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This weekend the “Bride Tribe” will gather to shop for wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses. So exciting! This is my first time ever participating in any of these type of activities. Beauty has also given me direction on what I will need to wear to her wedding. But I have time to sort that out.

At the same time, I am working through ideas for a family week/graduation celebration just over a month from now. It’s a busy season.

Wedding

Beauty and her fiancé are covering the costs of their wedding and have not asked for anything from me. But I do want to contribute in some form or fashion. Not sure what that will look like. They are getting married in October.

They’ve chosen the date, venue (my grandmother’s home), she handmade her invitations and sent them out, and she will wear my mom’s wedding veil. At least that is the plan now. I think I will gift her a pearl jewelry set that is mine for her to wear and then for her to keep.

I would love any ideas of sentimental ways I could contribute to her special day? My hope is to have some money to help. But thinking several hundred dollars.

Any ideas for me?

Graduation

In just over a month, all the kids will arrive in Georgia for a family week and graduation celebration for Princess. Extended family from Texas will also be flying in for a few days.

We’ve booked two hotel suites that will sleep 12 total at $114 per night per room. That cost will be split between us so it’s pretty affordable. (My brother’s girlfriend works for this particular hotel chain so we are getting the friends and family discount.)

I’m trying to figure out where/how to celebrate Princess’ accomplishment. My first thought was the hotel, get a meeting room and decorate. But it’s turned out to be cost prohibitive. So now, I’m looking at restaurants with private rooms where we could gather and eat after her graduation ceremony.

She only gets 4 tickets to the actual ceremony. But the celebration will include other family and local friends.

How have you celebrated your kids graduation? Any specific gift ideas?

After the Texas family leaves, the kids and I will all be crashing at Princess’ apartment to save money. Between her bed, her couch and my car camping mattresses, everyone should have somewhere reasonably comfortable to sleep. Lots of togetherness. I’m really looking forward to us all being together for a few days.

Sidenote: Before you ask, we anticipate the house will be sold by this date. But even if it isn’t, it is too far from her school to make it worth using it for the celebration. It will also have no furniture as I am moving completely out by the end of April in preparation for leaving for Texas after Princess graduates.

Hope

Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.

But life has a way of rewriting your plans.

A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.

Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.

Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.

She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.

When Budgeting Goes Off Track

by Ashley

Hand placing an orange into a paper grocery bag surrounded by fresh fruits and vegetables

I’m typically pretty good about keeping up with my budget. I have a set amount designated for each budget category, and I update my purchases frequently to see where I fall within the parameters I’ve set for myself.

The last couple weeks have been a bit of a blur, though. The kids were on Spring Break for a week, and I had a major deadline at work that kept me super busy with work (early mornings, late nights, and all in-between). I finally had a moment to catch my breath on Sunday and when I added everything to my budget – welp! – I’m way over on my food budget.

Looking Back: How Our Food Budget Has Changed

When I first started blogging here, I’m pretty sure my budget for food was $100/week! We mostly cooked at home, and had a tiny budget for take-out (typically cheap fast food), so our entire monthly food budget was only $500 for a family of 4. To be fair, my twins were much younger at that time and didn’t eat as much as they do now. But still. $500 for the full month!

Creeping Costs

At this point, our budget for food has expanded significantly. First, I now buy higher quality foods. Instead of planning meals around the cheapest budget-friendly recipes, I buy locally sourced meats and (mostly) organic produce. This is all more money, but I have decided to invest in our health that way, and we now have a higher income, so I feel justified in doing so.

Add to that inflation (hello – eggs are $6 a dozen in my area! How about you?), and growing kids who are now pre-teens but eat adult-sized portions of food. Obviously our food bill is going to go up. I now budget for $800/month for groceries, and another $200/month for eating out, for a total food budget of $1,000/month. Literally double what it used to be 10 years ago.

Oops! A Budget Wake-Up Call

And even at this much higher price point…..this month we’ve gone over. By quite a bit, actually. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that we’re sitting right about at $1,500 spent this month on food! And we still have a week to go! I know that’s a ridiculous amount of money! It’s a full 2 weeks worth of pay for many! And I’m not feeling good about spending that much on a consumable product that we now have nothing to show for. This week, it’s back to the basics!

I saw a Facebook post (I think in a Dave Ramsey group?) where someone posed the question: “What’s one ‘poor’ meal you’d eat even if you were rich?” Many of the responses mentioned things like spam or bologna. For me, I’d answer spaghetti and tacos. I’m also thinking about a breakfast-for-dinner meal one night. Yes, eggs are expensive, but still cheaper than most meat!

What are some other budget-friendly meal ideas that you would still enjoy even if you were “rich”?

Seeking Advice

How do you get back on track when you suddenly realize you’re way over budget in a category? I don’t mean, how do you balance the budget? I can pull money from other categories to cover the over-expenditure in my food budget. I mean more psychologically, how do you get back on track? It didn’t even feel like we were over-spending! I do think I got take-out a couple extra times due to my long work hours. But it didn’t feel like we were being extra extravagant. I was honestly quite surprised by how much we’ve spent and it feels daunting to go for a full week without going back to the grocery store (or just getting bare minimum like milk and fresh produce), because I didn’t even realize we were so far over-budget!

Any tips to recover from a bloated budget month? And send me your favorite budget-friendly meal ideas, too!

Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of twins, and working in academia. Currently working toward financial independence with the goal of (hopefully!) retiring early at 50.

Blogging Away Debt Blogging Away Debt follows real people on their journey to debt freedom — with tips on the debt snowball, budgeting, cutting expenses, and staying motivated.

Wedding and Graduation on my mind