The Ugly Side of Budgeting
is of course, when the money runs out. And now you know it, because you're using the envelope system, and there is no money in your grocery envelope. None. Well, there's a $20, but I'm saving that for something more important than cereal. Let me start at the beginning...
May 1st: Hurrah, a new month! Let's fill up these envelopes and hit the store!
May 5th(ish): Garage saleing is great, and so economical! Let's buy that bike!
May 10th(ish): Wow, cans of soup on sale for a dollar! Stocking up is so economical! I'll buy 28!
May 13th(ish): The cat needs food and flea meds and let's buy some more beer, oh and canned sodas are on sale!! Stock up on those (because, as previously mentioned, that's economical!)!
May 19th(ish): Hold the phone! There is $20 left in the grocery budget! How did that happen! What are we gonna eat for the rest of the month! I don't even have any meals planned! And the fun money envelope is empty, too, so no pizza! Gah!
It was actually surprisingly simple to survive. I attribute this the Holy Spirit encouraging me to buy a bag of potatoes, which is unusual for me. And the fact that we inadvertently made a dozen extra servings of stroganoff the one Sunday that my family came over for supper.
The first thing to go was the cereal. What do you eat for breakfast if there's no cereal? That's right! Potatoes! First with onion, then without once we ran out of onion (one tragically fell victim to mold, which was not appreciated at this juncture). Or you can eat chips... and then an early lunch.
Of course the milk didn't last very long, since it wasn't being used for cereal. We haven't had the heart to throw it away yet. Matt made toast for me from the very last heels of the bread on Monday, so no easy sandwich lunches there.
What we have eaten has been quite plentiful, actually. Just as good as what I normally cook. We had stroganoff (from the freezer) and rice, spaghetti, one last frozen pizza, baked potatoes with leftover taco meat, nachos with leftover taco meat and yummy corn and bean stuff that my mom gave me, chicken and dumpling soup using chicken broth I had frozen, frozen veggies, and the last of the carrots, and grilled chicken and squash from Mrs. Pryor's garden (that she gave us... we didn't have to steal!). Add to that our regular mooching (thanks, Theresa and Eric!), and we were good to go!
Tonight we're eating what I like to call "Poverty Pizza" made with leftover chicken and the crust is frozen dinner rolls mashed together (thanks, Marian, for the idea!). When Matt tried it, he said "Wow, this crust is really good! You could probably use it for dinner rolls, too!" Yes, yes you can.
Tomorrow, we'll have spaghetti, and we're resetting the budget this Friday, so I feel like we have survived this test! We have been very blessed; our budgeting technique so far has been "How much do we normally spend? Ok, that's how much is in the budget." It's good to know that I can slice my beans when I need to, like in the Mickey Mouse version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
Just to clarify, we're by no means destitute or anything. We are quite comfortable financially, but we just had an opportunity to stick to our budget and keep our money in line with our previously established priorities. And we did it! Take that, instant gratification!
And we managed to clean out the fridge, too:
May 1st: Hurrah, a new month! Let's fill up these envelopes and hit the store!
May 5th(ish): Garage saleing is great, and so economical! Let's buy that bike!
May 10th(ish): Wow, cans of soup on sale for a dollar! Stocking up is so economical! I'll buy 28!
May 13th(ish): The cat needs food and flea meds and let's buy some more beer, oh and canned sodas are on sale!! Stock up on those (because, as previously mentioned, that's economical!)!
May 19th(ish): Hold the phone! There is $20 left in the grocery budget! How did that happen! What are we gonna eat for the rest of the month! I don't even have any meals planned! And the fun money envelope is empty, too, so no pizza! Gah!
It was actually surprisingly simple to survive. I attribute this the Holy Spirit encouraging me to buy a bag of potatoes, which is unusual for me. And the fact that we inadvertently made a dozen extra servings of stroganoff the one Sunday that my family came over for supper.
The first thing to go was the cereal. What do you eat for breakfast if there's no cereal? That's right! Potatoes! First with onion, then without once we ran out of onion (one tragically fell victim to mold, which was not appreciated at this juncture). Or you can eat chips... and then an early lunch.
Of course the milk didn't last very long, since it wasn't being used for cereal. We haven't had the heart to throw it away yet. Matt made toast for me from the very last heels of the bread on Monday, so no easy sandwich lunches there.
What we have eaten has been quite plentiful, actually. Just as good as what I normally cook. We had stroganoff (from the freezer) and rice, spaghetti, one last frozen pizza, baked potatoes with leftover taco meat, nachos with leftover taco meat and yummy corn and bean stuff that my mom gave me, chicken and dumpling soup using chicken broth I had frozen, frozen veggies, and the last of the carrots, and grilled chicken and squash from Mrs. Pryor's garden (that she gave us... we didn't have to steal!). Add to that our regular mooching (thanks, Theresa and Eric!), and we were good to go!
Tonight we're eating what I like to call "Poverty Pizza" made with leftover chicken and the crust is frozen dinner rolls mashed together (thanks, Marian, for the idea!). When Matt tried it, he said "Wow, this crust is really good! You could probably use it for dinner rolls, too!" Yes, yes you can.
Tomorrow, we'll have spaghetti, and we're resetting the budget this Friday, so I feel like we have survived this test! We have been very blessed; our budgeting technique so far has been "How much do we normally spend? Ok, that's how much is in the budget." It's good to know that I can slice my beans when I need to, like in the Mickey Mouse version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
Just to clarify, we're by no means destitute or anything. We are quite comfortable financially, but we just had an opportunity to stick to our budget and keep our money in line with our previously established priorities. And we did it! Take that, instant gratification!
And we managed to clean out the fridge, too:
posted by Helen at 19:01
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