Weekly spending wrap up (11/9-11/15/15)

Tracking our weekly spending helps me stay on track of our daily expenses! It's very eye opening to go back to my tracker & remember what we decided to spend our hard earned money on. I was feeling sick on Tuesday, so I bought some groceries to make soup, etc. It's unusual for me to be home during the week & spending money.

• Monday - 11/9 - No spend day
• Tuesday - 11/10
• $10 - groupon for Starbucks gift card ($5 bonus gift card)
• $5.37 - bought shelled edamame. One of my favorite snacks at Trader Joes
• $25.46 - soup fixings & found a few hard to find holiday baking items, plus picked up pasta that was on sale
• $7.38 - Rite Aid, lip balm with sunblock & shampoo
• Wednesday - 11/11
• $110 - sports camp. School was closed on Veteran's Day, and M & I both had to work. It's very $$$ for us to have to cover these days off. :-(
• Thursday - 11/12 - No spend day
• Friday - 11/13
• $300 - Great Wolf Lodge gift cards (for our stay in February). They had a promotional offer, so I earned $60 in bonus gift cards by purchasing these
• $10 - Target, for a birthday gift
• $38.88 - gas
• $90 - cleaning lady
• $660 - nanny. This was for 2.5 weeks.
• $22.07 - Costco for a couple of last minute dinner items. Not well planned
• Saturday - 11/14
• $58.67 - gas for other car
• $65.37 - Costco. Well, this trip was smaller than normal, as I'd already picked up groceries earlier in the week. Also, splurged & bought a gingerbread house for the kids. We'll decorate it the weekend of Thanksgiving.
• $11.29 - produce stand (although, I received a $10 Amex credit, so the net spend was $1.29). 
• Sunday - 11/15 - No spend day

Total spent for the week = $1404.49

The childcare accounted for 55% of the spending this week. There aren't many options to cut that back, although I'm trying to keep a better eye on my work schedule, to consolidate meetings, etc. We pay the nanny by the hour ($22/hour, if you can believe that - the going rate here!!!), so even getting home a half hour early makes a big difference.]

That's it for us. What about you? Do you track your weekly spending? How did you do this week? My goal for this week was to be at $350. If I minus out the camps & nanny (not optional) & the prepayment on the travel, I came close, but still too $$. I also normally don't count the cleaning lady in here, but I'm going to start, as that's truly an optional expense that I can cut. I'm going to shoot for $350 again this week! We'll see how the boys do without me. :-)