Minimalism In May: Wrapping it up!

Our minimalist month is over on Friday, so I think it’s time to reflect and see what worked and what didn’t.

What worked:

·         I spent less time running errands.

·         We stayed under the grocery budget! (The eating out budget is another story!)

·         I had what I needed to cook/clean when I needed it.

·         I was more thorough making my shopping list because I knew I wouldn’t be making short trips to the store.

·         I didn’t have to spend time doing price-comparisons between the stores/ check the sale ads every week.

What didn’t work:

·         Due to many things coming up, we blew our eating out budget. Totally blew it.

(we were planning on going out for anniversary and then an extra cheap meal for “Pinterest meal fails” {Yes, that’s what Chad calls them} but we went out 2 extra times. Oops. Whatever. Life is short, right?

·         We over-purchased at the beginning of the month “so that we could make it through the month”. Next time, aka next month, we will just do without/improvise if we run out.

·         I saw that we had “room in the budget” so I took advantage of that and stocked up on a good K-cup sale. It was a good deal, and we still stayed under, but we would have been even more under if I wouldn’t have noticed the sale.

·         We spent money on two things not in the budget out of “necessity”. I use the quotes because we may have needed the weed eater, but I definitely didn’t need to go get my hair done (although I needed relaxation and it helped!)

This month:

·         We will still do one main trip to the big 4 stores (Sam’s Club, Walmart, Aldi, and Shop n Save)

·         I will also be making a small Trader Joe’s run. I try to only go every other month for the few things we use from there, but it’s now the second month and time to go again.

·         We have stuff left over from last month’s trips so I don’t need to buy (or buy as much) of several things!

·         I will be picking produce with better longevity (possibly canned/frozen/etc.) so that I won’t need to go for that.

·         I also had to make special trips for presents, and usually more time in the store means more money spent, so I will be trying to plan ahead for gifts as well as things for home use.

So, here we go again! I am hoping that a month from now I will have put together the most effective, simple, and frugal plan for this area of home life.

Wish me luck!