Oh boy. I could not believe how much I spent in November when I added everything up. I have this little sheet of paper that I thought would be enough, and I have numbers crammed all over it. I am going to total these up as I go...I hope it's not too painful. I haven't kept track of things this accurately for a while, so I might be in for a shock.
Let's see...groceries: 330.06 This is WAY more than I usually spend. However, we had to buy a lot of "staples" for our first month on the South Beach diet. For example, several boxes of whole wheat pasta, brown rice, healthier (read: more expensive) cereals, tons of fresh fruit and veggies. I expect this to go down because 1. we have a stockpile of healthier items to chose from now, and 2. we made a lot of quick dashes to the store this month to grab something quick when we found we did not have anything diet-compliant in the house. Now that we are more familiar with the diet, we can plan a little better (I hope).
Household expenses: $570 (elec, phone, Dish tv, Netflix - check written to my mom who pays all of these things). This was higher than usual as I was a little behind (sheepish grin). It's nothing intentional, I'm just an airhead when remembering to pay every month. And my mom NEVER will ask for it, so I keep track to make sure I am paying her all that is owed. This will definitely be much better next month (if I remember to pay...)
CLothing: $20.65 - A few new items for me and one shirt for ds2 (from a thrift store). This will maybe go up a little as I need some clothes that fit me better.
Car/gas: 280.05 ($15 oil change, the rest is gas). I expect this to decrease because the price of gas is falling steadily, and also because DH will be done with this semester after 12/9 (he drives 30 miles each way, 4 days per week). However, I do need to get my snow tires put on and DH still needs to get the dent in his car fixed, so we will have to budget a little for that.
Medical: 380.00 - will probably stay the same, as DH needs to order his expensive contacts this month. Hopefully it will go down in January though.
Gifts: 256.75 - mostly Christmas shopping, although we did have a few birthdays this month (about $60)
Loans: $4200 - definitely will decrease. I put my huge commission check onto my student loan ($3700) but there will be no huge checks next month! Other loans: $300 to DH's student loans, $200 to car.
Entertainment: 845.24 - Wow, I was most scared by this total, but when you take out the Vegas trip ($644), we only spent $200. However, $54.99 was to eat out. I thought we were doing really well in this area, but DH and/or I ate out a total of 7 times this month. Sometimes it was just a slice of pizza here or a taco there, but it was a lot more than I thought. However, it still was a lot less than we used to eat out before going on SB diet, so I guess that's a plus. It also helps to think about the money we are saving on eating out while I'm paying the grocery bills! We spent just over $100 on bowling night (counting paying the babysitter), so that will stay constant, although we won't be bowling on Christmas.
Miscellaneous: $238.79 - there are a lot of non-negotiables that fall into this category such as son's pre-school, vet bill, and chocolate covered espresso beans , but there is definite room for improvement. There are some expenses that will not be incurred regularly (new cell phones, magazine subscription renewal), but I'm sure there will be other expenses to take their place.
This is going to be a huge entry - more for my benefit than for anyone reading it - but I hope it will help to direct my spending next month.
Goals:
Grocery: $275.00
Household: $250
Clothing: $50
Car/gas: $200/gas, $200 car-related expenses
Medical: $375 (DH's contacts plus two co-pays for getting bloodwork done plus one prescription refill)
Gifts: $500 - we should be able to make this since we took ourselves out of the budget with our trip to Vegas
Loans: $1200 (I should be able to put about $1000 more toward my loan with my next commission check, then out standard $200 car payment. DH's loans are in deferment, so we can wait on his).
Entertainment: $150 - I'll try to cut this a little, although I am not going to feel bad if we go over.
Miscellaneous: $200
Total expenses: $3400, estimated income (with commission check): $3692.
Now back to my regularly scheduled entries...I have some catching up to do.