March Round-Up

I'm pretty proud of myself this month. It was a five-week grocery trip month, but I still managed to stay close to the overall total budget. The transportation total is up because my husband has been working crazy hours at work so he has been driving a lot instead of walking/taking the bus. And the electricity bill is up because we've been having bizarre weather. An 80 degree day followed by a 30 degree day makes a 60 degree house seem extra extra cold. So I bumped the heat up to 65. Yep, I'm a rebel.

Monthly Spending (budgeted amount in parentheses)

• Groceries: $746.56 ($500)

• Transportation: $169.17 ($300.00)

• Electricity: $120.31 ($150)

• Water/Sewer: $20.00 ($50)

• Entertainment/Miscellaneous: $249.31 ($300)
  

• Clothes: $18.09 (no set budget)

• TOTAL: $1323.44 ($1,300)

Trash Report: 4 bags of trash (13 gallon bags); 1 bag of glass, 1 1/2 bags each of plastic and metal, 2 bags of paper (reusable bags about the size of a paper grocery bag). Trash went down but recycling went up. I guess that's okay, right?


Changes I Made This Month:

• Switched to a Lush shampoo bar
• Started using a deodorant crystal

Goals for Next Month:

• Lots of info about energy efficiency projects around the home coming up.
• Plant a small container garden.
• Get a worm bin.
• I never made it to last month's Sierra Club meeting, so I'm repeating this goal for next month.
  
• I think it's time to take the plunge into organics. I've been doing tons of research (making a price book, calculating year-long costs of different categories of my pantry items, evaluating costs of different recipes, etc.), and by my calculations, I should be able to go organic and still stay in the budget. I may hold off on giving tips until I see how I do, but you can watch out for any spikes in my food bill over the next couple months.