Expenses

I don't really use a budget and haven't in a long time. We have chunks of money that come out of paychecks before they ever land in our bank accounts, forcing us to save for retirement, etc. without even feeling it really. I know how much has to be paid out in bills each month and then rest I just kind of keep track of in my head. If we need food, we go get it. If we need clothes, we just get them. If we want to eat out, we do.

Recent curiosity has driven me to add up expenses. So, I looked over the month of May and this is what I found:
$1273.27 on food. That includes all eating out too.
$456.60 on gas. Ack!
$650 on clothes.

The food sum is exceptional because my birthday was this month and I also graduated. We celebrated a lot this month. I will be interested to see what June looks like. Also, it is the start of summer and everyone needs new clothes, particularly my daughter who is just too big for everything she had last summer. We don't typically even come close to $650 for clothes in a month! I don't expect that there will be any new clothes bought until the weather begins to get cool again. Well, Hayden may get a couple of things right when school starts, but there won't be any large sums of money spent.

The food expense is what blows my mind! I am going to try and see if that number can be brought down drastically. The easiest thing to do is not eat out much. I mean, we dropped $31 just on lunch one day this past weekend! I'll have to make a run to Trader Joe's for the $2.50 wine they have, so I can make a personal contribution to cutting the food expenses ;)