Budgeting Has Taken Over My Life

My inner monster has been unleashed. 

For the first few months, I was trying to simply record all of our transactions to see where our money was going and try to stay within our allotted dollar amounts.  Unfortunately, we had some unforeseen incidents 3 out of the 4 months so far, including re-tiling our shower, buying a new dishwasher, and me hitting a parked car and paying cash to the owner ($727!!).  Ugh.

So, armed with the a few months worth of data on of how much we have been spending on things like clothes, groceries, household items, etc., I am now in the process of actively trying to cut these amounts down.  One website that I've been appreciating is called Money Saving Mom.  This has been a good resource for getting online coupons and finding other deals around the internet.  She is a Christian and I've really appreciated her emphasis on living simply.  She wrote a post about having a $30/week grocery budget that made my jaw drop.  I can't imagine spending that little!!  Of course, that was just for her and her husband, but the comments were incredible.  However, there are people with 3+ children living on $100/week in groceries, which includes diapers, cleaning products, etc.!!!  I'm spending between $500-$600/month on just food.

And this is where my tension arises.  I do not go for the cheapest meat, as I have discussed before.  So I buy the organic meat and we just eat less of it.  I also try to buy some of my fruits and vegetables organically and we eat a LOT of fruit.  I also buy organic milk and yogurt for the baby.  I've also started Weight Watchers again, so there's also that tension to buy low-fat cheese and other things that are less points.  It's been hard to find balance in all of these competing interests for me.  I'm trying to stay within budget and not drive either myself or my husband crazy with all of this and make sure my kids are healthy. 

My big motivator right now is that our 10th anniversary is coming up next February.  I would really love to go on a cruise to the Caribbean for a few days, but of course that's pricey.  However, if I can save money in other areas, we can put money towards that.

I am not going to become an extreme couponer or anything because I don't want to buy things that I wouldn't buy anyhow just to get a good deal on them (unless they are free, in which case... maybe) -- however, my goal is to try to cut my grocery budget to $100/week without sacrificing my principles.  We'll see :)