Counting My Pennies » budget

Bad PF Blogger

Megan — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:20:40 +0000

I have to admit it. My budget has gotten away from me.

It’s entirely my own fault. I’m used to having more discretionary funds than I do now. Where did those funds go? Well, I bought a house and my roommate moved out. These are both things that I can afford, but it means cutting back in other areas.

I thought I was being reasonable with my purchases, and for the most part, I have. I’ve been buying things for the house, things like furniture to replace the patio furniture previously in my living room and storage things to help with the closets. But I’m not going to lie, I’ve also bought a few ridiculous things that I didn’t need to spend money on.

So now I’m trying to tighten the purse strings a bit. December is going to be a month of not spending. I’m still going to buy groceries and such, but I’m really pulling things in so that I can start the new year fresh.

One thing that helps is just keeping a constant eye on my spending. This is a lesson we all know, but something we can always stand to be reminded of. Make a budget and follow it. It can be the envelope system, an online system, a spreadsheet on your computer, or a little notebook you carry around. Just figure out what you have, what you can spend, and where you will spend it. Easy, right?

Budget Updates and Planned Purchases

Megan — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:22:03 +0000

I usually try to log into YNAB once a week and update all my numbers just to be sure I’m on track. But life got away from me and I went over two weeks. Logging in was definitely a scary proposition. I was pretty sure that my budget was fine, but I like being on track just a little bit better.

I did have some expenses this month that I hadn’t planned for, so there were a few issues, but so far, things seem to be okay. I realized this month that my computers have a tendency to die at the three year mark, which will hit for me next spring. I should start saving now. Do I think my current computer will die then? No. But it doesn’t hurt to start setting aside cash for a replacement when the time comes. I’m not as hard on computers as I used to be – all other computers were laptops used in college and grad school, and my law school laptop traveled to and from campus with me every day. That kind of use just wears on a computer. I regularly wore out the keys and had to get them replaced (thank you, Dell). But my current computer only gets sporadic use, mostly for internet surfing and movie watching. And of course, budget keeping. So it’s probably got a number of years left.

I’m trying to be better about really saving up for things long-term, rather than saying “Okay, I need this in three months, so I have to put away each month.” It’s not hard to put away $10 or $25 or even more some months, so I should just try to sock away the cash for when I do decide I need it. It will make the big purchases so much easier.

Moving Budget – Gone!

Megan — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:00:32 +0000

One of the things that I did prior to moving is set up a moving budget. This was the total amount of money that I wanted to spend for the move and all the costs associated with it. That included some of the immediate maintenance/improvement things I wanted to do, like put down gravel in the driveway and have the gutters cleaned, as well as the things I needed to purchase, such as lawn care tools.

And that budget is officially gone. Have I done everything I hoped to do? No, but I’m not worried. The move itself is complete. I’m sure I will be making many more trips to Home Depot in the next couple of weeks to pick up odds and ends, but I’ll just have to make that work out of my normal monthly budget. But this new budget is just a bit tighter than my old apartment budget. My costs have gone up, plus I’m trying to sock away extra funds for repairs and things I realize that I need for the house. So that means that my planned trip to Costco over the weekend will just have to wait. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I just have to be a little more careful with my money and where it goes.

A new month, a new start!

Megan — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:04:14 +0000

I love the beginning of the month. It means that I get to flip the calendar over and see a shiny new picture. It means seeing how many miles I ran last month and starting over at zero (well, maybe I don’t love that giant goose-egg all that much). And it means a new monthly budget.

(Crap, it also means that I forgot the rent check. I can still get it in today.)

No matter what I did last month, this month, I get to start out fresh. Since I use YNAB, my budget overages for last month mean that I have less to spend this month, but that’s okay. I have no budget overages yet this month. My funds are sitting there, waiting to pay bills and buy groceries.

It’s a nice feeling. Now if only I can end the month with money left in those categories!

What matters.

Megan — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:02:25 +0000

As of late (as you have likely noticed), I haven’t really been blogging about money very much. And I’m not sure why, but I think it has something to do with starting to wonder what really matters.

Now, I’m not saying money doesn’t matter to me. It does. I want the ability to live a comfortable life, to give my hypothetical children a great education, and to be able to enjoy my retirement. But money isn’t everything.

A friend of the family is in the hospital suffering from third degree burns over a large part of his body (due, in part, to his own stupidity). Another friend is in the ICU at Walter Reed. And friends of friends are battling divorces and dealing with ill children and all sorts of things.

So it starts to make my money goals seem like nothing at all.

Of course, with ignoring my money, I find that I’m spending more. And really, what I could be doing is trying to keep the budget tight and use that money to help these friends in small ways or donate to charities helping people like them.

I don’t know, things have just been put into perspective over the past few weeks.

Whoops

Megan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:14:55 +0000

Man, blogging is hard. Who knew, right?

I have a million excuses, really. I had a cold. My internet was out thanks to all the storms we’ve had recently (though we never lost power, thank goodness ). Work has been insane.

But excuses are meaningless. Hoping to try to get back to some regular posting soon.

I updated my YNAB budget this weekend and man, it has been a spendy month. I clearly need to get back on track with budgeting. I know what’s gone wrong. I got a roommate. I suddenly have more funds. While I’m putting more money directly into savings because of that, I’m also spending way more than normal. Some of that is what I would call necessary spending (though it’s not exactly on necessities). I bought new running shoes and some clothes for work. These are both things that were sort of needed. I also did a bit of early Christmas shopping. And then I’ve just been spending on random things, using this extra money as an excuse to buy a few of the things I’ve been lusting after and not able to spend money on.

The problem is that I didn’t budget for any of this and so I’m already way over budget in a few areas and it’s only mid-month. Not good at all, especially with all the traveling I have coming up during September and October. But there’s nothing I can do about it now. So the plan is to just tighten the purse strings and count this as a learning experience (a fun one, that’s for sure) and go back to carefully planning my budget from now on.

The good thing is that I knew what I was doing as I was doing it. I knew I was blowing my budget. So I do have a good idea of what my funds are like. Now I just need to learn to pay attention and NOT blow the budget.

“I can’t, I’m broke.”

Megan — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:24:00 +0000

Does this phrase bother you when uttered by people who you know have money?

What about “I just can’t afford that right now.” Or “It’s not in the budget.”

It’s just another way of saying “I am not going to spend money on that right now.” And we all have our reasons. Maybe we can’t go out to lunch because we really are broke. Maybe we have stretched ourselves a little thin and can’t buy lunch because we have to pay rent. Maybe we are careful with our budgets and don’t have the money in the “lunch” category.

For the most part, it doesn’t bother me. But I have a friend who is constantly complaining that she’s broke and she’s not. She revealed her financial situation to me (in general terms) and she pays all her bills and has paid off her credit card. She’s got spending money. Spending money that she spends. She’ll tell me on Tuesday that she’s broke and then on Wednesday, go and drop $200 on new clothes. It’s her choice as to what she buys, but I’m sorry, that doesn’t qualify as broke.

What REALLY grates is that sometimes, someone will offer to buy her lunch for her. I would happily do that for a coworker or a friend if I knew she was tight on cash and wanted her to join us. But I think it’s wrong to claim you have no money and take advantage of someone else’s generosity.

Do these phrases bug you? Would you prefer that someone just say “It’s just not in the budget” rather than “I have no money.” Do you care?

March Net Worth Update (+2.61)

Megan — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:38:51 +0000

March was a pretty stellar month. My net worth increased 2.61%. My investments grew, I put more money into savings, started my new car fund with the money from my the fender bender, and I started contributing to my Roth IRA for this year. All in all, I’m pretty pleased.

Of course, it’s April 2, and my monthly budget is already a mess. It’s my own fault – I decided to make a few purchases earlier than normal. (No, I haven’t blown the whole budget, of course, just a few categories.) These things happen, and I might be able to spend less in some categories and make up for the overages by the end of the month. And if not, I know I can do it in May, when I planned to make the purchases. That’s the fun of a flexible budget after all!

So close, yet so far

Megan — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:29:48 +0000

So I thought I was doing pretty well on my budget this month. Destroyed my travel budget, but that’s because I booked flights for trips in both September and October (both half-marathons I have already signed up for). The price was right though, and I’ll just keep socking away money to cover the rest of the trip costs.

The budget categories were looking good. I was pleased. And then I got an Evite reminder. For a fundraising dinner that I had agreed (and wanted) to go to. It’s for a cause I very much support, thrown by a girl I very much like, and the price is $20 and a bottle of wine (or your preferred beverage) per group. So that meant hitting the ATM a few days early (I had $20 in my wallet, but don’t like to ever be completely out of cash) and a trip to the beer and wine store. Sure, it’s only about a $30 overage when it’s all said and done, but I was SO close! Some months, I’m so far from close that it’s not even funny.

But really, it’s not a big deal at all. $30 over budget for a month that involved a bunch of travel, plus booking additional trips. Not bad at all. Here’s hoping next month is even better!

Smooth Sailing

Megan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:00:50 +0000

I was trying to come up with an idea for today’s posts, so I tried to think of some stupid financial thing that I did recently.

And I couldn’t come up with anything.

Of course, that’s good. But it makes for some boring blogging. Clearly, I need to go out on some sort of a spending binge. Completely blow my budget. Buy something totally ridiculous.

I am going on vacation next week, so there is of course the potential for all of this. (Note to would-be burglars – I have a house sitter coming. Thwarted.) But for now, things are good. I really do think that a lot of it is situational. We had a crazy snowstorm. While I wasn’t stuck inside, my world got very small for over a week. There was nowhere to go, no money to spend. I made a point of not doing any online shopping because I didn’t want to blow the budget. So here I sit, nearing the end of the month and sitting pretty, budget wise.

Of course, I’m not cured of my spending woes. I”m sure I’ll blow my budget soon enough!