It's A Team Effort

     It's amazing how much easier things are when you have the support of friends and family. We had a wonderful surprise this morning at Austin's music lesson. (Austin is learning electric guitar at Creative Math & Music) One of his neighbourhood buddies has been paired up with him in his class, and this is going to be a win-win for everyone. Auz is psyched to have his friend learning with him and I am hoping the kids can practice and jam together to keep the enthusiasm going. We already see other friends and their kids at the music school, and I am looking forward to the circle growing further.
     The Budget Challenge has brought out a team effort in our family as well.  Cam is on board with the idea and I was so impressed to hear him say to Austin a few times, "We're on a budget now, Auz." I'm surprised Austin didn't ask what "budget" meant, considering it's never been uttered in our household before.
     Today we took our steely resolve to retail and didn't do too badly. I hit Wal-Mart while Austin was at music class, not only to make good use of my time but to avoid additional "Please, Mom?!" spending.  I picked up the Halloween candy, toothpaste, 2 toothbrushes, and a pair of pyjamas for Austin. Not sure if any of this qualifies as "groceries", but for the sake of the challenge, I am going to call everything you could find in a grocery store a grocery item. Total spend at Wal-Mart was $36.02, and deducting Auz's $10.00 p.j.'s (not a bad price, eh?), we'll call it $26.00.
     Next stop was Value Village for Austin's Halloween costume. We perused the "Previously Enjoyed" rack but no luck unless he wanted to go out as a princess or a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. We settled on a Ninja costume and bought a kids' novel for him to read, ringing in for a total of $15.72, but none of this qualifies as "groceries" for the challenge.
     The amazing team effort warmed my heart when Cam read the grocery store flyers and made a list of what deals were where. His focus was mainly on meat, which is usually the big ticket items during our groc shopping. His pre-shopping research really helped and made me proud that all of us were on board. We hit up No Frills for a few items and Cam later went to Sobey's. A trip to Sal's is in the works tomorrow, for t-bones for dinner. Cam spent $13.02 at "the Frill" and $18.19 at Sobey's, for a pretty good haul of salmon filets, cheese, fruit and veggies, cookies and yogurt.
     So in terms of the challenge and tracking the numbers, when I budgeted $75/week, that was what I was going to stay under, as Cam and I both make separate groc trips throughout the week.  How it all adds up thus far: I have spent $26.00 so far for the challenge this week. For curiousity's sake, Cam has spent $31.21 on groceries, but his spending is not part of my $75 goal.
     So far so good - way to go, team! Now I need to get Auz off to bed in his $10 pyjamas...