Tired, fevered, and in tremendous pain, I considered quitting. Formula would make things so much easier in my life. I went to Target, browsed the formula aisle, coughed in shock from the price tags, then pushed my cart straight to the ice pack section and went home.

The baby is fabulously healthy according to his doc, I’m couch surfing with ice packs and warm compresses, and my checkbook is safe.

On Sunday, I was served with legal papers. The plaintiff has re-opened the lawsuit, added my husband as a co-defendant (even though my husband has no legal ownership in our home), and is asking for more money than ever.

To me, it’s a fairly cut and dry frivolous lawsuit and I will gladly share the details once it’s over (if it ever ends) but I live in the lawsuit friendly state of California and I don’t have faith in our judicial system to protect me.

We’re going to bump up our emergency fund in preparation for legal fees. I’m not sure how far the plaintiff will go, but we’re preparing for the worst.

First, we cut our dental and vision insurance. This is something that can easily be re-instated but the $25 a month can help me now.

Second, I cancelled all my appointments health related or otherwise. None of my appointments were an emergency and I requested that my doctor renew my prescriptions without the annual check-up since the last 6 years have been clear of any problems. These appointments and tests run in the neighborhood of $500.

Third, I called my cable company to cancel our cable, reduce our internet speed, and reduce our phone service. I explained our situation and was surprised when they offered reduced internet costs, reduced phone costs, and added free services and free channels for a 12 month period. I would tell you how much I’m paying – but I’m afraid they’ll figure out they made a huge mistake and ‘correct’ the discount… or fire the guy who gave it to me. I would have cut out the internet and phone entirely but my husband needs internet for school purposes and job searching late at night when he gets home (free internet at the library is closed) and I’m uncomfortable without a home phone for emergencies.

Fourth, I contacted my student loan company for a deferment.

Fifth, my husband and I contacted friends and family and let them know we’d be available for odd jobs. Since unemployment doesn’t start for nearly a month after a job loss, my husband has done everything from pulling weeds to insulating walls. I have been helping a company with paperwork at night after work. We use this money for groceries and for the important bills like electric and water. At no time should you feel you are ‘too good’ for any type of job.

Sixth, we cut off all our subscriptions and memberships. If you’re like us, you may not even remember you have some of them since they are automatically billed to your credit card and you may not look at each item on your online statement. Some examples: gym memberships, club memberships, magazine and newspaper subscriptions (some automatically renew unless you cancel). Savings – $50 a month.

Seventh, we’ve been using more public transportation. It takes twice as long to get somewhere, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s far from fun, but it saves $50-$75 a month.

It’s not a lot, but each item buys us a little more time.

I’m fortunate to be married to a hardworking construction genius who can do the work himself (plus, my husband looks irresistible in safety goggles). We only have to pay for the materials which should run about $100.

Why are we insulating? Our house was built in the 1950’s and no insulation was used on any interior or exterior walls. Our heating and cooling bills are much higher than they need to be. The initial expense of the upgrade will be quickly paid for in lower electric bills plus, it’s better for the environment. And… our new roommates are newlyweds – that’s reason enough in itself.

It always seems like when we have an opportunity to get ahead, the necessities of life burn through the cash. Between tuition costs, new dog vet bills, and the two weddings, we have had to pony up more than $3,000 in the last two months.

These expenses would have buried us in the past, but careful planning and frugal spending have kept our heads above water.

I am very disappointed.

This event led to the following changes:

1. More involvement by both of us. Often in relationships, one person manages the finances. When things don’t go well and money is too tight, this person feels the stress, the pressure, and the responsibility for the mess. We have both decided to dedicate and hour each week to review each transaction. Now we have more checks and balances on each others spending – otherwise, we’ll have another bad month.

2. We are refocusing our goals and setting rewards. Our next payoff is still a ways away and we’re getting frustrated and bored. We decided to give ourselves something to look forward to after our next payoff. It’s nothing huge, maybe a dinner out or a trip to the theater, but rewards between payoffs has become something we need to stay motivated.

3. Reconsidering our numbers. We went back to make sure our numbers were working for our ever changing budget. We’ve been underspending on gas and overspending on miscellaneous necessities (car repairs, house repairs, etc.). We decided to adjust our numbers and perhaps pay a little less on our credit card so we can stop panicking when things aren’t balancing. Leaving the numbers the same would be great, but it’s obviously not working and it’s causing frustration.

4. We have decided to spread our focus. It’s easy to let finances consume our thoughts and lives. Rather than let this stress grow, we decided to let ourselves enjoy other things in life. Running, swimming, yoga, gardening groups, and organizing the garage help to keep our mind free of the finance clutter in our brains.

When there are long distances between payoffs, it’s important to work at what is frustrating you. You can’t solve everything, and it will be painful, but taking steps to at least reduce stress will help to prevent burnout. I’d rather take things a bit more slowly than give up entirely.

What have you done to motivate yourself and prevent burnout?

We argued about who should pay for groceries, who should pay for dinner, and who should pay for everything in between. I hated asking him for his half of the rent each month. He was my husband – not my roommate. It finally came to the breaking point when he couldn’t afford rent and we had to clean out our savings and use our credit card to get by. We opened a joint checking account the very next month.

We learned to work beside each other and the arguing stopped.

We made our mistakes – financing nice cars, charging vacations to credit cards, and remodeling our bathroom on credit – but now that we’re working to become debt free, we are partners in the fight. I wish someone had told me early on that working together as a couple was a necessity for a good marriage and good financial health. As I listen to my co-worker talk about his wife ‘owing’ him money for tires on her car, I couldn’t help but think… ‘No wonder he’s on his third marriage.’

So how do we do it? We each get a $3 daily allowance in cash each week. I don’t care what he spends his on, and in return, he doesn’t care what I spend mine on. We usually spend the money on work clothes or a bi-weekly dinner out together. This week, we split the cost of a silly $15 video game we both would enjoy and a $25 set of solar lit pavers for our garden. (And yes I know, $3 may be more or less than you spend, but it works for us)

My husband and I rarely argue about money now that we’ve enacted the $3 daily allowance rule, but we still fight about very serious issues… like the direction of the toilet tissue.

Do you keep your money separate? Or do you have a joint account? And how much do you allow each other to ‘blow’ each day?

We went over budget by $90 this weekend.

I wish I could say it was on something important like an investment, a donation to the cancer society, or giving to help a military family but…

The $90 was spent on 5 flats of chicken thighs, 3 bags of charcoal, 4 fruit pies, green salad… and a round of golf.

My husband threw two hefty BBQ’s this weekend and went golfing with his brothers.

Fortunately, we both worked extra hours last week so we didn’t fall behind – in fact, we still came out ahead. Sometimes, inviting friends over to enjoy smoked chicken and homemade pies is worth it – especially when your BBQ is interrupted by an unexpected 20 minute fireworks show.

We sang Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Joni while playing Rock Band late into the night.

I’ve been wonderfully budget conscious for months; I hope you can forgive this exception.

How was your holiday? Any budget hiccups?

But then again…

This is the same guy whose ‘sound judgment’ created the likes of Junior and Jingle All the Way.

And now, he wants to prolong it for several years through a special statewide ballot?

When I make less, I have to spend less. I can’t demand more money. Why can my state live financially irresponsible in a way that I can’t?

I didn’t give my approval on May 19th. I have to figure out how to survive on my new tiny salary; can’t I demand the same for my taxes?

Is this just a California thing or are you spending a couple extra Benjamin Franklin’s a month on taxes?

No, I am not going to reveal my housing costs. Asking a San Diegan to reveal her mortgage payment is like asking a New York housewife to reveal her age. The only thing likely to happen is a giant string of lies.

I’m also not going to reveal our charitable giving amounts. What we decide to give is a very personal decision and it’s not an amount I’m willing to change just to pay more on bills.

Savings: $50
Electricity/Gas: $105
Cell Phones: $100
Cable/Internet/Phone: $100
Grocery: $300
Gas: $260
Laundry: $10
Toiletries: $11
Clothing/House Repairs/Animal Care/Spending Money: $200
Water: $70
Trash: $18

All remaining money is used to pay our mortgage, our credit card, our student loans, and my husband’s truck.

So. Am I normal by the numbers? What does your budget look like?

Um.

I hate to disagree with a professional financial advisor but…

He’s dead wrong (and is obviously invested in Starbucks).

At least when it comes to me anyway.

I don’t buy big items. I bought my dining room set for $75 off Craigslist five years ago. My couches are ten years old. My bed is a hand me down from my sister. How do I spend my money?

According to my online banking… I spend it in tidy $20 increments over… and over… and over again. My money doesn’t flood out, it trickles. The article recommended taking 24 hours to consider every purchase over $100. Good advice, but the last purchase I made over $100 was months ago. It’s not the $100 purchases that are killing me!

I feel like the article should have simply said, ‘Watch where the bulk of your money is going and try to find ways to save from there.’

My goal this month is to watch my ‘trickle’ problem. I’ve gotten to the point that I have to seriously consider every item I purchase AND if I wait long enough, will it go on sale? will the newspaper run a coupon?… or will I forget I even wanted it in the first place?

Is your problem a trickle? Or a flood?

For the first few years, we didn’t need the money to clear our bills and we certainly enjoyed using it on dinners out and hotel stays. When I lost my job last year, the rent from our two roommates was vital in keeping our heads above water. Sure, it’s awkward to be nearly 30 and referring to ‘my roommates’, but it’s significantly less awkward than saying, ‘My debt collector’, ‘My bankruptcy attorney’, or ‘My foreclosure officer’.

If times are tough, maybe roommates should be a consideration.

Fortunately we haven’t had a bad experience yet, but this is a very serious decision and should be heavily thought out. We’ve stuck by some clear, yet simple, guidelines:

1.) Write a lease agreement – even if (and especially if) it’s a friend and you only expect them to stay a month or two.
2.) Have very clear rules – i.e. don’t go into my bedroom, don’t eat my food, don’t leave messes in common areas.

Some recommendations for roommates:

Firefighters: Their 24 hour shifts give you some much needed space – plus they are good to have around when you accidentally set something on fire.

Guys with girlfriends: I saw our roommate’s rent check more than I saw him.

Brothers/Sisters: You survived growing up with them, what are a few more years? Plus, it’s easier to yell at family about dirty dishes in the sink.

Some people you should never consider:

Perfect Strangers: I’d rather my family not appear on Dateline talking about how the new roommate seemed so nice… until he killed me.

College Girls: I lived through that once and it was enough. More drama than Jerry Springer.

College Boys: Not a lot of drama but I was over keg stands and frat parties eight years ago.

People with animals and/or children: Who needs pee on the floor and chewed shoes – oh, and animals are destructive too.

Do any of you have roommates? How is it working out?

Here are my comments about the report.

Income – Our income category represents net income. It also includes any money received from selling stuff or any money received as a gift. One thing to note is that December included an extra paycheck so it was a very nice month. January was nice as well due to increased income from our business.

There have been questions about our income and how things have changed since my husband started working outside of our home, I went to part-time and our business started growing again. I have a post about that coming this week since I have a few thoughts about that.

Automobile – This category includes everything related to car ownership – gas, insurance, repair, registration, etc. Our repair costs were up, and some were due to routine things needed for an older car. One interesting thing to note – we only spent $27 dollars total for gas in December and January. With our snowy winters, we don’t travel very far.

Cigarettes – Cigarette spending was up June – Oct. It dropped in November. Coincidentally, that’s when I reduced my hours to part-time and it gets cold to smoke outside (I don’t smoke indoors). I have been working on quitting…I almost was ready to do it mentally one day but then couldn’t do it due to stress. I no longer smoke full cigarettes though. Since I roll my own, I just put in less tobacco and make a “mini cigarette.” That probably has helped with the cost.

Clothing – I was a bit surprised to see the clothing numbers. I knew I was picking up socks, undies, etc. here and there and it all added up. January’s spending is actually for winter coats for my husband and I. I usually get a cheap $25 or $30 coat that either gets a hole or the zipper breaks within a month of purchase. We spotted some name brand coats on sale and decided to get them. We knew it was a good brand since my husband had one that lasted 8 years before it got too ragged. The price was right (25% off) so we went for it. This was a big step for me since I tend to fall on the “cheap” side of the fence. I’m trying to be more mindful of paying a little bit more for quality since you save money in the long run.

Entertainment – Our entertainment category includes DVD rentals, DVD/video games purchased as well as board games. We’ve purchased a few learning-oriented board games and in November we bought the Star Wars trilogy. That brings our DVD collection to nine movies.

Finance Charges – While doing a balance transfer to get our credit card debt at 0%, we had to pay $240. Yuk. We do not want to pay any more finance charges from our credit cards. We won’t have to if we pay it off by May 2009 (our goal date).

Food – This category includes dining out and groceries. I haven’t mentioned this, but we have had an intermittent house guest for the last part of 2008. A friend needed us, and we were there. It did hit our pocketbook a little in the grocery department. As for the June grocery bill, I don’t recall what happened there. It was pretty darn high. I have a hunch of what it might be, but I’d have to look into it. January does show quite the difference – much of it thanks to my husband and I giving up caffeine.

Grooming – I’d like to think our grooming costs are pretty low. I’m pretty low maintenance and my husband is too except for dandruff shampoo. It won’t show up until February, but I did treat myself to an exfoliant cream. Oh my gosh. My skin was so soft. So we may be spending a little bit more for that treat unless I can make my own.

Holiday – Holiday spending is for any decorations or holiday related items. Usually I purchase things after a holiday for the deals

Household – This category includes a lot of different things that involve the running of the household. It even includes things for outside maintenance. After having to pay attention more to our diets, we purchased more things for the kitchen like a scale and a slicer. We also decided to buy a “steam” cleaner for our carpets. Toilet paper, sandwich bags and sponges to wash our dishes with all go in this category. And repairs go into this category. We’ve had a few of those pop up recently. The spending here will actually increase once our credit card debt is paid off since duct tape can only go so far. There are quite a few things needing attention but they aren’t serious so we have been able to “band-aid” them for now.

Insurance – This is our life insurance. I have so much more peace of mind now that we have that.

Interest Expense – This is what we are paying in interest for our mortgage and student loans – a necessary evil at this point. *shudder*

Medical – Wow. Medical sure went up (this also includes dental). We do not have employer sponsored health insurance so we have an individual plan. It costs us $400/month and doesn’t cover everything. We’ve had some health issues, which lead to office visits and test and prescriptions. It all adds up quickly. This is a depressing category to review. I knew it was high, but I didn’t think it was that high. Hopefully everything we are doing now with modifying our diets will help bring that spending back down.

Pets – This category includes everything pet-related – vet visits, food, litter. Our pets are still fairly young and healthy. In a few years our pet spending will probably increase as they age.

Recreation – This category pretty much includes anything outdoor related like camping or fishing. December had some big spending. We found a great deal on snowshoes for our son. My husband and I already had pairs, but our son didn’t. Now we all can go out as a family. Unfortunately we haven’t yet since the days we all have off haven’t been very nice days. I’ll discuss that more later. We also purchased sleeping bags for everyone after finding a great deal on those. Our son uses his to sleep in every night which is great since he likes to kick off his blankets. I also like having them for emergency use (they are 30 degree bags) as extra blankets during a power outage. Since they are normally purchased for camping, I put them here.

School – This category is for anything school-related. I don’t anticipate much spending here for the rest of the year unless I find some great deals on school supplies (specifically for my son or donated to the school).

Toys – Any time we spend money on our son for toys it goes here. We have been using a reward system for our son for completing certain home therapy for his disability. The spending for that is included here as well, since he earn a bigger prize at the end.

Travel – We do not travel often – maybe once a year. The costs here include a pet sitter, food and lodging. It comes out to a little more than $100/day. It’s worth it, though, to see family.

Utilities – December looks like an awesome month, but that is misleading. We were ahead with paying our gas bill the month before it was due. In December, we didn’t pay the payment due until January until January. So our December numbers do not have the gas bill. January looks pretty big on the other hand, but it only has one gas payment. It was just an expensive month!

Thoughts: I really should have done this earlier since there are a few areas of spending that surprised me. I knew that we were spending more money in certain areas, but it never seemed like that much. I do plan on keeping up with this on a more regular basis. However, I plan on modifying it a little and will no longer track some minor details. I don’t think it’s necessary to track toilet paper, for instance. We are still using a price book to get the best deals so we’ll just put that expense under household. That will save time when going through receipts.

We’ll see what February brings. Our gas bill already has come down (thank goodness) and our grocery spending is still on track to be lower than our 2008 spending. February is a hard month, though. I’ve already bought a few things we didn’t need related to the weather. A post about that is coming up too.

Income for May was awesome. Our economic stimulus payment is in there and it gave us a welcome boost in income. Unfortunately, we didn’t use it like the government wanted us to use it. It went towards our debt

For clothing in May, I went on a little shopping spree. I hit Walmart (by myself) and bought some new T-shirts for summer. I don’t have many T-shirts and the ones I did have were pretty old. It was time to retire them. I scoured the clearance racks and found five shirts at $3/each. I also picked up a new pair of shoes for our son for less than $10 on clearance.

Entertainment was high in May. We splurged again and purchased another video game. We are done with purchasing new video games for quite a while.

Food is way too high! Gosh it all adds up. We did have to replenish some things once our fridge was back up and running. But the spending is still too high here. Now that we have to purchase healthier foods, it will be interesting to see how our spending is affected. The more I think about it, buying healthier foods may not be as expensive as I once thought. It all depends on how you do it. More on that later, as I figure it out

Household spending for May was quite a bit less than April’s spending. Here’s how it breaks down:

We spent some money to get our garden ready for the summer. It’s time to start planting and I’m debating on whether we should get some plants that are already started or plant directly from seed. It’s tough where we live because we do have a short growing season. My dream is to have an indoor greenhouse in our future house.

Recreation included our spending for fishing this year. I don’t anticipate any more spending for fishing this season unless we keep losing bobbers at record speed. During our last fishing trip, we lost three of them. Thank goodness bobbers are fairly inexpensive (around $2 for a package of them).

May’s gas bill almost made me faint. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. But it did surprise me. I knew we had a cold spring, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Thank goodness the weather has warmed up for June.

Overall, May wasn’t too bad. Like April, there is room for improvement. We have been somewhat consistent, though. If you look at April, our total expenses were $1,900. For May, they were $2,301. The big difference was our health insurance paid in May ($400).

We’ll see how June pans out. So far, our spending has been fairly low (not including the health spending due to problems with our health insurance). Income has been lower too. I feel like we should be contributing to our savings account but we haven’t been able to yet. Hopefully we can soon. After this past weekend, I could use a little “boost.”

Anyways, here’s how much we made and here’s where it went. Before you go too much further, you may want to check out a little FAQ that I did about these reports since I switched things up a bit.

First things first. It was an awesome income month for April (note – this is net income). I received a new advertiser on here and my husband sold a $900 piece of equipment. I also worked some overtime. That’s why we were able to pay off $2,300 of our credit card debt last month.

Now onto the spending…

Our automobile costs are pretty steady. During the summer I expect our gas spending go to up since we will be going out more for drives and such. Our insurance cost should go down because I plan on removing the full insurance coverage from our car sometime soon.

Cigarettes. There isn’t much I can say here except that it is higher than normal this month (which seems to be the case when I work overtime). But the spending should be zero!

Entertainment was high for April. It includes a trip to a gaming place with my son as well as the purchase of a video game and a few DVD rentals. I did splurge here.

April was a horrible month for groceries. When our fridge broke, we ended up using the freezer filled with ice and then a cooler for things that needed to be kept cold. You can only fit so much in there. We ended up making way too many trips to the grocery store. We also spent a bit with going out to eat.

There was a bit of spending in our household category. Here’s the breakdown:

I bought a little cycler for using under my desk while working. I have been having horrible knee problems from sitting most of the day and I thought it might help. My desk doesn’t have enough clearance to use it which is a bummer. I sometimes use it while watching TV.

Our office spending included a new chair for my husband’s desk. After a few Walmart cheap versions that broke, I finally talked my husband into getting a new chair (he was using a broken chair for a few months). We headed out to Office Max and bought a nice chair on clearance. Don’t buy office chairs from Walmart.

The interest paid category includes the interest for our non-credit card debt (mortgage and student loans). I don’t like that number, but there isn’t much we can do about it at this point. I’ve tried refinancing our home mortgage through our current mortgage holder but my request was denied.

Our internet bill recently went up. It was at $25/month but AT&T decided to raise it. I have to have high speed and that’s the lowest price available. The same thing goes for telephone. I have to have a certain plan for work so I have to live with the price. On a personal level, we rarely ever use the phone. I checked, and we made less than 10 local calls. Long distance is a different story since our families live far away. I’m a chatty Cathy when I get on the phone with my mom. If we ever don’t need our current plan, I will definitely check out something like Skype.

I am looking forward to summer utilities. That gas bill will go way down and so will our electric. We have also been talking about canceling cable, but I’m not sure if I can do that yet. Without cable, we do not get any channels. I would miss the local news and the major networks.

Overall, April was an awesome month. There is definitely some fat that can be cut so it’s a good thing I’m back to posting these. It forces me to take a look. For a while there, as long as we were paying extra toward debt, we were doing fine. The numbers don’t lie. We need to slash some of our spending.

…Also, you used to post your monthly Quicken spending and income reports, did you stop posting those? I found those to be very interesting and revealing for a person trying to escape debt myself.

Ever since my mention in the New York Times, I started shying away from revealing specifics on here and I phased out those monthly spending reports. They took me a while to do and do I want my boss (or future employers) to read how I spend my money? Seems a bit too personal and I was worried it could affect my employment. While I don’t readily attach my name to this blog, people who know me could put two and two together. My brother did, and I pleaded the fifth

I’ve been thinking about Mark’s comment for over a month now. I need to bring those reports back. They prompted some great discussions in the comments and they kept me very focused. I was able to find all of the receipts for April and May. I’m still looking for some receipts for Jan – Mar and if I can’t find them all I may skip those months or perhaps create a miscellaneous category for them so I can still post them. I already revised my Quicken file so my reports would be easier for me to do.

Expect to see some reports shortly!

Ok, here’s the report. My comments are below.

Automobile – We had a one, two punch with car troubles in June. First was the oil filter being clogged. The second was a flat tire, so we bought two new tires. The tires needed to be replaced anyways.

Entertainment and Recreation – Both of these categories were zero. We knew it would be a pretty expensive month so we decided to cut everything out here.

Finance Charges – These are starting to creep up since my balance transfer offers expired. Now that all of our credit card debt is at 9.9%, this will really be going up.

Dining – Very high in June due to my in-laws visiting. We treated them to two meals total. It was the least we could do for them bringing doors to us and helping us to put them in. They saved us so much money over having to hire someone.

Groceries – There was some money that was spent to purchase more groceries for when my in-laws were here. We ate sandwiches quite a few times. But it still doesn’t make up for the rest of the spending…it’s still too high. I know exactly what is killing us with grocery costs…we are not planning before we go to the store. My excuse is that I lack the time. But, I’m working on changing that as you will see shortly. I am going to become one lean, mean, productive working machine.

Household – I saw that number and my mouth dropped. Then I remembered that it was $500 alone for our new doors. Quite a bit of the rest was for some new trim and some supplies related to the repairs.

Pets – The spending here is still higher than normal due to the increased members of the family (the pregnant stray that had four kittens). So far, we have found a home for one kitten and the momma. So there are three kittens left.

Utilities – These were super low in June compared to May. I enjoy the lower overall utilitiy costs in the summer!

Final Thoughts – Not too bad. We ended up having a surplus of over $700 and I am pleased. I love seeing that. It is helping a lot that my husband has work for his temp jobs. One of them is now over, but the other one looks like he will have work for a while.

Like I mentioned briefly above, I’ve found myself saying way too often, “If I only had time.” I know the time is there…I’m just not very effective at using my time. I had some credit at Amazon.com from an gift certificates I won with Blingo and one that I won through a contest. What I ended up doing was purchasing three personal productivity books to learn some better skills. Of course, I’ll review them as I go through them and pass on some interesting tidbits to you.

Without further ado, here’s how May turned out for us. My comments are after the report.

Entertainment: $15 of this was for a carnival for my son to go to. He was so happy and it was worth every penny. I also bought a DVD to work-out to and we rented some movies to watch while I was nursing an injury.

Groceries: We ended up spending less in May for groceries and it was very close to $400. It could be that we stocked our pantry and freezer less. We’ll have to see how June turns out.

Household: Again, this category is a little higher in May due to shipping some items out. Sometimes it’s costly to live away from family.  We also purchased some tools to be able to save on doing some needed home repair ourself.

Insurance: The amount here is for my life insurance. That is due every three months unless I decide to change the frequency.

Health Insurance: Our payment is too high for health insurance. I originally got the plan we did because it had maternity coverage. I think I will be shopping for coverage without maternity. Even though I would like another child, I need some time to take care of my weight issues beforehand. Why pay the high price in the meantime? I can always go back when the time is right.

Pets: Oh my. We “adopted” a stray that took refuge in our garage during a late winter storm. We fed it and called the shelter. They said we had to put an ad in the paper and wait two weeks before they would take the cat. We were able to catch it a little while later and we brought it into the porch. Hmm…it is a she and she looks pretty plump. We never called the shelter back because we thought she was pregnant. She sure was. Right now we have her and 4 kittens to take care of. Litter and food costs are jacking up our pet costs big time. In a few weeks we can start trying to find them homes.

Recreation: One big cost here was for equipment for my son to practice sports at home so we could play with him. We did find one piece of equipment used, but it was in horrible shape so we decided to buy it new. The other big cost was for fishing licenses for my husband and I since we enjoy going fishing and I love to eat perch.

Taxes: It’s pretty high again in May because of a payment we made for what we owed.

OVERALL: By golly, even though we had major expenses in May, we managed to still have some money left over to have a positive month. Thank goodness for some extra income.

I definitely want to cut more costs and I’m going to start with the health insurance. It’s time to find a cheaper plan. I am also seriously considering stopping my 401(k) contribution.  But, we’ll see.

So, here is April’s spending. As always, my comments are below.

Income: The hardest part for me with looking at this income and expense report is the income. It decreased almost $1,500 from March. We were spoiled with March…that’s for sure. Our income will probably hover around this mark for a while. For those curious, the income here includes all income (blog income, employer match for 401(k), even finding money on the street).

Food: Lots of money going out for groceries in April, but it might not be as bad as it seems. The missing receipt I alluded to earlier was a Walmart purchase for $138. When we spend that much, it usually means we bought groceries. Chances are good we purchased something else as well, but since I can’t remember and the receipt is missing, I put it all under groceries.

Overall, our grocery spending will be going up. Since starting on my weight loss journey, I’ve been spending a lot buying fresh fruits and healthier foods. It is dipping into our pocketbook. May should give us a pretty good idea of how much the impact will be.

Holiday: I still love the holidays and Easter is no exception. Everyone in the household received a nice Easter basket. My son’s was filled with goodies like a Magic set and coloring books. He also hunted for eggs and some were filled with money. Of course, there was lots of candy and I splurged and bought some good chocolate bunnies. This is not my proudest category, and I still am dealing with spoiling my husband and son with surprises. It has always been a weak spot for me.

Household: The household category holds many things related to house and home. Here’s this month’s breakdown (I usually link to it, but I decided to include it right here this month since there is significant spending here).

The biggest spending here was for our bathroom. I spent over $30 on a good scale for keeping track of my weight and body fat for Blogging Away Fat. The scale I had was old and the glass was broken. Turns out it was underweighing me by quite a bit. The other spending for bathroom was for doing a little redecorating. I haven’t started it yet, but I bought a medicine cabinet, shower curtain, border and paint.

The other big spending was for stamps! Yikes! Much of that was to ship my husband’s camera under warranty to be repaired. It was so expensive due to insuring the package. The warranty place also required $20 to ship it back. Add in a few packages to relatives and sending our tax forms via certified mail and it all added up.

Interest Expense: This is the cost of interest for our mortgage and school loans.

Medical: The medical insurance here is for two months. I have another bill due at the end of the month. I’ve been paying it a little late to buy more time, but I’m going to try to pay it on time this month.

Recreation: This is for my son to play a sport. So, those types of expenses are starting up now, but the smiles on his face show how much it’s worth it.

School Supplies: This includes school pictures and my son’s lunches.

Taxes: Big huge jump here for our taxes. That’s because we owed money for the Federal and State for our 2006 taxes. I really don’t like underwithholding so I will be increasing my withholding at work shortly once my husband’s side jobs start kicking in.

Utilities: Now that the weather is getting warmer, our electric and gas bills will be shrinking. I am so happy about that! Time for a little relief and hopefully some extra money to pay towards our debt!

FINAL THOUGHTS

April was a rough month. It was the first month since starting this blog that our net worth decreased. By looking at the bottom line of this report, you can see why. We spent more than we made.

Some of it is due to paying our medical insurance that is due every two months. Another chunk was for the money we owed for 2006 taxes. I can’t deny that there is spending that was more of the “want” nature than a “need.” I wanted to have nice Easter baskets for the family. We didn’t need that stuff and I do feel remorse for that spending. It didn’t make the day any more joyous or enjoyable for us. In fact, the previous year we had a really nice Easter that was very inexpensive. I’m not sure why I lost my focus here and ended up making a big dinner this year.

Just goes to show that even after a year I’m still trying to figure myself out.

So, here is March’s spending. As always, my comments are below.

Income: The gross income for March was still fairly strong, but lower than February. I see February’s income, and it makes me want to try to have a goal of making that much per month because if we made that much every month our debt would be paid off way ahead of schedule.

Auto:Insurance: I have been thinking about possibly taking off the collision and comprehensive coverage on our car. That would save us quite a bit of money per month. Seeing as our car is still worth around $5,000 – I’ll hold off for a little while longer and keep the extra coverage.

Cigarettes: The spending for cigarettes is down. It is still the monkey on my back to get rid of!! But, that’s something I am going to tackle over at Blogging Away Fat.

Donations: I’ll be the first to admit that we do not give all that much monetarily. Slowly, I am trying to give more to causes that I believe in. A reader’s debt story reminded me that I should make another contribution to Modest Needs so I did.

Finance Charges: Finance charges are still under $100, which is great. In June I lose the 0% offer on one of my cards and who knows what my rate will be after that (probably around 16%). Nothing real promising has come my way in terms of transfering that balance to a new card. We’ll see.

Food: Lots of money going out for groceries in March. I can’t help but think it’s because we spent so little (compared to previous months) in February. Perhaps we normalize at around $400/month. We’ll have to see. I am planning to get some coupons for the products we normally use (so far, I’m batting 100% for writing and getting coupons!). Dining is going down, though, and that is awesome.

Gifts Given: March is a month of birthdays for us, mine as well as my mom’s. Giving gifts has always been a spot for overspending for me.

Household: The household category holds many things related to house and home.

The biggest spending here was for furniture. My husband’s computer chair broke and he had been using the rocking chair from our living room. That broke as well after a few months so we went to Walmart and bought a new chair and guess what? You guess it…it broke too. He’s being stubborn and living with the broken chair for a while. No more chairs from Walmart.

Interest Expense: This is the cost of interest for our mortgage and school loans. Not pretty. Once our credit cards are paid off we will definitely be paying off some of our student loans.

Medical: Here’s the new big expense. Our health insurance policy that we pay out-of-pocket. I do have the next bill, and it raised to $800 every two months because my husband and I are both 30 now. Yuk. The Medical:Other category is for everything else like over the counter medicines, bandaids and the like.

Taxes: This category takes into consideration all taxes paid from income, as well as sales taxes and property taxes. There’s not too much that can be done here.

Utlities: No, I didn’t go crazy and get a mega cellphone plan LOL. I decided to get a yearly plan for our Tracfone instead of paying every other month for a recharge card. So, the $106 is for the entire year. Breaking it down, it is a savings of approximately $21/year.

Electric isn’t the greatest but our Gas wasn’t too bad. The water bill actually went up due to a rate increase. Month and month again, we have never went over the minimum water usage level. So, we cannot decrease that bill any more than it is.

FINAL THOUGHTS

March wasn’t that bad of a month. My husband still had income from his temporary job which was nice (by the way, just this week he did receive a few more hours after weeks of nothing). I hope he continues to get some hours for a little while at least.

I think what I am going to do when I have time is look at the first quarter of this year and compare to last year. If I do, and I see anything interesting I will post it on here.

Oh, and I receive this question often…Where is my mortgage? My mortgage payment is $323/month and it includes a payment towards principal on my mortgage as well as interest and the amount that goes to escrow to pay taxes and insurance. I track my finances like a business so the only thing you will see on these expense reports is the interest expense. Since my mortgage is young, we pay a lot in interest right now. The rest of the payment goes towards the asset account (escrow) and the liability account (mortgage). Changes in the escrow and mortgage show up in my Net Worth Report.

As always, I welcome questions/comments.

So, here is January and February. As always, my comments are below.

Income: The gross income for February was wonderful. My husband had a three paycheck month due to his last paycheck at his old job and his new paychecks at his new temporary job. I also lent a few hours to help with my husband’s temporary job (since it was switching from me to him). Blog income was the highest ever. I obtained three advertisers that paid for 6 months in advance. Normally, advertisement is paid on a monthly basis.

Auto:Fuel: We didn’t do too much driving in February. Pretty much when the weather is snowy and cold we stick around our house so we don’t use much gas.

Cigarettes: The spending for cigarettes increased. Prices went up some and I had some tobacco go to waste (I roll my own cigarettes). Gosh, I will be glad when the spending here is zero. I am still trying to get ready to quit.

Clothing: We’ve actually been trying to not buy any clothes for a while unless the deal is significant. My old boots finally gave out so I had to buy a new pair. I did manage to find a pair on clearance. One tip for those trying to make boots last (and are purchasing lower end boots). Do not get boots with zippers! The zippers often break. Try to get some that you have to tie.

Food: February was a great month for groceries. We got the spending for the three of us very close to $300 for the month. While it is probably possible to do better than that for a family of three, I am very happy at that number for us. I am working on a post that details more about our grocery spending. The dining was higher than I would like. We went out a total of 5 times. Again, for us when we are running late or something, we go for the fast food. We will still work to get this expense down.

Gifts Given: I managed to not go overboard with my husband’s birthday gift this year. He received an iTunes gift certificate.

Grooming: Grooming is zero for February. You all are probably going to think that we don’t groom ourselves. Well, we do. I just stock up like crazy when the price is right. We still are using shampoo/conditioner from years ago. We also cut our own hair and I am low maintenance gal. Plus, many free samples (like razors and shampoo) are usually available

Household: Someone last month thought that I conceal things in household. That is definitely not my intention on my monthly reports. It’s just that my household category is extensive and I track MANY things. I asked before if people wanted to see it, and no one seemed interested. Household is where I put everything related to running our home, and from this point forward I will post a report that breaks it down. To see this month’s breakdown, please click here

The biggest spending here was for office. A while ago our laptop adapter went kaput and we had to purchase a new one.

Interest Expense: This is the cost of interest for our mortgage and school loans. Not pretty. Once our credit cards are paid off we will definitely be paying off some of our student loans.

Medical: Here’s the new big expense. Our health insurance policy that we pay out-of-pocket. I do have the next bill, and it raised to $800 every two month because my husband and I are both 30 now. Yuk. The Medical:Other category is for everything else like over the counter medicines, bandaids and the like.

Taxes: This category takes into consideration all taxes paid from income, as well as sales taxes and property taxes. There’s not too much that can be done here. I could always lower my tax withholding, but I am one of those that likes to get a nice refund at the end of the year.

Utlities: No, I didn’t go crazy and get a mega cellphone plan LOL. I decided to get a yearly plan for our Tracfone instead of paying every other month for a recharge card. So, the $106 is for the entire year. Breaking it down, it is a savings of approximately $21/year.

Electric isn’t the greatest but our Gas wasn’t too bad. I can say right now that March is probably going to be the worst month for these two. I am going to be happy once the weather is warmer!

Oh, and I’ve learned to not use space heaters!

FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, February was a very strong month for us. In the end, we had a net income of $2,217 and that would be the big reason that we were able to pay down some debt and contribute to our newer savings account.

I can’t help but think how quickly we could pay off our debt if our income stayed at around $5,000/month and we continued to keep working on keeping our spending low. I have to really give this some more thought.

As always, any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

So here is January’s spending. My comments are below.

Income: This includes all money coming into our household and includes gifts and prizes won (like gift certificates). The income for January is low because my one paycheck that I would normally receive in January was received in December.

Automobile: We paid for registration in January. My husband is officially in his thirties now and I’m still holding onto my twenties for a little while longer

Cigarettes: No, I’m still not happy about this expense and my nicotine patches are still staring at me every time I roll a cigarette.

Food: I used to have two separate categories for food. One for dining and one for groceries. I moved things around and created one Food category with two sub-categories. That way I can see total spending.

I’m pleased with the dining spent for January. It’s not real low, but lower than it has been. As for the groceries, they are a little high. After my husband lost his job, we went to Walmart and bought over $100 in pantry-ish groceries. Essentially, we were stocking up on things in case money gets really tight in the future. These things are normally not on sale, so Walmart has the best prices.

Holiday: The spending here is from after-Christmas sales. I bought some wrapping paper and we also bought a new Christmas tree for $35 (75% off sale). Our previous artificial tree was purchased at a garage sale for $10 and it was starting to fall apart. We’ve had it many years, and it was time to retire it.

Household: The timing wasn’t too good on our household spending. We found two L-shaped desks with hutches at the local department store on clearance for $112.50/each. We had been watching them for a while and decided to get them. A few days later is when we found out about my husband losing his job. We really needed actual desks, though. My computer desk was an old vanity I purchased at a garage sale for $20. My husband’s computer desk was an old armoire that we cut apart and made a desk out of. Since getting my new desk, the back problems I had been having have gone away, so the desks were a good purchase.

Total Income/Expenses

Technically, it’s a big ole negative here and we spent more than we earned. But the negative is due to the extra payments sent towards our credit cards. I do, however, want to see a positive here in future months and probably will be able to do so because I will be back to receiving two paychecks/month. We are still working hard to reduce our expenses overall, and I am hoping that shows in February.

And some good news, the temporary job that my husband obtained after losing the job may end up being a little less temporary. They might be able to use him for longer than we thought and it seems like they are really impressed with his work. So, for all of you that said that things happen for a reason…I believe you’re right!

INCOME:Our earned income last year was a little over $48,000 but with my reports I include tax returns, gifts and gift certificates received as income so the final number for 2006 is $52,128. Our December income was very nice, but it was so high due to me receiving 3 paychecks in December when every other month I only received two (my employer closed December early on their books give me the extra paycheck. In January, I will only have one).

AUTOMOBILE: It’s a little surprising to me to see that our car makes up 5.8% of our expenses. I didn’t think it would be that high – and that doesn’t even include car payments. Our insurance is still at full coverage and it may be time to reduce the coverage on our car. It is now fully paid off and it’s worth about $5,000.

CIGARETTES: I’m surprised everyone doesn’t bother me about this one more. I know a few of you have, and I appreciate it. As far as smoking goes, I do want to quit but I am not ready. My mom knows about this blog and we were discussing quitting smoking. She told me that when I am ready to do it that I will be able to. I know she’s right. I have to light that spark inside of me that says, “You know what, I’m not smoking anymore” and quit. I will talk more about quitting soon.

CLOTHING: I think we spent more on clothes this year then we have in a very long time. I think a lot of it has to do with our older clothes finally wearing out. Me, I’m down to two pairs of jeans right now and those were bought new this year.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: It was hard to spend money on this, but once I further my education I can receive a raise at work.

CREDIT REPORT: I have an annual subscription to a service that monitors my credit report. I may or may not cancel come renewal time, I’m not sure.

DAY CARE: You are reading the report right. We paid $5 for daycare in 2006. A friend’s daughter came by and entertained my son for a few hours so I could work. Because my husband and I work opposite shifts, we save TONS of money here.

DIAPERS: Thankfully, we will not have this expense in 2007. Well, unless the stork decides to visit us

DINING: I can’t say much about dining except thank goodness we are Burger King/McDonalds/Subway people. If we actually went out and dined at nicer places we would be looking at twice the amount here. I’m not happy that it amounts to almost 5% of our spending for 2006.

DONATIONS: I didn’t end up giving a lot in 2006, but I did give some money to Modest Needs last month and I shopped for Toys for Tots toys. I love doing that.

ENTERTAINMENT: This category includes movie rentals, movies purchased, video games, board games, musical instruments, newspapers and magazines. By far, the biggest purchase was my bass guitar and Guitar Hero for our Playstation. Next year, I am sure this category will be lower.

FINANCE CHARGES: The cost of my credit cards…over 3 grand for 2006. Yuk. It will be a fact of life until I get lower rates or pay off the cards.

GIFTS GIVEN: What can I say? I like giving gifts. I used to be more creative/crafty, but I think I’ve lost my touch.

GROOMING: Since I’m very low maintenance, there isn’t a lot of spending here. This is where we put razors, shampoo, deodorant, etc. For these types of things, I stock up when the price is right. I think I have enough body soap to last a year

HOUSEHOLD: You can’t see it on the report here, but the biggest contributors to this category are appliances (we bought a new stove, fryer and a blender $675), my elliptical (at $140) and kitchen goodies ($263). The rest is made up of disposable goods, small electronics, furniture, batteries, etc. I am pretty proud here because we only spend $30.28 for 2006 on what you would consider decorative items. With that amount we purchased a calendar, a slip cover for our old couch, two curtains for our kitchen and a few candles.

INSURANCE: Insurance includes life, home and health. This expense will increase dramatically for next year since this year only shows two months of health insurance.

INTEREST EXPENSE: Again, the cost of debt. The money here is the interest paid for our mortgage, school loans and car loan (which the car was paid off in September )

RECREATION: Recreation has to do with things outdoors. We purchased two inflatable kayaks in 2006 and we also buy fishing licenses. I anticipate that this expense will be lower next year.

SCHOOL COSTS: These are costs specific to my son going to school, like his school lunch and supplies he is required to have.

TAXES: This fun category has to do with everything tax-related. Property, income, sales, etc. I hope I get some of it back come spring

TOYS: This one gauges how spoiled my son is. As an only child, he is spoiled. We will be reducing spending on toys for 2007.

TRAVEL: We went on one trip this year to visit family (where we live we do not have family around us). For 2007, we probably will take two trips. One work-related and one to visit our families again.

UTILITIES: I know there is wiggle room with our utilities, and I am going to try to get them lower. Not only will we save money, we will reduce our consumption. The other day I was able to lower my monthly telephone bill by $4 so I am excited. We also purchased a digital thermostat so we can program the heat in our home.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: My little guy is still sick, and I think Mom’s catching what he has. I’ll try to write more on my overall thoughs and my game plan to reduce spending tomorrow.

Thank you everyone who sent well wishes for my son

We were still able to spend less than we made. Next month will be different, because not only will there be purchases for Christmas, but also two months of our health insurance, hopefully our home repair (still waiting for the handiman to come out), and something that I purchased for myself for $200. I’ll be posting later about that.

You’ll notice on the report that I spent a bit last month on continuing education. I bought some books to study and to learn so I can move up within my current position. So, I consider the spending almost like an investment because I will be increasing my earning potential. Now, I just have to find the time and motivation to study!

As for the increase in gift spending, last month my little guy turned 5 so we purchased him birthday gifts. We also started Christmas shopping.

The household category is a little high last month. We broke down and purchased a media cabinet for all of my son’s videos and to hold video games. We also bought a slip cover for our older couch.

I’m pretty pleased with how we spent money in November. I thought it was going to be worse than it was, probably because we purchased a media cabinet and I bought books to study. But, we didn’t spend as much on dining and our grocery spending is hovering around $300. Things sort of evened out.

It will be interesting to see what December brings, and to look at the entire year. It will also be a time to set up my budget for the new year.

Ok, here are some other things I saw to note about the report…

Groceries – They were under $300 this month. I like seeing that, but I do know that it is mostly due to being gone 6 days on our trip.

Toys – We spent a little bit more on toys than normal. All of the spending there was to purchase things for my son to keep him busy on the car ride. New toys work wonders when traveling with children

Travel – Wow. I didn’t realize how much it really costs for us to take the trip to see our parents. This is the first time I have kept the receipts separate for trips like this. I don’t think we did too bad, with spending $513 to travel around 1,300 miles in 6 days. That amount includes lodging, gas, pet boarding and meals on the road. Yes, there were places we could have saved money (like the hotel rooms), but we made a decision to splurge a little there.

Overall, we are still spending less than we earn and our net income for the month was almost $1,300.

December will be the really challenging month with Christmas. We decided that we are going to create a budget and stick to it for Christmas this year. It is so easy to get caught up in gift-giving like I have done so many times in the past. Christmas has actually been one of the major contributors to our credit card debt. I like to give, and give big. I almost feel like Christmas will be the true test of how far I’ve come with trying to live within our means.

Back to discussing October, here’s the report. Feel free to comment and ask questions.

Dining was higher this month, and part of that is due to a gift certificate I won for $50 (I include the gift certificate as income and I record the expense as dining). That reminds me…I have a funny story about that dining out experience.

Under the Automobile category, you will see $48 for breakdown insurance. I did end up renewing our AAA membership. We haven’t had to use it (yet), but at least it is there for an emergency.

I also spent $69 for credit reports. $50 was to renew my annual subscription that monitors my credit reports for suspicious activity. The rest was to learn a little bit more about my FICO scores.

Here’s a minor confession. You’ll see that we spent $35 under entertainment. $20 of that brought me 2 minutes of entertainment at the casino. Seriously…two minutes. I played a slot machine and I didn’t even get one winning spin. I could say it was bad luck, but I’m gonna say it was a sign to stay away from gambling from now on. I don’t go often (maybe once every two years), but I’ll just use my $20 for something else

I felt the above were noteworthy items. If you look at the report and have any comments or questions, feel free to ask!

Here are a few general things to note:

Income: This category includes all money coming into our home which includes employment (gross), business & blog income as well as money from selling personal belongings and gift certificates received.

Finance Charges: This category includes all credit card finance charges as well as the interest from my Prosper loan.

Interest Expense: This category includes interest payments made for our mortgage, school loans and auto loan.

Taxes: This category includes all taxes such as income, property and sales taxes.

Now for the specifics:

I can’t hold the next thing in too much longer…our grocery and dining expenses went down! Yay! Now, we just have to keep that up!

Overall, I am pleased with August. We spent less than we earned and made a nice dent in our debt. However, there’s always room for improvement

With the increased dining, one would expect groceries to go down. But they didn’t. I really need to explore what is going on with the groceries. It’s time to pull out the receipts and take a real good look at what is going on. I know we can get our grocery bill down, and having the numbers for July 05 posted proves that.

There is a high expense for entertainment. That’s due to our decision to buy one thing that each of us really wanted (my bass guitar and my husband’s video game).

I also highlighted clothing. I am a little surprised by the money spent here because I didn’t realize how many times I’ve picked up clothing here and there. I thought I was more of a “buy a whole bunch when it’s on sale” type of gal. I just found it interesting and without looking more into it – I can’t remember what I bought. Probably was something we really didn’t need.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Inspired by Flexo at Consumerism Commentary, I’ve added a new column to my monthly spending report for a comparison. He has a Year to Date Previous year and I decided to add a Same Month Previous Year (in green). I’m also contemplating putting income up there, but I’m not sure. I have to think about it a little bit more.

The current month is in yellow and in bold print. Things I found noteworthy for any of the time periods are in blue (notes are below the report).

The money spent on Auto Fuel drastically rose in June. That is due to my husband and his friend going on rides and due to increased number of family outings to the beach. This will probably remain constant until winter (rides in the fall around here are just lovely and we like to do it as much as we can).

The Household spending was a little bit more than usual. I broke down and bought a nice phone for working at home. The previous phone was just a $10 model and I really wanted a phone with a mute button and a phone I could use a headset with. We decided on a dual set with an answering machine.

If you noticed in 2005, there was a lot of money spent for the Household in June. I saw that and I had to look into it. It didn’t take long to realize that June of last year was when my in-laws visted. All of that money was used for decorating up the home and for extra bedding and some furniture. Gotta make everything look good for the relatives, right? Not anymore, because almost all of that spending went on the credit cards!!!

Unfortunately due to my medical visit, there is a good sized expense (compared to normal) in the Medical category. I have found an insurance plan that I believe is a good one, and once our car is paid off in September, that will free up funds to obtain health insurance ($259/month).

Recreation involved getting fishing licenses and plenty of bug spray

Overall, I am pleased with the month but I would like to see the spending on groceries and dining go down.

As always, any comments or questions are welcome.

I have a feeling I know where it is, and I just have to remember to ask if he has it when he gets home

If anyone has any suggestions on what they would like to see, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

The biggest expenses that I would like to see dwindle down are for groceries and dining. With my husband switching shifts, we ended up dining more than we should have adjusting to the change.

A huge problem with groceries are the little visits to the store. We had two major shopping trips at Walmart and then about 10 visits to the local grocery store. It is amazing how those little visits added up to $200 in no time. It’s hard, but I believe that trying to limit shopping trips to once a week will work wonders with our grocery expense. That means creating some lists and sticking to them.

Right now, on a yearly basis our expenses are running $17,800/year. For an income of $40,000/year that leaves over $22,000/year for other things. Just imagine if that money could be put in savings instead of going towards debt. Wow.

There are a few things to keep in mind while looking at the chart. The things in blue are spots that concern me. The things in purple I have comments about.

Without further ado…here’s where my money goes.

The first thing that grabs my attention is the $55 that was spent for fuel in April. We didn’t really travel much more than normal. I am inclined to wonder if it is related to the problem with my car – which ended up being just the gas cap not tightened properly (doh!). Or, it could just be how the fill-ups were timed (there are two fill-ups there). I will be curious to see the numbers for May.

Of course, I have to scold myself for the money spent on cigarettes. Although I roll my own and save a bundle there – it’s still no excuse. I am working on pumping myself up to become smoke-free as well as debt-free.

Clothing I wanted to point out because there was above average spending in February. Something that I do is stock up on clothing after season. I buy lots of hats, gloves, snowpants, etc. when they are cheap on clearance. Where I live – it’s pretty darn cold and snowy in the winter so these are necessities.

Diapers – just wanted to point out the big ZERO for April. Why the change? My son is potty-trained – WOOHOO!!! A big financial gain there

Dining, oh dining. I’m not happy with the numbers here. It’s not like we go to fancy places, so we do get more bang for our buck. April’s spending was from going out to eat 6 times. But really I would like to see that number around $80. That is a generous estimate for eating out once a week as a treat.

Entertainment had a large jump in March. In pursuit of quality family time and things for us to do, we took a trip to Walmart to purchase board games for the family. In total, there were 7 games purchased. Notice the big zero for April? Well, funny story behind that – there is a looming late fee at the video store of 99 cents. I guess we just don’t want to face the music and have stayed away – LOL.

Ah, the finance charges – the cost of my credit cards. I look forward to that amount shrinking instead of going up. The big increase for April is partly due to timing with balance transfers. There’s also the fact that I transferred a balance from the wrong account and instead of paying 0% I am now paying 5.9%. A costly mistake I am sure not to make again.

You have to eat, but for a family of three – the grocery spending is way too high. A lot of it has to do with the family’s pop habit. There has also been many things purchased that were considered “treats” with the increase in income in January. A decision has already been made to go grocery shopping twice a month and at the cheapest store in the area (cough – Walmart) and stock up with spending around $100 a trip. Then, purchase some things we may run out on a weekly basis (bread, milk, eggs, etc) at the local grocery store. I’ll also check out the weekly ads for the local grocery stores to look for good specials. This has to be toned down.

I bet everyone noticed that large household expense in March. That was due to getting a much-needed stove and purchasing new pots and pans to use with the stove. We also purchased two sets of dishes for $8/each and two new sets of silverware at $5/each as a mood-booster. We really didn’t need them, but it is a treat to have matching dishes and silverware and the price was right. As for the normal expenses in the household category, they include disposable items (toilet paper and paper towel) as well as cleaners, air fresheners, stamps, etc. If there is interest, I can post a breakdown of the categories because I condensed it down so I could take a screen shot of the report. You all may think I’m crazy with how detailed I keep my household category (around 20 sub-categories). But, if you are interested I will post it.

Another category that would be wonderful to get rid of is Interest Expense. That’s the interest that is being paid on the school loans, the auto loan and the mortgage. I will live with those numbers for now, but they are going to be attacked once the credit cards are paid off

I am very upset with that late fee in March. That’s when I paid that credit card late by one day. It did fuel my motivation and I ended up showing that card a thing or two and paid it off

I have been trying to get my electric bill down and we have been trying to reduce it to no avail. I think I know what the problem is. We have an older freezer down in the basement. We really don’t use it for much and we probably could get a smaller one that uses less energy. I think I am going to talk the hubby into letting me unplug it for a month and see what happens. I really would like to see this bill no higher than $60/month.

I wanted to point out the gas bill because I am proud of the numbers here. Even though we have a 100 year-old home, we were fortunate enough to find one that is well-insulated (blown-in) and one that keeps the main room of the home relatively warm. This winter we kept the thermostat around 62 degrees during the day and around 56 at night. My goal before next winter is to install a programmable thermostat because a few nights I would forget to turn down the heat.

Ok. You’ve gotten this far so you must be interested in the above. So I will let you in on something. There are 4 categories missing, but their amounts are included in the Total Expenses. These categories have to do with taxes and such and I guess I do not feel comfortable having those out there for all to see. I hope everyone understands about that.

Now, if you have any questions or comments – feel free to leave them below. Or, if you’d like to ask me a question in private, feel free to email me. I do not use emails as post topics (unless given permission to do so) – so anything you say will just be between you and I. I’d like this to be a learning experience for all.

Now I’m all excited to see what May will bring

Post included in the 48th week of the Carnival of Personal Finance over at 2million.