This is my spending in childcare/preschool/babysitters over the last 4 months.
May: $856
June: $507
July: $45
August: $180
I mean, I’ve decreased my spending on childcare by like 75%. (Thank you mom!) This fall that will go back up to $500/mo, but that’s a lot less than $850 and if my mom is helping me pay for it it will really be dramatically less.
Groceries: Still usually over $400 per month. Lots of room to improve here. This also includes toiletries, cat food and litter, pads/tampons, and beer/wine.
April: $448
May: $311
June: $450
July: $426
Gas: Pretty stagnant here with a decrease in July due to not working as much (since my grandma passed), my sister driving us for camping, and M only going to school on days I worked.
April: $194
May: $246
June: $242
July: $146
Shopping: This is all purchases from amazon (things like charger cords, books, household items). Basically I’ve really been trending down here and sticking only to necessary items, but really I could’ve done a lot better in April and June.
April: $367
May: $65
June: $277
July: $46
Snacks and Drinks: This is my weak area, the “non-necessary” expenses that I can’t seem to cut out no matter how much I need to. These include gas station drinks, coffee at work, ice cream at parks for M, etc. Still, I’m trending down so that’s good! Gotta keep that up.
April: $80
May: $73
June: $61
July: $58
Restaurants/Fast Food: Includes eating out while traveling, and considering all of the traveling we’ve done since April I’m actually pretty proud of how well I did in this category.
April: $83
May: $16
June: $77
July: $20
Travel: Hotels/campgrounds and tourist attractions for trips to Tennessee/Kentucky, Chicago, Michigan’s west coast, and Niagara Falls.
April: $108
May: $60
June: $202
July: $173
I also cut out cable and my home phone completely, saving about $140 per month. If I can peel about $50-100 off of the above categories I’ll save another $100-$200 per month.
Mother of All Things 
A couple things I’ve done to trim the budget when I’ve needed to have been to only carry cash for the extra stuff and leave my debit card at home. I’ve also done Amazon subscription for most household/beauty stuff and some pantry staples. You get between 5-15% off the total price of your subscription items depending on how many are delivered, which adds up. Budgeting sucks, but it’s nice to see those credit card balances go down and the savings account go up!
I think this is amazing. My eat out (diet cokes at McDonald’s all the damn time) is so bad.