Overall, our spending was definitely lower than any of the previous months, which was the goal. Thinking back over the month, I recognize that we hit up the pie truck pretty much every weekend. The other unexpected expense was signing up for a half marathon since I missed out on my planned one due to getting sick. That set us back about $200, unfortunately.
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| Overall spending |
Groceries: We really tried to eat from our supply of food in our pantry and freezer, so our grocery bill is lower than previous months. Especially November and December (Hello Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts!). It doesn't seem to be a huge chunk of savings, but I figured that the groceries wouldn't be that impactful since we were eating out less so eating more meals at home.
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| Grocery |
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| Target |
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| Amazon |
So, there you have it. We certainly decreased our spending over the month, but this was probably not the most extreme we've been. A side effect of Frugal February is that I'm finding it difficult to tell myself that it's okay to buy a few things that we were holding off on over the last month. But, I'd say that's a very beneficial side effect. It's like we hit the reset button on our spending.
I'd love to hear how the month ended up for you. Where did you see the most impact? The least? How has this challenged you to change your spending habits? Let me know in the comments!
Kelly
Great post, Kelly. The overall spending difference may not seem like too much when stacking everything together, but those amounts include all the fixed, big-ticket items, such as mortgage, utilities, cell phone, internet, etc. that we didn't limit or change for the month of February. So the reduced spending in the areas that we did have control over is actually quite significant, as shown by your subsequent charts.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that it gets super contagious, as the spending patterns have evolved into habits, even in just a month.
Thanks for putting this together!
Congrats (and nice charts!) That's so exciting - goes to show how things are working! I do think those expenses you named like target or Amazon are the ones that we may not feel during the purchases but that eventually really add up, so nicely done. I wonder what you guys will carry forward as new habits into subsequent months! Thanks for the motivation.
ReplyDeleteAmazon is so dangerous! They just make it so dang easy...click, click, done, there in 2 days! :-D
ReplyDeleteCurious - do you include eating out in your grocery budget? I know people who include all food in the same budget. We put our eating out in our "entertainment" budget.
Curious what others do and how it works. I see advantages and disadvantages to our way vs. all food together.
PS - I thought it, but forgot to say it: congrats on such a frugal February!! :-D
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