March Totals

I didn't think it'd be any interesting to see what happened in March... I knew there were so many unexpected expenses during it that the graph wouldn't make sense for what I consider a standard, but here it is anyway:

Indeed, very messed up. If we take down the three bigger categories, then we may get a better picture, but let's talk about those 3.

• Student loans, paid as agreed, no surprise there. I pay way too much extra because I want to get rid of it. My last payment will be in May and I cannot wait! 
• Vet expenses... yeah. Our pet Star passed away. I was ticked off we had to pay over $300 for a Vet to see her and he did nothing, and then pay cremation fees the day after. I am not blaming him for her passing, but I just felt he did nothing. Guess we'll never know and I should leave it at that.
• Auto expenses! Yikes! Most of that is tires ($300-some), and then parts to repair what was wrong with the car... parts that need to be put IN the car, but my dad is procrastinating like no other. It's alright, I'll wait. His fee is free vs the $380 the shop was asking for labor. I just want to get it done before something inside the car does break.

Taking those 3 big categories, and we get a better picture:

• My shopping was extremely high, $120 over. Though to be fair, my spending income for that category also went up. This is mostly for work shoes and a few new work shirts. I'm loving them so far! (budget: $80, spent: $200.61)
• Food and dining is definitely up. Between cooking more often, and cooking more often at my parents' house (which means buy the stuff), it went over by about $50 (budget: $120, spent $177.67)
• Gas: Too much going back and forth from work to parents' house to PT job... even 1 extra trip to PT job takes a toll on my gas expense. (budget: $100, spent $123.17)

Everything else is as should be except for Bills&Utilities. I cant find a way to make Quicken account for my phone payments as a bill; instead, it adds it as a negative, which takes away from the total in that category. Pretty annoying, but oh well. I know it's only $50 per month.