Weekly Spending Recap

Here's how we did since the last recap:

Sat. Jan 8th: Dinner out with friends from out of town $80.00 w/tip; movie at the theatre w/popcorn and drinks $39.00; drinks at bar after movies $18.00

Sun. Jan. 9th:  No Spend Day!

Mon. Jan. 10th: $40 gas

Tues. Jan. 11th: $20 gas

Wed. Jan. 12th: $4.09 milk

Thurs. Jan. 13th: $46.24 take out sushi dinner for date night-in

Fri. Jan. 14th: $3.05 coffee; $30.25 work night fast food dinner; $25.00 gas (paid with gift card)


As I look over the amounts we've spent, I cringe when I add the amounts together. If had not spent any of the money on going out with friends, or so much on take out, we could have put another $213.49 toward our debt (not counting the gas, milk, and coffee amounts). I'm not going to justify all of our spending, however I do know how much we have already cut back on our spending.
When we have work for my business, sometimes there are no real frugal alternatives for meals, so I'm not really going to beat myself up over that one.
The take out sushi for date night in was good, but not really worth $46 if you ask me. We enjoy sushi and are learning to make it at home as our frugal alternative. We just  need to find out where to buy the small cuts of sushi-grade fish that hubby likes. I prefer the shrimp and vegetarian ones.
We haven't seen our best friends since November, so having a night out with them was good for our sanity (and theirs).  I feel no guilt on spending the money to go out with them, having a good time all around, except that the movie was kind of lame.
Gas spent for the week was $5.00 over our allotted amount, but with the nature of my work, it's not an expense that I can control that much. I try to balance it out by driving less when I'm not working.

So that was the week. I don't even know how to grade ourselves on it, except to say I give myself an 'A' for actually tracking nearly every dollar spent for the week. I haven't tracked our spending daily before without giving up mid-week. It's been two weeks, and I'm still tracking!

My hope is to try to get in at least 1 or 2 No Spend Days per week.