With myself. Absolutely Disgusted. I cannot believe my lack of self control. It's pitiful.
I suppose now that I've gotten you on the edge of your seats, I should explain a bit about the self depracating behavior. First off, I'm not entirely thrilled that I keep setting monthly goals or challenges for msyelf and I never seem to follow through with them (haven't you noticed that? If not, you will now!) so for the month of October, I kind of kept quiet about my financial challenge sheerly because I couldn't face one more public disappointment. I figured this way, if I totally failed, it would be only me that knew. Yeah, not exactly the best way to be held accountable by your peers. But, you know what, I actually accomplished this goal. What was it, you ask? Well, my goal for the month of October was to simply save up every receipt that I generated over the month and at the end of the month (I knew I wasn't ready for a routine maintenance program here. Baby steps, people!), I'd input them all into my budget (which has been created, just never faithfully used!) so that I could attempt to get a handle on where I'm spending my money each month. The way I see it, I can't really cut expenses or focus my efforts in any one particular area until I'm seeing it in black and white right in front of my face. Let's just say this: I'm seeing in BOLD RED right. in. front. of. my. face. And it's disgusting.
I just got done inputting the numbers and I can't believe how awful I have been this month at sticking to the budget. I mean, it was ridiculous. Here's some of the worst hit areas:
Groceries--I have a budget of $200/month. I spent $363.59--that's $163.59 OVER BUDGET.
Eating Out--I have a monthly budget for Tyler and I of $50. We spent $272.63--that's $222.63 OVER BUDGET.
Lunch or Dinner for me at work--I have a monthly budget of $20 (really, I should be packing every. single. day. The budget is only an emergency type cushion--or not!). I spent $61.28--that's $41.28 OVER BUDGET.
I fully recognize that I need to first find out where I'm at in order to get to where I want to go. And yes, seeing these numbers in black and white (or red) definitely helps me to understand that there is a problem. I just didn't realize how big of a problem there was. I mean, I feel like I need to rename my entire blog to "Wish I could be Living On a Dime or Less" since I don't feel like I'm actually Living On A Dime or Less. Goals. Goals. Goals. Every good accomplishment started with a goal, right? Please just placate me and tell me I'm right.
One positive that I noticed in my budget was that I came in under the budgeted amount of $250 for gas (fuel for the car, not gas for the heat) by $18.98. However, I can't even really see this as much of an accomplishment since I was out of town for work for about half a week this month. So, if I had been home, I probably would have been over in my budget. Oh the heartaches of being an adult. One other slightly positive note is that I was able to make a fairly hefty payment to my credit card in an amount which was almost $3000 (THANK YOU BIRTHDAY MONEY!). No, I do not receive anywhere close to $3000 for my birthday, it's just that my birthday money combined with other payments equalled almost a $3,000 payment. In order to fully understand this, I will need to further explain how I use my credit card. Look for this explanation to come in a post soon!
Anyone else have any major budget blows in October? How about successes? I could certainly use the inspiration!
I've been struggling with this too. My approach isn't with budgeting, it's simply being very conscious of my spending and wants vs needs.
ReplyDelete(I don't like budgeting because I can't pad each category enough to be comfortable, I feel like I'm fighting the budget all month and it was a negative thing for me. In another year or so my daycare costs will go down a LOT and I'll try it again then.)
Anyway I was successful at not buying myself anything stupid, and I didn't feel deprived, but I was pretty disappointed I only saved about $60 FOR THE MONTH. I did buy my son Cars 2 and bought a couple inexpensive gifts that shrank how much I saved but I really wanted to be left with more than $60.
Anyway, hang in there. The best thing about taking control financially is that you'll have LOTS more opportunities to do better :)