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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

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!

How did I get here?

I woke up on the morning of May 3rd, 2010 and thought to myself 'Oh my god, my rent cheque is going to bounce this month, how is that possible?'. My heart was beating out of my chest and I was thinking to myself 'if only I could explain to my landlord that I....'; what? That I make the same amount of money as most double income families living in this city? That I don't know where my money went, but wherever it is I hope it's having more fun than me right now?

After borrowing money off my boyfriend (for the umpteenth time over the course of our 2 year relationship) I felt a bit better and decided that today was going to be the day to get my head above water.

Little did I know that I was going to be hit with another "biggie" that would just dig me deeper. This is where it all began and this is the beginning of my journey to get out of debt and be able to stand on my own two feet!