baby steps

Well we started our second month of budgeting on our journey to becoming debt free! It's been a good month, and surprise surprise we actually didn't spend everything we budgeted for. My personal challenge was really sticking to a very planned grocery list. By very planned I don't mean detailed in an excel sheet, but just taking the time to sit and think through the upcoming weeks meals and writing a grocery list with that in mind. I also wrote how much I thought each item would end up costing so I could add up the weeks list and see if it fell within a certain amount I budgeted for. (we budgeted a total month sum for groceries, I divided this down to work out to so much per week) It was actually kind of fun to come under the amount I calculated for. 

I also browsed the sales flyers between several stores to find the best deals. I have found it can be worth it to shop at different places instead of sticking to one place. 

Overall, I think knowing how much I was going to spend, having my list (with estimated $ by each item) helped me stick to my list. I also noted as I shopped if something was more/less. This provided a very accurate and budgeted way to shop.

We came under this month too! Wow, amazing considering I never thought we could come under. So we are now onto the next Baby step (you follow baby steps in this program) and excited to start paying down our 'debt snowball'. 

I know Jonah is excited about this as we spent some time working out our budget for the month, and he can see the numbers change as we input them. I know there are going to be some hard times ahead, but I'm excited and determined to get out of debt.

Would I recommend this to anyone? I think I've already recommended it to everyone I talk to!