Step 7  of my Forget about the Joneses challenge is ‘Celebrate my victories’.

How exciting, I actually have some!

1) I have managed to save quite a bit of money by looking around my house before I leave to head to the grocery store or Target.  I am notorious for buying something (cereal, sour cream, cheese, yogurt, apples, cleaning supplies, soap, toilet paper) because I think we need it.  Sadly, I am almost always wrong and I end up with 2 full bottles of ground cinnamon (that should last until 2020)  This has been especially effective as I have beenplanning our meals and making note of the recipes before I leave the house.  It also worked like a charm to make sure I had wrapping supplies ready to go (instead of buying new)

2) Spicing up gifts with a variety of smaller items saved me about $15 a gift (total saved $45) in the past 2 weeks.

3) I printed out coloring sheets for the kids from the computer instead of buying new coloring books

4) I cut $300 from our monthly average of gas, groceries, target, Dr. appts.

5) I cut $400 from our monthly outflow which includes everything from kid’s clothes to gifts for friends/family

6) We’re on track to be under by about $500+ this month!

I’m feeling like a Savings Rock Star!

Step 8 – Figure out your Net worth (You can get a printable worksheet from MommySavers.com here)

This is something my husband and I have done before.  We are up on this.  Our bills are minimal as we don’t carry credit card balances..but it would be great to knock off some housing expenses!

I’ll write again later tonight with another update!