It's Official...I'm a Chef!!

As we all know, I'm trying to cute my expenses down below my income. Currently, I'm living above my means. That's sad to admit out loud.

The past two weeks I wanted to see if it was cheaper to eat or in. For some this may seem like a simple answer, but for a girl who works mornings, school in the afternoon, work again, and them nights spent either doing homework or catching up with friends. The quickest thing for me to eat is fast food, fast food and more fast food.

I spent one week eating as usual and tracking my spending. I do grocery shop, but mostly bread, ham, cheese, yogurt and granola bars. Not much really. I spent about $80 on eating for a week, including grocery shopping.

I went grocery shopping over the weekend and spent $99 on food. I made an extremely detailed food plan and stuck to it. I've already made my delicious crock pot of chili, with 4 tupperware in the freezer for later this week and even next.

It's only Monday, but I spent $19 more on groceries and it will last me more than a week.

Tomorrow night...I'm eating chili tacos! Yum! Stay tuned as I figure out exactly how much money I've saved on food alone.

Cheers,

Ms. Manda

Tips, tips and more tips.

I spent probably 3 hours on Saturday looking for the best money tips to help me manage my money. I've tried a lot of the usual tips; separate money into envelopes, only spend what you have, don't use credit cards, only carry cash, freeze credit cards, etc. Any many, many, more but nothing has really stayed with me long enough to see some change.

But I'm giving it another shot, and here are 3 tips that I will be using for the remainder of the blog. And hopefully many years after. I picked 3 because I didn't want to overwhelm myself, or feel too constricted. That's when I spend the most.

1. Track my spending. I've been tracking my spending on Mint.com for over a year, but I still spend. I spend a lot, all the time.

• Pink mini notebook? Check
• Pen? Check
• I, Amanda, hereby solemnly swear to track my income, spending, deposits, every transaction. Every day. Every.single.day.
• Beginning the day February 15, 2011 and continue for the length of this blog.
• Each week I'll recap here.

2. Eliminate temptations. Grocery shopping and that's it. Never meet friends for shopping. Okay, that's a little out of control.

• Don't go to Target. Ever.
• Or the mall. Ever.

3. Reward Yourself. This one is really important to me. I can be really strict with my budget and then splurge. Over and over. So the idea of a little reward is nice.

• Buy a nice watch after 3 months of $100 below budget (and buy the watch under $100)
• A new thrifted desk for my "office" after paying off Capital One card

Walk before run...

This week sucked. I didn't accomplish anything. It was a busy week, and my weekend was spent in San Diego. Yes, it was incredible.

I have a confession........I was about one month behind on my bills due to a change of jobs in November. It's been hard to catch up, a real struggle. Living of server wages, tough stuff. I am now back on track for February, so this month I'm really going to focus on sticking with the budget and really seeing where I can cut back.

I have my plan, now I just need to it into action. I have 2 goals I really want to focus on this month.

• Get my gas under control, bring down by $10-20 a month
• Redecorate, rearrange and update my apartment with what I already have

I'm hoping for some homework craft next week. Cross you fingers.

Cheers,

Ms. Manda