While I don't want to give up on my current monthly challenge to stay within my original $645/mth discretionary budget, I think this is still too tight for me. I know I lack self-discipline on the idea of staying within budget and impulse purchasing. However, when I look at Gail Vaz-Oxlade's Life Pie, at $645/mth that equals 23% of my budget where she allows for 25%. 25% for me would be $699.46 which I'm going to round to $700 just to make it easier for me ;P
This is going to start in May. I still have $127.49 left for spending until the end of the month in order to meet my challenge. I think I can do it. The only things planned are movies and dinner on Friday. Saturday will be a movie night at home with bff and Sunday is Easter dinner at Mom's. I may not make my 4 No Spends this week :( That means 5 No Spends next week. Let's see how that goes ...
Oh, and I ate out for lunch today at work. I think I will go crazy if I eat turkey sandwiches 5 days a week for the whole month! Variety is the spice of life, after all :) Today was going to be a spend day as I purchased a birthday gift for my cousin. I can't believe she's 15, I was 15 when she was born! Where did the time go??? :(
TTFN, Morgaine
What percentage of your income do you spend on Life?
I do not know what we spend on life, but it is more than 25% unfortunately. This is also something we can not budge on with four kiddos. Most of it goes into their functions - band, gymnastics, etc.
ReplyDeleteAs for you, don't feel bad! Knowing what you can realistically handle is part of responsible budgeting and spending! This does not mean a cart blanch for spending, but rather knowing one too many nights of beans just doesn't cut it.
I think you are doing a fabulous job!
With kids I could certainly see that 25% would be hard, considering I'm probably going to find 25% hard just for myself.
ReplyDeleteI think I've been trying to keep to an unrealistic budget and that has a lot to do with why I keep falling back on the "bugets don't work" band wagon. The fault doesn't lie with the budget but with the budgeter ;) I'm hoping that 25% is going to be enough to keep me stuck to it and keep me from incurring any futher debt.
Thank you so much for your comment Jennifer :)
you are so funny - you are doing a great job :) and for the record, I am sure we spend 25+% here on life ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks JP. I've been trying to keep my spending under 25% to put more towards debt/savings but it seems that life always has something up its sleeve.
ReplyDeleteHave a Happy Easter :)
@Makky's Mom - I think I probably could live on less for myself if I wasn't trying to keep up with the fiance sometimes. Perhaps when we combine our finances the percentage we share on life compared to our joint income won't be anywhere close to 25%, but just for myself and my income, I think 25% is going to be fair.
ReplyDeleteI know that when I do have kids I will need to stop spending as much money as I do on myself now. But also, I don't want to have any debt outside of a mortgage and maybe a car payment with the kids so I could afford the extra percentages in the life category. I can't wait for that day ... :)
Happy Easter to you and your family! :)