I knew it would happen. Every time I decided that I am going to try and keep our spending to a minimum\u00a0 something always seems to come up. This month it was shoes.<\/p>\n
All three of the little kids needed shoes this past week. So we ended up spending most of last Sunday, shopping for shoes. We were able to find 4 new pair of shoes, Kendall was the lucky recipient of two pair, for $95.\u00a0 I don’t think that our shoe problems has been entirely solved but at least they have been pushed back for the moment. I anticipate that both Lily and Kendall will need new boots this year but for now they are fine wearing what shoes they have. I will also need to buy a pair of new shoes for work \u00a0but my plan is to wait till we are in Michigan and attempt to go to the Nike outlet for those.\u00a0\u00a0 The other unexpected cost this month are directly related to home repair and upkeep. As a home owner, things wear out and need to be repaired and updates as is the case with our house this month. So I am going to declare that I am a failure at this low spend month.<\/p>\n
However I am thinking in the long range, I may actually meet most of our set financial goals for the month.\u00a0 We currently have spent $320 of our $600 grocery budget. This\u00a0 does include our Costco membership that I thought I had paid in September. I don’t see any other large purchase for this month so I\u00a0expect to stay around $350 total for the month. In other good budget news, gas prices have significantly dropped in the last week. I saw prices today at less than $3 a gallon. This should allow us to stay under our $400 a month gas budget. Anything left for the month will be used for our Michigan trip, which will also be reduced if gas prices decide to stay at this level.<\/p>\n
In some\u00a0 other good budget news, we have been able to increase our income for the month by selling a couple of items, a $20 rebate from P&G, a refund of $70 for my weight loss challenge and Matt has picked up some additional work as well.<\/p>\n
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I knew it would happen. Every time I decided that I am going to try and keep our spending to a minimum\u00a0 something always seems to come up. This month it was shoes. All three of the little kids needed … Continue reading