April 16, 2013

Money Matters

Now that I’ve been meal planning faithfully for over 3 months I have a better feeling for how much money we’re projecting to save this year.  These numbers really surprised me!!   Actually, scratch that... they shocked me!  I broke the savings into 3 areas – 
  1. Packing lunches consistently
  2. Eating out less
  3. Grocery bill
I worked things out based on 4 weeks in a month for 12 months.  That’s 4 weeks shy for the year but we have 4 weeks vacation where we eat “normal” so I thought that was a reasonable way to calculate.  If this isn’t motivation I don’t know what is...
Lunches – Prior to my meal planning pledge I estimate that we were buying lunch on average twice a week.  We are now very rarely buying lunch.  Packing a lunch has a cost as well, but I estimate that combined we save about $10/day by packing lunch instead of buying.  That’s $20/week * 4 = $80/Month
Eating Out – We had been in the habit of eating out most Friday’s.  We’ve cut that out completely and eating out has become an occasional treat, which it always was over and above our Friday splurge.  We weren’t fine dining on Fridays – typically it was Wendy’s, Swiss Chalet or Boston Pizza, and again our at home meal has a cost, so I would estimate the savings to be about $25/wk.   $25/week * 4 = $100/Month
Groceries – My main grocery order is now typically $100-$125/week.  This isn’t much different than it had been BUT, I’m not doing as many mid-week top ups that would often quickly add up to $30-$60.  I’m going to low-bal my estimate and say I’m saving about $30/week on groceries.  $30/week * 4 = $120/Month

So.... drumroll please....
$80 + $100 + $120 = $300/Month
$300/month * 12 = $3600/Year!

$3600!!!  I know right?  Shocking!  And really, I was doing some meal planning already, these aren’t drastic changes for us, it's just been more about being consistent.
I had also done really well with cutting out buying my morning coffee in January and February.  That was saving me about $1.50/day.  Roll up the Rim sucked me back in as always but I will return to making my own when all the cups are gone!
If you've been following or planning along with me I'd love to hear what your savings are!!

And just a quick note, no post this Friday but I will be back on the 26th with a special 2 week review! 
Have a great week everyone!

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