Used to think zero-based budgeting was overkill until my grocery bill dropped $120 in one month

3 comments

3 Comments

For my family of four I saved $135 the first month by just tracking where every dollar went before spending it. @irisowens I get the skepticism, but six months in and I've cut our takeout from four times a week to maybe once, plus I stopped buying those $5 bags of chips at the gas station because I saw how fast they added up. The real trick for me was setting a hard limit on the "fun money" category and actually writing down what I spent at Target before I walked in the door. It's not about being perfect every month, it's about catching the small leaks like that $4 coffee run that somehow became a daily thing.

irisowens7d ago

One month doesn't really prove anything, does it.

keith_bennett7d ago

Fair point, but it's just budgeting not rocket science. A month is enough time to notice if you're actually changing your habits or not.

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