Budget Attempt March 9 to March 22

The budget numbers are in. The general consensus is that I fell off the bandwagon this week due to being emotional about work. *sigh*

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Difference
Mortgage w/ Taxes	$610.00	$609.40	$0.60
RRSP	$100.00	$100.00	$0.00
RPP	$65.00	$66.63	-$1.63
House Insurance	$40.00	$35.50	$4.50
Car Insurance	$35.00	$31.52	$3.48
LOC	$700.00	$700.00	$0.00
Utilities	$100.00	$84.84	$15.16
Internet	$65.00	$65.10	-$0.10
Phone	$100.00	$98.02	$1.98
Fuel	$50.00	$40.00	$10.00
Food In	$60.00	$90.93	-$30.93
Food Out	$10.00	$25.19	-$15.19
Bank Fee	$5.00	$1.69	$3.31
Other	$20.00	$27.34	-$7.34

Between having my veggie order freeze outside, and deciding I wanted to spend an evening eating 7 layer dip rather than making dinner, I ended up going about $30 over budget. Fortunately some of that money was spent on salad fixings so I would have some good lunches for work. I was becoming rather uninspired by food, and usually when that happens I reach for take out/salty/greasy/sweet food. Having some easy whip up lunches on hand has helped stem that a bit.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stem it entirely. I ordered a personal pizza on Wednesday and devoured it before it was even cool. $2 was spent on pop at work. $5 went on my Starbucks card. $6.95 went to “just because” donuts for The Boy, which I can’t eat, but they fit in this category anyway.

My grandfather’s Tim Card reloaded this past week, so $20 went to that. I don’t actually know when it’s going to happen next, it just know that periodically it will. The rest of it went to a magazine which I devoured from cover to cover.

It’s amazing to look back on the last two years. Take out, Starbucks and magazines used to be a fact of life, while I treated myself to new clothes whenever I wanted them. Now takeout, Starbucks and magazines have become my treat.

As per yesterday’s post, a good chunk of money was moved out of debt repayment this pay period:

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Difference
Mortgage w/ Taxes	$610.00	$0.00	$610.00
RPP	$65.00	$0.00	$65.00
LOC	$375.00	$0.00	$375.00
LOC Interest	$40.00	$0.00	$40.00
Utilities	$200.00	$0.00	$200.00
Fuel	$50.00	$0.00	$50.00
Food In	$100.00	$0.00	$100.00
Food Out	$10.00	$0.00	$10.00
Flight	$430.00	$0.00	$430.00
Medical	$50.00	$0.00	$50.00
Other	$30.00	$0.00	$30.00

If we hadn’t gotten our plane tickets this month, I would have been able to put $800 on my debt in one fell swoop. That would have been nice eh? Instead it’s sitting at $375 this go around. The only reason it isn’t over $400 is because I’m hosting a brunch for 12 this pay period, so I needed more money in the grocery budget. I have a couple prescriptions that need refilling, and allergy season is just around the corner, so I’ve included at budget line for medical expenses this go around.

How are your budgets going? Did you manage to keep your spending in check after the low spend February was over?

Recommended Reading: International Share Your Budgeting Secrets Day.

Double Challenge Month – Weekly Update #3

This week I was decidedly less energetic than last week. I just felt like I was dragging. Combine that with a frustrating bout of insomnia, and you have kind of a slack decluttering. I tried.

The disastrous before shots:

My living room had turned into the equivalent of a multipurpose catch all zone. I opened mail there, ate dinner there, read there, blogged there, sewed there, you name it. On occasion I’ve even fallen asleep there when I just didn’t have the energy to walk up stairs to my (still tidy!) bedroom.

This is after:

Clutter, misc papers, and sewing stuff gone. Well, except for one Lululemon shopping bag which holds some small crafts by the couch. The short book case is actually empty now, and it’s going to be moved into the kitchen to hold cookbooks and small appliances. The only reason it hasn’t been moved yet is because my roommate is sick.

The large bookcase is the one I really wanted to work on:

It’s been a catch all for miscellaneous crap since I moved into my house, and despite my attempts to organize it before it always fell short. I’m satisfied with it for now. There are some shoe boxes at the bottom that I’d like to replace with decorative boxes, but that will have to wait until I have money.

Speaking of money, this is how it went this week:

February 8 – *No Spend*
February 9 -$0.00 – coffee on SBux card, already paid from prior pay check.
February 10 – *No Spend*
February 11 – *No Spend*
February 12 – *No Spend*
February 13 – *No Spend*
February 14 – *Pending*

Discretionary money balance: -$0.00

I’d say it was a fairly successful week money wise. My car was full of fuel, so I haven’t had to fill up again yet. I do need eggs, milk, dried beans and salt, I just haven’t made it to the grocery store for them yet. I have to pay for my veggie box still, which might show up on today’s spending, otherwise I’ll pay for it tomorrow. I posted a bunch of stuff on kijiji and I got 3 bites worth a total of about $60. Unfortunately 2 of them just sort of vanished, and when I tried to meet up with the 3rd today we spent 1/2 an hour both not seeing each other, both going home frustrated, only to find out yes we were both at the same location *facepalm* Fingers crossed that one will go through on Thursday.

Going through the living room I managed to throw out 11 items, put aside 6 items for donation, and put 49 items in the recycling (mostly magazines). I also gave 5 Engineering study guides to The Boy’s younger brother, because he’s currently at the university doing his first year there. So, that’s 71 items this week, bringing my total this month to 167.

I made the mistake of adding up the purchase price of the magazines I put in the recycling this week. $167.68 plus taxes. That sucked; though to be honest I was expecting it to be much worse.

How did your challenges go this week? Next week’s productivity challenge for me is going to be tackling my office/filing cabinet. What’s yours?

Recommended Reading: Your Money Is Yours.

Double Challenge Month – Update #2

And now for the money side of week 1:

February 1  -$3.35 – coffee w/ friend
-$20.00 – fuel
+$19.50 – returned pop cans
February 2 – *No Spend*
February 3 – *No Spend*
February 4 – *No Spend*
February 5 – *No Spend*
February 6  -$8.96 – food bank donation
-$41.20 – veggie delivery
February 7 – *Pending No Spend* -$33.16 – fuel

Discretionary money balance: -$54.01 -$87.17

I wonder if I’ll be able to make that a positive by the end of the month?

I have today down as a “pending no spend” because I’m spending the beginning of it at home cleaning before I head to work. I can’t spend money if I don’t leave the house.

I think I did fairly well this week. I had plans to meet a friend for coffee, which we typically do at Starbucks. Unfortunately this time she wanted to go elsewhere, so I had to use money out of my account rather than off my pre-loaded Starbucks card. There was a $3 minimum to use the debit, and I didn’t have cash on me, so I ended up getting a latte rather than tea to make their minimum. The $8.96 went towards a couple multipack boxes of flavoured oatmeal, and some Campbells chunky soup that was on sale for less than the smaller generic brand cans of soup. I dropped it off in the donation bin on my way out of the store.

I beat most of the battle this week by spending time doing things at home. The rest of the battle, grabbing food on the run, I gave the heave ho by stocking myself up on snacks to keep the sweet beast at bay, and keeping my water bottle on me. The first half of the week I had rice crispie squares, and the second half I’ve been munching on homemade peanut butter cookies. I figure I’ll be out of cookies by Wednesday, so I’ll probably make some homemade Lara bars then. I have to grab some fuel tomorrow, more about that later, but otherwise I’m gunning for no spend days until next pay day. This last pay period was cut closer than I’d like, but that’s what happens when you set yourself a challenge. Next pay period looks to be about the same, because I won’t have any night shift premium on it. Boo that.

How are your financial challenges coming?

Recommended Reading: What Plants vs. Zombies Taught Me About Paying Off Debt.