It is the end of what has been a pretty eventful, and successful month here at the Wooly household. We went from being excessively pinched for money, to be (almost) back on track financially, once a few consulting cheques arrived. I have had a roller coaster month riding days of nausea, but now as I approach week 10 things are looking brighter and baby is settling in. Next week we may hear the heart beating, and I am very excited to have evidence that there is a being inside of me :) Thanks to Meal Planning Month efforts I am pleased to say that we added $184.50 to our Christmas Fund in November. Considering that we have never saved up for Christmas expenses in the past, this is amazing. How did we do it? This month we ate out only once on our dime. To be fair, I refer only to full meals, not the occasional coffee (our latte factor is in control, but we treat ourselves occasionally). I estimate that we spent only half of our dining out budget, leaving us with an extra $60 that went into Xmas Savings. Then, as a reward for not eating out, I decided to shave off $3 every day that we did not eat out, and to put this into Xmas Savings. I have done this before when needing a quick save, because you don't actually notice $3/day coming out of your budget. It is a savings that comes from using less gas, buying fewer groceries, skipping that cup of coffee, resisting the urge to rent a movie or buy a bottle of wine. It is the essence of paying yourself first automatically, and it worked! Finally, I split my regular $75 savings contribution between our Emergency Fund, and the Christmas Fund, to top it up, and to make sure we have enough to spend without being cheapskates. Tomorrow I am going to sit down and do my Christmas budget. I also have avoided doing this in past years, but we need to set limits and stay on track this year, and I lose track of how much we are spending if I am not careful.
What I'm really excited about is the ultrasound I have on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to having evidence of the baby too (other than nausea and fatigue, of course), even if it does still look a bit like an alien.
Great job with the extra savings and the upcoming budgeting.
I didn't have as fully successful of a month as you did, but still, I definitely saved a chunk of change!
On monday, I'll post on my blog and all participants who stuck with it (even if it was like me, off, then back on, repeat, the plan) can leave a comment for the $25 gift card.
This process was fun. I wonder if we could do something similar in the new year? Maybe not eating at home, but some similar idea?
And great timing with the food savings towards Xmas presents. Was that the purpose or just in general to save money and eat healthy?
Are you going to keep up with the planning?