Shauna's Household Challenge: September Wrap-Up

So as most of you know, I put my household on a challenge to only live off 1 paycheck. We've been working hard to cut down on expenses. We agreed to live off my paycheck & put all of my husband's paycheck into savings or use it to cut down on our debt. Here's a wrap-up of how the first month went:


Grocery Money Spent: $368.49
Grocery Money Saved: $338.09

This price also included the money I spent to throw a baby-shower for my best friend and her husband. So not bad!
My amount spent would have been $125 less, but Kroger had their Perdue Chicken at Buy 1 Get 1 Free, so I bought a BUNCH of chicken this month! It should last me through this month. Plus it's the start of hunting season, so I'm hoping to have some deer meat here soon!

September Restaurant Spent: $300.63

I am quite disappointed in this area... We splurged at the beginning of the month before the challenge was in full gear. We also were on the road a lot on the weekends so we stopped at many-a-restaurants.  I'm hoping October will be a better month in this area!

And as I've previously posted, we have cut way down on our entertainment expenses. We've used a Groupon for the Atlanta's Children Museum. Got 4 tickets for around $23 when it would have normally cost us close to $50. Also got a $5 Groupon to Movie Tavern where I got to see a movie and got a free large tub of popcorn (normal price would have been $20).

We have also started making crock-pot meals and have made our own laundry detergent. This month I got about 60 3-packs of Ivory soap for free after coupon. We have turned the bar soap into liquid hand soap and have even been supplying Aiden's daycare with the soap.

Donations: This month we only made a small donation (about $100 in products), and we made it to Aiden's daycare. He goes to a smaller daycare who gives the parents great rates for childcare. I'm sure that they aren't making that much money with the low rates, so I'm doing what I can to help out by supplying them with food, soap, and even some crafts.

Medical Bills: As you saw with my last post, I have officially paid off every single medical bill! My household challenge allowed us to get the last $700 I had in Medical Bills completely paid off!  This plan actually works!

Credit Card Bills: We were able to chip away a little at our credit card bills. Our main focus was to build savings & pay off Medical Bills. So this month, we're focusing more on credit card bills.

So, overall September went pretty well!

October Plan: This month, our goal is to finish building a fence for our backyard. Unfortunately, our neighborhood has a bad problem of dogs running loose. It really stinks that we can't play outside with our son very often. We've called animal control about 5 times, but nothing is really being done except for them leaving a notice on people's doors. We also want to finish re-doing the master bathroom in the house we rent out. When we lived in the house, we gutted and expanded the master bathroom, but never got around to actually finishing it. I'm hoping we can get it done this month!  And our final goal is to pay off half of my husband's Capital One Credit Card. They have the highest rate & it's our smallest bill, so we're tackling that one first!

October so far: So far this month, we have spent $43.71 on groceries and saved $122.79! Luckily our stock pile is quite full, so we're only needing to buy fresh foods!