I don’t remember the last time I visited a Starbucks (maybe in December I got a drink while grocery shopping? It was either December or November.) But I’m also not addicted to coffee – only like super-sweet coffee drinks, and those aren’t really coffee. :)

Several years ago, when we decided to work on getting out of debt, my husband read the Dave Ramsey books and started the envelope system – paying most everything with cash. While we only have the house debt now, I still go the cash-only route. Everything is categorized, and when my “social” money is gone, I’m done doing costly things for fun…at least until the next pay check. It’s worked for us, and at the end of the month I divide whatever is leftover into savings and something fun. :)

Its nice to know that not just me spends way to much at Coffee shops every month! Congrats for only spending $7 last month. The one thing I could never cut would be my coffee. Though last year I spent over $300 on purses and this year only $100 That was my goal! Ya me! and Ya you!

Don’t feel bad about spending that much on eating out…my husband and I’s budget looks about the same as yours-you’re not the only one! And the coffee isn’t bad! You only spent $15/week, which doesn’t even amount to one every day. If that’s going to be the difference between being happy and feeling like you have to save every penny, I say SPLURGE and have as much coffee as you want :) Just being aware of how much you spend in each category per month will help you save…sounds like you’re already doing a good job of it.

I totally feel you on the family of 5 business… We were spending an OUTRAGEOUS amount on groceries. This month I challenged myself to meal plan the entire month ahead of time. We have saved a little over $500 dollars this month. It has been insane. I feel like someone handed me 500 bucks and said have a good time.

I know, right?! I *never* thought we could cut out or habit of eating at restaurants so much. It’s not that we don’t like fixing food at home – we just love trying new locally owned places often, it’s like a hobby with us!

Thanks! good luck to you as well! We can do this! :)

I know, I just can’t give up coffee. I’ve tried – but I like it too much. Way to go with sticking to the purse spending limit! :)

Hi Brittney! Welcome! Yep, Mint.com is actually exactly what I’ve been using and what the little screenshots are from. It helps SO much, doesn’t it? I would have never had any idea how much money we were just blowing through had we not tracked it on here. Thanks so much for the comment and for sharing a tip! :)

We eat out alot too. I live in a pretty cheap area (as in cost of living expenses) and we will spend anywhere from $400-$800 on eating out every month. I almost broke down when I was doing the figures for our accountant. BUT we need all the tax write-offs we can get since Chad has his own business. I am only hoping that when I get a bigger house with a bigger kitchen I will cook more; I don’t like cooking in a small space with no room.

Nice! Thanks for the link – I love yelp, but had no idea about the daily specials! :)

$60 really isn’t that bad – I’m down from the one time I spent $300 in July of 2009 (we lived in a condo directly above Starbucks – pure torture!)

Haha you always crack me up. What program did you use to categorize your spending? It’s pretty & I must use it. Even though I don’t actually manage {or acknowledge} our budget.

We also did this a few years ago, broke down all our spending into categories. It was shocking how much we spent on food, a lot of that was meals out but we were wasting a lot of food too. Since I started weekly meal planning and going to the supermaket with a list, we’ve been spending a lot less.

We still eat out because it’s fun and you don’t have dished! But we use a lot of vouchers and deals and often have coffee and pudding at home instead.

Don’t worry it’s even worse when you work right next door to starbucks!! It’s terrible. I really try and go and get a water, but that new skinny carmel machiatto seriously begs for me to buy it!!

What are you using to do your budget? We keep meaning to set up our Mint.com acct, but it’s the last thing on our todo list right now.