End of Month Report

Month 1: Down.

July was an experiment. Could we actually live on my income (well, including SuperDad's lawn mowing money)? Could we live on a cash budget? Could we make pay extra on the credit card? And not use the credit card at all? Could we have money left in savings at the end of the month?

These goals seemed nearly impossible to meet, goals we hadn't met in months and months. To make it work, we'd have to cut our food spending nearly in half. Not buy any extras.

But, we did it! (Ouch - Dora song in my head - stop, it hurts!) And in August? We'll do it again.

Budget Update
Here it is, the tiny, terrible (as opposed to big bad) budget for July 31 - August 14
Cash balance:
$0
Savings balance:
$100 Water bill
$16 Car tags
$21 General savings
$75 Christmas fund
$300 Emergency fund (Plus ~$500 in savings bonds)

Take-home pay: $1162
$703 Mortgage
$91.00 Cable, Internet, Phone
$8.00 Car tags
$220 Food (this is $20 more than we stashed for this previously, and much needed)
$70 Gas
$10 Books/Clothes
$30 Fun $
$30 Gifts (two birthdays this pay period)

Dinner Update
Mac & Cheese, Baked beans

No secret there, we just give the kids gluten-free noodles. They never eat very many of them, so a package lasts a good long time. They do love Bush's baked beans, though we never serve them unless it's bath night. Yikes.

On Saturday, I made homemade pizza. I haven't had the best luck with gluten-free pizza crusts, but this time I used a biscuit recipe, shaped it into personal-pan sized crusts and baked ahead of time. They still tasted gluten-free, but they looked great! :)