March 1, 2008

Ok, so I wake up this morning, go get a haircut, buy some mouthwash, it's like the floodgates are open...or not.

But let's take a look at the past month and figure out what it all meant.

Well, to be honest, I was hoping to spend around $550-600. I was $300 over that, so I really didn't get anywhere close to my goal. Yet, I wouldn't say I was curtailing anything, I just had hoped it would all end up around there.

Why $550? Well, I had budgeted around $250 for any Valentine's Day stuff and that would leave me with $300 to spend. And if I really didn't buy other crap, $300 for gas and food should have been pretty reasonable, or so I thought.

Eating out means lots of $20 and $30 expenditurs. Gas is about $55 a fill-up and still rising. So, really, either a conscious effort to reduce everything or just live with it.

The sad part was the accompanying credit card bill. I may not have used the plastic at all this month, but my cash-only month isn't aligned with my credit card cycle. Thus, the lingering charges from January were much larger than I remembered. And that meant I saved nothing this month, and if anything, spent more since things weren't offset by a month on the credit card.

However, if I really wanted, I could extend the credit card non-use to this month and really drive down the charges. Not sure if I'll do that or just decide to decrease all spending to crazy amounts.

My rent takes up about half of my monthly income. So to really save and make any progress, I'd have to decrease spending to the range I stated earlier, $550-600. And that's the end goal I guess.

Thanks for playing along for the month. I'll check you later.