I was able to come out of October 2010 at $278.07 in the black despite spending some extra money on things that were a bit more expensive than I had planned. This was partly due to having a big amount in the splurge fund that I used for some fun stuff for myself, along with getting some more advertising on the blog.
I only bought $25.28 in gas, which left me with $49.72 in my gas budget for the month. I might end up spending a lot on gas in the next month, depending on where I will be celebrating Thanksgiving this year.
I overspent my food budget by $114.86 which was partly due to taking friends out to eat all month. I did pay for the overspending out of the splurge fund money but I am stating the amount to keep myself in check. Now that I am no longer paying a car loan since I paid off my car in full I have increased the amount that goes to my splurge fund. I am still paying money into my car fund, and it is almost the amount that I was paying on my car loan.
I received $29.19 from my Lending Club investments and made one new loan of $25 so that I could increase my income from that venture. I also made larger snowflake payments on my personal loans because as I have mentioned before my goal is to be totally debt free by the end of December. I have two more months of paying on those two personal loans and if I make more snowflake payments then I will realize that dream at the end of the year.
LOL I wish we could spend that little on gas. If I am out showing houses and being busy (which is a good thing) I bet I spend your entire fuel budget in a week or possibly less.
I like this listing, because it tells you what you really spend! I think many people don’t exactly know what they really spend for all the things they buy in one month. It’s a very good method to save money. You are able to calculate for the whole month only if you really know how much you spend for all your stuff. I try to save my money in the same way, but I also try different things. Last month I started to barter some useless things for some stuff I really desire. I bartered my stuff on BarterQuest.com and it works. You can find a lot of nice, useful things!
Congrats on being in the black for October!
Yeah, it all comes down to how you were brought up, and the kind of thought programming you’ve received. It’s good to read articles like this to see where you can improve your situation.
You seemed to be able to save a lot of money on gas. I unfortunately also eat out way to much so I can sometimes run into some money problems down the road.
– Robert