I had planned to post pictures of the “tower” that we are building in the Dinning room to house our internet including firewall and router. However this project is taking longer than expected so I will anticipate sharing those pictures as soon as it is finished.  I have had some time to reflect back on 2016 especially in the area of our finances. Since I don’t have pictures to share, I thought this would be a good place to share some of my observations, along with updates regarding my goals for the month.

First let’s talk food. Last year, we spent a total of $7884.51, which averages out to be $657 a month. This amount is actually less than the $700 a month that I began the year with. It really surprised me to learn that it is almost $40 less a month than our spending in 2015.  We have also significantly reduced the amounts we are spending on eating out. I order pizza on Friday night and used gift cards to pay for it. While eating and talking, we realized this was the first “take out pizza” we had eaten in six months! I shared several time that I was participating in an “eat out of your pantry challenge.” I am excited to say that as of today, my pantry floor is empty!  I initially set my goal to spend $100 or less on food for the month. I have change this to $150 or less. The reason for the change is that I purchased 40# of chicken breast to be picked up the end of February.  This week is the most difficult for me as we are starting to run out of the “normal” convenient meals but I am determined to make it work for the month. So far I have spent $131.11.  I did go to both Food Lion and Aldi today. Aldi will be closing for the next six weeks and I wanted to grab a couple of items for our Super Bowl party.  I have spent some time over the past few weeks looking at our budget and working on ways to make it work for us. My goal for the year is to spend  $550 a month or less on groceries.  Small action steps including eating out of the pantry and purchasing only the items we are out of until March this year.

The second challenge that I have decided to participate in is No Spend/Low Spend month.  I am excited to say that so far this month, I have not paid for any extra items.  The biggest reason for this is gift cards. Matt and I both are using several different strategies to make extra money. Most of the apps and Swagbucks rewards are paid in gift cards. I have been collecting and using these gift cards instead of spending money from our budget. So far this has been paying off. I know that February will be an expensive month because we have a cheer competition every weekend except the last one. However I need to focus on one month at a time. So January is a success.

A final note is that we will continue to budget $300 a month for gas and other vehicle expenses. I anticipate meeting this goal simply because both of our vehicles are in good repair and should not require additional spending this year.