Saturday Check In

I went back to tracking last week and it definitely works better for me.  I have been trying to determine what is best amount for our weekly finances.  Last week I did $200 and came up $25 over. Here is the breakdown for the week:
Groceries/Household Items: $74.53
Dining Out: $62.07
Recreation: $20
Gas: $69.05

Gas was only for my Van and didn't include the Husband's truck. He only drives a mile to work and didn't need to fill up this week.  We also went out to eat more this week than we have in a while.   This week I am going with a $250 budget as we have a few more things coming up this week. Husband's truck will need gas. I am hoping this works better for us.  I will also be watching what we spend at the store and not going out to eat this week.

We  sat down with our daughter on Tuesday and gave her a daily spending limit for her lunch. We showed her how much she was spending. She has snacks and drinks I already bought her to take with her for practice.  Wednesday she did good but on Thursday she went over again. Only by 30 cents but it is still over.  She is gone for the weekend and I didn't see it before she left. I will be collecting it from her when she gets home.   I don't want her falling into the same money problems that her Dad and I did when we were younger.  She needs to learn to budget her money.  The lunch account for all 3 kids is combined so it is hard when she goes over it doesn't really affect her at lunch.


Here is my To Do List from last week.

1. Organize Dining Room ( has become the collecting place for everything)
2. Parent Teacher Conferences for the Kids
3. Grocery Shopping
4. Send payment for Son's Baseball team. 
5. Go over list for Halloween supplies. (Costumes are bought but need to check for accessories)

I did pretty good but didn't end up organizing the Dining Room.   We seemed to have something to do every night this week and I didn't get to it. Today has been spent running everywhere also.  Kid's had practice plus a baby shower and birthday party.  Tomorrow is Church and getting pumpkins for the kids. I am hoping we can still find some as we waited too long this year.  

I am off to take the youngest to a birthday party. 

Hope everyone has a good weekend and everyone out East survives the storm.  I will post on Monday our Menu plan for next week.