November Goals: How Did Those Go?

In November my goal was to go through all my belongings and purge items I no longer wanted/needed, in anticipation for the acquisition of new items at Christmas. 

I did none of that.  I don't want to talk about it. 

My other goal was to budget better on groceries and household items. 

I created a ridiculously low budget for these two categories.  Somehow I thought I could feed my family for $300 for an entire month, and that I could allot a separate $100 for toiletries and household items. 

On November 1, I went and withdrew $400 cash from the ATM, and then I established envelopes for Groceries ($300) and Toiletries/Household Goods ($100).  All month long I diligently recorded purchases on each envelope, removing cash to reimburse myself if I had paid for items with a credit or debit card. 

Both envelopes were empty by November 13, which meant I misjudged my budget by about half. 

Not wanting to give up altogether and just go all crazy financially, I put $100 more in each envelope.  (I figured the first half of the month would cost more, food-wise, since that's when I make my Costco trip.) 

Well, I blew through that by Thanksgiving.  Bottom line, before this becomes all TL;DR, is that I spent $700 on groceries and $300 on toiletries/household goods.  I suspect I spent a bit more on groceries this month because of Thanksgiving.  Oh, and the Toiletries/Household Goods budget got blown by purchasing rodent traps. 

Maybe if we purchased less food, the rodents would go away, and then it would be a win-win for both budget categories, not to mention for the rodents who won't be getting killed in traps. 

So, I wasn't altogether successful this month with the budgeting, but I did learn a lot, and I believe I acted in the most financially responsible way possible.  (Okay, maybe not the most financially responsible way possible, because there were some trips to Starbucks in there, but I think I was disciplined.) 

I did read that the average person spends $300 per month on groceries, so I assume that means that the average expenditure for two adults would be $600.  I mean, I realize that buying/cooking in bulk saves you money, so I guess you can't say that a family with n members spends n times more than a single person.  But you have to figure that more people equals more money spent on groceries, at least to some degree.  And I have no idea how an extremely picky 4-year-old fits into that equation, but he has to be good for at least $50, right? 

So, I don't think $600 is altogether unreasonable for our family to budget for food in a month.  That will be my budget in the future.  (Recall that all three of us have specific dietary needs/preferences, and that I don't want to fall victim to the "savings at the cost of nutrition" phenomenon.) 

So, that was November.  I am not going to set goals, financial or otherwise, for December, because December is tricky.  On the one hand, I'll be buying more food to bring to potlucks and whatnot.  But on the other hand, we'll be traveling, and therefore won't be buying groceries during the period while we're away.  Point is, December is atypical, and I won't be setting any goals.  As always, my goal for December is just basic survival.