2012 - Getting it together

Hi

The 1st day of the New Year.  Welcome 2012!!

I've decided to get all the our ideas of how we plan to tackle this budget challenge of ours in one post.

GENERAL AREAS

• Record all spending in our diary daily and transfer to budget spreadsheet weekly - to keep spending on track
• Think about any extraordinary purchases that come up, ie do we really need, can it be found or done cheaper etc
• Make time to sit down and review budget with all members of family.(After all it is a family thing and Miss BB is old enough to understand)

SPECIFIC AREAS -  The Variable Areas

Groceries

• Make a list of weekly shop and stick to it (make it a list and not a reminder note)
• Trial the use cash instead of credit card for supermarket shopping
• Stick to the use of a menu plan for the week
• Start cooking more from scratch(not going to be easy as I'm no kitchen princess)
• For me personally - Drink more H2O and seriously cut down on Pepsi Max.(This should save about $12-$20/wk.  VERY BAD ME!!)

Family entertainment

• Limit the trips to McDonalds, Hungrys etc this year to really special occasions.(This alone would save us about $20 a time.)
• Introduce more Family Game nights (Miss BB is 9 so we better take advantage that she still wants to spend time with us)
• Make more use of member discounts we have through things like RACQ, NAB Life etc
• Do more free stuff like go to the park or beach
• Continue to use the Library for renting DVD's - This option currently costs $0.60 for the reservation fee and you have the DVD's for a month.  Of course you don't get New Releases on their release date, but hey, at $0.60 for a month I'm not worried.

Gifts

• Send more E-Cards this year for birthdays, Christmas etc. -  Most of our younger generation family members are techno savvy and this would save us a card(usually $1) and postage to Europe($1.60).
• Handmade gifts will be 'thing' in 2012 - May or may not save money but would be more thoughtful
• Use any accumulated Flybuy points for vouchers for Christmas 2012
• Watch sales throughout year for gift ideas.

Hopefully these ideas, which have been contributed by the whole family(well except the cat, he just slept on the chair) will help us towards our budget goals in 2012. 

Mrs BB