Our Budget and Good News!

Before I get into a post about money, budgeting and food shopping, I just wanted to share the news with this side of the internet world. My boyfriend proposed to me this morning and I said yes, so I'll be mentioning him as my fiance now. I am very excited, as is expected and very happy. We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate (as well as celebrate my 25th birthday, which is today). We are planning an early Spring 2009 wedding and I will try to keep that out of my budgeting blog as much as I can, but I'm sure I'll be mentioning it.

Back to the fun stuff.

Shopping trips this week included:
November 16th CVS: $10.25
November 16th Safeway: $25.21
November 17th CVS: $.63
November 18th Giant: $1.73
November 20th Shopper's: $42.34
Total: $80.16 (or $30.16 over budget)

DAYS	MONEY SPENT
AUG 10 - AUG 16	$118.24
AUG 17 - AUG 23	$48.11
AUG 23 - AUG 30	$40.78
AUG 31 - SEP 6	$57.87
SEP 7 - SEP 13	$57.39
SEP 14 - SEP 20	$71.10
SEP 21 - SEP 27	$1.83
SEP 28 - OCT 4	$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11	$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18	$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25	$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1	$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8	$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15	$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22	$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29	$16.39

Our budget is $50 a week, or $200 a month, and while I usually like to stay under the $50, sometimes I go over knowing well that I'll still stay below the monthly amount. This way, I am able to take advantage of deals (like the double triple promotions at Shopper's and other area grocery stores) without feeling guilty and know that in the end, I will still be under budget, because the stockpiling allows us to spend less other weeks. I may very well go over budget in November (I am heading back to Shopper's tomorrow and will probably buy more stockpiling items though not nearly as many as my last trip) and then there are some drugstore deals and Black Friday drugstore deals that I want to take advantage of, but I feel that limiting myself and our budget makes me stress out about money more than I should.

We are doing fairly well and to stress out over going over a grocery budget - food that we are eating to sustain ourselves - not exactly anything extravagant is somewhat silly.

This is what works for us.

I just wanted to make another note that thanks to Capital One, I will be receiving another $100 giftcard to Target shortly. I will have made $221 from Capital One this year and have not paid them a dime over what I charge on my card.