Try as I might I can't have a No Spend Day. I enjoy my morning coffee at work too much. And yes, I have tried to make coffee at home in an attempt to cut this out of my budget but I still like good old hospital cafeteria coffee. So, instead of beating myself up about never having a NSD I have created a new acronym...WBD. It stands for Within Budget Day (feel free to use if you like). I figure if I budget myself $10 a week for my morning treat as long as I don't go over that I am within budget. I have placed a cup in my drawer where I am stashing the cash and that is the only place I can take money from when I have or want to buy food while at work. Once it's gone, it's gone. So, Within Budget Day gives me some room to enjoy my coffee and not feel guilty about it. I think I can actually have a ton of WBD. I am going to try to keep track for the month of July.

Unfortunately today will not be one of those days

I was all set for it to be but then we were invited to a spur of the moment birthday parent for our neighbor. We don't usually do gifts for birthdays but since we are going over for pizza, cake, and swimming I figure I should at least bring a card and a couple of scratch off lotto tickets. So, as easy as that my WBD goes out the window.

I am hopeful though...I think I may be on to something here

I know there are certain areas of my "budget" that can be improved upon but besides having a lobotomy I am not sure how I am ever going to change.

I just looked over some numbers from both April and May of this year. While some areas I did great in others didn't fare so well. Categories like my car and utilities don't change too much from month to month unless we are in the dead of winter.

Take for instance the amount of money I spend on food. Crazy! I'll admit that I don't do a menu plan every week and that maybe contributing to my dilema. More than that I think I just like to eat

Food totals for April- 519.63. We are a family of 4 people, not 40! Does this seem like a lot? I know we had company during the month and it was DD birthday. Out of that 519, 467.42 was spent at the grocery store and 52.21 was spent on things like coffee and donuts and lunch when I didn't bring something with me to work.

Food totals for May-much better coming in at 243.91. 191.22 spent at the grocery store, 33.20 on coffee and donuts, 19.49 taking the fam out to McDonalds.

I have to put an end to this craziness! I am toying with the idea of using envelopes for food money. When I get paid tomorrow I am going to take $150 out in cash. $20 will be left in my desk drawer at work for 2 weeks and $130 will be my grocery money. When the envelope is empty that's it. Now this is where the lobotomy may come in handy. How I keep myself to this routine and not use my debit card for additional purchases is beyond me. I think I may leave the card at home so I am not tempted.

There are a few more categories that I have to discuss with myself but that will have to wait. I have to go eat my lunch

It seems like it has been ages since I last posted. I am going to try to get back on track starting today. Financially I have been doing better. I am paying more attention to what I spend my money on and am trying my hardest to pay $500 a month towards my debt. That hasn't been so easy but I find if I pay my credit cards the day I get paid rather than waiting for the day they are due I don't have the money there to spend. My job has put me on call so the week days I am on call I make an additional $12 and on weekends an additional $24 per shift. It's not a ton but I banked my first on call pay which turned out to be about $80. I found put yesterday that I am getting a 3.2% raise next month. Not great with math but it should be about $200 a month. Back to clipping coupons and limiting the shopping trips. Searching each week for the lowest price gas station. Thinking about trying to do some more on line surveys to make some more cash. Also will be having a garage sale this summer once I get it organized. I can't wait to get rid of some of our stuff!

I had to stay home today with DS due to daycare issues. We had a nice day staying cozy. We had a bit of an ice storm last night so I was glad to not have to deal with the traffic and bad road conditions. For having the day off I am now working in the evening. I have about 1 hour to go!

Today is a day to celebrate. I just paid off not 1, not 2, but 3 credit cards!!!! I have cut the cards up into a million pieces and don't plan on using them again. One is my Sam's club card that I will just have to make sure I pay cash when I go.
Anyways they were all store cards which are a waste but here is the break down:
Ann Taylor 65.24
Old Navy 260.20
Sam's Club 474.91

For a whopping total of 800.35. All my store credit cards are paid off and a thing of the past!!!!!!!

I still have about $400.00 left to apply to debt. I am going to wait until Friday when I get paid to see what needs to be next in my list of priorities.

Thanks to everyone for offering their support and encouragement!!

Oh yeah, went to the doctor today and the old weight is down to 148!!!! Could today possibly get any better?!

Accountable that is! I just got done running the numbers for the month of February. There was an increase of medical/dental due to my tooth issues and the medications I was on for that. Groceries are a bit high due to the fact that my sister and her family spent 4 days with us.

Still have to work on the miscellaneous items as I know I can do better.

So here it goes....

Car payment 304.42
Car insurance 62.48
Gas for car 142.74 (ugh)

Household utilities 464.13 (large portion was Gas and Electric-living in the North during the month of Feb can be expensive!)

Med/Dental 229.41 (which I expect to be reimbursed for)

Groceries 232.60
Coffee and/or lunch at work 23.63
1 Family dinner out 45.95

Gym Membership 64.95
Life Insurance 30.00

Cash allowance 62.00
Transfer to savings 35.00

Debt repayment 334.17
School loan 77.55

Gifts for 4 bdays 40.44
Clothes 15.75
Book for DD 5.83
New coffee maker 21.00

Other unaccounted for expenses 124.46

Yikes! It's hard to see it out there like that. I know there are many areas that need improvement and that will be my goal for March. I am going to pay extra attention to:
Groceries
Coffee/lunch at work
and all the miscellaneous spending that needs to be reigned in.

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In other news I am having my 12 year old neice spend the night tonight. She is going to religious ed with us in the morning and then off to an event for DD First Communion prep. We are re-enacting the Last Supper and have to wear our bathrobes and sandals and eat grapes, pitas, and hummus. Should be interesting. DH is refusing to go so I roped the neice in. We should have a good time if only laughing at each other!

DS got sick in his crib last night. He is only 3 and that is the first time that happened. Poor little guy was scared to death. He is feeling better today so I am thinking it was something he ate. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep last night so I may go take a nap.

Tomorrow is payday which is especially exciting this time around because I am getting paid for my unused sick time from last year. We only get 40 hours of sick time a year and I managed to reserve 16 hours. Not bad considering I have 2 children who bring home various germs and illnesses each year. That should be a nice added bonus to help offset my heating bill this month.

I am also expecting some money from my medical reimbursement plan. I think I have about $250 there. I am going to use some of that to pay the dentist for DD check up and xrays and then apply the rest towards my debt reduction plan.

Unfortunately my budget doesn't leave a lot of room for additional debt reduction this pay period. I am going to scrimp in every category that I can. I think I can get by under my food budget. I have been introducing 3 new recipes to my family a week for the past 2 weeks and they aren't going over so well. I am about ready to give up and go back to grilled cheese and hot dogs!

DS turns 3 next week and is really coming along with potty training. I will be glad when he is completely out of pull-ups/diapers. Haven't decided on the menu for the family party yet. I will probably make his cake myself and pick up some ice cream. I am thankful that he is not at the age when you feel obliged to have a "friends" party!

Tonight I am going to sit down with my bank statement and review the month of December. I wasn't being as budget conscience then so it should be a real eye opener. I am hoping to track my monthly expenses as well as daily/weekly. I am thinking if I am more aware of my money and where it is going I will be less likely to waste it.

Not much else going on here. I have managed to make it to the gym 3 times a week in the last 8 week a total of 6 weeks! There were 2 weeks when I was only able to go twice. Not too bad! I was afraid when I joined that I wouldn't use it and it would be a waste. So far I am proving myself wrong!

and I am pretty optimistic about it. I really think this is the year that I get control over my finances and start making some progress.

I see some of the progress already. I have been sticking to my budget for the last 2 pay periods and I just calculated everything and came out with $176.96 left over from last pay period. Might not seem like a lot to some but prior to starting here I rarely had anything left over.

So, I just divided this amount by 3 and made an additional payment to one of my store credit cards. This is something I never would have done in the past. I would have said "oh extra money for me to spend!" But I just completed the transaction on-line and off it went. I also took 1/3 and transferred it to my FNBO savings account in addition to the amount I normally contribute. So, I am a few steps ahead this month...yeah me!!!

I think 2008 is going to be a good year for me We don't have anything really planned for the weekend so as long as I can stay away from the mall I should be OK without spending any money. I am going to devote sometime to cleaning the kids rooms and perhaps finding some stuff to sell on ebay. I have had some look on there before but have gotten away from it. I doubt this is a great time to be selling but I'll see what I can do.

Everyone have a safe and happy New Years Eve!

So according to my budget I should have $43.06 left in my checking account before my paycheck is put in tonight. My online checking account says I have $85.11. I have no idea where the discrepency is coming from. I recorded everything that I spent and I can not account for the extra money. Not that I am complaining about having extra money but I like things to be exact and this just isn't adding up. Frustration like this in the past is what led me to give up on budgetting or even trying to balance my checkbook.

Note to myself-I am NOT going to waste +$30 on muffins and coffee next week. I refuse to do it no matter how badly I may want them. I am hoping to make Christmas cookies this weekend so maybe that will replace my muffins.

Well, I just ran through my numbers for the first 2 weeks of my new budget and for someone who has never liked to budget or been successful with it I think I did pretty good. There are some areas that I need to do better on and those will become my goals as I enter the 2nd pay period of my budget.

Areas I went over include:
Groceries-I had a budget of $100 and spent 198.73. The increase was due to the dinner party my husband decided to have.

Spending money-I had a budget of $80 which I thought would be more than enough but I spent 83.90. My biggest weakness is the coffee and muffins. I have to stay away from the food no matter how convenient it is.

I came in under budget in the gas category and all other areas I was right on target-expect my prescription that I forget to budget for. Luckily that was only $16.00.

I am expecting to get reimbursed for $241.00 worth of therapy sessions and the 16 for my prescription. When that money comes in I am going to apply it to my debt.

I love Christmas but will be happy when I can focus more on saving and paying off my debt. With all the shopping I have done I haven't purchased anything for myself which is a big improvement over last year. Last year I was buying a present for someone and then I would pick up the same thing for me. Ugh-shopping addiction sucks!

I went totally over budget this past weekend when we had friends over for dinner. I spent $85 at the grocery store in addition to the $100 I allow for groceries every 2 weeks. I was going to send my husband but then realized that he probably wouldn't be able to find half the stuff on my list. All in all it was a great time but I have had to borrow from my savings account to cover the additional expense.

Did some more Christmas shopping last night. Not sure how much damage I did until I get home and look. I got home late last night and just put the stuff in the garage. Tonight I will make sure I have equal presents from both kids and that the amounts are close to being equal. I still have to finish dh and all the stocking stuffers, not to mention the cards and cookies!

I did make it to the gym 3 times last week and last night I tried a spinning class. Good God, what kind of torture is that?! I nearly fell off the bike a few times and couldn't complete the class. I would not recommend spinning to a beginner!