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!
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Ooh, what half marathons are you signed up for?
I think it’s great that you were able to only go over budget by $30, considering how much future planning you were able to take care of!
I’m running the Disneyland Half and the Disney World Wine and Dine Half. Plus another local one in a few weeks. I realize it’s a little crazy to travel that much to run, but they put on such great races (plus the DL Half is the 5th anniversary and the Wine & Dine Half is an inaugural race, so that means special medals on both counts).
Fun, maybe you’ll run past me! A group of us are running the DL half as well (but we’re from So Cal, so it’s not a huge distance to travel…I have my hopes sent on the Disney Marathon one day, so I understand the desire to travel =) )
I have heard awesome things about the Disney Marathon. I just don’t think that running a marathon the first weekend of January will ever happen for me. December is such a busy month, and it’s so dark outside. But if you’re in So Cal, it’s definitely doable!