You CAN Live on a Budget! {Thrifty Thursday}

Remember last week our family set a two-week expense goal of $700 to live on. We started the first two-week period on Friday, December 31, 2010.

Our first two-week tally?: $690.18!

We spent $95 on gas, $75 on restaurants, and $520 on groceries and other domestic expenses (like newspapers [for coupons], lunch money for school,etc.). This two-week period was tough because we had school projects (remember Wax Museum?), a volleyball tournament (on the other side of the city), plus our annual New Year’s Day, football-watching, food-stuffing extravaganza in which to account.

THE most important thing that helped us was planning. This includes activities as well as meals. If you are trying to juggle kids’ activities, your own social calendar, and the inevitable unplanned things that come up, you know what happens, right? You start getting to know drive-thru fast food personnel on a first-name basis….”I’ll have that #1 right out for you, ma’am”… and there are not many family meals around the kitchen table anymore. Not good.

Here is a snapshot of some of the savings we’ve been able to achieve at our local grocery store. Next week, I’ll give you the specifics as to how to get those discounts yourself and maximize your grocery shopping, minimizing your bill!

Do you have any tips you’d like to share? Let’s link up next week, okay?

Living like no one else,