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.

twentyIncome for the month to date: $223.84

Expenses for the month to date: $2292.06

Net effect: -$2068.22

Since the last posting I have spent a lot of money because I got a new cat named Dinero. I needed to get him a few items like

food

shots

litter

so I dished out some dough for my little buddy. I got some coupons from the shelter where he was adopted so that made it a little easier on the budget to get him his ‘stuff’.

I did one load of laundry yesterday so that is $2.00 out of the cash stash.

I redeemed $40 cash back for a $45 CVS gift card to fund my CVS addiction for the next few weeks. Since I have been spending less than $5.00 out of pocket every Sunday at CVS I think this $45 will last me a long time and allow me to build up my stack of ECBs again. I did not go to CVS this week because I did not see anything in the sales that got me excited.

I saved $12.60 by using coupons on my last shopping trip so this money has been transferred to the Coupon Savings Account in ING. It is exciting to see how much money I am saving on everyday items by using coupons. So far I have saved $15.85 by using coupons on items that I would normally buy like bread, tea and yogurt.

I actually used a $1 off coupon for a 21 lb box of kitty litter that cost $9.85 so I guess if you count the $8.85 as an extraordinary cost then I only really saved $7 on my regular items….but that is just too much digging. This year is about simplifying my expenses…so I saved $15.85 by using coupons!

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