In Shock
I was doing some basic calculations this morning when I was responding to someone’s question about grocery spending on the Simple Savings forum. Before I tried to be actively frugal our weekly grocery budget was around $140 a week. At that stage we had 2 young children and a baby and from what I could figure out I was doing *okay* (ie not being excessive in my grocery spending). To keep up with a growing family and inflating prices, I had worked out that an approximate increase of 5% per year for the grocery budget kept things on track.
Based on those figures our grocery budget this year (3 years on) would be around $160, maybe more. The way my 9 year old DS eats, I’m sure I could have easily justified increasing it even more than that. But I’ve worked out the difference in what I *could* be spending and what I *am* currently spending ($60 a week) adds up to over $3000 over the space of a year!!! Now I’m in shock!!! I have to keep going back to the calculator and rechecking the figures because I’m sure I must have made a mistake somewhere. lol. How’s that for an incentive to continue my “$100 a week” challenge?
Some people think of frugality as being deprived or “poor”. To me it’s about trying to be a good steward with what we have, getting more for our money and being able to stay at home with my children. Whatever way you look at it - how can you describe finding a *bonus* $3000 in the budget as being poor or deprived? LOL. I call it being rich. 
Frugality is also about making choices. That $3000 is enough for us to have a family holiday. What great freedom to have so much choice within our finances! I think we’d rather take the holiday than having the extra in the food budget.
Similar Posts:
- Grocery Tracking
- Time for a New Budget
- Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three
- September Groceries
- Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Four
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I think you hit the nail on the head in the last paragraph there, it’s about freedom. We all have freedom in how we spend our money. I remember a conversation with a guy at work last year. I couldn’t understand how people could afford private health insurance. He couldn’t understand how people could afford comprehensive car insurance. We both had two kids, comparable family incomes, two parents working full-time, but our choices were different.
Another way of looking at it, is that that $3000 would MORE than cover private health insurance for a year for a family AND comprehensive car insurance. But I’m guessing he’s never thought of that…
Yes, choices, choices…
I much prefer the idea of a family holiday to paying for insurances though. LOL. Pity we couldn’t just spend money on the fun stuff and forget about the sensible stuff.