And I don't mean any cuss words, I'm talking about the budget "b" word. I started keeping track of everything we've bought in the month of July, thank goodness the spreadsheet program has a long list of columns and rows.  I listed all the groceries (I had made a grocery shopping list a while back trying to find the right fit for me), my makeup, dog food, dog treats, etc.  So far we have spend almost $800 in groceries and other things for us (like a music CD that hubby has been asking for for 3 months).  I thought I was doing good keeping my grocery budget around $400, blew that out of the water this month.  One thing I did wrong though was to try and make the spreadsheet work for the whole year, instead of month by month.  I had to go back to a few items that we've bought more than once (like milk) and add the amounts all together, then when I was trying to add a new line item, I had to go back and move the numbers that went with it too.  So I decided to group the first part of the month together to save me from going through all my receipts again, and starting from the 20th do a day by day list and see how often I buy certain items.

I figure if I can do this for the next 6 months I should be able to get a handle on the impulse shopping and really get things together around here.  I haven't told hubby what our numbers look like so far, I need too but I know he'll stress over it and then he gets grumpy and extremely short tempered. I figure I'll wait til the end of the month and show him the print out and see what he says.

I did another spreadsheet with all our monthly bills, so I can see the difference from month to month, what goes up or what comes down at certain times of the year, and if I pay extra one month (more than the minimum due).  Gas was another big ticket item for us, but there's no way for me to get around it right now. Once I start working it'll probably get worse, driving on this mountain isn't easy on a tank of gas.

I need to put in a line for toys - that always gets me in trouble, I buy toys for the boys when I know I shouldn't, they have more than enough and don't play with half of what is in their toy boxes, and there's 2 huge storage boxes full in their closets.

When I want to buy something I think about it as a want or a need, sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not.  I want new sunglasses but I don't need them, so I won't buy them. That and I really don't want to make an eye doctor appt. for me, I have too many other appts. on my calendar right now through the month of August.