January Expenses: 1/27-1/31& The Month in Review

Today being the last week of January I am doing my weekly expenditures a bit early since I also want to do a review of the month.
This week's expenses:

1/27: $103 for cell phone bill; $50 for my portion of the expenses for upcoming 50th Anniversary party for oldest sister and brotherinlaw; $21.96 for ice cream for birthday party

1/28:$0

1/29: $46 for gas for SUV

1/30: $0

1/31: I anticipate spending $0 today. It is dinner date night but I will be cooking a special meal at GF's house this week for us.


All in all I am satisfied with how things have gone moneywise this month and really happy with how I managed to stay within the pantry challenge grocerywise. All the bills have been paid in full and with my taxes done and filed I am looking forward to paying off that personal loan and being able to put the amount I spent monthly for that into my savings  in February.

 Outside of the regular bills I spent:
 Gas: $130 (thanks to GF who used a gift card to fill up my SUV one weekend since he'd done a lot of driving in it..monthly budget: $180)
Pets: $6 (monthly budget $20 since middle son is responsible for dog food and I am responsible for cat food /litter)
Assorted Household items (apron, lamp, baskets,travel mug,boot holder, nightlight): $71.84 (monthly budget $50..I was over)
Cleaning/health & beauty/paper goods: $83.03 (monthly budget of $100)
Leisure and Entertainment (includes bowling, dining out, crochet supplies, .): $107.34 (budget is $110 mostly for bowling)
Birthday party expenses including gift: $117.52  (expensive but I only do parties for my two youngest and since this was a joint party for my nephew it ended up being quite a bit less money than an individual party would be if I'd had the expense of main food and paper goods).
Special events: $50

The Pantry Challenge: Here is my original blog about the challenge with the specific goals I wanted to acheive:
http://www.aroundakitchentable.blogspot.com/2012/12/pantry-challenge-and-menu-making.html
Goal 1: Eating down the freezer/pantry: We did this very well although we still have quite a bit of stuff so I think I may be able to extend this in a minimal way into February. We do need to restock meat and poultry.
Goal 2: Keeping under $150 for grocery expenses: I spent: $146.11
Goal 3: Less waste..although I was forced to toss out a few leftovers the kids declined to eat and which got stuck at the back of the fridge and forgot about I did not have to throw away perfectly good food I'd purchased and never used before it went bad. Keeping fresh produce and dairy purchases to a minimum each week has helped tremendously here. There is still room for improvement. I need to keep a closer eye on the leftover situation and get things in the freezer that the kids won't eat up right away.