I have challenged myself to buy only what we actually “need” this month, in order to save some money and tuck it into our savings. Since we’re saving for a large ‘overpayment’ on our mortgage every year, it’s a little tough to save over & above those savings as well. In two weeks we’ll be making our first ‘overpayment’ and while it’s going to feel amazing to make that payment, it’s gonna be sad saying goodbye to that cash… lol!

We budget from week to week, so with week one being over I tally things up and whatever is leftover gets moved to savings. We’ll start fresh again tomorrow!

So, here’s where our spending went from January 1st-7th:

• Groceries $238.94 – This is a lower cost shop for us sadly, as most of you are probably dealing with sky high food costs as well. This includes the first purchase for our food bank donation at the end of the month as well. (Donation Goal!)
• Clothing $9.75 – (thrifted buys!) I’d say probably not “absolute” needs, but newborn will need clothing and my daughter grows like a weed, so I wasn’t going to pass up a perfect fitting pair of jeans.
• OTC meds $9.17 – My husband needed an otc drug from the pharmacy.
• Gas Station $5.95 – Definitely NOT a need. My daughter wanted a couple of energy drinks from the gas station and “forgot” her wallet. I should do that next time… lol!
• Local Bakery $4.00 – A loaf of fresh bakery bread for the ducks. Yes, I know it’s not the best thing for the ducks and it wasn’t necessarily a “need”, but you saw how they surrounded us! We couldn’t very well break their little ducky hearts begging for a little snack in the winter!

And that’s it… so, i’d say $257.86 was on needs & $9.95 was ‘frivolous’ spending. Overall i’m really happy with this, and I was able to tuck $$$ into our savings account over & above our savings for our mortgage savings goal!

What i’m not happy about is we spent $$ every single day of the week except for today. So, one “no spend” day out of seven days. I’m hoping to do better next week! Also, that means we were out running errands almost daily, *roll eyes here* It’s a waste of gas & time, even though everything’s is extremely close, it’s still gas & time that we could have saved by being better organized.

My goal will remain the same this week, no ‘unnecessary’ spending, but hopefully more ‘no spends’ and money left at the end of the week to tuck into savings!

Ok, now onto my “100 Things Challenge”…

As you can see, I did not manage to declutter 100 items, although it wasn’t for lack of trying! When I told my friend of my challenge, she said “How in the h*ll are you going to get rid of 100 things!?” lol!

Sooo… yeah, she was right, I was wrong. I do not have 100 things to get rid of, I asked my daughters and my husband. My husband had nothing & my daughters had some clothing items. The rest was stuff I scrounged together…

• ⁃ 2 coffee mugs
• ⁃ 1 porcelain plant pot – RIP 🥀
• ⁃ 7 books
• ⁃ 6 pairs of gently used socks
• ⁃ 1 pair of socks (used very well, filled with holes & tossed)
• ⁃ Pajama pants
• ⁃ Pr of pajamas
• ⁃ Home decor statue thingy
• ⁃ Wood base thingy
• ⁃ 2 leather belts
• ⁃ Can opener
• ⁃ 2 reusable silicone cat food lids
• ⁃ Pkg of new razors
• ⁃ 3 pkg’es of GUM comfort grip soft picks *donating to food bank
• ⁃ 2 pairs of track pants
• ⁃ 2 long sleeved shirts
• ⁃ 2 pairs of track pants
• ⁃ 2 tank tops
• ⁃ 15 DVD’s/BluRays

And there you have it! I “failed”, however, it’s still 51 items that i’m able to donate, so that’s gotta count for something right? I shot too high, it’s not the first time that i’ve done that, and probably won’t be the last time.

And that’s all I have for today! Have a fabulous weekend!

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Do you track your budget? Do you have savings goals for the year?