Weekly Budget Update

For this fourth week of January, I spent $154 on $338 of items and saved $184. My savings rate was 54.5% and I used $80 worth of coupons. This week was my best savings week this month thanks to the Pepsi and Frito Lay deal at Walgreens. However, I did go over my $125 budget by $29. The Pepsi deal was too good to pass up and $10 of that will be returned later in a mail in rebate. I do use the Savings Tracker I mentioned here and added a weekly savings rate column to the far right. The spreadsheet keeps track of my monthly budget at the top of the page but I may also add a weekly budget column as well.

I have been using the envelope system for the last 1-2 years now and it seems to work best for me. My goal this year is to be more accountable on my grocery budget and to hopefully lower my budget to $75 a week from the $125 I currently have in place. I am not setting a goal on savings percentage because I cannot account for the items I comp at Wal-Mart. I actually save more than my totals indicate because of the way I shop. I think if I can focus on the weekly amount, I can manage my grocery spending better and hopefully find ways to lower my out of pocket.

For those of you who do not run your household finances with a budget, let me encourage you to at least try. It will make a huge difference in the way you view your finances and help you to have a clear picture of your financial situation. I will be posting later about how to set up a budget and the ways I have found to save on buying groceries for my family.