FrillyFrugalFriday: Clean slate

Ok this is the start of our new month.

My food/grocery budget is 930.00 this month (It's actually 4 weeks and 5 days). So each week my budget is about $199.00.

We made our monthly bulk purchases last weekend:

Grocery Woolworths : 357.24
Grocery Aldi: 66.33 (I loved how I could make my list ahead of time on their website and know how much I was going to spend)
Meat at M&A Butchery: $150.00
Fruit and Veg at Riverside: $83.05

So if I add this together for Month-to-date =656.62

This monthly staples bill, if I divide by the total number of days, and multiply by 7 (139.28) will allow me to track weekly and try and beat my budget on a weekly budget too.

So this week:
Monthly Staples: 139.28
17/6 - Purchases on Canberra Roadtrip 11.95
18/6 - Bread, Oats for hubby b'fast, chocolate for baking, cooking magazine, smarties for kiddy rewards, cheese bacon rolls for lunch 26.15
19/6 - Budget for lunch out 12.00
Total 189.38 (approximately $10 under budget)
Month-to-date: 706.72

How I have been frugal this week:
1. Still no dryer (though it's tempting!)
2. Hubby went on a work trip to Canberra this week just for the day and we tagged along, went to playcentre much cheaper than the ones here - mileage paid for my hubby's work. Baked snacks and made lunch for kids before we left.
3. Entertained on Sunday at my own Tupperware party and baked all food for the day. (Scones and Scrolls) No buying any supplementary food... didn't even make a purchase myself!
4. I made a monthly meal-plan and shopped to it!
5. I cut my own meat off the bones rather than buying pre-cut meat (eg beef and lamb) and have used bones/offcuts for dog, saving buying extra bones/chicken necks)
6. (I know, extra) Have prepared lunch and morning tea for hubby all week (well, except yesterday!) - he hasn't spent any money on food outside the house - he's making his morning latte at home.

What I need to improve on:

• I didn't (well ran out of time to) make lunch for hubby and I for our last minute daytrip. We only spent $12 between us but still, would have liked to avoid that.
• I caved to the kids and went to the local shops today - and came back with things not on the list and had (cheap) lunch out. I only want to do a 'treat' like that once a week... and we had planned to do that tomorrow - and we have arranged that with other people. Must treat ONCE a week only.

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