This is why I never have liked budgets . . they just don’t work for the way we shop. It all comes out in the end but as far as monthly spending . . we have our own way of doing things. If we had $100 per week to spend, and I’ve been there . . then we could and would live by a strict budget. I’m going to keep tracking what we’re spending and at the end of the month or the end of the year for sure, it will give us a good idea of how things are going to work . . or not! Vince may have to work another 20 years! 🙂 Oh . . I may be onto something!
Yesterday we went to Sam’s. They had paper towels on sale. We always keep stuff like that on hand . . lots of them because when I find them on sale, I buy enough for probably a year. My budget for “household/cleaning supplies” .. I don’t even know what it is . . maybe $100/month. I have it written down. That includes laundry detergent (I have a year’s worth of that already), paper towels, toilet paper (I have a year’s worth of that), dishwashing liquid and dishwasher detergent, etc.
At Sam’s, I spent $56 on four giant packages of paper towels. That’s 60 big rolls. Along with the two big packs I still have here, that’s all the paper towels I’ll need for the year . . but with other items I bought that were on sale, that I’ll need within the next few months, I used almost all of my cleaning supply budget for two months . . on the 8th day of the month. That’s ok. I don’t clean much anyway! Just because I love doing the math, the name brand that’s on sale this week would be .013/sheet. The Sam’s brand, that I like just as much, were .006/sheet. Huge savings. Worth screwing up the budget.
They also had several cereals on sale that we like. I love the Special K Red Berries so we got a few big boxes of that. Vince seems to have a huge affection for razors these days so he bought some razors. We bought no “fluff” . . just a few things we needed.
Speaking of Sam’s, I love their Scan & Go. Some Walmarts have it . . ours does not. I’ll be so happy when ours does get it. You scan everything as you put it into your cart, hit “checkout”, it has the credit card already, and BAM . . you are done! So easy.
So, we’ll stick with our budget even though these first few months are going to look like we totally cannot do this, but hopefully towards the end of the year, it will all even out and I won’t appear to be such a failure at budgeting. In the end, I’m playing along for Vince’s benefit but I still think it’s not the greatest idea. Besides, it’s really interfering with my yarn shopping.
Irene says
Since you make just about anything else – have you ever considered making your own laundry detergent? I started making ours a couple of years ago…it ends up costing less than $2.00/gallon, and takes less than half hour…..
Judy Laquidara says
Through the years, I’ve made it off and on but I think I’ve gotten lazy in my old age. When I can buy the already made stuff that’s on sale, I stock up and save myself some time. I don’t find that what I make cleans and better (or worse) than what I buy.
Diana Edwards says
Our Walmart has the scan and go plus you can order groceries and items on line for pickup inside and outside the store. Used it a few times for basic items. Not bad.
Kate says
Judy, you just need to budget annually instead of monthly. You are shopping on a much longer time-frame, so you can’t budget on a tiny frame of a month.
Joyce says
I think monthly budgets are hard to deal with, especially for things that are only paid a couple of times a year (like insurance). If I budget a monthly amount (I use Quicken), the budget report is all happy for the months I don’t spend it, and then it gets all excited when that amount is paid out twice a year. I personally do better with an amount for the year. Then if it budgets out to $100/month and I only spend $50 this month, I won’t freak out when I spend $150 the next month. You have to do whatever works for you!
Judy Laquidara says
The first thing for us is . . we don’t freak out. We know this is practice but I think monthly works eventually ends up being annual so in the end, it’s about the same. I’d rather do it monthly and see where we go over, know why we go over and since we feel like it will all work out in the end, it’s not that big of a deal.
Linda in NE says
When I worked as Library Director at our local library we had an annual budget from the village as well as income from State Aid and County Funding plus fees for fines, copying and faxes. One of the Village Board members had a fit every month when my report showed I spent more than the monthly amount from the Village. The Village Clerk would explain the system to him every month but he couldn’t seem to get it through his head that I was still within the library budget. I think some people just can’t think of money on an annual basis instead of monthly, but it actually works out better because of more flexibility.
Dottie says
Your budget sounds a lot like ours…..when things are on sale at Sam’s/Costco (tissues, toilet paper, paper towels), we pick them up and are set for several months – the same thing with canned goods, etc. I figure it all balances out in the end and saves me/us in the long run.
Susan says
I think you have to set up a baseline, anyway. Right now I’m trying a new grocery budgeting plan, but I’m also making a baseline, and adjustments will be made to it as I tweak it. Then it will need ongoing tweaking, because prices are always changing. Milk at Aldi today was up 30 cents from last week, but it was still more than 50 cents less than the regular grocery stores. At the end of this year, you’ll have a good baseline and know what times of year things will be spent more or spent less. That’s valuable information for you.