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.

Income for the month to date: $9.29

Expenses for the month to date: $2688.88

Net effect: -$2679.59

Since the last posting I spent $211.07 on a watch. Now I know everyone is going to gasp and try to say bad Lulu and go make me kneel in the corner for spending so much on a watch but I am going to explain why I did it here.

I had a fossil watch in the past and it lasted me a really long time but I needed to replace the batteries and that made me wonder if there was a watch that did not need replacing batteries. I finally found these automatic watches on Fossil’s website and since I already love Fossil I decided to get my watch there.

This is the actual watch I got and yes I do LOVE it. You can see through the entire watch and look at all the gears as well!!!!

(image taken from fossil.com)

1.  First off, the watch is my birthday present to myself. I just had a milestone birthday and I wanted to get one of those watches for a long time.

2. The money for the watch is actually coming out of the remainder of the money I had left over for my vacation last month that I did not spend.

3. The watch is an automatic winder from Fossil. This means it does not use batteries but rather relies on the movement of my wrist to self wind daily. I will never have to buy batteries for this watch again…so I will be saving money on that in the long run.

I also spent money on a double birthday dinner at Red Lobster (yummy!!) which I go to every year to celebrate. I was out of the country on my birthday and did not have access to Red Lobster so I am doing it this month with that in mind.

I know that this will put me over the figures for the month based on my zero based budget but it is really carry over money from last month. The beauty of budgeting is that I know that I had that money in a ‘fun’ account in ING so I can use that money for anything at all. I had carefully budgeted and saved for months and if I decide to blow it on an expensive watch and lobster dinners then I can, because I have money in my budget to take care of my bills.

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