Plan on grocery shopping no more than once a week, If your budget says you spend $100 (or $???) a week on groceries, but you find you are always spending a little more you need to use a list and the “envelope plan”. Here’s how it works. Each week put the cash you have budgeted for groceries into an envelope. Write your list on the outside of the envelope. When you go to the store, leave your check book, debit card, and credit cards at home. Take a small calculator to the store with you. As you shop, add up the amount of each item you put into your cart. You’ll be able to make a pretty instant decision about whether to put those impulse items into the cart. Get only what you need, and if you accidentally overspend, you’ll have no choice but to return some items when you get to the check out.

Our clients tell us that this is the most effective method of sticking to a budget, and use the cash and envelope plan for all their spending, including entertainment. We often challenge clients to have one “left-over” envelope. Each time they get home from shopping, they take any leftover money and put it in the envelope. If they get to the end of the month, and haven’t spent all the money in their entertainment, fast food, clothing or ??? envelopes, the extra cash goes into their leftover envelope. At the end on each month, they take any accumulated cash in their leftover envelope and put half into debt reduction and half into savings. You could do the same and use the leftover envelope for gift and entertaining money for Christmas and other holidays as well.