Within The Limit...

II always spend over the limits I set at the grocery store. I have this idea, and I even know I do it, that money spent at the grocery store isn't the same kind of spending as say eating out, clothing etc. It's like righteous spending I get to do. Anyway, I'm cutting down right after Thanksgiving and shouldn't have to be juggling to pay bills then.

for sure I am good about staying within budget although we don't actually have a budget I always pay attention of what I buy hubby isn't carefree in spending but with food he always buys more than we need then he will end up eating them all up before time to do grocery again so we always end up spending the same amount of money while we can spend less

I always seems to go over. My problem is I will see something on sale, and I think that's a good buy and purchase it. Sometimes, I go through my basket and take stuff out if I feel its not something I need right now. What I do to avoid is shop twice a month. When I shop everyweek I always went over.

I can remember when my ex and I were married, at one point he was paid once a month and I had to try to buy everything I could right at payday. It was hard to plan a month's meals. These days my hubby gets paid once a week so we go to the store the day he gets paid. I try to stay to my list. I try to buy things that go along with what I already have or what will last at least a couple of days. My husband is the one who sometimes strays from the list. LOL!

Hi twoey I always make sure there is enough money in the bank for direct debits to pay my bills, its not often that I don't..then I have to find the money to pay other things menial bills..I try to shop once a month and that is only about £40 or $80 in your money..then we just live day by day...hugs littleowl

i keepspending as long as i have money in the bank. I really do not like to ove spend and use a credit card. Once my money finishes, I jsut put off thing swhich are not necessary. Some things you have tocateer for at the beginning like children's school fees, tele bills, house rent and such things. domestic goods canbe put off. and some money has to be accumulated for a crisis situation.

We do a huge shop every few months and then freeze the food that we will niot be using for a while, as it stays fresh that way. The reason for doing it this way is that we live in a very small town and due to a small turnover of stock, most of the time the food prices are ridicuously high. Sowe combine a visit to see our adult children who live in a large town with our shopping trip. As we grow organic fruit and vegetables we do not need to buy much at all in that line. Also we have a few hens so have our own eggs plus we make all our own relish, jams, sauces and preserves. Those things reduce the costs somewhat although we have to make sure we are stocked up on sugar, vinegar etc to make the preserves etc but being able to buy it in bulk is still good. Some things we do need to buy locally of course and we do that so we give some support to the local businesses. It is a long time since we have shopped on a fortnightly or even a monthly basis but we still have a shopping list and budget for when we do our big shop. Yes the money can disappear very quickly if we have to buy a lot of things locally so we try to be careful with what we spend. We do have a budget and stick it with it very closely when we are shopping. We keep a track of how much the things being put in the shopping trolley are costing so there are no nasty shocks when we get to the checkout. Basically we round everything into $ so if something costs $4-88 we calculate it at $5-00 and keep the running total in our heads. It is not hard to do we find and it is much better to know that the final bill is $20 less than $20 overbudget.

Yeah, I know what you mean about shopping at the first of the month, thats when I do my major shopping too, and most of the time, I don't have to watch what I spend, but as the month goes by, so does the money. Then I have to be really careful about how much I spend, thankfully tho, my husband gets paid weekly, so we're able to put money in the bank every week. I'm pretty good at staying within my limits, if I do go over, we have overdraft protection at our bank, which means if I write a check for more than whats in our account, it will come out of our savings account, that way it saves us from having insufficient funds.

i try to be careful what i spend but get mostly what i want w/in reason. there are alot of things that i would like to buy but they are too expensive. i usually pay cash. so far so good, i haven't had to put anything back. lol the day may be coming when i do the way things are going up all the time at the grocery.

Oh!! it is really hard to keep up in the budget. When we go, grocery shopping, We always have in mind to spend only 100 bucks because our money in the bank is just enough, for gas and other bills. We have the list every time we go to the grocery store but, when we arrive at the counter, we are paying more than what we expected. i don't like to hear hubby keeps on complaining why we pay much for very little items? my goodness!! what can we do? prices keeps on increasing, and all of a sudden, our account is almost zero. that's it, it's hard to keep up to the limit now a days.

i am usually pretty good with food shopping.. its the unexpected medical or freakish expenses you never think you will have that pop out of no where that always screw me up!

I don't worry about running over since I usually know what I can spend. But my husband has a bank account where he keeps $1,000 in there at all times, over and above the money he puts in there. If I over write a check, it would only come out of that and we'd pay a penalty. But I've never done that. We pay the bills as they come in and then I buy groceries.

I don't have a choice but to stay inside my budget for groceries. I have absolutely NO money to spend. I have food stamps and they are limited to a set amount each month. If I run over, I have to put stuff back.

Save all of your grocery receipts for a month. With a calculator add up all of those grocery receipts. Divide the total by 4 (4 weeks in a month). The resulting number is what you can spend each week for groceries and no more than that number. This is your weekly grocery allowance. The next time you go grocery shopping leave all of the credit cards, debit cards and checks at home. You will find excuses to over spend if you bring those with you. Only take your weekly grocery allowance worth in cash, a calculator, pen/pencil and your grocery list with you to the grocery store. While you shop, on the back of your grocery list, write the price of each item you put into your cart. Round the price up to the nearest dollar, this will allow room for taxes. When the total on the back of your list adds up to your weekly grocery allowance stop shopping. Put things back if you've gone over your allowance. Because you only have your weekly grocery allowance cash with you, if you bring items you can't pay for to the register you will be forced to leave items behind. That will be embarrassing but after a couple times you will learn to put things back before you go to the register. Read this book: "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. Simple, no nonsense straight talk about living withing a budget and paying off debt.

I always have a budget to adhere to even when we have a lot of money int he bank. I try to spend less - it is sort of like a game LOL

Yes, I am good at staying with in the budget because sometimes with my husbands erratic work since he is a carpenter and only gets paid once or twice a month I have learned to stay within the bounds of my budget. I always get what is necessary then if any left I get a little snacks and stuff. I have a bank account but used up all my checks and haven't gotten any more I like it like that so people don't expect you to write a check for them even if they say they will pay you back in a few days, which in some cases never happens.

I always figure out what I can spend before hand. If you have a habit of going over. The easiest way to make sure you don't. Is to decide what amount you can spend. That go to the bank and have cash in hand. That way you only spend what you have cash for. Getting a calulater with you does help keep track of how much things are. Also when figuring things up. Such as $1.79. Track it as 2 bucks. You will see in the long run where you money is going and will actually start saving this way in the long run.

what I do is add up in my head, lets say I put I pick up something that is 3.29, that is 4.00 then I pick up something that 5.10 that is 6.00 so I have in my mind I spend 10.00 when it was a bit less this system works for me and I don't go over.

I don't enjoy shopping like I use to, everything seems to have gone up. I'm ok until I get to the till then I feel panicked that I've over spent

Hi twoey! I usually go shopping at the beginning of the month too. And then I am sorry because I end up spending too much money and I don't have enough food or money left over for the rest of the month. I am not very good at budgeting at all. I almost always go over. I end up putting things back almost always. I just don't seem to be able to control what I put in the cart. I try to stick to the list, but it just never works. I somehow just get carried away! I did it again this month and I ended up having to add more money to the budget then I had planned. But, we have to eat!