Layout:
Home > March spending

March spending

April 2nd, 2006 at 04:38 am

Wanted to record my spending for the month...not a great month, but luckily we had a lot of extra income due to tax returns.
Goals were:
Groceries: 275 -> spent $430, but $50 was on diapers/wipes, so really it was $380 - still way up there. I attribute this to the two St. Patrick's Day dinners we put on for extended family - added about $30 per dinner to the budget, but worth it.
Household/Cell: 265 -> 82.20 for two months of cell phone ($50 discount on each month for various reasons) - just realized that I never wrote my mom her check for our share of the utilities, so that will fall under next month
Car: 250 -> 312.42 on gas, no spending on car maintenance - unfortunately with all the driving DH and I do, there is just no way around this expense.
Medical: 100 -> 155 (had to refill a 3 month script and go to the dentist)
Clothes: 20 -> 37.77 (ds1 outgrew his pajamas)
Loans: 5800 -> 3300.36 for student/car loans, 2415.78 for credit cards (all paid off!), so 5716.14 total
Entertainment: 150 ->62.77
Gifts: 30 -> 0
Miscellaneous: 150 -> 193.91
Real estate: 150 -> 230
School: 100 -> 50
New category, this month only: car insurance - 1180 -> this is being deducted from my paycheck instead
Total expenses: $8470 -> 7270.53
Estimated income: $6930 -> 7235.98
The biggest shocker - not accounted for abive - we withdrew $600 from the bank this month. This is a huge amount - about double what we normally take out in a month, and we really do not know what it went for. And since we spent all of what we earned (and then some), that means it all came out of our savings. Ouch. I always try to keep track of cash spent, but I never succeed because 1. I never remember to write it down at the time of purchase, and 2. DH refuses to account to me what he spends cash for unless it's over $20. Gotta figure out how to get a handle on this.

Overall, though, I'm pretty pleased with the month. We came in under budget on quite a few items, enough to make up for the extra on groceries and gas. I like the idea of going to cash system for groceries, entertainment, etc., but I don't think I will ever get Dh to agree. I might just do it with my recurring expenses and let him do his thing. Another idea to mull over...

Net worth was up by about $6300 from two months ago, thanks to paying off all the credit cards and over half of the car loan. Yippee! Finally I feel like we are making progress. Hopefully I will be able to kill off the rest of the car loan within a few months, especially if I make some commissions soon.

0 Responses to “March spending”

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]