How Far Can We S--T--R--E--T--C--H

The usual goal is to stay on or under budget of $140 for the month when it comes to the groceries. But today I decided to stretch this a little further. I went to the market and restocked some staples that we were out of, as well as pick up a few sale items. Adding today's purchase with that which we had in the pantry and freezers already, my new goal is to stretch our budget even further over the next 3 months.

I took advantage of the sales at a local store as well as Kroger and spent $326.17. So over 3 months this would bring our budget each month to $108.72. That's a $31.28 reduction from our originally budgeted amount. Staying on target for 3 months would allow for about $93.84 to be put directly into our savings account instead. If we continue to save about $30 a month, over the course of a year we could easily increase our savings balance by at least $360! Wouldn't that be a great way to end the year!?!

This does not include our pet food, household items or such as that is a separate budget by itself. So....this still allows some room to tighten the belt in those areas as well, in turn adding even more to our monthly savings deposit. Now, I do realize that there may be times when something unexpected might arise and we might need to buy more milk or what have you, but we should still be able to save each month.

There's no way anyone can say "there's nothing in here to eat." If they do, well then they just aren't looking hard enough.