Welcome to tracking of income and expenses for the month. Please note that I get paid on the last day of the month so my cash flow net effect will usually be negative until the last day of the month.

This does not mean that I am adding to my debt, it just means that the money coming in is less than the money going out because bills are due starting on the first but I don’t get paid until the last day.

So again to clarify (since I get so many questions), this shows the cash FLOW for the month. On Day 2 of every month I will have a negative FLOW because I have paid rent etc so money has LEFT my checking account. I have not had any money come in on Day 2 of the current month since I got paid on day 27 or 30 or 31 of the previous month so that income is counted for LAST month.

twentyIncome for the month to date: $152.60

Expenses for the month to date: $2102.54

Net effect: -$1949.94

Since the last posting I spent $58.09 on my birth control because I still had part of the deductible to cover. I will be sending in that receipt for reimbursement out of my Flexible Spending Account so it should not be too bad. This money came out of my Irregular fund where I funnel money from my ING Electric Checking to cover things that are not part of my monthly budget.

I only get my pills every three months since they send me a three month supply in the mail and I think it would make me crazy to try to split the 4 times a year payment into a monthly (although I can do it) bill. I also put the tires into the Irregular fund as they are not something that I will be covering in my monthly bills.

Car registration and inspection will also come out of the Irregular fund when they are due because I am keeping the car maintenance fund for things like car washes and oil changes which are more frequent. Crazy and confusing I know.

I spent $5.41 at Subway to get a $5 footlong that gave me two lunches for work this week and I still have $24.59 left from my $30 dining out budget. I spent $6 on a car wash as the car was nasty after driving out of town and then I parked under a tree and the birds pooped all over the car. Ewww.

So far I have used $13.76 worth of coupons for various things and since I only bought one newspaper this month at $3 that is a good savings amount. Since I have realized that I sometimes use coupons I have had for a long time in a current month, next year I will start off fresh without any coupons (gasp!) and I will track how much money I spend on newspapers to compare it to the money I save using coupons.

I will see you guys and gals later as I continue my journey to save money and become debt free!!!!