Okay everyone, here's what I did. Thanks first to those who empathize - it's good to know I'm not alone! I kept track of my receipts for the month of June, and this morning went through them, breaking them down into food and non-food items, writing their individual price next to each item, and the total overall. I discovered that nearly $50 of my budget this month was spent on food for people coming for visits. The rest was because of some big ticket items that had to be purchased, and we did so in bulk to save (razor blades anyone???). We've decided to start a new system consisting of a post it note on our fridge totaling our monthly budget, and each time we make a grocery purchase we subtract from the total in order to keep constant reminder of our budget. We did this with the "date" money we give ourselves each month and it worked - fingers crossed it will for this too! ... View related article.
Well I think I might have found the culprit. It was the water heater - we got ourselves a timer and managed to save $30 this month alone. Hubby had turned up the temperature 5 degrees, and it reflected nearly $20 extra a month! ... View related article.
