Welcome to How I Save Money and tracking of income and expenses for the month.
Income for the month to date: $326.94
Expenses for the month to date: $917.48
Net effect: -$590.54
I paid the water bill and just spent $46.84 out of my $60 unexpected/fun money budget. I got myself three magazine subscriptions that are all one one year long. I did this for the following reasons:
1. I love to read
2. Those magazines have coupons
3. I love getting things in the mail
I will be getting those three different magazines to read and keep me occupied, thus reducing the amount of time I spend watching television or lounging on the internet. The benefits of this $46.84 will be spread out over one year so even though I spent that money now I will be reaping the benefits all year long.
I have spent $5.41 on dining out so far out of my budget of $25 because I forgot my lunch one day and decided to get Subway because it was closer to work. I am so mad at myself for forgetting my lunch because it was a really silly mistake. Every morning I prepare my sandwich and put it in the refrigerator next to my bottle of water. When I am ready to leave I grab the water, sandwich, juice and my snack and put them in my trusty little blue lunch bag. On the day I left my lunch I put the water, juice and TWO snacks in the bag and left the sandwich.
My snacks for the day were little fruit bars and there is NO WAY I could have handled eating only that for the day. Stupid stupid stupid!!!!!
I will see you guys and gals later as I continue my journey to save money and become debt free!!!!
The magazine subscriptions is a great idea. I used to buy single monthly issues of the magazine I like because for some weird reason I didn’t want to be stuck in a contract with a magazine, thinking there may be some catch and it would cost me down the road. I recently switched and it’s great. You pay up front and then don’t have to worry about it for a year or if and when you decide to renew.
Craig
@ Craig
I used to buy off the rack too…but then I find myself buying the same thing each time. The subscription costs less and it is right in my mailbox.
I just got the Sunday edition of the newspaper because I like the coupons…at $2 a paper that got up to $8 for the month…while the subscription is $7.50 and I don’t have to drive to WalMart to get it.
It would be nice to have a small income coming in such as that.