Stop spending money. Really.

This is the beginning of a six month money makeover in our house. I am not an accountant; I am really not even that great at math. Money is not math for me. Money is what keeps the lights on, what buys the food and what pays to get to the place where the hubs makes more money. It is a mild obsession of mine. Not like I want all the money. More like how can I make the money work for us instead of us working for the money. Over the next six months I will share our journey. I hope you find it useful.

So I am going to do something that I have never done before. I am going to share just how ugly our finances are right now. Currently our priorities are to eliminate our debt. I would love to buy local, eat organic, and buy my milk and eggs from a local farmer. Right now we can not do that. This post is not about how to buy more things for less. This is really about being honest about what you need.

Income per month: $3950
Paycheck: $2900
Odd Jobs: $1050

We have a separate account for the odd job money. The main paycheck is divided into two checks at $1450 each. Now because of the way my husbands shifts fall, every third check is only $1100. Boo for that short check! So this budget is for a month when we receive two full checks.

Now for the bills:
Mortgage: $1750
Jeep: $500
Cell: $155
Cable: $200
Credit Card: $100
Freezer: $115
Student Loans: $155
Electric: $150
Gas: $100
Water: $65
Gym: $68
Car Insurance: $90
Gas for Cars: $125

Total: $3573

Leftover cash: $377

This is all that is leftover for groceries and lunches for Andrew at school. On a month with a short check, my husband makes up for it with extra odd jobs. I will say that we have a very good stock pile of canned goods, meat that we have frozen, and nonperishable items that we obtained while we were on food stamps and WIC. We knew that we would only have them for a limited time so we stock piled.

I spend money on fruit, veggies, noodles (my boys eat lots of noodles) and coffee. There is also a good chunk of money that goes to dairy. I do love cheese. I go to the store and only buy what is on sale. Then I plan my menu.

We do three types of shopping; weekly,  monthly, and yearly. A weekly trip runs us about $50. A monthly trip to Costco runs us about $120. When we do our monthly run, we will not go for a weekly trip. A yearly trip (I will get into this one later) will cost us about $1500. So lets just focus on weekly groceries. People have a tendency to buy like crazy and in turn we waste. I am a neurotic person right now and I am counting grapes and berries out to make sure that we have enough for the week. I am making sure we save the ones that are not eaten.  This is a general grocery list for one week:

Berries (if they are over $5 I don't buy them)
Apples or Oranges
Grapes

Lettuce (Manager special or BOGO only)
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Kale or Collards
Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes

Milk
Half and Half
Eggs
Butter
Shredded Cheese

Bacon

Pasta or Rice
Coffee

That is it. When we run out, I do not go back to the store until it has been seven days. No one is starving here. It usually will run about $50. You will notice there is no meat except bacon. We have a freezer full of meat we bought in bulk (monthly grocery trip) and portioned. No frozen goods and very little canned goods. We are very fortunate that the hubs works at a fire station where a local grocery store drops off their bakery bread. Before that though we made our own. If I wasn't in the mood to make it, we didn't have sandwiches that week. I can not stress this part enough: buy only what you need. The easiest way to save money is not to spend it.

I have no magical way to save money. All I can tell you is that when you don't have any money you can't spend any money. I am always thinking about what we need and how much money we have. I can say that I am a little obsessed, but for me it is fun. I like thinking about how I can live on less and enjoy other things more.

I will continue this series about money in two weeks. I will talk about our monthly grocery trip and how we plan for our yearly trip. Stay tuned for a breakdown of our utilities. I might have a trick up my sleeve there.