Living On A Budget.

Edited by: E.Gray Editing

Living on a monthly budget is difficult, especially if you are a very social person/couple. We attend a few gatherings with friends and family each month, which can get expensive quickly. But it does not have to be!!

When we budget, we have three budgets; Ryan’s personal budget, my personal budget and our budget together, which are all monthly. The personal budgets are; insurance, stocks/RRSP's, life insurance, personal credit cards or lines of credit and maintaining our vehicles. We then have our combined budget; mortgage (RV loan), phone, insurance, RV maintenance and costs of general living. Ryan has a really good memory, and does not use anything to help him track his personal bills. Myself on the other hand has a terrible memory, so I use the BillMonitor app to track all my monthly bills. Then anything we spend as a couple (insurance, maintenance, groceries, liquor runs etc) we have a joint app called SpiltWise.

BillMonitor is a great free app that keeps track of all your monthly bills. You input your billing information once, indicate if it is a reoccurring bill and for how long.The app then reminds you two days before the bill is due to either pay it or that it is coming out of your account. It is great while travelling or living at home; it allows me to budget properly and never miss payments (even if I am in another timezone).

SpiltWise, is also a really nifty free app. We were introduced to this app three years ago, while backpacking South Africa with friends. Instead of trying to keep track of who paid last or how much, we all got this app. In the app you make a group with all the people you want to include, each time someone pays for something you input it into the app. This allowed us to know who owes who money by the end of the trip, keeping everything even.

As a couple we continued using SpiltWise to track major purchases, such as our monthly spending habits and our travel expenses. Using both SplitWise and BillMonitor is how we have planned out our monthly budgets, which also allows us to put money away. We keep our budget as a couple around $1,200.00 CAD per month (about $600 a person). We are a household of two with no children or pets. Our lifestyle is not for everyone and neither is our budget, but these apps can help get you started with your own budget for your current lifestyle.

So how do we do it? I normally plan for groceries to be around $100 - $120/week.

My big trick with groceries is to MEAL PLAN and meal prep. Everyone I say that to usually rolls their eyes and says "I don't have time for that." Honestly I pour my coffee in the morning, look at what we have in the fridge, freezer and pantry then plan the week out. I also make sure to write it down in my day book, it's no good to me if I forget it. Then the meal prepping starts;on Sundays I will precook Monday - Wednesday proteins on the smoker, wrap them up and place them in the fridge. We reheat them on the bbq for dinner, it does not change the taste but it does decrease the cooking time. This makes dinner throughout the week a lot easier and less stressful, because there is no “what do you want for dinner tonight?” or “So who’s cooking and what are we having?”.

I also meal prep the side dishes as well; if I know we are going to have rice with dinner I will pull out the rice and rice cooker that morning. If we are having something that needs to be chopped up (potatoes, peppers, onions, etc.), I chop it up that morning and leave it in a container in the fridge. I will pull out all the spices or whatever else is needed to cook the recipe and leave them on the counter. Everything is now ready to go when I return home from work. A lot of our friends/family have small kids, so placing everything on the counter may not work - but a dedicated spot high-up in your cupboard might. There are always lots of options. Best advice is to do what works best for you, whether it be meal prep, HelloFresh or throwing a frozen pizza in the oven.

Once I have done the meal plan for the week, I move onto making the grocery list. I generally have a running list on the fridge of items we ran out of through the week, so I just add to it. I make sure to have my day book out and look over what is written down (this shows me what we have), compare it with the fridge list and then I start a full grocery list. I try to do the grocery list on Wednesday morning, and then I go through my Flipp app (free). Flipp app shows the current flyers and coupons for the stores in our area, while also showing the new flyers/sales/coupons that start on Thursdays. This helps me plan when to make my shopping trip; if most of my list is on sale Wednesday I go that night, if more of the list is on sale starting Thursday then I go Thursday.

I always go to a grocery store that accepts price matches AND takes PCOptimum points. This way I can collect points and sometimes get a member discount on items. Another big factor in cutting our grocery costs is hunting our own meat. We tend to eat a lot of game meat (wild turkey, venison). Not having to buy meat every week is a huge money saver. This may not work for everyone, but we love it.

I also use the CheckOut51 app (free), this app gives you money back on purchasing certain products (it also has surveys). You simply scroll through the app, select the items you are going to purchase (read carefully some you have to buy two or more of the product to get money back), scan your receipt and click the items. The app reviews your receipt making sure it matches and either accepts or denies the claim. They have all sorts of things like groceries, baby supplies, beauty and cosmetics, liquor, pet food etc. it's a handy app that is easy and free.

Some things we try to purchase in bulk, like cosmetics - yet again I always watch for sales, coupons and check my apps when doing this. Alcohol is a bit more tricky, the CheckOut51 app does give money back on some stuff but normally they run out quickly. In this case I tend to look at the wine section and see what's on sale. This does not mean it is quality wine, but it does get us out of our comfort zone and allows us to try new wines while saving money. We do have our old faithful favourites(Collavini, Ruffino and Crita) which we indulge in as well.

Birthdays, weddings and special occasions; I normally do all the shopping for these events. However as a couple we discuss the purchase and make sure we both agree on the gift. I also tend to look for these gifts while we travel, often watching online/store sales (year round). We keep an eye for things we know people would like and try to purchase them when they are at a discounted rate.

For all our big purchases, like a new bbq, smoker or an accessory we need for the RV, we do our research first. We look online for current prices and product reviews, to make sure we are making the best decision. We will also try and hold off as long as we can, and push it to the next month to budget it in (unless we absolutely need it right away).This way when it comes time to buy it we already have it in the budget, and we are making sure we get exactly what we want at the best price.

Sometimes we end up going over budget with unexpected purchases, like things for the RV, maintenance on our cars or something fun that comes up. The thing to remember is life is always going to happen. So set your budgets and try to stick to them as best you can. Sometimes you are under your projected budget, sometimes you are over and sometimes you are just breaking even, but there is no need to stress about it. These are the main tips and tricks we use to help make our lifestyle possible.

Cheers!

App's mentioned:

- BillMonitor

SpiltWise

- Flipp

- CheckOut51

**Please note that all opinions and views expressed in this post are my own, from my own experiences. If you would like to see more pictures follow me on Instagram vikki.gray

This post is edited and proofed by E.Gray Editing. (https://www.egrayediting.com )**