Well, if nothing unexpected comes up, I should manage to bank an entire paycheck this month.

It'll be close -- I have to get my car serviced in the next couple weeks, so if there's anything other than the oil needing changed, I'll probably go a bit into the second paycheck. But still! This isn't bad for early on.

The good:
-- I know most people feel they spend more on credit cards than handing over paper money, but me? I get cash and it goes *poof*. No idea what I spent it on. But I get really embarrassed looking at my credit card statement and seeing money wasted on it ("I paid how much for that coffee!?"), so I'm down to the emergency $20 in my wallet and charging everything.
-- Not having cash also makes me a lot less likely to eat out. I've only eaten out three times this month (Reno, dinner with some friends last weekend, and taking a friend to lunch this week when she needed to get away from her desk before killing us all).
-- Tied to the above, I've been making a point of cooking every night and putting aside a portion for the next day's lunch before I eat. I figure this is also good for my waistline. *g*
-- One roommate owed me money (I charged the room in Reno), so my share of the utilities were already covered for the month. She still owes me about $30, so I'll have that advantage next month as well.

The bad:
-- ... Damned car.
-- Speaking of which, I still need to shop around for car insurance. At this point, I may see if my current carrier gives me a decent reduction in January, as that will be two years with them.
-- I'm going through my pantry at a pretty quick clip and will have to do a serious restock soon. As I'm trying to eat healthier, this will probably be painful until I've managed to stock a healthy pantry.
-- I have to do my Christmas shopping still. Eek.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty upbeat about the financial picture. This might be doable!

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.