Thursday, January 19, 2012

grocery budgets?

I wrote a post about my recent grocery store trip and our grocery budget. I am curious what your budgets were when it was just the two of you or what you think about ours. If you are interested, you can check out my bloggity blog.

We recently started an account up with mint.com and we LOVE it. It helps you see more clearly where your money is going in and out of and emails you when you get close to going over budget or whatnot. Its free too, so if you havent tried it out, you should. I could be the only person on the earth who recently heard of it though, so if you already have it and know it, you don't have to tell me how last year that was. ;) haha. I am a little slow sometimes! The thing I am most proud of is that we now have $3000 in our 'savings' account!!!!! We have never had that much in it, and it feels so great to have it in there. We actually call our savings account our emergency fund, because when you have the money you need for emergencies, it turns out that the emergency isn't an emergency anymore because you were prepared. Really we have tried so hard to build that savings, and granted, a LOT of it is from pelgrant money over the last two semesters but at least we have it. We will have to use $500 of it to get our timing belts replaced on our car, and then we are thinking of putting $1000 of it towards my hair school loan that isn't paid off for yet, but then keeping the rest in our savings.

Just had to brag for a second because if most of you know me, I have never been that great at money until I married Kevin. Mostly because I never had time to work when I was going to hair school or in ambassadors. So YAY us.

Even though we have lots in our savings, we are still super poor. barley can pay our rent, and all that crap, but hey, I will always love this time of our life when I look back on it because we struggled together!

5 comments:

chelsey said...

Way to go! We have used mint.com for a while and love it as well. It'll sober you up real quick and show you just how those little things are adding up.

Lokodi said...

Congrats! I love the feeling of security that provides. In the beginning of our marriage, Lindsey and I didn't agree on budgeting nor how much to save and we had tension about every two weeks when I got paid. We thought the fighting was about money but it was really about our relationship and our own individual dreams and personalities. Over the years, she became more thrifty and I learned to live slightly less within my means. The lesson to be learned was compromise and unity.
The type of budget all depends on what works best for you and Kevin. I like grouping into a few broad categories versus itemizing everything individually. As long as the end result is more coming in than going out, you and Kevin can rejoice in living within your means and that you are following the sound advice of wise men like the prophets of the Church and wise men of the world like Ben Franklin. must attend to crying baby now...

hans

The Duke said...

Good for you, Gillian! I'm proud of the fact that you aren't going to go out and splurge and blow the money you have but will continue to budget and be wise.
I like Hans' comments, too.

Jess and Jen said...

I can't agree with Hans more regarding the security living under your means provides. The salary doesn't determine happiness or security; how you use it does.

It's a good habit to establish when you're poor that hopefully carries through to when you have discretionary income. -Jess

Mike and Adrianne said...

I also agree with Hans' comment--and all the others.