The Saving Challenge
July 18th, 2010
A little while back one of the blogs I read regularly, A Gai Shan Life, ran an interesting challenge trying to save money (and stretch yourself). While at the time I was not ready to participate in this challenge the idea really stuck with me. Revanche challenged herself to save 5K and she asked her readers to participate (in partnership with another bloggers attempt to run a 5K race).
Now that I am focusing more on my finances I have seen quite a few places where I can save some extra money. This money is mostly in discretionary spending and its money that I don’t need to spend. Another thing that I’ve found is that I am not saving nearly as much money as I would like to. When I first started this blog I was not saving anything and now I’m setting aside about $400 a month which is a definite improvement but not perfect. This idea of a challenge that Revanche came up with popped into my head again.
Not only am I focusing on my finances my wife has also been brought into the loop, our finances are not entirely merged but they are definitely very intertwined. When we first got married we had separate accounts and we each contributed to the joint items; now we’re at the stage where almost everything is joint with only a handful of items that are separate. Together we discussed our financial future and a few goals that we both wanted to achieve, the most important one is getting rid of our debt which is followed by our desire to buy a cottage (which we currently can’t afford but will when our daughter leaves daycare).
This discussion of our current financial situation and goal of a cottage led us to our savings. We’re not saving enough nor paying our debt down fast enough. So we decided to test ourselves with a small challenge.
The Savings Challenge : Save $500 per month for 3 months
We both realized we could set aside more money and by doing this for three months we are seeing if we could comfortably do it. This challenge really breaks down to each of us saving an extra $250 per month. For myself I’m going to set aside $125 per pay when the pay first kicks in with the thought that if the money is not in my account I can’t spend it. I’ll know pretty much right away if this is going to work. Additionally I’m going to cut down on my discretionary spending and add that to the pile, hopefully with a little effort I’ll be able blow away the $250 per month.
This post is the added motivator to the equation – I’m announcing it here and I’ll be keeping my results posted. We started this challenge at the beginning of the month so by the end of September we are aiming to have $1500 saved.
If everything goes smoothly for these three months this test of ours will give us a small emergency fund (though we were contemplating paying some debt off with it). If you’re interested in playing along with us set up a goal for yourself starting in August and pass along the details – I’ll post up tallies for anyone participating (assuming you stay on top of it).
This is a small challenge, but even though its a small step it is a step in the right direction and large goals are made up of many small steps. Thanks again Revanche for giving me the idea.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Financial Situation | 1 Comment
Refocusing on my Finances
June 3rd, 2010
For I would say close to a year I really haven’t been struggling financially, I have been able to pay my bills and there was no danger of missing any of them, but during that time something interesting happened: I lost a lot of my drive to maintain my finances. I’m not sure where this lethargy came from but the net result was that I thought about my finances and tightening them up a bit more and it worked from time to time but the effort was mostly superficial. The real reason for this is that I became comfortable and complacent in being able to pay everything without scrambling for money.
When I got my new job recently I started to think about money again because I would be making more and I needed to figure out how best to apply the new income. I realized that while my finances are not in bad shape because everything is paid on time there hasn’t been as much progress made as there should be. This complacency has been a rut I fall into all too often and one I think a lot of people get into. The real problem is that while the bills are paid the debt doesn’t shrink very much, hence not much forward momentum.
Between all of my thinking and taking a hard look at this blog I realized that I need to do something about my monetary situation. Even though it might not be in any financial danger at the moment its also not improving dramatically (and over the 4 years of this blog really hasn’t). So rather than simply thinking that I should do something about it I figured it was time to start putting some actions behind it. The first step for me is to get a lay of the land financially and here’s what this translates to for me:
- What are my debts?
- Where’s my budget at?
- What’s my cashflow like?
The first question is fairly easy to answer since I’ve managed to simplify my debts over the life of this blog. The other two are going to take a little work so I’m in the process of slowly figuring this out. Once I’ve got this under control some of the bigger questions will need to be answered, in the meantime this first step of refocusing on my finances needs to take place. I’ll keep you posted!
Posted in Budgeting and Planning | No Comments
The Impact of Vices on your Debt
January 10th, 2010
We all have our vices, from the indulgent to the down right bad for us, having vices isn’t necessarily a problem but their impact could be. For me a vice is something that you do that is something that you don’t need to do that has some negative connotation with it. For example smoking and drinking are clearly vices in my opinion but this can translate to pretty much anything that you indulge in that you don’t need to. The Starbucks coffee that you have every morning becomes a vice when you spend $5 for a specialty coffee every day. Vices by themselves are not necessarily evil or bad, we all have them but the important factor is knowing their cost and impact to our lives, financially and otherwise.
The cost of vices
Most vices come with some form of cost from hidden costs or ones that are clearly known; if you think that your vices don’t have costs you’re likely quite mistaken. The obvious costs are to partake in the vice in the first place such as for smoking, drinking, and eating out all the time, there is a clear up front cost that is required.
Additionally there is often a hidden cost that is associated with our vices and these costs are much harder to measure because often these are intangible. With vices such as smoking the long term likelihood that you’re going to damage your health starts carrying a cost with it (especially in countries with privatized health care). You spend most of your life paying someone good money in order to be able to smoke and then it makes you sick forcing you to pay extra money in order to maybe get better.
But the hidden cost is not always easy to find, what about the opportunities lost as a result of a vice? How many people have lost an opportunity to show off their full potential because they were hung over or tired because they were out drinking the night before? The answer is likely quite a few. There are numerous scenarios that you can invent where a person could loose an opportunity because of one of their vices and these lost opportunities are very difficult to identify let alone quantify. Another hidden cost is in the lost interest on the money you spend on your vice. If instead of spending your money on your vices you paid down your debt or invested the money you could reduce the amount of interest you pay or make money from the interest. That interest be it extra paid on consumer credit or lost interest gained on investments is another intangible cost of participating in a vice.
The impact of vices on Debt
Now in my opinion one of the most significant impacts that a vice can have is to your debt. Lets face it, if you’ve got a vice this isn’t something that comes up once a year or even once a month but its a regular thing. If you’re a smoker then its a constant thing, and in reality an addiction, you’re paying to keep doing this vice all the time. Because you’re paying money all the time for this vice you’re not able to pay your debt down as fast (or possibly at all).
I think to really illustrate this I’ll use myself as an example, I am currently a smoker and I smoke about a pack every 2-3 days. Smokes are no longer as cheap as they used to be and I’m paying about $10 per pack (sometimes more) which means that over the course of a year I’ll smoke over $1500 worth of cigarettes. This $1,500 is money that I have literally burnt away in order to keep my vice going, its also money that could have paid down my debt. This is a very simple illustration because it doesn’t take into account any of the potential hidden costs that can come out of my smoking or even the additional interest I’m going to pay as a result of not being able to pay my debt down faster.
My personal struggle with my vices
Vices simply cost us loads of money that could help ease our financial situations considerably. Personally I have struggled with my vices in the past, I enjoy them and with the exception of smoking they’re not actively hurting me. I like to have a few drinks now and then, I smoke, I like to go to the casino once in a while; in other words I’m a normal person with some vices. I know that I can save a lot of money by cutting out anything to do with these vices or at the least reduce them, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stop. There is a very addictive quality to many vices, at least for me, and stopping them is very hard.
I have tackled a few demons such as gambling, when I was younger I would go semi-frequently to the casino with friends to play some cards and for the most part I would loose some money. While rarely was this a lot it added up and prevented me from clearing my debt. I have grown up a little and I understand that this is mostly a loosing venture and now I go maybe once or twice a year with a very defined budget. It’s a vice that has become an evening out for the sake of fun – essentially its become an entertainment cost.
But I still struggle with my other vices specifically the smoking and drinking. The smoking because it’s an addiction that I can see hurting me both financially and physically and until recently the drive to quit just hasn’t been strong enough. This is a vice that I simply want to tackle and be done with. I want my $1,500 per year to go to other things. The drinking is a vice I struggle with not because of the health or social impact, while I drink frequently I don’t drink a lot the problem is the cost of the alcohol is starting to bother me.
Vices by themselves are not necessarily bad but we need to keep in mind their cost, both tangible and intangible when participating in them. If you are heavily in debt and want to get out of debt then you need to consider tackling your vices in order to find the extra money to speed up the repayment process. Personally I am looking at my vices as too costly and they will be where I look to find more money to save and to repay my debts even though it maybe a challenge.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Commentary | No Comments
The Fluid Budget
July 31st, 2009
Budgeting by definition means allocating a certain amount of money for a task or activity; it is an estimated or planned amount of spending for whatever category you decide. In my opinion the whole budgeting process is always a work in progress because when you create the budget there will be unknowns that you simply can’t account for.
This past week I recieved a comment from a reader that indicated that once you reach the budgeted amount of money spent on something that’s it you can’t spend more. This user challenged my budget creation process and I wanted to pause and think about it. My initial reaction was to get a bit defensive but after a moments pause I started questioning my budgeting process and approach. The reality is that when you create your budget this is your planned or ideal spending for the week and not the reality.
A budget can’t be static
If you did the same things every week and absolutely nothing changed from week to week then you could simply create a budget and stick to it exactly. But in that situation there would be little need for a budget because once you created one budget you would never need to do another one. Life is a series of changes and no two days or weeks are the same so when you create your budget you have a set of expenses in mind there will be circumstances that force you to sepnd differently than initially planned.
The perfect example of this would be the food budget for the week; if you plan on spending lets say $100 but when you get to the store it turns out that your groceries cost you $105. Do you put something back to make the amount exactly correct? If you’re trying to save money and be very concious of your spending then you might. But on the other hand if you need all $105 of food in order to feed yourself would you put something back and go hungry? Personally I would spend the extra money because I don’t want to go hungry and if necessary I can find the extra $5 from a different category.
Circumstances will dictate what you need to spend your money on and those will in all likelihood be different at the time you make your purchase than when you were coming up with your budget. There has to be a certain amount of flexibility in your budget in order to account for the changing circumstances of life.
Changing your behaviour to meet your budget
For me the goal of budgeting is to help me change my behaviour in orderr to not overspend and to know where my money is going. The commenter challenged the fact that I overspent on a vice (alcohol); he was 100% right to challenge my overspending. If I say I’m going to spend $65 on alcohol then I should do everything I can to stick to that amount rather than spend double even if it means I should change my behaviour to accomplish this.
If you intend to stay on budget you need to make concious choices to remain within what you were planning to spend. So going back to the grocery example if you intend to spend $100 on groceries for the week and the cashier rings up $105 and there is $10 in items that you want but don’t really need (say chocholate bars and chips) then you should take those items out to remain on budget. Adjust your behaviour to stay on budget.
In my particular case the month of July was more for understanding how and what I spend my money on in order to create an accurate budget. Do I need to spend as much money on unnecessary items such as alcohol and smokes? No I don’t but I am also not in a situation where hurt my financial situation by spending the money (though I don’t improve it either). This week I am actually making a concious effort to remain within what I’ve allocated for each category; but even then in my opinion a budget needs to have some flexibility.
The Fluid budget
My personal take on the buget is that it needs to be fluid. If you intend to spend a total amount of $1000 for the week then you should not go above that amount, but if you spend more or less than you planned in each specific category is not nearly as important. You need to adjust your spending to make sure that overall the budget is maintained so an extra $5 spent on food should translate to $5 less spent in another category. This type of flexibility allows you to deal with situations without any added stress. You might forget that the baby will need diapers in a given week but spending less on gas, food and miscelaneous items can let you cover the cost without any negative impact.
As long as you are living within your means having fluidity in your buget makes perfect sense and in my opinion helps you keep the stress that’s often associated with money down.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Commentary | 2 Comments
Pay Yourself First – Then make everything else work!
July 28th, 2009
One of the key concepts in a lot of personal finances books is that you need to pay yourself first and I couldn’t agree more. This past month I have been tracking my spending in my weekly budgets and for those of you who have been keeping up you might have noticed that I quietly added an investments line in my weekly budgets. This wasn’t done by accident! I have set up a small withdrawl from my account that coicides with my pay and by small I am contributing a grand total of $50 every pay into a mutual fund.
I haven’t really felt any significant change in my lifestyle or other spending as a result of this $100 per month. While I’m still living a bit beyond my means it also doesn’t mean I’m forced to eat macaroni and cheese for my meals to make it work. I have been using my weekly budgets to get an understanding of my spending habits to get them under control in order to live within my means while paying my debts down. This isn’t going to be a quick and easy fix but as part of this whole mix is my need to set aside some savings even if meager.
At the end of June I had no savings and as of today I’ve got $211.11 in that account (there will be another $50 going into the account later this week). I know that this is a paltry amount and wouldn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things but I am Paying myself first. By the end of the year I should have close to $750 (or more) in that account and while this isn’t quite enough to retire on it is enough money to cover a few emergency expenses if they come up.
Why Pay yourself first?
For years now I had intended to set aside money in some basic investments and always planned to do so with budgeted money. Unfortunately I always planned to make the contribution at the end of my budgeting period. Regardless of if it was two weeks or a month I always thought that I would put money in just before I got paid. My logic was always that this would give me some money to work with just in case. This is a load of horse shit and a big stinking one at that. By paying yourself first you force yourself into making the rest of your budget work.
I am not advocating that you set aside 50% of your budget to investments or savings when you get paid (though if you could do that then you’re doing something right). What I am suggesting is that if you want to build up some form of savings account put the money into the account the moment you get paid. This will force you to make the rest of your money last till you get paid again. I am currently tight for cash and setting aside a few hundred dollars per pay would probably make my day to day life a bit tougher, but I know I could afford $50 so thats what I put in. It doesn’t affect my quality of life nor any bills (I am capable of missing those with or without the $50).
It adds up!
That small amount that I’m setting aside translates to $1200 a year and I’m not really making any changes in my life to get that. The best part is that this money is already starting to grow. While I’m not a financial advisor nor a junior Warren Buffet I will suggest that if you’re going to do this speak to a professional. If you’re only investing a small amount there might be perfect investment vehicles for you to get the best return on your money. I am using a couple mutual funds for my investing purposes and until I have more funds to invest with this will be my vehicle of choice. If you don’t know much about investing it shouldn’t stop you from building your savings, even an ING account will add up to $1200 a year with my contributions.
The moral of the story is that even if you’re tight for cash by paying yourself first you can start a small savings or investment account. Remember even a small savings account is better than no savings account.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Commentary, Investments | 2 Comments
Playing Catch up on bills is a budget killer
July 23rd, 2009
My weekly budget for last week looked riddiculous at first glance. Without context seeing that I’m spending about $1800 would probably startle even well off people. Why is this amount so high? The answer is pretty simple, I’m playing catch up on one of my bills.
Last month I wasn’t paying close attention to my finances and I missed a payment on my line of credit. By the time I realized this I didn’t have enough money to cover it without digging deeper into debt. So rather than paying a little and hoping I had enough money for my day to day expenses I decided to double pay this month. I called the bank up to let them know and made arrangements for the payment (I highly recommend this if you happen to miss a payment since banks are often gracious if you do and will forgive a single missed payment).
The impact of playing catch up this way is that I have to pay $900 to my line of credit this month and my budget is a bit tight for the rest of the month. Had this been a credit card payment I wouldn’t have had to pay nearly as much but it turned out it was my second largest bill (next to my mortgage).
This is a perfect example of what can happen if you’re not paying close attention to your finances. A simple slip up means that I am now going to have to be very carefull till my next pay. This is also another example of why you need to have an emergency fund. We all make mistakes from time to time and haivng some money saved can help prevent the need to play catch up.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Debt | 1 Comment
How I turned 20 minutes into $792
July 16th, 2009
A couple days ago I turned a 20 minute phone call into $792 and all I did was ask my cable company to reduce my rates. My cable company like many of the big telecommunication giants handles my home phone, cell phone, cable and interenet so innevitably I pay them a good chunk of change each month to do this. The plan that I was on was coming up and I was happy with the service they had provided me but I didn’t want to pay any extra.
I called and asked for a deal.
The response was sure thing Matt lets see what we can do for you. After going through each of the services that they offer me I was given discounts on everything dropping my monhtly bill by $66. Not bad for a 20 minute phone call. I know that I could have reduced this bill further by removing certain services completely such as cable and my home phone but I use both and I am not trying to scrimp on everything. In the end I am paying $172 per month for all of the services without any decrease in what I recieve.
Good customer service keeps clients happy.
Because I was given good deals I didn’t need to cancel any part of my package which is the ideal solution. The person that I dealt with on the phone was friendly and was able to approve everything without needing to go to a supervisor. It simply seemed like they knew what they were doing and offered me a great deal. The best part of the whole scenario is I just decreased my expenses and cut my cable bill by 28%.
Ask and you might recieve.
One of the tips a lot of personal finance books recommend when dealing with credit card debt is to ask for a decrease in your interest rate. The worst thing that you can be told is no; the very same thing holds true for other services and products that you pay for. When I called my cable company up they could have said no and I would have been no worse off than I was but they didn’t and I saved myself almost $800. If you don’t ask for something you definitely won’t get it.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Monthly Planning, Saving Ideas | No Comments
Focusing on One Goal – Finances
July 9th, 2009
For most of my adult life I have struggled with my finances, not that I haven’t been able to pay my bills or keep a steady job but more that I have been spending more money than I have made. I have been living way beyond my means! I have managed to get this under control for a bit at a time but it seems that inevitably I get back to the state of simply floating along and living from paycheck to paycheck rarely making any real progress. If you have lived this way you know its not fun and in the long run it is a very defeating way to live.
Recently I have read a few books about finances, business and success philosophy and the net result that I have gleaned from them is that in order to succeed at something you have to be passionate about it. A single driving vision or goal that keeps you going until there is success. I have always had an interest in finances (personal or commercial), which makes me wonder why I struggle so much with my own money, but I have never been truly passionate about my finances or any single goal for that matter.
I have decided that I am going to make my finances my one goal, my passion until they have been cleaned up and organized.
By focusing on my finances and any aspect of them such as debt or investing I will always keep an end goal in mind. My daily actions will be driven by my finances rather than simply floating along like I have been in the past. I am also setting a near term goal for this singular goal of mine and that is to get rid of my debt. While I am not going to ignore growing the meager assets that I do have I am going to make it a priority to get rid of my debt. Currently I am personally sitting with about $35K in consumer based debt; this will be my focus for the time being because it is a known quantifiable debt.
At the same time I am going to make sure that I am living below my means rather than above them; there is no possible way of getting ahead if I am spending more money than I am making. For the next few weeks I am going watch my spending and adjust it to make sure that my spending is under control; once that has been accomplished focus will shift to the debt.
Having a single goal makes decisions a lot easier: the question quickly becomes does it help the goal? if the answer is not yes then it is no. This type of thinking although very stark in nature does help focus on the end goal. I will start chronicling this in more detail on this site in order to share with others like myself as well as to keep myself accountable.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Debt, Financial Situation | No Comments
You’re Spending more than you make – now what?
July 8th, 2009
Have you ever found yourself living from paycheck to paycheck wondering where all fo your money went? Than as if all of a sudden you’re deep in debt. Guess what you’re spending more money than you’re making. This is commonly known as living beyond your means. I know that lunch with your buddies is far better than brown bagging it; as is driving that nice shiny new car but the reality is if you can’t afford it how are you paying for it?
What do I know about this subject? Well surprisingly a fair amount considering I have lived beyond my means in the past and its a trap that I fall back into from time to time. The scary thing is the more debt that you collect the easier it becomes to live beyond your means because you all of a sudden have a lot less money to spend on the frills and toys in life. To illustrate this point a little further I have been actively trying to stay on top of my spending for the last couple years. I haven’t made and extravagant purchases and when given the option to splurge spend I have avoided it. But I too am finding myself spending more than I make (unfortunately again).
Now what?
Well the simply answer to living beyond your means and spending more than you make is: Spend Less than you make. Its a pretty simply solution to the overall problem even though each individual situation is different the net result is the same. If you are spending more than you make then you simply need to spend less money. There are a few things I have done in the past to help me get my spending under control:
- Figure out what you’re spending your money on.
- Cut back on the unnecessary spending
- Review and cut back some more
- Test it out
Step 1 – Figure out what you’re spending your money on.
This one is pretty elementary in my opinion because if you don’t know where your money is going how could you possibly start spending less than you make. For example if you are spending $50 a day eating out for lunch but only make $200 a week then you’ve got a serious problem. The example is extreme but it shows that if you are not concious of your activities you might not realize you’re spending more than you make.
To figure out how much I am spending I like to collect my recipts and tabulate everything. Once I have about a months worth of information I can start seeing my weekly and daily patterns. Whatever works for you is fine but be meticulous about this. Then compare it to how much money you’re making if you’re spending more than you’re making then you’ve got a problem.
Step 2 – Cut back on the unnecessary spending
Now that you have this glorious list of your expenses you need to remove items from it. That daily lunch with Fred for $50 can probably go. If you’ve never done this exercise before start with the items that irritate you, you know the ones where you are left wondering why did you spend that money. A few examples of these are: expensive daily lunches, going out drinking with the boys, CDs, DVDs, and unfortunately I can keep going.
Step 3 – Review and cut back some more
Now that you’ve removed some of the items that you really don’t need to be spending your money on, look at what your expenses would be. Are you still likely to spend more than you’re making? If it looks like you’re going to spend less than you make you can skip this step. If you’re still spending more than you make you need to go back to the list and chop out some more. Be ruthless and really cut back on the things you don’t need. I am spending more than I make and a couple of the items that I spend money on that I could cut out and will probably is smoking and drinking alcohol. I enjoy one and want to quit the other but this is a money pit for me.
Keep at this list until you spend less than you make. If you’re having difficulties ask someone for help; swallow your pride and just get some help. Have a friend review your list, or your wife or a parent. Don’t pick someone who will berate you for your spending just someone to help you reduce it.
Step 4 – Test it out
The final step, putting your new budget to the test. You have to cut back on the spending that you were intending to cut back on – this is probably the hardest part of the whole process. This post isn’t about the psychology of spending your money just some of my experiences about spending less and living within your own means. Remember the beginning where answered the problem of spending more than you make by spending less? This is where you do it. You have to actually stop spending your and your banks money.
Once you’ve tried it out for a week or two you should start getting a sense of what does and doesn’t work. Adjust as necessary – remember not every week will be the same and the reality is that shit happens. If you blow a tire on the highway you’re going to have to replace it; there isn’t anything you can do about that. Don’t get hung up on the things you can’t control.
Now that I’ve given you my long winded version of living within your means its time for me to start applying my own rules again. My short term goal will be to spend no more than I am making right now and hopefully less. You can still live paycheck to paycheck without getting ahead but that’s a different topic at least you won’t be digging yourself further into debt.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Commentary, Financial Situation | 1 Comment
Weekly Budget – A revitalization
July 7th, 2009
Over the past couple years I have been trying to get myself into a weekly budget with some limited success. The primary reason for the lack of success has been motivation, lack of effort on my part and being too busy. I guess the first and third just feed into the lack of effort to some extent. Since my post on Saturday about refocusing on my finances I took a look at my spending and although I haven’t completed the exercise I have realized that I am back to my overspending ways.
My solution to budgeting has been the weekly budget – I am convinced that this is a solution that can be applied easily and is a small enough piece that can be managed without too much effort. In my efforts to finally get my finances under control I am going back to the weekly budget. This weeks budget will be a touch on the off side because some of my spending (aka bills) has been predetermined or already spent.
Here is my weekly budget for this week:
| Budget | Actual | |
| Alcohol | $50.00 | $11.80 |
| Food@Office | $30.00 | $17.71 |
| Food | $125.00 | $20.00 |
| Gas | $20.00 | |
| Entertainment | $0.00 | |
| Smokes | $50.00 | |
| Misc | $50.00 | |
| Transportation | $18.00 | $11.25 |
| Stupid | $0.00 | |
| Bills | 200.00 | |
| Baby | $0.00 | |
| Total | $543.00 | $60.76 |
| Updated July 8, 2009 – 8:34am | ||
For the most part this is similar to the weekly budgets that I have kept in the past though I have added a new category for bills. I have always kept this one separate in the guise of keeping some of my finances to myself. The reality of the situation is that if you asked me I would tell you so why not place it on the blog.
I am keeping the alcohol and smokes on this as separate categories for the time being though I am hoping to cut them down and generally eliminate them. But as Leo Babauta recommends in his book Power of Less
I have managed to keep myself in check over the past two days with my spending and keeping track of it and I intend to continue this. I will try to keep my spending updated throughout the day and hopefully at the very least daily.
If you’re curious I’ll be updating this page with my current week’s results: Weekly Budgets
Finally I would like to make a comment, I know this budget seems high for some of you but I would like you to keep a few things in mind:
- I live in a large city so my day to day costs are more expensive than most peoples
- I have a baby that will require unexpected spending
- I have debts that are weighing me down so my bills will be high for a while
- This budget represents my budget but will include household costs so some line items may seem disproportionately high
- Finally, this budget is a work in progress
I am hoping to keep to my budget this week and improve it over the next couple weeks as well as refine what it is that I am spending my money on.
Posted in 2009, Budgeting and Planning, Weekly Budgets | No Comments
