Money is not necessarily the first thing many people (even close friends!) feel comfortable talking about.
And I don't blame anyone for feeling this way. Shoot, we don't discuss it with anyone. Finances are a personal matter and I firmly believe they should stay that way.
HOWEVER. I really wanted to share our budget newest adventure - mainly to help us stay accountable to it. ;)
We already follow a budget so this should be easy, right?
Probably not lol.
Let me start off by saying that we are preeetttyy unsure if we'll be able to stick to this budget...it's going to be tight. Like....yeesh!!
But we have even bigger goals we want to reach and it all has to start somewhere.
Are we crazy to think we could build our dream house on acreage by the time we're 30-32?
Can we actually do this on one income? Yes that's right, ONE INCOME. I'm being totally transparent here: I am a SAHDM (stay at home dog-mom) and soon to be SAHM. I do get some income, but it's nothing steady or reliable.
Can we save enough money while still maintaining a (somewhat) normal life including social outings, our weekly date nights, birthday parties, anniversaries, etc.?
We're about to find out!
So let's get down to the nitty gritty. Our first "official" week on this new budget starts this Monday. And to be frank, I'm nervous.
We've been watching and consuming all the information we can from Jordan Page from FunCheaporFree.com and her YouTube channel.
Her methods are straight to the point WITHOUT coupons.
Ugh, thank God. I am NOT a coupon person by any means. They only seem to be more trouble than they're worth (to me).
So the first thing we are implementing is her Envelope Method into our new budget. This means that we will be essentially cutting our grocery budget and "other" budget in HALF.
WHAAAAA?!
[ For more information on what each budget means and includes, I've attached her Envelope Method. ]
A quick summation: each member of the family is allotted $100 a MONTH for groceries, starting at $300. So for us, since there's only 2 of us in the household, we get $300 a month for groceries. This is not just food groceries, but this includes consumables/things we use up frequently.
Examples of consumables include: diapers, paper goods, makeup, cleaning supplies, etc.
Okay, so once you've figured out how much your family is allotted per month, divide that by 4 (because it's broken down weekly). Don't worry, she goes over how to manage if there are more than 4 weeks in a month :)
So for us, that's $300/4 = $75 a WEEK for the both of us for groceries...and consumables! Our aim (as we begin) is to just keep our weekly grocery budget under $100. We don't want to immediately set ourselves up for failure, but we want our budget to be tight - to push us a bit.
See what I mean? THIS IS INSANE. How on EARTH can this be done? Well, there's only one way to find out.
If we are able to keep this up, we should be able to save a BOAT LOAD of money and that's the goal.
In addition to our grocery budget, we are giving ourselves $100 a week for our "other" budget. Holy moly guys, only $200 / week for groceries, consumables, and extras such as lunches out, date nights, hair cuts? It genuinely seems impossible (to us) but we are 100% in and ready to try it.
We're giving it 3 months of realllllly trying before making any adjustments.
We know this isn't going to be easy or even fun at times. The last thing we want is to hate life and always feel like we're missing out or like we're letting people down by saying "no" more often.
However, this new budget has the potential to completely change our lives.
And we're in it for the long haul.
We're in it for delayed gratification instead of the instant.
I'll be sure to do an update later on how this budget has been going and if we've made adjustments. Until then, I hope this inspired you to evaluate your own spending and if there's anything you can change to reach your financial goals, no matter how big or small!
P.S. If you made it this far, I applaud you lol.
P.P.S. Be on the lookout! I'll be doing an update on our new grocery shopping methods and how we meal plan to stretch our dollars even further.
XO.