Monthly Budget Update - January 2013

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I've decided to just track my spending for 3 months before coming up with a budget. That way I would have a better idea of what I have been spending and not just pulling numbers from the sky as Gail would say.

The numbers at the bottom are there because I didn't budget to zero, I apparently had $1.84 extra that I can't account for, probably pocket change from the beginning of the month. The "Other" line in income is the carryforward balance from last month in my chequing account. As part of my issues with budgeting that I stated in my blog post What's the Best Way to Budget? I found it hard to balance my budget because I usually had at least something left over from my last budget that gets carried over. If I didn't account for it, it might look like I was overspending when in fact I wasn't. This is going to be especially important for February as I got paid today so even though the income was made in January, the majority of the spending will be made in February, so I have to keep track of the overage so that my February budget won't look completely out of whack.

January was a 3 pay month so my income is abnormally high, so are my savings numbers. I didn't put as much on my debt as I probably should have, but I was just trying to get to a good place to go forward on the year with. Having money in my Planned Spending and Curveball accounts were a good start and should help me with not overspending in the future.

Fast food/restaurants was ridiculously high! I definitely want to get that number down next month. It shouldn't be too hard if we meal plan a bit better. Other anomalies - bought my bunny so pet is high, went to the dentist and chiropractor, and doctor which means prescriptions also had to be filled. I also purchased a year subscription to lumosity.com which cost $72 or the bulk of my entertainment budget (although its more of an educational thing, I didn't feel like adding another line to the budget).

I may have purchased a few things that may not have been on my needs list (read Did I Cheat?) but I didn't purchase any clothing! When was the last month that happened?

How did you do this month?

TTFN,
Morgaine