The Challenge results.....

Drum roll please................

We saved 1 billion dollars!!

Just kidding.

We saved a lot though.

More than I thought we were capable of.

I am proud to announce that we only ate out once and it was because we were waiting to get something installed on Daniel's car (a Christmas gift we finally got around to doing) and it took longer than expected so our total eating out money spent for the month of March = $5! Yea for Subway! On average (yes we know our average expenses on everything because we are crazy excel junkies),we drop around $300 a month eating out  so we saved $295 bucks!!

Shocker alert....I didn't buy a single item of clothing, or jewelry so that budget went down 100% this month! Go me!

We did treat ourselves to a few Redbox rentals so instead of the $22.50 ($90 for the month) we usually spend at the Sunday matinee it was $6 in rentals plus a $5.00 for oreos for the whole month! :) That's $79 bucks in the house savings piggy bank!

I figured with eating out less we'd surely run out of our "envelope money" for groceries like halfway through the month, but surprisingly we didn't! We used what we had and I was more conscious about what I purchased at the store. I have a tendency to buy lots of fruits and veggies each trip and with only 2 of us, I end up throwing a bunch away because we can't eat it all fast enough. So much less food wasted this month - saving cash and our planet! (can you tell I'm turning into an Oregonian? haha!)

We've realized that there is a happy medium between the extreme saving like this month and the extreme free-for-all like previous months. Daniel is excited to get to eat lunches out again but recognizes that bringing lunch a few days a week goes a long way. I have learned that it's ok to spend money on good quality additions to my wardrobe but that I don't need to have something new every single week.

At this point in our lives, saving a little extra for a home and hopefully one of these days, a little one while staying as debt free as possible sounds way more fun than any designer bag, or fancy meal out I could ever imagine.

Now to just try not to go hog wild this month.....

P.S. The husband is back home in OKC for the weekend so you know what that means.....the garage is free for projects! Aaaaaaand I'm dog-sitting for a friend so I can all but guarantee you there will be a few posts next week about the pandemonium that is about to ensue.