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: got paid and got ad money
Expenses for the month to date: a little higher than expected
Net effect: $223.69 in the black. Yeah!!!!!
I was able to come out with a positive cash flow once again due to various sources of income that helped to balance some of the extra spending (like the tires and the increased doctor’s bill) for the month.
I was way under my gas budget for the month once more as I only spent $29.65 out of my $65 budget. I will not be reducing the gas budget because I think this is a good amount to have as my budget. I will just be taking any money that I do not spend on gas to throw as a snowflake payment to the FINAL CREDIT CARD that I am carrying a balance on.
I went over my food budget a little bit for the month and then borrowed money from the gas budget to cover it. A big part of that was due to experimenting with new foods to see what would work well for me. I have decided to create (again) a meal plan for the week so that I know what to shop for and hopefully this will reduce the food that I waste.
I also plan to cut down on personal items by buying the bulk of those things at CVS using a combination of gift cards, ECBs and coupons so that I do not have to spend much out of pocket.
I will see you guys and gals later as I continue my journey to save money and become debt free!!!!
Here i can understand your financial situation as you explained, very difficult to survive in such situation if it will be going same. Earning and Spending money flow need to be similar otherwise situation can become worst. As you working hard on money saving, hope your journey will be successful and you will become debt free.
In the black! I like it! Living frugally and making the most of your hard earned money is clever thinking, and it annoys me to see how wasteful some people are. Even if you have a good income stream and lots of spare cash it makes better sense to maximise what you can get out of your money and invest the surplus, than to just waste it, which so many of us do.
Well done for being under budget on your gas – I think my car is a gas-guzzling machine, it loves the stuff!
Even if you have a good income stream and lots of spare cash it makes better sense to maximise what you can get out of your money and invest the surplus, than to just waste it, which so many of us do.