Where does all my money go?

Ok can I just say I'm tired of feeling like I'm broke all of the time... we both make good money but there never seems to be enough... I'm seriously thinking I must be spending my money on things that are bleeding me dry...

So one thing I decided to take a look at was how much money I spend on lunch each week. So here is what I did... I tracked how much money I spend on lunch each day. What I found was that I spend $8 a day on lunch... $40 a week... $160 a month... $1920 a year... WOW. I could definately use that on new floors in my kitchen or a new refrigerator or maybe a new washer and dryer! Hmmm, so that got me thinking... what can I do to reduce the amount of money I'm spending on lunch...

Here is what I came up with:

1. Leftovers are my friend. I've already spent money to make it a meal... why not get one more meal out of it and pocket $8
2. If I don't quite have enough leftovers to make it a whole lunch then I'll still save it and add a little something more to my lunch like an apple or a bigger handful of grapes or something along those lines again... I get to pocket my $8.
3. If there aren't any leftovers, then yeah I could do a sandwich but in our house more times than not that lunch meat goes to waste... we just don't eat it quick enough... so I look to the frozen food case and see what is on sale. Now sometimes the thing that is on sale... well tastes... a little less than scrumptious... so I try to make sure I pack some chives, or some type of spice that will give the food a little flavor.

Yes all of this costs money but think of this... If I take leftovers just 50% of the time and then frozen entrees (remember on sale the most expensive @ $2) the rest... here is how the math works out...

That is $5 a week... $20 a month... $240 a year... that is a HUGE difference!

Another thing that I thought of is gee... I bet I'm spending a TON of money on pop as well. So here is the math on that... I pay $1.59 for a 32oz cup of pop... usually I drink two of those a day aside from the one I get at lunch time... now that is an additional $3.18 a day... $15.90 a week... $63.60 a month... $763.20 a year... hmmm not as much of an expense as lunch every day but still... so my solution... buy a 12 pack of pop for $4.99 a week... $19.96 a month... $239.52 a year... again not a huge savings but still a savings!

Another thing to think of is that if I substituted just one drink a day with water instead of soda... I could cut all my soda expense in half!

So now my challenge is one... to stick with it and two keep thinking of other ways to cut back costs!