New Find and Plans For A Family Budget

Had lunch with the hubby today for the second time this week and this led me to a new experiment. How much do we spend on going out to eat. I added up my receipts from last week and it was not pretty.. Yeah Yeah maybe I shouldn't have dared to find out... I went there and glad I did because now I am even more serious about putting us on a budget. We have always spent what we wanted and still managed to put money away but I know we can save more. I'm a numbers person so figures I can do throw me some numbers and I'll throw you back a spread sheet. After all I do it at work so why not do it at home?? I did it I created a budget for our household with variances and everything!! So we are going to try it. I have the theory if we put it on paper on what is coming in and going out we will be a lot more careful and put more money away for a rainy day, increase the kids 529 accounts, invest in a high interest checking/savings or invest in something else. I am determined to set this family up securely financially. It sounds harder then what you think.... Let's evaluate if we spend 50-100 bucks on dining that's money we could be spending on groceries, clothing, or putting away for a vacation or shopping spree...Right???? Hey the economy is supposed to be on the up rise but it's a gradual process so we still need to tighten the belt you never know what lies ahead?? I've made some adjustments.. Increasing my Roth contributions, they're after tax so that's more money I won't have to be taxed on when it comes time to retire as opposed to my pre-tax 401k contributions...


I'll admit I'm one to splurge..splurge on make-up and accessories. It was easy for me to go to the department stores and blow a $100-200 bucks on Mac, Nars, and Sephora. Especially the brushes...

Well lookie lookie what I found.... E.L.F. eyes lips and face they have a website filled with brushes for a $1.00 each. I bought a couple to try them out! I bought a dome brush, smudge brush, and eyeliner brush. For a buck each I think I'll take my changes.

So what changes are you making to save an extra dime???