Grocery Challenge Month #2

What a strange month.  With everything that was going on (mentioned in my previous post), it was quite difficult to stick to anything.  Having just gone over all the receipts from October and looking at our financial records, I have to admit that I'm confused.  Here's why:

We went over budget again; in fact, we went over $52 more than we did in September.  We spent more on food, but less on household items.  Food cost $450 in October!  Apparently my desired food budget of $300 does not include candy heavy months (thanks, Halloween) or stress-induced cravings.  Blah.  And yes, I can almost guarantee you that that additional $150 was spent on candy and snacks that we probably didn't need.  However, even though we've been over budget for the past two months, the amount of money we have left in the bank account at the end of each pay period is steadily increasing.  Um, what?

I haven't looked closely enough to see what might be making the difference, but I have some theories.

1) Even though we've been over our desired grocery/household budget for the past two months, we are still spending less (anywhere from $50-$200 less) each month than when we weren't actively trying to stick to a budget.  So that's awesome.

2) We're spending less in other areas.  We've essentially stopped eating fast food, except for once or twice in the past couple of months, so our dining out expenses have dropped big time.  It's good for the wallet AND for the waistline.  Plus, we're just not buying as much stuff as we used to.  Trying to limit our possessions has made us all think twice before purchasing anything: "Do we REALLY need this?".  Trips to Target (oh, what a  problem store for shopaholics!) have decreased immensely, with me not even setting foot in a Target for nearly two months until mid-October when my six year old needed new clothes.

3) I'm selling our crap.  I haven't looked at how much I've made since I started selling the stuff we don't need anymore, but I will bet you anything that it's over $600.  That money has been going right into the bank account (except for the past two weeks, when I built up some money to spend on ebay for Christmas presents).

All in all, it's been very interesting so far to see what happens when we make lifestyle changes.  I don't think we're doing anything super amazing or drastic or revolutionary, but I'm hoping that by making positive changes in our life, I can encourage others to do the same.