by Jim
Woohoo! I was able to get a hold of the laptop and get the info off that I needed!
Income
Wife’s Disability Income: $1476.00
Jim’s Business Income: $1746.90
Jim’s Passive Income: $104.00
Total: $3326.90
Personal
| Budgeted | Actual | Difference | Percentage of Income | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto &Transport | $487.97 | $858.34 | -$370.37 | 25.80% |
| Personal Loan | $119.77 | $119.77 | $0 | 3.60% |
| Credit Card | $300 | $122.80 | 177.20 | 3.69% |
| Electric | $100 | $128 | -$28 | 3.85% |
| Oil | $0 | $0 | $0 | 0% |
| Phone | $75 | $76.60 | -$1.60 | 2.30% |
| Cash | $20 | $0 | $20 | 0% |
| Entertainment | $7.99 | $10.53 | -$2.54 | .32% |
| Fees & Charges | $0 | -$0 | -$0 | 0% |
| Fast Food | $25 | $28.67 | -$3.67 | .86% |
| Restaurants | $25 | $37 | -$12 | 1.1% |
| Gifts & Donations | $25 | $0 | $25 | 0% |
| Pharmacy | $15 | $0 | $15 | 0% |
| Rent | $600 | $600 | $0 | 18.03% |
| Kids | $75 | $89.78 | -$14.88 | 2.70% |
| Cigarettes | $50 | $51.10 | -$1.10 | 1.54% |
| Personal Care | $25 | $14 | $11 | .42% |
| Groceries | $350 | $191.15 | $158.85 | 5.75% |
| Summer Time | $150 | $35.45 | $114.55 | 1.07% |
| Clothing | $0 | $174.09 | -$174.09 | 5.23% |
| Total | $2450.73 | $2537.38 |
Debt Pay Off: $604.04
Percentage: 18.16%
I added a few items on my budget and it worked out pretty nicely even though one of the categories I went over. Almost everyone needed clothing, and even though I have been going to yard sales every Saturday, I haven’t found anything. This has got to be the worse yard sale season that I can remember. This category will come back for August’s budget with school/fall coming up.
I also added the category Summer Time, knowing that we will be doing some of the stuff I mentioned here.
I have been doing excellent in the Grocery shopping, but I know that this will come to a screeching halt when I start running out of ingredients needed to cook meals with.
A little disappointed with the percentage I actually paid toward debt this month, but that couldn’t be helped with 25% of my income going to fixing the van.
Business
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| Budgeted | Actual | Difference | Percentage Of Income | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | $25 | $7.99 | -$17.01 | .24% |
| Gas | $500 | $526.04 | -$26.04 | 15.81% |
| Discounts | $20 | $0 | $20 | 0% |
| Meals & Entertainment | $0 | $106.92 | -$106.92 | 3.21% |
| Misc. Expenses | $20 | $0 | $20 | 0% |
| Office Expenses | $40 | $0 | $40 | 0% |
| Education | $60 | $59.78 | $0.22 | 1.80% |
| Postage | $50 | $8.87 | $41.13 | .27% |
| Supplies | $20 | $0 | $20 | 0% |
| Total | $735 | $709.60 |
Totals:
Budgeted: 3185.73
Actual: 3246.98
Bumping up my Gas budget an extra $150 didn’t really do anything, but I did notice that I was consistently over $500 a month in Gasoline. So I might as well account for it. I really don’t know how to really make this less. There really isn’t any public transportation in my area, and everything you must drive to get to.
I am not sure if I should add to the budget in the Meals & Entertainment section of my business, as I never know when I will talking with a client. If needed I would dive into the Business Savings, for these meetings always takes my business further along.
All in all, if it wasn’t for the van needing somethings I would have been way under budget, which I am pretty proud of. Hopefully the momentum can continue.
Overall, I think you did a pretty good job staying in budget this month. There are some mathematical errors in the “difference” column. Under gifts and pharmacy you budgeted $40 total and said difference was $0. This should be a positive $40 here.
Fixed
I’m interested as to how your budgeting process works. Do you set up the amounts at the beginning of the month based on some estimated income and then track your spending as the month goes along?
It seems like you set your budget and then at the end of the month just report your spending…sometimes you are below and sometimes above….but it doesn’t seem to me to have any real effect on spending other than for reporting purposes.
If my guess is right, maybe try and track the spending in July as it happens and then once you meet the budget for a particular category, do everything within your power not to spend another cent (or if you must, then cut the overage from another category).
I think budgets should be a tool used to control action rather than just reporting the action.
Hi debtor…
I will answer your question as it pertains to the personal side. I try to make a realistic goal and that is what is budgeted. There are certain lines that are budgeted but because of things such as taxes (cigarettes and utilities) that this amount goes over. Other things such as the eating out does tend to go over, but this is a base amount… Because I am not going to force my children to pick something from a list that is within our budgeted amount that they will not eat.
In many ways I do everything within my power that if I go over that the fund is taken out from another category. For the last month, eating out of the freezer and pantry has been killer for this.
I don’t get it.
Income $3327 (incl business income)
Personal Expenses $2537 (which includes $1101 for personal loan, auto and credit card payments but only part of that is principal)
Business Expenses $710
Debt Payoff $604
Income-Personal Expenses = $790 left over for debt payoff (plus the principal share of your personal loan, auto and credit card payments)
Income-Personal Expenses-Biz Expenses = $80 left over for debt payoff (plus some amount of your personal loan, auto and credit card)
I can’t back in to the $604 payoff from your base budget (or I should really say from your actuals).
I am not sure what you are saying here AS.
But I do want to point out that Out of the$ 2537 only $604 was used was used for loan, auto and credit card payments not $1101.
Ok, so $604 out of $2537 went to the debt payments. Was that the minimum / normal payment or was it more than the minimum? Remember that part of the minimum payment is an interest charge and does not reduce your principal, so paying $604 to these lenders doesn’t mean you paid off $604 in debt. To really make a dent in your debt payoff you’ll need to pay more than the minimum owed.
What did you do with the rest of the money? You had either $790 or $80 of extra cash depending on if your business expenses are paid out of (pre-payroll) business income or (post-payroll) “regular money”. Did that go into savings, towards debt, etc?
Ok now I understand what you are saying. Out of that amount of money most were the minimum payments, I was advised that I should do this instead of taking out of the emergency fund.
Everything I state on here is post payroll, although it all stays in the business account until something has to be paid out. I then transfer the money over to the personal account.
Good for you to put 604.04 to debt this month.
I am a non-smoker, so I of course think it would be best both for your health and your budget to give it up, BUT I remember your reasoning, so I won’t suggest that.
But have you guys given those e-cigarettes / personal vaporizers a try? Shouldn’t those help you to safe some? (Not sure about their impact on health… so if you feel they are even worse than regular cigarettes, then it’s not worth it.)
Another thing I’d like to suggest: Has your wife tried something like mindfulness-based stress reduction, meditation or Progressive Muscle relaxation? There are probably podcasts / video tutorials on youtube to be found on them…
I really don’t think that amount is that good this month Kili, for the most part that amount is the minimum.
As for vaporizers and what not… I have read mixed reviews on these so I am not sure what to take from it. Looking at it from a finance aspect, I believe there will be a higher up front cost, but could possibly save more money in the long run.
From my wife’s health… The only thing she has tried is meditation, and she can’t seem to focus enough to get it to work. Maybe if we spent money on her actually learning from a teacher or something she might be able to. But from self learning this has not helped.
I also want to note, that my wife doesn’t particularly like podcasts, she does however like youtube and the likes.
How long has she worked on meditation? It is definitely a skillset that takes many, many hours to master. It’s not easy to calm an active mind, but for many the payoff is worthwhile.
Probably not long enough then Walnut. Maybe it is something that I can help her with, I learned it while learning martial arts.
I don’t want to be one of ‘those’ people that is looking for things to complain about, but…
Do you proofread your posts? Or does someone else do it for you? As a person who makes a living from writing/editing/proofreading, I am always subconsciously proofreading everything that I read – job hazard. Your last few posts have had several words missing, e.g. first sentence of the next to the last paragraph: “as I never know when I will talking with a client.” This happened in last week’s post, also. I know you’re not writing here for money (at least not right now), but this could be your stepping stone to getting paid for writing/blogging if that’s something that you’re interested in pursuing. I read a lot of blogs, and very rarely do I find spelling and/or grammar errors. If you want to get paid to write, then your “free” writing needs to reflect that you’re worthy of being paid to write.
If you’re proofreading your posts, then you might want to have someone else look over them. If you’re not proofreading at all, then you probably should start. Skipping words when typing/writing is easy to do, but it’s also easy to go back over your writing before hitting the ‘send’ button.
I hope you don’t see this as me trying to bash you, but as someone who is making suggestions to help you improve.
Thank you Jean