Update on the budget
I was going to wait until August to post this but August isn't coming soon enough for me and it is close enough I think.
it got long..oops
Last month we did what we normally do so we could see how much we would normally spend. This month we created an actual budget and tried to live off of that. We set groceries at $500, I think that is a lot but we had no idea how much food we would need as we would be eating out less. I set our restaurant budget at $200 so we would have $50 dollars per week to eat out. We do have a fast food budget at $60. I would love to get rid of this but this is a must for Brian especially when he is in school and needs to grab food because he cant bring food with him. I am hoping to decrease it this month as he is home for school and the need is a lot less. Rent, car insurance, car payment, cell phone, cable are our constants. Cant really lower them a lot. Then there is my gym budget which includes Curves and Gymnastics which is about $150 a month so far. I am considering that a constant and something I cant touch. I have budgeted $200 dollars in gas for the month for the both of us, cant decide if that is alot or not. I wish my utilities was a constant but it isnt, especially with us cooking more at home we are using more at home as well. Right now I have it at $150 but that may need to change. I have $50 set aside for clothing and started out with $12 set aside for movies/dvds (thats what Netflix cost us) but have pushed it up to $50 so we could go to the movies this month as well. With all that Mint.com says we should have saved $138 if we met those budgets.
This month we basically have. Groceries are right at $500, Brian has about 6 dollars to get him drinks for Saturday for work and that should be just fine. I still think $500 is a lot but due to my paycheck getting messed up in the first week of July we couldnt go grocery shopping and had to eat a lot of what was in our pantry and therefor had alot to replace. I believe our first grocery trip in July was about $196 and we have organized the first weeks grocery trip to be a pick up delivery (this will probably be the last time we do it as it is 5 a trip or 18 a month, but we needed a quick trip this week) so that will cost us right now about $130 and we have coupons and $5 dollars off. So far we are starting out better then last month. We still have some of our last Costco trip so when we go again it will be in the second week of August. I still think we will need to visit Costco a little more often. Last month, especially in the beginning I was picking recipes and buying for those recipes which isnt how you are supposed to do it I think. Towards the end of the month and what I am going to strive from here on out is to pick recipes based on what I have already in the house so we can get less at the store. I think Brian got a bit sick of the sun dried tomatoes lol. We also need to work on picking recipes that will have plenty of left overs so we have food for lunch throughout the week. The first week in July we did REALLY well on that..omg I was getting sick of all that food. We did all right the rest of the week but this week we are struggling. Well really this weekend up till Tuesday when we get the groceries. We arent struggling as much as we normally are but it is getting creative. I have one more serving of cereal left so i may dig into Brians (yuck) and I will have to cut a meal out during work to get through. Brian is all set for work so he just needs to figure out Monday/Tuesday. I am figuring from now till tuesday. We have chicken pot pie so that will be one meal for me, some ravioli with chicken/sausage so that could be meal number two. We can make smoothies for monday/tuesday afternoon so that will be meal number 3, and then dinner those nights. Really I am mostly struggling with breakfast and food for Sat/sun night but fortunately those aren't gym days so I can cut out a meal without it affecting me. I think this month is going to go a lot better then last month in terms of groceries so hopefully we wont have this issue much longer.
We met our restaurant/fast food budget and are actually under by about 10 dollars or so. I did have to cheat a bit and put a restaurant under fast food (to be fair it was more of a deli type place) to meet it but we are still under in those areas. It is still hard for us as we don't do anything and eating out was always our means of entertainment but hopefully we will do even better this month with it.
Electric was 140 this month so I was under our goal by $10 but who knows what next month will bring. Hopefully the same if not less.
Went over clothing as I broke Brian's glasses and had to replace them. Mint.com is also reading the dress I am returning on Sunday so I am ignoring that part. We dont go clothes shopping alot but I am going to keep that budget in there because you never really fully know whats going to go on in a month..and if we dont spend it then thats just more we have saved.
I am going to keep the movies/dvd's at $50 so we can go to the movies. That was really fun this month and would love to have the flexibility to do it again. Most of the time there are not any movies we want to go to so that's more money saved but if I keep it in the budget it becomes an option.
For gas, we are actually under by a full tank of gas, $32 dollars, but I think I should keep it at $200 a month because Brian is not fully driving as much as he used too and may need to increase it come September when he drives to campus and work. I actually got .10 cents off a gallon at the grocery store we go to so that will save us some money. And that amount may actually increase based on the coming up shopping trip. So hopefully all that will help. Gas should stay relatively the same as we dont go on too many side trips. I go to work, Curves, gymnastics and home and thats it. Brian goes to work, school, and he drives to the stores when we go.
I do sort of feel like I want/need to add an "other" category so we have some more freedom, flexibility in what we do in that month. So if I want to buy a photobook from my Study abroad trip I can without guilt, if we want to buy something for the kitchen we can without much guilt, we could go miniature golfing, etc. it would just give us the ability to be less structured and more spontaneous which may help with the cabin fever and feeling like we never do anything. That and the movies should help with our feeling of never doing anything fun because we never have the money for it.
This month is very confusing in terms of paychecks for mint.com. Next month will be too. Well because of my commission every month will be confusing for it but this month was really confusing. Brain's student aid money came through for the summer so that is a huge extra paycheck in mint.com's eyes. Plus I have been getting overtime. I checked my bank account and when I get the refund for the dress...I cant remember when the last time I was going to have that much money in my bank at once even when you take out the rent (the landlords dont deposit rent until the 15th though we have to give it to them by the first). It is incredible, all of it is going into savings. I do have stuff on my credit card (plane tickets to the wedding and Brians sun glasses) but that is being paid off by my commission and there will be tons left over. This seems to be working really well and I hope we will be able to make even more improvements as we go. Hopefully the winter wont be as tough as before
it got long..oops
Last month we did what we normally do so we could see how much we would normally spend. This month we created an actual budget and tried to live off of that. We set groceries at $500, I think that is a lot but we had no idea how much food we would need as we would be eating out less. I set our restaurant budget at $200 so we would have $50 dollars per week to eat out. We do have a fast food budget at $60. I would love to get rid of this but this is a must for Brian especially when he is in school and needs to grab food because he cant bring food with him. I am hoping to decrease it this month as he is home for school and the need is a lot less. Rent, car insurance, car payment, cell phone, cable are our constants. Cant really lower them a lot. Then there is my gym budget which includes Curves and Gymnastics which is about $150 a month so far. I am considering that a constant and something I cant touch. I have budgeted $200 dollars in gas for the month for the both of us, cant decide if that is alot or not. I wish my utilities was a constant but it isnt, especially with us cooking more at home we are using more at home as well. Right now I have it at $150 but that may need to change. I have $50 set aside for clothing and started out with $12 set aside for movies/dvds (thats what Netflix cost us) but have pushed it up to $50 so we could go to the movies this month as well. With all that Mint.com says we should have saved $138 if we met those budgets.
This month we basically have. Groceries are right at $500, Brian has about 6 dollars to get him drinks for Saturday for work and that should be just fine. I still think $500 is a lot but due to my paycheck getting messed up in the first week of July we couldnt go grocery shopping and had to eat a lot of what was in our pantry and therefor had alot to replace. I believe our first grocery trip in July was about $196 and we have organized the first weeks grocery trip to be a pick up delivery (this will probably be the last time we do it as it is 5 a trip or 18 a month, but we needed a quick trip this week) so that will cost us right now about $130 and we have coupons and $5 dollars off. So far we are starting out better then last month. We still have some of our last Costco trip so when we go again it will be in the second week of August. I still think we will need to visit Costco a little more often. Last month, especially in the beginning I was picking recipes and buying for those recipes which isnt how you are supposed to do it I think. Towards the end of the month and what I am going to strive from here on out is to pick recipes based on what I have already in the house so we can get less at the store. I think Brian got a bit sick of the sun dried tomatoes lol. We also need to work on picking recipes that will have plenty of left overs so we have food for lunch throughout the week. The first week in July we did REALLY well on that..omg I was getting sick of all that food. We did all right the rest of the week but this week we are struggling. Well really this weekend up till Tuesday when we get the groceries. We arent struggling as much as we normally are but it is getting creative. I have one more serving of cereal left so i may dig into Brians (yuck) and I will have to cut a meal out during work to get through. Brian is all set for work so he just needs to figure out Monday/Tuesday. I am figuring from now till tuesday. We have chicken pot pie so that will be one meal for me, some ravioli with chicken/sausage so that could be meal number two. We can make smoothies for monday/tuesday afternoon so that will be meal number 3, and then dinner those nights. Really I am mostly struggling with breakfast and food for Sat/sun night but fortunately those aren't gym days so I can cut out a meal without it affecting me. I think this month is going to go a lot better then last month in terms of groceries so hopefully we wont have this issue much longer.
We met our restaurant/fast food budget and are actually under by about 10 dollars or so. I did have to cheat a bit and put a restaurant under fast food (to be fair it was more of a deli type place) to meet it but we are still under in those areas. It is still hard for us as we don't do anything and eating out was always our means of entertainment but hopefully we will do even better this month with it.
Electric was 140 this month so I was under our goal by $10 but who knows what next month will bring. Hopefully the same if not less.
Went over clothing as I broke Brian's glasses and had to replace them. Mint.com is also reading the dress I am returning on Sunday so I am ignoring that part. We dont go clothes shopping alot but I am going to keep that budget in there because you never really fully know whats going to go on in a month..and if we dont spend it then thats just more we have saved.
I am going to keep the movies/dvd's at $50 so we can go to the movies. That was really fun this month and would love to have the flexibility to do it again. Most of the time there are not any movies we want to go to so that's more money saved but if I keep it in the budget it becomes an option.
For gas, we are actually under by a full tank of gas, $32 dollars, but I think I should keep it at $200 a month because Brian is not fully driving as much as he used too and may need to increase it come September when he drives to campus and work. I actually got .10 cents off a gallon at the grocery store we go to so that will save us some money. And that amount may actually increase based on the coming up shopping trip. So hopefully all that will help. Gas should stay relatively the same as we dont go on too many side trips. I go to work, Curves, gymnastics and home and thats it. Brian goes to work, school, and he drives to the stores when we go.
I do sort of feel like I want/need to add an "other" category so we have some more freedom, flexibility in what we do in that month. So if I want to buy a photobook from my Study abroad trip I can without guilt, if we want to buy something for the kitchen we can without much guilt, we could go miniature golfing, etc. it would just give us the ability to be less structured and more spontaneous which may help with the cabin fever and feeling like we never do anything. That and the movies should help with our feeling of never doing anything fun because we never have the money for it.
This month is very confusing in terms of paychecks for mint.com. Next month will be too. Well because of my commission every month will be confusing for it but this month was really confusing. Brain's student aid money came through for the summer so that is a huge extra paycheck in mint.com's eyes. Plus I have been getting overtime. I checked my bank account and when I get the refund for the dress...I cant remember when the last time I was going to have that much money in my bank at once even when you take out the rent (the landlords dont deposit rent until the 15th though we have to give it to them by the first). It is incredible, all of it is going into savings. I do have stuff on my credit card (plane tickets to the wedding and Brians sun glasses) but that is being paid off by my commission and there will be tons left over. This seems to be working really well and I hope we will be able to make even more improvements as we go. Hopefully the winter wont be as tough as before