March numbers + 2009 Quarter 1 Final

Time to wrap both the month of March and add up the first 3 months to see if we made out overall goal of $600 for 3 months for an average of $200 per month in food and $150 for $50 per month in booze.

Well, for the month of March I'm sorry to say we didn't do all that well and exceeded the monthly budget by a little over 11% coming in at $223.17 for food, alcohol at $52.04 and pet food $43.00 for a grand total of $318.21.

Now as I posted yesterday, sometime life gets in the way and we had some flu visit the casa and who am I to deny either of us something which we crave during illness. I did overspend for March but so far we are well under for April so we continue to eat on some of the items we purchased in March as well. While this may all sound like I'm offering excuses, perhaps I am but the real goal was to see if we could live under $200 on average and I have good news to report... a drum roll please...

• January Totals
• Food $168.94
• Booze $42.95
• February Totals
• Food $201.97
• Booze $45.73
• March Totals
• Food $223.17
• Booze $52.04
• Totals for the Quarter 1 of 2009
• Food $594.98 Average $198.33
• Booze $140.72 Average $46.91

I'm OK with this; we met our goal. Not by much but we did indeed meet it and actually exceeded it by just a wee bit. Granted I was much more diligent and conscientious about the whole project at the beginning and it has grown somewhat tiresome (however worthwhile!) but we're not gonna quit, no sirree. I will say this though...conscientiousness is very hard work! Keeping an eye on the prize, looking at changing such a daily and integral part of our way of life so much is difficult and without being mindful it just doesn't work and we proved that with our lessening mindfulness over the last 90 or so days.

Is it worth patting ourselves on the backs? YES!

Am I happy with the results? YES!

Have we saved money? YES!

Are we more mindful of HOW we eat and WHAT we eat? YES!

We're going to keep at this, I'll continue to write about it and I hope you'll continue to read about it. I think the Hunger Awareness Week will make this fun and interesting and maybe even spark some competitions..? Anyway, pop on back for more of the saga as we continue on a path of living well, well within our means...

Hasta...