I feel that I'm not being honest with myself this time around about how well I'm doing with my budgeting. After last weekend my booze envelope is empty, my toiletries envelope is empty (and I didn't use that money for toiletries); luckily I have money in my grocery envelope so I can eat, the animals have full bags of food and my dine out envelope is still full (and by full, I mean it has $20 in it, so I won't be going to fancy places). I think that having a partner that is so generous makes this process tougher; I want to become financially stable and be able to take care of myself in case something ever happens, but my significant other keeps on insisting on paying for things.
On the weekend we went to the casino (that's where my toiletry money went) and he won quite a bit of money so has been paying for dinner and drinks all week. I feel a sense of guilt about this because he shouldn't have to 'pay' because he's good with money and I'm not.
Those are my thoughts for the week.
I've included a link to an article I read today. It's US based, but I believe could still be applicable to Canadians. The question being posed is can you save money by taking public transit vs. driving? Let me know your thoughts.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/blog/page.aspx?post=1771236
Showing posts with label booze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label booze. Show all posts
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
1st weekend on a budget = hard, very hard.
As the title states, this weekend was hard. During the week it was easy to avoid temptation, make cheap food & limit the amount of booze I was drinking. The only saving grace for my budget this weekend was that our plans included plenty of cheap beer.
I was successful in some aspects of my budgeting this weekend.
As lots of people (can I call you fans now???) have stated, setting a goal for yourself will help with the saving. After a lot of research I finally found the DSLR I want to buy and strive to save for. I have created a new envelope called 'Camera Fund', not extra money, not carry over money, but an envelope that I will fill with $1,000 for my new camera. We have $15 in this envelope right now as we returned all of our empties. I think it's really easy to just throw your empties in the recycling bin and contribute to your local canners income, but after spending an hour gathering all of the cans and taking them to the return it depot we realized that this is a quick way to get some extra cash.
I am now 5 days into my enveloping and budgeting and am doing fairly well. The envelope for the animals food is empty so they may be eating dry pasta with me every night, but other than that I properly budgeted my groceries, dining out envelope and booze.
I posted a link to another blog that I found that is dedicated to cheap & healthy meals. I highly recommend that you check it out. We have made two meals from this blog, both were tasty and inexpensive.
Happy Monday.
I was successful in some aspects of my budgeting this weekend.
As lots of people (can I call you fans now???) have stated, setting a goal for yourself will help with the saving. After a lot of research I finally found the DSLR I want to buy and strive to save for. I have created a new envelope called 'Camera Fund', not extra money, not carry over money, but an envelope that I will fill with $1,000 for my new camera. We have $15 in this envelope right now as we returned all of our empties. I think it's really easy to just throw your empties in the recycling bin and contribute to your local canners income, but after spending an hour gathering all of the cans and taking them to the return it depot we realized that this is a quick way to get some extra cash.
I am now 5 days into my enveloping and budgeting and am doing fairly well. The envelope for the animals food is empty so they may be eating dry pasta with me every night, but other than that I properly budgeted my groceries, dining out envelope and booze.
I posted a link to another blog that I found that is dedicated to cheap & healthy meals. I highly recommend that you check it out. We have made two meals from this blog, both were tasty and inexpensive.
Happy Monday.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Day one was successful, but that might be because all of my envelopes are still stuffed!
I had a minor panic attack when I put my plastic to rest yesterday; I even stood in line at the bank to take money out instead of accumulating bank fees.
After my initial 'oh my, I only can spend this much on food and booze for the next two weeks', I remembered why I was doing this and how I never, ever want to hit rock bottom again the way I did a month ago.
For the first time ever I actually wrote out a grocery list. I have budgeted myself $50 for this pay period for groceries. Instead of just walking around the grocery store randomly grabbing things that looked good, I compared prices and stuck to my list. My grocery bill for the week came out at $20.55. Pretty good so far.
Today I decided to take out money from my coffee fund and have a coffee this morning. In this envelope I've limited myself to $20 per pay period. Keep in mind that I was spending, on average $25 in coffee from Monday to Friday and usually the same amount on weekends (when I factored into buying Glen coffee). Needless to say this will be one of the tough ones.
Next challenge will be the weekend. We have already agreed not to go out for dinner, but a show tonight (= booze) + poker + more drinks with friends. This will be hard. I also didn't budget for poker, but hey, I could win and be on top! Oh, that's not the way I should look at things, right?
Have a great weekend and keep the comments coming!
After my initial 'oh my, I only can spend this much on food and booze for the next two weeks', I remembered why I was doing this and how I never, ever want to hit rock bottom again the way I did a month ago.
For the first time ever I actually wrote out a grocery list. I have budgeted myself $50 for this pay period for groceries. Instead of just walking around the grocery store randomly grabbing things that looked good, I compared prices and stuck to my list. My grocery bill for the week came out at $20.55. Pretty good so far.
Today I decided to take out money from my coffee fund and have a coffee this morning. In this envelope I've limited myself to $20 per pay period. Keep in mind that I was spending, on average $25 in coffee from Monday to Friday and usually the same amount on weekends (when I factored into buying Glen coffee). Needless to say this will be one of the tough ones.
Next challenge will be the weekend. We have already agreed not to go out for dinner, but a show tonight (= booze) + poker + more drinks with friends. This will be hard. I also didn't budget for poker, but hey, I could win and be on top! Oh, that's not the way I should look at things, right?
Have a great weekend and keep the comments coming!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)