Budget Update: Week 1

Last week was our first week of using our budget.
I stayed under in all categories that I was responsible for! Yeah! If that keeps up as a trend, we wil both be very happy - especially since one of them was gas for the car. Always nice to not have to spend an arm and a leg on that!
The grocery budget we were way under as well - but we are going to keep it rolling over because we think over the course of the month we will have one high week, one low week, and so we'll see if there is any leftover at the end of this month to get excited about that one - but it was nice to not have to go over this week!

We hit our first stumbling block though - but it will be a temporary one.
Before last week we used credit cards to purchase everything. Now we are pulling out the cash each week. Which means this month we will need to pay for last month's purchases (which were mostly made without a budget in mind) AND this month's purchases. Of course we don't have an income that will allow us to do that so easily. There are three credit card bills. The good news is one of them closed last week and it was paid already (whew!). The other one wasn't so bad - but wasn't so good. We seemed to (thankfully) naturally cut down on spending when the FPU classes started and then with using cash all last week, it's balance isn't too extreme. The third one is the Target bill. Which, amazingly enough is the lowest it's ever bee and so not very high. Then we received one medical bill in the mail that we hadn't counted on.

I don't think we can pay all of those and feed ourselves with cash on hand this month. But, I will not let that get me down, or stop how well we are doing! Because, really, it is truly like trying to pay two months expenses right now and we can't do that (part of the reason we are taking the class!). Although, I may have to e-mail Dave and tell him he should include that as part of the discussion on making the switch to the cash plan budget and all that jazz - we didn't think of it until just today because a bill came in the mail! Because, you know, I'm sure he wants to know what I think of it all ROFL!!

Anyway, I won't let this stop us, or bring us down. It may take us two months to fully absorb those credit card bills, but you know what? I still feel like we are making progress here. We are definitely spending less already. We are way more aware of where our money is going to. I have finished two of his books and the more I read, the more I really feel like we are doing the right thing for us at this moment. And I still love Lu for giving us this wonderful gift! =)

Anyway, tomorrow, knitting content I promise! And :::crossing fingers::: embroidery machine should be back in business and I have a cute shirt that needs to be made last week! =)