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This is a continuation of the budget series. See these posts for the history of this series.

This time, I’m looking at our discretionary budget. These are the things that don’t have a fixed cost. Any individual item is largely optional, and, ultimately, we don’t track these purchases closely. At the beginning of the month, I pull this money out of the bank in cash, except for 1 category. When the discretionary budget is gone, it’s gone.

• Groceries/Dining  – At the beginning of the week, we sit down with a meal planner and (Can you guess?) plan our meals.  The planner we use has a weekly calendar with a checklist below each day to build the grocery list.  At the bottom of the page is another checklist for staples that don’t apply to a specific day’s meal, like milk or snacks.   We build the list, then transfer it to another sheet, broken out by grocery department.  That keeps me from having to criss-cross the store.   I make one lap.  When I go to the store, I only bring that week’s grocery budget in cash,  so I keep close track of how much is going into the cart.    Recently, we’ve gotten so good at making our meals cheaply from scratch that I reduced our monthly food budget by $50.   I enjoy good food, so I wouldn’t reduce this budget item if it was a sacrifice in quality.   For example, the Rainbow Foods store-brand chips actually taste better than Lay’s for half of the price.    We stock up when things are on sale and cook creatively.   Sometimes, if time has been too tight to make a meal plan, we eat solely from the pantry for a week, buying nothing but bread and milk.   By sticking to the list, and not fearing the store’s brand, we are able to feed our family of 5 1/2 for $450 per month and still eat well.
• Discretionary  – This is for the random things that come up, and some of the not-so-random.   Toiletries, activity fees, admissions, and fund-raisers all come out of this fund.  At the end of the month, whatever is left gets tucked into a box and forgotten.   When the box gets full, it goes to the bank to be applied to debt. There isn’t a lot to cut here, since this line-item is only $200.
• Baby stuff  – This category is continually shrinking.   Our middle kid is recently potty-trained and our youngest is trying.   There is no baby food and no formula, just 1 pack of diapers every month.   In 6 months, this category will be eliminated.
• Gas/oil  – This is the single category that isn’t cash-based.   It makes no sense to take the kids out of the car to pay inside, especially in the winter.    Also, all of the temptation is inside. It’s much better to spend the money at the pump.    There isn’t much we can do to reduce this, at the moment.   Our next car won’t be a full-sized pickup, but we are several years from that purchase.    We’ve started clipping oil-change coupons to keep this down to the minimum amount possible.
• Clothes  – We only allocate $15 per month for clothes.   In a good month, we don’t spend it.   We can’t eliminate it completely, because things do come up.   Over the summer, I’m hoping to completely leave it alone to save up for a new(used) winter jacket for our older daughter, who doesn’t get hand-me-downs.
• Blow Money  – This is the safety valve.  It can’t get reduced and still work.

We’ve now addressed out entire budget, including what we can do and have done to keep our costs under control.  Looking back, I don’t see too many cuts I’ve missed.

It’s been a month since I’ve written a post for the budget series, so I’ll be continuing that today.  See these posts for the history of this series.

This time, I’ll be reviewing my non-monthly bills.  These are the bills that have to be paid, but aren’t due on a monthly basis.  Some are annual, some are quarterly.

• School Lunch – This could be cut by sending a bag lunch.   We pay about $1.25 per day for school lunch.   At that price, I don’t think I can beat the nutrition, let alone the convenience of the meal.  We pay this whenever the account gets below $10.
• Property Taxes – We pay this semi-annually.  This bill goes up every year due to the ****** ***-******* ******-******* who don’t care about their constituents making ends meet.  ******* ***** ******* *******.   Huh.  Who knew WordPress came with a censor?  I could move, but I’d have to get out of commuting distance to get this down much.
• Life insurance – I’ve got two quarterly life insurance policies.   I can’t get these much cheaper, but I should be able to next year.  The questions asked if I’ve smoked in the last three years, and that will be up on Halloween.
• AAA   – It’s only been recently that I’ve owned vehicles reliable enough to avoid paying my AAA dues for me.   I could cancel this, but for $80 per year, the hotel discounts make it a wash.  One vacation per year comes close to making the difference.
• Vehicle Registration – The only way to cut this would be to get rid of a vehicle.  I don’t think that’s possible for us.  We work in opposite directions and, for at least one quarter per year, spend too much time chasing around for activities.
• Daycare – We’ve been using our current daycare provider since my oldest(10) was one.   When my youngest turns 2 in June, our costs will go down.   Without one of us quitting our job, this bill can only go down as the kids grow up.
• City Bill – This bill combines our garbage, water, and sewer.   With three adults, three kids, and 5 animals in the house, reducing our garbage level is difficult.  We do try to manage our water usage in the summer, to keep that down.
• Web host – I have a few domain names and a hosting package to handle my side hustles and miscellaneous projects.    This is a deductible expense.  I have been allowing my domain names to expire if the project isn’t being actively pursued.
• Memberships – I have annual dues to two organizations.  I’m making payments on lifetime memberships, so these will be going away in about 18 months.

Reviewing this list, there doesn’t seem to be too much I can cut and accomplish any meaningful savings.  Am I missing something?