Well, one can hardly have a good idea of what one can save unless one knows what has to be spent first, right?
As a side note: Being this frank about money where anyone can see it makes me uncomfortable. I realize this is a silly reaction, as nobody can connect this blog to me in real life, but I was still raised with a good chunk of "You don't discuss money, not ever!" by my mother's family. Dad has always been the person people went to to get their mortgages explained (he was a loan officer years ago), but I still couldn't tell you what our utilities ran a month.
People are funny about money. And by 'people', I mean me.
Anyway! Budgeting!
$2190 Estimated monthly take home income (just got a raise, this check has overtime, not entirely certain what the final checks will end up as)
Required expeditures -- monthly unless specified otherwise
470 Rent
90 Utilities -- usually they are $75-80, but I prefer to estimate too high
45 Cell phone
107 Car insurance -- I have a good driving record, so I think I could get this lower. Research time!
90 Gas assuming 3 tanks at $3/gal; anything less can go to savings
150 Registration & Smog check -- yearly ($13/month)
80 Vehicle service -- twice yearly ($7/month)
150 Groceries -- generally two store runs per month at $60/each, but again, conservative reserving
$972 regular monthly expenses
Optional expenditures
130 weekly funny money -- $30 per week, includes 'must attend' work lunches, monthly trip to Bay area, paying for casual days at work, etc.
30 haircut -- I know, I know, but Jamie does good hair and I can do it myself in 2 minutes
$160 monthly financial silliness
$1132 Estimated monthly outflow
$1058 left to save
Okay, now I know I just got my raise, but there is no way on god's green earth that I have only been running through $1132 a month. Now, things like going to the doctor on Friday happen ($105 poorer!), but not every single month.
So, since I'd really like to get to the point where I'm living on just the one paycheck, clearly I need to A) track better and B) slap things down a bit. I think the car insurance would be a good place to start. Additionally, I can work harder to keep the groceries down. I should probably say that I could cut the funny money, but I think I would go a bit crazy if I couldn't ever get lunch with my coworkers or buy a pack of gum.
At least I got out of the habit of buying lunch daily. *sigh*
NB: I know that the above budget does not include clothes or gifts -- the worst part of Christmas is taken care of (plane tickets home), and the roommates' gifts will come from funny money, as do my clothes.
Finding my baseline
October 16th, 2006 at 12:37 am
October 16th, 2006 at 04:52 am 1160974367
I'm not Not sure if your groceries category includes toiletries, make up, cleaning stuff and paper products (girl stuff, TP etc). Do you have a land line as well as the cell? And what about money for entertainment in the evening? Sometimes it almost works better to watch where you spend money over month and then plan changes for the next month - a blueprint you continually tweak as life happens while still keeping in mind your goals and objectives with money
I find the biggest key to savings for me is to pay myself first. I do my savings automatically. I started at $300 a month right into savings. The first month it hurt. AFter that It just wasn't here and I ignored it. I'm not saying that's the right amount for you. Maybe try $50 or $100 for Novemeber and if that is okay slowly increase it as you get a feel for what you need each month.
October 16th, 2006 at 05:37 am 1160977045
Groceries include everything I get at the store -- food, TP, hygiene products, cleaning stuff, etc. My make up usage comes out to $2 every other month for colored lip balm. Looking at my last few credit card statements bears this out pretty well.
Evening entertainment, such as it is, also comes out of the mad money. I go to a movie maybe once every couple months. Occasional dinners out are wedged in there as well. Gifts are pretty minimal and lord knows I have plenty of clothes. I may end up re-evaluating the amount and upping it to $50 a week if it looks like I can't swing the current level.
No land line, just the cell. I could, in theory, get a land line for less than the cell, but once I break down paying long distance and no longer getting free weekend minutes, it runs about the same with less convenience.
I definitely intend to ease my way up to my eventual savings goal. I think I'll set up an automatic transfer scheduled for pay days so I don't have a chance to think of the money as being there to spend.
October 16th, 2006 at 01:20 pm 1161004801
October 16th, 2006 at 02:00 pm 1161007216
October 16th, 2006 at 07:13 pm 1161025986
October 17th, 2006 at 02:14 am 1161051296