I am once again making a few modifications to my bi-weekly reporting. It will be a lot more concise. So here's what happened for the days from 12/24/11 to 1/5/12.
(10 of 14 days were no-spend days.)
Category: Spent / Scheduled
Groceries: $0 / $60
Personal: $77.52 / $40
Gasoline: $63.01 /$50
Additional:
Snowball: $150/ $150
Unscheduled from last period: $99.45 / $100
Grand total: $389.98 / $400.00. That leaves me with a whooping $10.02 to go to my jar. This is an awesome start!
I actually thought I had done a lot better, but apparently that wasn't the case. The extra personal was going to the movies during Christmas (movies are way too expensive, but very entertaining. Maybe next time we'll just do a movie night-in). That Christmas outing also accounted for an extra $13 from my gas budget driving back and forth to meet my half brother. Is it bad if I have figured out how much each driven mile costs? (~$0.13/mi). I think so. A round trip to my parent's house and back to work is about $8. A trip from the place I rent and work? $1.50/day round trip. Yes, I have been a busy guy.
As far as Carla's No-Spend January, I fit the bill. All of these expenses happened before 12/29/11. So I should say I am doing pretty well! So far this month, for Carla's challenge I am at $0/ $300.
Semi-related questions: I want to try an experiment with my spending... I know of the cash-only and the envelope system... are there other similar methods of managing money? I am doing all cash this month, but I am wondering what other alternatives there are besides just handling money out of a debit card.
Good job on the spending!
ReplyDeleteI use my President's Choice mastercard for most of my purchases: gas, groceries, misc, as much as I can. Then I check my mastercard account daily and pay each purchase as it appears from my online bank account. No interest ever on my credit card and I just used the points for $40 worth of free groceries - WIN/WIN! AND I have a record of every purchase.
ReplyDeleteAwesome!! What movie did you see? We saw Sherlock Holmes 2 in December & LOVED it!! :) Personally, I'm all for cash. When I use my debit card I end up forgetting purchases or going over budget. I don't use c.c's, so its cash for me. If I don't have the money, I don't buy. Just like in the "olden days"... lol! ;)
ReplyDeleteI put all my bills in one checking account pay everyone on line out of that. Other than that I always use cash. Once the money is gone from the envelope then thats all there is/
ReplyDeleteYour doing great though! You should really be proud of yourself
Thanks for the comments!
ReplyDelete@ Jane - That's what I've been doing, but since I am not able to get too far on paying down my CC, I think I want to get away from using my card for a few months until I've managed to really do my books correctly.
@ Carla - We also saw Sherlock! It was a very good movie and I'm glad we watched it. I hadn't been to the movies in a very long time, so it was a real treat.
Hey, you still have $10 left over and you got a treat to see a movie - not bad! Cash doesn't work for me - I can't seem to account for it. I rarely have cash in my wallet. I use debit for it all and then I see the transactions when I log into my bank account every morning.
ReplyDeleteGreat job!!! I try and stick to cash only, when I use our debit card I always seem to spend more. I did buy Dave Ramsey wallet that has pockets for all the diffrent spending area's. I don't take it with me when I go out, always afraid I will lose it then all the $$ are gone for the week/month but it works great for at home
ReplyDeleteyou are doing amazing!!! I'm proud of you! :) keep up the great work
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew how much every mile/kilometer cost me in gas, that would be sweet.
ReplyDeleteYour first snowball is awesome, keep that up and it will only get better.
I would also suggest you try Jane's cc method of spending but only when you get your books in order like you said.