Welcome to Money Mondays!

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I used to post my financial inflows and outflows on Fridays in the past but I decided to move this to Mondays instead. Normally I go grocery shopping on Sundays after church. Now I will post the last week’s worth of financial inflows and outflows on Monday so that I can include the weekend spending as well.

This week my financial outflows were:

$104.27 on grocery shopping. This amount represents only food items, not household items.

After taking a look at my budget since January, I noticed that I spend a lot. I did start a new job and got a substantial increase in income, compared to when I was a graduate student. I experienced a bit of lifestyle creep as a result and I realized I need to rein it in.

Not only had I been shopping on Sundays… but also randomly during the week. My receipts showed that I went to the store at least twice a week, and sometimes even three times during the week.

I need to go back to planning out trips like I did in graduate school. At that point I was able to update my running shopping list and get everything I needed in one trip.

Part of the reason is that now I go the the store when part of my online order is in. Sometimes they split my order into two pickups. In the past, I would simply wait for both parts to be available and do one pickup. Now, I have been making trips for each pickup and usually end up buying something while in the store.

This week my financial inflows were:

$25.00 from redeeming credit card points. This will come in the form of a check in the next few weeks. I will deposit this via the mobile app so my money gets into my account.

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