February double challenges

After saving a little over $60 during Low-Spend January thanks to Carla, I am wondering how I can beat that for February. Chances are, I can't. But I intend to save another $50 to put as snowballs. I can't wait to see a pretty $2,xxx on my CC1. How will I do it?

So here's my double-challenge stats.

Low (no) Spend Challenge:
1. Choose a financial goal for the month!Stay within my goals and save another $50 to my snowballs. I know this sounds awfully low to some of you. But I hope you understand that my whole non-bill, non-rent, non-debt budget is set at $300. This includes food, gas for the car, going out (come on, I'm only 25!), household items and things like toothpaste and other personal items. I am almost out of toothpaste.
2. How will you achieve your goal this month?I guess my personal budget will have to give in a little, plus I am getting the hang of coupons and using more and more of them, so that will also help me save money.
3. How will you allot your spending this month?Same as last time; I have a monthly budget of $100 for gas, $120 for food and $80 for misc/personal. I will be using my card for the time being, instead of using cash again.
4. Track your purchases!
Yes ma'am! I may be detailing what I buy briefly. That should put me in the spotlight...
5. Are there any “exemptions” for the month?
Hopefully not. But again, if they are going to cut an utilities from my parents', or apply a late-fee if they can't pay, I will pitch in. Sigh.

Decluttering challenge:
1. There will be 4 main challenges for the month. I pick the theme, you pick the challenge!
Week One: Personal Space Challenge
- This means my closet, of course. It doubles as storage.
Week Two: Family Space Challenge (I have no family space. I live out of 1 room I rent and maybe my parents' living room. And my car's trunk which doubles as pantry. So I am changing this to "Personal Space II)
- Living out of a room means, well, all of your possessions are in a tiny cramped space. Most of mine are divided in boxes. I have boxes with clothes, eating utensils, craft materials, etc. I want to divide them all and sort them once and for all. Labeling them would be nice.
Week Three: Productivity Challenge
- I like to sew. Sue me. So I want to do at least one project. I also need to kick my rear end and start exercising so I won't be a total failure for Erika's 10lb challenge.
Week Four: The “Dreaded” Challenge
- No idea... Maybe tackle two year's worth of paperwork/checks/tax forms/misc receipts I have in a bottom drawer.
2. Bonus Challenges!
- I'm ready for this! And hope I can participate too.
3. Purging!!
- I am pretty sure I still have clothes from my brother from before HE got married. I need to get rid of them. Also several cables and electronics and what not.
4. The Proof is in the pudding!
- I'll get to it as soon as I can find a working camera. Otherwise, you'll have to deal with the lousy cellphone camera photos.

Good luck to all of us!

Wrapping up Low-Spend January

Wow, keeping track of things is so much harder the longer you put it off.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am closing January as of 1/25, since I won't be spending anything anymore. So, for Carla's Low Spend January, these are my totals...

I had a monthly budget of $100 for gas, $120 for groceries and $80 for misc/personal expenses. That was it. A total of $300 to spend on everything else that wasn't a bill or debt. Sounds reasonable.

During January, I managed to:
- Spend $102.94 in food. $17.06 leftover.
- Spend $52.00 in misc/personal. $28 leftover.
- Spend $84.52 in gas. $15.48 leftover.
- 24 no-spend days (including 5 future days, but I know for a fact I wont be spending)
- Two nights out having fun.

And I still kept it under budget? Heck yeah. Total leftover is $60.54. That will be used as a snowflake towards CC1. I am most surprised about the gas being under budget. I literally used a whole full tank to pay for the weekend I went to watch movies and then watch the football game, but apparently, I was still under, and my car is now the proud owner of a full tank. Again. I spoil that car too much.

Slightly ashamed of how high my personal budget is, considering it mostly goes on going-out nights. I still need to buy a pair of black work shoes and a pair of jeans to replace the ones that got paint all over them this past summer. But thanks to Carla [cough cough] the jeans will have to hold off, as she already has us gearing up for a second round of Low-Spending!

Her new title is Boot-Camp Sergeant. I did a double/triple-check on her last post about the Low-Spending February, and she mentioned 'another challenge' in March... the slave driver! (We still love her though. It's good to have someone to push us on these things.) So I'll be writing about that later on, as I have to modify the decluttering challenge because of my own restrictions.

As for the rules given back in January...
1. Track purchases. Done.
2. Start with the “sealed pot challenge”. Done too.
3. Menu plan & shop from a list. Yup! This helped a lot.
4. Find free & cheap activities to have fun. Failed, I think. $28 for movie tickets and $15 for pizza to watch the game arent free activities. But they were definitely fun.
5. Focus on simplicity, organizing, & donating/tossing. Fail. I still have the bag of clothes mocking me. I've never really donated clothes or anything else (I often just give them to my dad and he takes care of it).
6. Pay off cut-off emergencies. None happened. That I know of. Hurray!
7. No “pre-stocking-up”. Done.
8. Switch to all-cash. Done for the most part. I may resume during March or April, but I'm going back to cards for February.

Glad tomorrow is Friday! Thanks for the challenges, Carla! It will be hard to top this up in February, but I will certainly try.

Quick check-in

Very quick check in.

I've spent a total of $96.52/$150 since the start of the year. That means that if I intend to save $50 of those, I really shouldn't spend another penny until the end of January (or Feb 2nd, to be exact).

I have also saved a total of $11.60 extra in coupons, bringing my total up to $44.54. Who knew small value coupons actually added to so much so quickly?! Go me! I am almost at 1/3 of the way and it's not even the end of January. I am definitely increasing my goal later on. Coupons are addictive.

I made my second snowball payment of $150 to my CC1. I am thrilled about this, really. Snowballs really do get going once they start going. However, once I get all of my tax paperwork settled, I know I will have to redirect half if not all of that fund to pay for taxes. But again, not thinking about it until I get the last of my tax forms, hopefully by mid Feb. Although I dread it, I want to get it over with. I hate waiting in limbo. They don't even have good wait music in there.

I honestly think I need to laugh about something...
We switched to Progressive auto insurance a while back because of a bad situation I won't get into, and I've been rather pleased with them. I pay the full amount monthly, since I refuse to leave it to someone else and get it cancelled (again). We all signed up for the "Good driver discount" with the Snapshot program. For those not familiar with Snapshot, they send you a little device to plug into your car, and it records your speed and stops and trips. It doesn't record destinations, locations or anything like that. I told everyone to drive carefully or at least mindfully for the following few months. So far, only I have qualified for a 10% discount of my portion, which is awesome. Then I needed to renew the 'student discount' for my two younger siblings. The youngest sister had an A average in HS, so that was easy. She's always been the bright one. The youngest brother, lucky to get a C. But it turns out, my sister's grade slipped on her first semester in college. Badly. So the money I'll be saving for being a safe driver will be overturning by the extra we'll have to pay for the lost of the good student discount.

Yeah, yeah. I hear you. I ought to force her to pay for the increase. But that gets into the "make everyone else pay a portion of it", which still doesn't quite work in that house.

I have locked the cellphone account for my youngest brother starting tomorrow morning, and will put strict limits on his phone usage until he starts paying a monthly fee, including the fee to activate parental control ($4.99). The younger sister is already paying for her portion of her phone, so heck with it. See, I am trying to make them pay for something! It's all about the baby steps.

I hope things settle down for me. I miss reading posts and actually having time to reply to them! I've seriously been MIA in January.

Ok, I lied about the "quick" part. Hope everyone's having a fun week! I'll return tomorrow to update the Low-spend January, since I should be done spending until Feb.

(Belated) Thursday Budget Recap 1/19/12

It's time for a budget recap, so here's what happened for the days from 1/6/12 to 1/19/12.

(Again, 10 of 14 days were no-spend days.)

Totals:
Groceries: $48.42 / $60
Personal: $43.00+$9.00* /$40
Gas: $42.52/ $50

*Miscellaneous also included $5 refill for my library card and $4 for toll coming back after Sunday's game.

Seems that once again I have overdone my personal budget by borrowing from other categories. I am still $7.06 underbudget, but I don't feel this is anything to be proud of.

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Just because I love looking at goals as much as I enjoy a good painting, here's a second portion of a post.

Copying Michelle who borrowed from Niki. We all love sharing the goodness! My 5 year plan is still unchanged. Well, except that I have an extra unplanned year.

During 2012, I want to bring 4/5 debts to less than $1500. In 2013, I need to study my bum off and take my professional certification test (SPHR), which is in December. That's the soonest I can take this test. If I don't pass it, I can take it again in the summer of '14. But I can't fail it. Even if the pass rate is 43%. I'll start studying March of next year and study the full year leading through December. Heavens help me! 2014 will be a boring year, as I try to gather a minimum of $7,000. Then in 2015, I'll be moving. My life goal for this stage. May isn't a certain date. It will be anytime between April and September. But May just sounds good, doesn't it?

For '16... no idea, honestly. I plan to live in a rented small studio/1br for a year and then I'll find a more... permanent place to live at. I would love to buy a house, (one can dream, no?), but otherwise, I'll just be living it small and cheap until I can get enough to make a downpayment for a house. That will be depending on my salary once I move, and any other things life throws my way. I need to make a more detailed list, but that's that!

3rd week of challenge check-up

This weekend ended up being a lot more fun than expected, though that also means slightly more expensive than expected. I went to the movies with my dad, full intentions to pay for the whole thing. He paid for the popcorn/soda and dinner afterward, which was awesome. Total spent was $28.00 for the tickets. Then on Sunday, I swung by my half brother's house to watch the football game (Go RAVENS!) and we split the bill for pizza and wings. It was an awesome time, for $15. All in all, this weekend cost me $43, all falling rather comfortably within my personal budget. And it's payday this coming Friday! (Oh yeah, I also did put gas in my car and pretty much used 90% of it. Oops. That brings the total to ~$88.50.)

I am also doing fairly well with meal planning, have started "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham, and should start indoor exercising next week so that I can work my way through Erika's 10 Pound Challenge. I'm a big outdoor exerciser, but it's cold, wet and miserable outside these days, so that's not a good option... at least not for another 6 weeks.

No/Low Spend January stats: $131.43 / $300. I have $168.57 left, and I am determined to save at least $50 of those. That will leave me with about $75 to spend in groceries/misc (excluding $45 for gas).

Last, is anyone else having issues with leaving comments on blogs? It seems that I have issues on over 3/4 of the comments I am attempting to leave, where they don't post and the page turns white and I can't even revisit the commenting section again unless I close the browser altogether. I've had to end up emailing some people since I can't post, but most I just forget about it with the promise to get back to it later (and havent).

It's Tuesday, and we're halfway done with the No-spend January! I see a lot of you are just doing awesome and putting me to shame, so keep at it. I promise to catch up on the second half!

Working on New Year's Goals

I don't like apologizing on a blog. Not because I shouldn't, but because it seems rather pointless to keep repeating that I've been busy. But I've been. I think my manager has finally realized I burned a few too many fuses and has passed along some of my work to my partner (who my manager doesn't trust), but I really appreciate that. Even if it means I have to train my partner again. Finally tomorrow I got to catch up to 60%! Woo hoo. Go me. I am hoping that by Friday I will be ALL done, and my hairs will stop turning gray. Not that I have anything against gray hairs, but come on, I'm only 25. It doesn't go as nicely with dark brown hair. I do, however, have been reading most of your blog posts while I'm waiting my head to cool off after burning out. I just haven't had the coordination to reply. I'll try to do better at this.

But enough of that. Let's talk about Carla's No-Spend January!

I went to the grocery store again for the same sale and actually managed to walk out with 4 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of pasta and 4 pouches of mashed potatoes for $3.88. That also brings the count of coupon amounts used up $14.50, total of $32.94. My savings on that purchase were of 90%. I found that somewhat funny. I also spent $4.58 elsewhere, bringing my Low-spend challenge up to $42.93/ $300. All still in groceries. 

I am making a list (though barely checking it once!) for books I am going to borrow from the library and start reading! I will not be caught in June with only one or two books read, when my goal was 12! Thing is, it's a bit hard for me to read, as I am not exactly sure what my favorite book genre is. I liked reading juvenile fiction books, and well written fantasy/mythology fiction books. But I am also trying to expand my horizons, so I will check some of the books you guys recommended to me including perhaps some work from John Grisham and The Hunger Games.

Last, I joined the 10-pound Challenge hosted by Newlyweds on a Budget. Lose 10 pounds in 12 weeks, win $$$. Are you in? I know I am! That's another of my NY's goal, and this definitely helps with the motivation portion of it. Even if you're not doing anything major, I think you should join. The more the merrier, eh? You don't even have to go in for 10lbs. You can drop that or raise it, it's up to you.

Oh, and I finally have some plans for a vacation in April... I'll share more about this at a later time. But let me tell you something. It DOES help a huge lot to have a goal, a reward, a good thing at the end of a tunnel. Hope everyone's January is progressing nicely!

Update on No-Spend challenge, first purchase

I made my first purchase of the year! And first of the month for the challenge! At $34.47, I got enough all that I need for 2 weeks. Not bad at all.

One of my goals for 2012 was to use coupons for at least $150 worth. I am not off to a bad start and it has me wondering if I need to up my goals. I saved $18.44 in coupons on that purchase named above. I'll admit, I got lucky. There was a sale on frozen veggies that knocked the price from $2.49 to $0.88 (limit 4). This was one of those 1-day sales, and I happen to catch by luck. 1.5 hours comparing prices and looking/cutting coupons really paid off. Boxes of Cheerios Dulce de Leche came out to $0.49/box after coupons at our local Acme store, so I might have to return today and get some extras. Cereal makes a great 2pm snack.

I am finally going to see Tin Tin with my dad, next Saturday. I can't say how excited I am about it. We both are fans of Tin Tin, and when I saw the trailer for the movie (on an online ad, on the day it was released-- tells you how much I watch tv), I was super excited. I watched Sherlock with my half brother since he wasn't as thrilled about Tin Tin, but it works out. Tickets for a 3D movie won't be cheap, but I have 1 free ticket from the movie theater, so that should help. I am aware this isn’t exactly frugal and I won’t try to justify it either. But that I know of, I won’t be doing anything else like this between now and April.

I also need to start working on my book list. I used to be a very avid reader (I think my personal best was 600 pages in 3 full days?), but I kind of dropped it and never picked it up on my last 2 years of college. Anybody has any good suggestions? For some reason, I am not a very big fan of classics. I know they're classics and that in itself should mean I am supposed to like them, but I don't. I will try to get any book through my local library, so let me know if there's any favorite of yours I should read! Chances are, I haven't read it.

Hope everyone's weekend was good and that the week is better!

Thursday Budget Recap 1/5/12

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.

No-Spend Challenge, Jan 2012

Alright, if you haven't heard of Carla's No-Spend January Challenge, I think you should check it out. What a better way to start the new year than with setting new minimum parameters, saving a lot and having fun.

This is the budget I will have to accomplish this challenge:
$120 for groceries for the whole month. I am still unsure if that's too much for a single person.
$80 my misc/personal budget
$100 gas for my car
Total: $300

I've modeled my rules after Carla's, since they're so awesome to begin with:

1. Track purchases. 'Nuff said. This will be done separate from the bi-weekly reports, since it probably won't make sense if I do.
2. Start with the “sealed pot challenge”. I need to find a nice jar/container or make one up and designate some denomination to put in the jar. Maybe $1's or $5's.
3. Menu plan & shop from a list. I've been trying to do that, but haven't in a while. It's a great way to restart.
4. Find free & cheap activities to have fun. Very important.
5. Focus on simplicity, organizing, & donating/tossing. I have a bag of clothes sitting in my room that I've been meaning to do something with. Time to find a second hand store to donate them to. I will also reduce my wardrobe from items I don't use. Last, I have a lot of to-do cool projects I keep meaning to start. I will complete and detail at least 5 of them.
6. Medicines/medical care doesn’t count. I am changing this a bit, due to my situation... I will pay any bill from my parents to avoid the utility getting cut off, but will wait until the absolute last second to do so, and I have to pay 150% back to my EF fund in February. No excuses.
7. No “pre-stocking-up”. I had a scheduled grocery trip on the weekend to pick up bread, butter and fruit. I will still have that trip.
8. Switch to all-cash. This will be just for testing. It will also help with #2.

So it's on! Best of luck to all of us.