but I guess time will tell if the deals are still to be had.  I always seem to change and meet the goal of staying under $160 per month which would bring me to $1920 for the year.  My husband threw out $1800 as the number so that is what I am saying but I would be much happier if it was under $1600.

4. Redeem Credit Card Points for Balance:  We get 1% for all purchases and 5% for whatever the monthly specials are.  I activate the 5% in order to get the additional money.  When the total comes up to over $20 then I apply it to my total.  Normally I do it quarterly because that is when I can activate the extra rewards too.  I don't track how much money I save but this last year was a little different because of all of the construction and things going on the house move.

5. Meet Daily Goals for Swagbucks:  I did as much as I could with the remaining month that I had of the year.  I earned one $25 gift card with my work.  I am going to try to earn one gift card a month to use towards grocery and other purchases to save a little money.  I hope that this is something totally possible for me but I know that it will take a lot of work.

I tried working a little more in 2015 and I will be working in 2016 too to try to bring in a little more money to cover expenses.  I am also going to try to sell things on facebook, craigslist and eBay if I really get my act together.  I was making around $50 a month selling coupons online and now with everything else going on, I am having a hard time making time to even go through my coupons.  Here is hoping that I start the new year off right with saving and making money!!!

What do you do to save or earn money for your family??

Year End Budget Review!!!

My monthly budget was $160 per month for all of our household needs.  This includes all of the grocery items, paper products and cleaning products.  I have set that budget based on years of buying groceries and cutting back a little each month until I found the perfect amount that we can live on without buying too much that we don't need.  This forces us to make the most of the items that we have and get creative when we are down to the bottom of the month.  There is no waste (or as little as possible with a little man who doesn't always know what his stomach is going to hold).  We reinvent our leftovers to make sure that we are enjoying everything so we don't waste the food available.

Are you wondering how I did this year?  I was wondering how the whole year was going to work out because normally I have a little sheet in my notebook so that I put the monthly totals in but I haven't done a great job of keeping track this year.  We were really too busy trying to maintain two houses, sell the one, remodel the other and move!  I am super happy where we ended up.  We only had three months over budget.  I used February as a no spend month because we were trying to use up things in the house for the move and it is the shortest month of the year.

January          $71.46
February        $1.03
March            $61.81
April             $128.55
May              $151.81
June              $226.86
July              $140.01
August         $198.87
September   $186.29
October       $125.71
November   $112.30
December    $131.93

Total  OOP  $1536.63

Monthly Average is $128.05

I think that the year went well overall even though there were some ups and downs in the middle of construction and moving.  We spent this whole year in a little bit of transition with two households. I am not really sure what the savings are because I didn't add them up in the middle of the move because it was just a miracle that I kept track of the receipts and shopping.

Are you looking for a new years resolution or a way to make ends meet?  Try stocking up on things at rock bottom prices and using the items to make the meals your family likes.  Use everything including leftovers, bread crusts and chicken bones to make more food.  Cook lots of things from scratch to make meals and treats at home.  There are tons of ways to keep your budget rock bottom prices and I try to use them all to make the most of what we have and stretch those grocery dollars.  I am going to put on turkey broth and spaghetti sauce to make lots more food from the fridge, freezer, and pantry!!