February Blogger Challenge--Week 1 UPDATE

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, ladies.  I'm going through some stuff personally and school work seems to be really piling up right now so I'm forced to focus my attentions in some other areas at this present time.  BUT, I'm still doing what I can to stick to my budget this month!!  So far, here's how the numbers have come in:

Food: $72 spent out of $200 monthly budget--this is actually an area that I'm feeling pretty good about.  Out of that $72, I bought ALOT of stuff including 8 frozen Digorno pizzas!  I recognize that frozen pizzas aren't exactly the pinnacle of healthy eating but when you're caught in an evening rush between leaving work, picking up your kid, rushing home to change and then rushing off to some other evening activity (scouts, sports, doctors appts, etc), then having a stockpile of something quick and easy (and cheap!!) to shove into the food processor (a.k.a. mouth) helps to cut down on the trips through a drive through--thus increasing my Eating out budget to astoronomical levels.  So, I'm happy with this!  Another perk is that I earned $.70 off of each gallon of gas for my next fuel fill-up by shopping the sales and shopping while a gas promotion was going on at my local grocery store!

Fuel: $25.01 spent out of $250 monthly budget--somehow this seems off because I'm sure I've filled up more than once this month (and trust me, $25 does not fill up my SUV!--this was just a quick "get some gas before you end up on the side of the road" fill up) but I only have one gas receipt.  Maybe one got misplaced? 

Eating Out: $36.99 spent out of $50 monthly budget--yeah, this one I'm not totally stoked about.  Yes, it's still under my monthly budget amount but I'm also only a week into the challenge.  I ended up allowing myself to get caught empty handed on an impromptu trip to the park with some friends and we didn't have time to pack any snacks prior to going (we were already out running errands when we got the call asking us if we wanted to go) so we ended up needing to get lunch while we were out.  Not at all a horrible experience (it was actually REALLY great for me to be out with some friends on that particular day--I needed it!) but it kind of hurt the wallet.  The other half of this expense came from going out to dinner with my team at work during an offsite meeting that we had last week.  Someone else chose the place and none of us really realized just how expensive it was.  It was one of those artsy fartsy "downtown" places where the atmoshere is super awesome but the prices aren't.  Yeah, I got french fries and a beer. . . .and a $20 total bill.  It was lovely (sense the dripping sarcasm?). 

Aside from that, there are two other areas that I spent money this month.

Pet: $2.10 out of a $60.00 monthly budget.  I ended up buying the wrong dog food last month so I had to return that and buy the right stuff.  This expense was the difference in price between the old bag and the new bag. 

WalMart: $23.81 out of a kind of non-existent budget.  I don't usually budget for trips to Walmart--I told you, my budget is stupidly tight.  But, I was in Walmart for something else and found some really good sales on kids clothes.  I ended up getting Tyler a set of thermals for $5 and a two piece athletic running suit for $7.  Pretty good deals since he needs those items for football.  So, in total (yes, I bought some beer too for the Super Bowl party I was headed to) I spent a little over $20. 

Now for the somewhat awesome news. . . .I had some rather unexpected additions in income this month.  The most awesome one is that I randomly received a check from my mortgage company for almost $1600.  Yes, I got this letter in the mail (and I have a serious anxiety problem with my mail--even diagnosed as an anxiety disorder by a doctor--I hate opening my mail.  Hate it. . .I'm always afraid I'm going to get a bill that I can't pay in the mail so I'm always very anxious when opening my mail.) and was terrified to open it.  But, it was a check.  A BIG check!  Apparently, when I closed on my house TWO YEARS AGO, they overcharged me (REALLY overcharged me!) on some of my closing costs and they caught it during an audit and were refunding me the money.  Now, when you look at the situation on a deeper level, it kind of sucks.  This is money that I've already paid in the form of taking out a mortgage and I've been paying interest on it for two years.  That totally sucks.  But, I'm making a decision not to look at it that deeply because the chunk of money was really a lifesaver at that time.  You see, I was within less than $100 of being totally maxed out on my credit card.  And I only have one credit card.  And I use that sucker to pay for EVERYTHING.  So, being close to maxed out is never a good thing.  With that and the extra $405 that I had accumulated in checks and other repayments for various little things (see, little things really do add up!), I was able to put over $2000 extra dollars into my account this month.  I immediately turned around and applied a $2700 payment to my credit card.  And I'm hoping that won't be the last one this month! 

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about my performance in week 1.  Still not totally as great as I would have liked (I don't like the eating out part) but I'm going to try to celebrate the successes and learn from the hard parts. 

How have you done so far in your spending this month? 

February Blogger Challenge--Week 1 & Introductions

I'm strangely excited about the challenge that we are taking on this month.  I find it very strange that I'm actually excited about going public with my budget and potentially failing miserably in front of all of you.  However, I am highly hopeful that since I'll be accountable not only to myself, but also to all of my readers, maybe it will be the incentive that I need to stick to my budget.  At the very least, maybe I'll gain some helpful insight from all of you along the way. 


So far, there are three bloggers who have signed up for the Blogger Challenge but it's NOT too late to join us!  If you're interested in joining, just leave a comment on this post so that I'll know that your jumping into the ring with us and taking on the challenge!  However, I'm thrilled that two of my blog buddies are along for the ride.  Ashley @ Attempts at Domestication and the.mrs. @ rich.in.love. have both jumped in feet first so make sure that you check out their blogs to get updates on their progress over the month. 


Here are the details of the challenge--every Wednesday, starting today, each of us will post updates on our blogs as to our progress in sticking to our budgets for the month.  The only two rules to the challenge are that we be honest and that we support each other.  Even if you aren't participating in the challenge along side of us, we invite you to give us feedback, encouragement, and kind words of correction along the way.  If we go over our budgets in any area, we'll be honest and tell about it.  We'll also try to figure out what actions caused us to go over in those areas of our budgets. 


So, my February budget numbers are as follows:


Food: $200
Eating Out: $50
Lunch for me (at work): $20
Gas for Car: $250
Target: $100
Walgreens: $50

Also, I'm starting the month with a credit card balance of. . . .*major cringe*. . . .$4241.19.  OH-MY-GAWD.  I have GOT to get that under control.  Like, pronto.  NOW! 


Those are the areas where I need ya'all to keep me honest.  If I go outside of these areas, and spend money on other things, I'll be sure to post about it.  I'm REALLY trying to get my credit card paid off so I need all of you to call me out when I spend too much on something. 

February Blogger Budget Challenge

After what I thought was a genius suggestion from the.mrs over at rich.in.love (who is absolutely hilarious and fabulous in every way!), and in a completely desperate attempt to try to stick to my budget at least once in my life, we're hosting a Blogger challenge for the month of February centered around budgets.  Whether you're an old pro at sticking to your budget, a newbie in the budget ring (welcome to the fight, love!), or simply interested in sitting back and watching the action, I invite you to join in! 

Here are the details if you want to join in:

On February 1, which is next Wednesday (YIKES!), put up a post on your own blog declaring your participation in the challenge (link back to this post so that your readers can have the background for what we're doing!) and post the areas of your budget that you plan to focus on for the month of February.  For example, I might post that I'm planning to reduce my "Eating Out" spend from $200 a month to $100.  Or, I might reveal that I plan on actually sticking to my "Target" budget of $200.   There can be 1 area, or 100 areas. Whatever the case is for you.  Give us the details so that we can help to hold you accountable over the course of the month.  Then, each week, on Wednesday, we'll each post an update for how we're doing on those areas of our budgets.  Share with us what you've done to stick to your budget, what you did to go over your budget,. . .whatever it is. .. just the experiences that you're having!  These updates will be on our own blogs, but I invite you to share any successes that other blogger participants may have experienced too.  Let's use this as an opportunity to give the shout outs to each other and support each other!  I plan to (with the permission of each of you, of course!) highlight those that are participating here on my own blog and I think it will be a great way to support each other throughout the process.  

There are some pretty simple rules:

1. Be honest
2. Be supportive of each other

Really, that's it!  So, who is in?  Since I'm not all bloggy expert in how to do link ups and all that jazz (I'm learning as I go, peeps!) leave me a comment here on this post so that I can at least get a good feel for who plans to participate and can check out your blogs on Wednesday.  Also, when I post my initial Blogger Challenge post on Feb 1, I'll post a list of who else is participating so that we can all bounce around and check out each other's progress.  Sound good?