Quick post.
Today after work Joe and I took the trash out and checked the mail together. It was ridiculously hot and muggy. It felt like despair, really. Immediately I said "I want icecream" and he agreed.
We discussed where we could go for it - maybe someplace new and further away. But then it dawned on us. It's still July. We've spent an absolutely ridiculous amount of money eating out this month. Probably more like quadruple our budget limit. If we weren't budget-focused we probably would have slapped our mail on the kitchen table, did a quick Google or Reddit search for "best icecream in Columbus" and hopped in the car.
We decided to wait until next month to go out for ice cream.
A tiny victory for our wallets!
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Out of Control
So we've done absolutely awful with our budgeting this month. Like, no excuse for this kind of awful. We went out to eat I don't know how many times when we didn't need to. And when we did end up going out I'm not sure why we didn't split an order together. We always talk about saving money this way and not wasting food and we just don't do it? Why!? Aghhh.
Joe has not been very good at keeping track of what he's spent on lunches, which honestly should have been packed and not purchased. He started a new job and I know that gets a little crazy but there's all the time in the world to pack a lunch the night before. I've forgotten a few things myself. I've only listed a few things, and have hardly sold anything to make any extra money.
I've worked some overtime this month, though. And I started doing mystery shopping / auditing with MSI TrendSource thanks to an article I read on thepennyhoarder.com. There was a really nice list of some legitimate and reasonable ways to make extra money from home. I picked one that seemed feasible for me and just tried it. It really didn't take long to get started. The project managers / customer support are fantastic. In less than a month I've already received my first check and I've completed 11 assignments. Pretty fun! I do need to watch how much I spend for the receipts though. They reimburse for items purchased, but only a certain amount depending on the project.
I disgress. The point of this post is to rant about how shitty we've done with budgeting for July. We have got to do better next month. This is completely inexcusable. I'm afraid to even look at the total, but on July 31st I'm going to update with our spending and also the damage we've done to the different debts.
Sigh. I just feel out of control in a lot of aspects in my life right now. Really need to find that determination I once had for other things.
Joe has not been very good at keeping track of what he's spent on lunches, which honestly should have been packed and not purchased. He started a new job and I know that gets a little crazy but there's all the time in the world to pack a lunch the night before. I've forgotten a few things myself. I've only listed a few things, and have hardly sold anything to make any extra money.
I've worked some overtime this month, though. And I started doing mystery shopping / auditing with MSI TrendSource thanks to an article I read on thepennyhoarder.com. There was a really nice list of some legitimate and reasonable ways to make extra money from home. I picked one that seemed feasible for me and just tried it. It really didn't take long to get started. The project managers / customer support are fantastic. In less than a month I've already received my first check and I've completed 11 assignments. Pretty fun! I do need to watch how much I spend for the receipts though. They reimburse for items purchased, but only a certain amount depending on the project.
I disgress. The point of this post is to rant about how shitty we've done with budgeting for July. We have got to do better next month. This is completely inexcusable. I'm afraid to even look at the total, but on July 31st I'm going to update with our spending and also the damage we've done to the different debts.
Sigh. I just feel out of control in a lot of aspects in my life right now. Really need to find that determination I once had for other things.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Month 1: The Verdict
Well, Decision Day was a few days into June so we're nearing completion of our first month of trying a budget, putting lots of effort into selling our stuff and making extra money. But let's just jump straight into confession time.
AND THE GRAND TOTAL SPENT is: $894.86. Ouch. The breakdown:
We decided to immediately subtract groceries, since just about everything we bought was neccesity. Minus some salted caramels. We did keep in mind that we had a guest this month that we really wanted to treat to some fun times. We also had an unexpected cat expense. So that brought us down to the $300 range pretty quickly.
Right away I saw at least $40 from my personal spending that was unnecessary. Had I not spent it I would have brought myself well below the alloted $40 per month. Joe spent around $30 on drinks of various kinds that he knows he didn't need, as well as a couple games from Steam. We're both going to be much more mindful in July. We have no birthdays and no company planned. Joe should be back to work within a week. This should be a great month for savings. Plus I ended up writing to Giant Eagle for absolutely ruining Joe's birthday cookie pizza cake I ordered and they might even reimburse me! Never hurts to ask.
I feel like we did well with selling to make extra money. I worked a fair amount of overtime compared to the zero overtime hours I was putting in before. I even took a couple vacation days when my friend Robyn visited. It was a very fun mini-vacation and even though I didn't leave Columbus, it was a fantastic 3 days. We went out to eat a few times and treated her to a dinner, some drinks, and some time at the gun range. I really wish we could have done more, but we're fairly certain she had a good time in Columbus with us. Maybe the next time we meet up things will be different financially.
We made a good amount of extra money from selling too. Without factoring in eBay fees from a few items, our total was $405.97. We used a combination of eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp. I think for putting only a couple extra hours of time in that isn't too bad, really. It's an additional $405.97 that we wouldn't have made otherwise. Oh, and Joe took some rolls of change to the bank that's been sitting around forever. Almost $20 right there!
Overall I'm a little disappointed with our spending, but I'm absolutely thrilled that we've stayed on top of tracking everything and we're both being mindful about the money we are spending. We stop ourselves and say "Do we really need this?" more than we ever have. We're still breaking habits as you can see but I certainly feel like we've made progress.
AND THE GRAND TOTAL SPENT is: $894.86. Ouch. The breakdown:
Groceries: $322.52
Dining Out / Fast Food: $136.87
Entertainment: $33.53
Laura Personal: $70.33
Joe Personal: $93.85
Anything Else: $237.76
We decided to immediately subtract groceries, since just about everything we bought was neccesity. Minus some salted caramels. We did keep in mind that we had a guest this month that we really wanted to treat to some fun times. We also had an unexpected cat expense. So that brought us down to the $300 range pretty quickly.
Right away I saw at least $40 from my personal spending that was unnecessary. Had I not spent it I would have brought myself well below the alloted $40 per month. Joe spent around $30 on drinks of various kinds that he knows he didn't need, as well as a couple games from Steam. We're both going to be much more mindful in July. We have no birthdays and no company planned. Joe should be back to work within a week. This should be a great month for savings. Plus I ended up writing to Giant Eagle for absolutely ruining Joe's birthday cookie pizza cake I ordered and they might even reimburse me! Never hurts to ask.
I feel like we did well with selling to make extra money. I worked a fair amount of overtime compared to the zero overtime hours I was putting in before. I even took a couple vacation days when my friend Robyn visited. It was a very fun mini-vacation and even though I didn't leave Columbus, it was a fantastic 3 days. We went out to eat a few times and treated her to a dinner, some drinks, and some time at the gun range. I really wish we could have done more, but we're fairly certain she had a good time in Columbus with us. Maybe the next time we meet up things will be different financially.
We made a good amount of extra money from selling too. Without factoring in eBay fees from a few items, our total was $405.97. We used a combination of eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp. I think for putting only a couple extra hours of time in that isn't too bad, really. It's an additional $405.97 that we wouldn't have made otherwise. Oh, and Joe took some rolls of change to the bank that's been sitting around forever. Almost $20 right there!
Overall I'm a little disappointed with our spending, but I'm absolutely thrilled that we've stayed on top of tracking everything and we're both being mindful about the money we are spending. We stop ourselves and say "Do we really need this?" more than we ever have. We're still breaking habits as you can see but I certainly feel like we've made progress.
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