Monthly Budget and Savings Tracker Update

Well, January's monthly menu went so well that I'm going to try to do it again!  I stayed within my $400 budget for groceries and toiletries this month and completely filled my chest freezer!!  I'm going to try to use up as much of the meat in the freezer this month as I can, so hopefully I can keep my grocery cost down even more this month.

If you're interested in keeping track of your monthly budget and savings, go over to thecouponproject.com and download Angela's saving-tracking Excel spreadsheet!  I did, and I have been very pleased with it!  It takes a few minutes to update it each time you go to a store, but it's so worth it.  I have never known down to the penny how much more I could spend at the grocery before I went shopping.  During my last trip to the grocery this month, I knew that I had $52.77 left to spend and I spent $49 and some change!  But I knew exactly how much I could spend and made some shopping decisions to meet my goal!  Here's the link to Angela's post with the downloadable savings tracker.

Thanks, Angela!  You've helped me tremendously with my spending goals!!  We've taken a look at the family budget, and found that we can increase our monthly church offering because we're saving so much money on groceries and toiletries.  We're giving more than we've ever given, and it seems like God is blessing us in other areas of our life because of it.  I've never been happier in my life, and our finances are actually a breeze to keep an eye on.  Our whole outlook on money has changed; we understand that we have been entrusted the money we have and need to be good stewards of what God has given us.  We realize that we don't have a lot of money, as far as the standards in the U.S. go these days, but we feel richer than ever.  God is so good!