Back in the budget saddle, tracking the spending. The reckless abandonment of sensibilities while on vacation has been replaced by the frugal mindset.

For the period of Friday, June 21st to Thursday, June 27th I budgeted the following:

Gas: $100
Groceries: $125
Miscellany: $25

Actual spending was:

Gas: $109.51 (Over by $9.51)
Groceries: $128.14 (Over by $3.14)
Miscellany: $25.84 (over by $.84)

So overages were about $13.50. The inlaws were here from Fri-Mon and then again Thurs-Fri, so I shopped a bit more than usual. I also feel that I didn't do too good of a job shopping the loss-leaders at Dominick's, having to do two smaller filler runs because I lacked a cohesive meal plan, and I was just plain old lazy after vacation. The Miscellany was a trip to Old Navy for some needed uniform items for the boys. My overall shopping included using $45 in gift cards ($20 for groceries and $25 at Old Navy) and coupon savings of $69 (this included $30 off the Old Navy purchase).

All in all, I am not un-pleased. I am remotely satisfied that the overages weren't worse. I'll continue to track the spending for this 6/28 to 7/4 and I think I'll be fine due to the way the trips to the gas station lined up and also the fact that I'm only frequenting Aldi's this week.

Onward we plod ...