Weekly Spending Report: May 2 - 8

2: No Spend!
3: $12.15 (cash - dinner) + $1.75 (cash - drink) = $13.90
4: No Spend!
5: No Spend!
6: $1.85 (cash - breakfast) + $7.90 (cash - lunch) = $9.75
7: $50 (cash - gift: Mom) + $57.61 (debit - Zellers: $3.04 household cleaner, $11.29 Mother's Day gift for my Godmother, $42.84 "essential" clothing)= $107.61
8: No Spend!
Total: $131.26

Emotional Tracker: ate out twice this week, I should have only ate out once, but I kept Friday's lunch on the cheap side - sushi = cheap and yummy! :)

Notes: All in all I am pretty happy with this week. With the exception of Saturday I kept the spending pretty well under control.

I've sorted out my at class dinner situation. I will allow myself to eat out one of the two nights. This Tuesday I did that and then found out that Thursday's class will be online! So I ate at home. If I had known that earlier I wouldn't have bothered eating out on Tuesday but oh well. The teacher will be letting us know with more time ahead for future online classes so I should be able to schedule this better. Next week both classes will be at the college but Thursday there is a test so I will allow myself to eat out on Thursday after the test :)

My Mom needed a new vacuum so I gave her the cash I would have spent on a Mother's Day present ($50) and gave it to her towards her vacuum. I found a very nice clock that has room for 3 pictures with it, I know my Godmother will love it, and it just happened to be on sale :)

How did your week go?

TTFN, Morgaine

Weekly Spending Report: Apr 25 - May 1

25: $9.27 (debit - lunch) + $2.70 (debit - groceries) = $11.97
26: $5.65 (cash - dinner) + $3.75 (cash - snack) = $9.40
27: No Spend!
28: $2.50 (cash - snack)
29: $1.85 (cash - breakfast) + $7.64 (cash - lunch) + $4.01 (cash - bday card) + $11.29 (debit - advil, ugh!) + $36.85 (debit - gifts for my friend) + $25 (cash - dinner) + $50.37 (debit - indigo, board games)= $137.01
30: $15 (cash - goodies at a bake sale, for a good cause :))
1: No Spend!
Total: $175.88



Emotional Tracker: 29th - just couldn't be bothered to bring my lunch (decision made the night before) and then my friend called to ask if I would be up for going out for dinner for her birthday. So, I ate out twice on Friday when it could've only been once :( Other than that, I wouldn't say any purchases were emotional but just hunger. Gonna make sure I have plenty of snacks for the nights I have my course so I'm not tempted by those d*mn vending machines!

Notes: Nothing other than above. 12 No Spends for the month of April, not quite my 15 target, but I am still happy with this number :)

April's monthly budget update tomorrow.

TTFN, Morgaine

Weekly Spending Report: Apr 18-24

18: No Spend!
19: No Spend!
20: $380.44 (credit - being repaid from Planned Spending - Bookkeeping Course) + $99.46 (credit - being repaid from Planned Spending - textbook) + $10.98 (debit - lunch) + $1 (cash - pop) + $38.53 (debit - Shoppers: $3.94 - mini eggs + $34.59 including $25 movie gift card, present for cousin) + +$30.00 (cheque - Card Swap) + $45 (credit - to be repaid out of my monthly budget: chapters/indigo gift card from Card Swap) = $544.41 -479.90 = $65.51 (taking Planned Spending purchases out of the equation)
21: No Spend! + (+$50) (cash - for doing family taxes) = +$50

22: $30 (cash - lunch for 2) + $6.49 (cash - snacks) = $36.49
23: $21.31 (debit - PC items)
24: No Spend!
Total: $123.31

Emotional Tracker: I wouldn't say any of my purchases were emotional. The purchases above were planned for.

Notes: I'm not counting the amounts spent that I am repaying out of my Planned Spending account as these are not coming out of my monthly budget numbers. However, I would feel that if I made these purchases on a day where I didn't spend any other money that it wouldn't count as a No Spend day. So, I'm trying to anticipate these days where I know I'm going to spend money anyways and put other purchases together with it :) Next week: dentist on Wednesday. Next month: Mother's Day and finance's birthday. It also helps me to anticipate how I have to "juggle" my budget allocations. Its a work in progress ...

So, I think I am going to fail on my Stick to the Budget Challenge this month. I now have left $4.18 and still have a week left in April. :( But, I did get quite a bit of "extra" money this month: GST $48.30, 2 online survey cheques $100, and $50 for doing family member's taxes. So, I didn't spend more money than I made this month but I didn't save extra or put more money on my debt which is where the extra money I get should go. The only good thing is that it definitely made me see that $700 a month is completely doable so I should be able to stay on budget for the rest of the year :)

Oh, and 4 No Spends are still pretty good :)

How did your week go? Did you have a nice Easter?

TTFN, Morgaine

Weekly Spending Report: April 11 - 17

11: No Spend!
12: +$50 (Angus Reid) - $14.50 (debit - 2 movie tickets) - $13.98 (debit - snacks at movies) = +$21.52
13: No Spend!
14: +$50 (Global Test Market) + No Spend! = +$50.00
15: $15.00 (cash - dinner) = $15.00
16: $11.00 (cash - Tim Burton exhibit my portion from Groupon T bought) + $9.00 (cash - lunch) = $20
17: No Spend!
Total: +$36.52!!!

Emotional Tracker: Don't really have one for this week, I didn't spend much money :) It was hard not buying my breakfast on Friday but I pushed through.

I made my goal of 4 no spends this week (7 in total for April so far). If I want to make my goal of 15 No Spend Days for April I need to have 8 more in the next two weeks - so 4 more each week, which from looking at this week, I think its possible.

I got 2 survey cheques this week, why on the same week as a pay week??? Oh well. First positive week since I've started tracking my money so I had to underline and put in 3 exclamation marks, just for the fun of it :)

How was your week?

TTFN, Morgaine

Weekly Spending Report: April 4 - 10

4: No Spend!
5: No Spend!
6: $10.61 (cash - dinner) + $33.85 (debit - $30.49 PC + $3.36 snack) = $44.46
7: $3.78 (cash - breakfast) + $4.98 (cash - snack before dentist) + $129.20 (credit, to be paid out of planned spending acct - dentist) + $9.03 (credit, paid back by account - ebook) = $146.99
8: $1.98 (cash - breakfast) + $7.76 (debit - $5.60 tea as a gift to a co-worker that's leaving + $2.16 for tea latte for myself) = $9.74
9: $30.00 (cash - dinner)
10: No Spend!
Total: $231.19 (without dentist: $101.99)

Emotional Tracker: 6 - I knew I was going out for dinner on Wednesday before my concert, I needed to kill some time and there was some PC items I needed to get. 7: so tired in the morning of the 7th, I had to get a coffee and I had no more milk for my cereal so I got a bagel too. Ugh, dentist! Put this on my credit card but the money is coming out of my Planned Spending acct. 8: met up with friends before we went to 2 separate shows. I went to see House of Pain! I'm showing my age a bit, but I grew up with "Jump Around" it was fun to see them live :)

Taking out the dentist appointment (which I did plan for and its coming out of my Planned Spending account, not my monthly budget) I spent $101.99 which isn't too bad but considering how much I spent last week, this was still more than I should have spent.

I also didn't meet my goal of 4 no spends this week, but 3 isn't bad, gotta make the 4 this week though!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.
TTFN,
Morgaine

Weekly Spending Report: March 28 - April 3

28: No Spend!
29: $7.25 (debit - movie - yeah for cheap night!)
30: $1.21 (cash - Timmie's breakfast w/free coffee) + $8.53 (debit - lunch) + $15 (cash - dinner) = $24.74
31: $43.25 (credit, paid back - concert ticket)
1: $1.21 (cash - Timmie's breakfast w/free coffee) + $5.96 (cash - snack) + $44.06 (debit - CD and 2 movies) + $128 (credit - 4 tickets to Blue Jays game on Sunday, 3 people owe me money for this, so my cost is $32) + $16.77 (cash - 3 USED books, included one for my fiance as a surprise.) = $196.00 (ouch!)
2: $10.58 (debit - pet food) + $17.52 (cash - tea) + $69.27 (debit - clothes) + $10 (cash - arcade games) + $27.00 (cash - dinner) + (+ $32.00 cash - cousin paid me back for baseball ticket) = $102.37 (ouch!)
3: (+$32.00 - cash, reimbursement of baseball ticket) + $30 (cash - lunch and snacks at baseball game)
= -$2.00
Total: $371.61

I had an "epiphany" while reading Cassie's blog the other day:  Fritter Fritter. If you read my comment, her post made me think about why I've had lots of little spend days. I think it may be tied to my emotional state at the time. So, I'm going to indulge in an exercise for the sake of my own budget and sanity!

Emotional tracker:
30th - breakfast - free coffee so I bought a bagel too. I've decided to go back to buying my lunch once a week for sanity sake. Dinner, celebrating the fact that the fiance is now debt free! 1st: its Friday so I thought I'd treat myself to a coke and chocolate bar *I HAVE to STOP doing that, just because I "made" it through another week doesn't mean I deserve to eat junk. This is bad for my wallet and my waistline! Oh, there was also gum in this purchase - when did gum become so expensive??? I haven't bought any cd's, books, or movies in a long time (at least boxing day) so I was downtown and ... yeah, don't really need to explain this one!

2: I bought a Groupon for glow-in-the-dark mini-golf way back in January. Well, it expires on Apr 4th so we had to use it this weekend. That was a lot of fun for $20 for 4 people! I also spent another $10 on arcade games because my cousin loves them and she hardly ever gets to go to a place where she can play but we all had turns trying out different games. We also ended up getting 165 tickets so my cousin was able to get some fun stuff too. Then we ended up at a mall (dun dun dun!) the only purchase I actually regret was the tea. I didn't realize that you had to pay for the tin too! At the very least I should have gotten a smaller quantity (or none at all!) but once she told me the price I didn't say "umm, can I get less, actually" I need to get better at stuff like that! The clothes were 2 cardigans and 2 t-shirts which are staples of my wardrobe, were nice spring colours and they were on sale. I know I'm justifying my purchase, but as long as I don't spend any more money on clothes this month, I should be ok. Dinner was at a Chili's, there is only the 1 in Ontario and none of us had ever been, so of course we had to try a drink, and apps, and desert! So, a very spendy day but very fun. I almost felt like I was on vacation for a day, now back to reality :(

3rd: at the baseball game. I should have ate before we went, its way too expensive to eat there. Lesson learned.

So, I basically spent my 2 weeks budget in one week. Obviously I still have a long way to go in the self-discipline department when it comes to money. The next two weeks will be a spending lock-down. The only costs I am anticipating: 4-10: dinner out on Wednesday (going to a concert), dinner out on Saturday (going to a concert), 11-17: nothing so far.

Thanks to Makky's Mom for giving me a kick in the butt! If Gail is not around to do it, I'm glad someone is :) I will try to do better. Thank you for your support.

TTFN, Morgaine.

Weekly Spending Report: March 21-27

21: No Spend!
22: No Spend!
23: $11.60 (credit to be repaid from bank account ASAP - ebay bb cream) + $22.01 (cash - my share of dinner) = $33.61
24: $1.21 (cash - Timmies breakfast w/free coffee) = $1.21
25: $10.51 (cash - $3.99 magazine + $6.52 snack) + $10 (cash - dinner) + $20 (cash - theatre ticket) =$40.51
26: $25 (debit - pet supplies) + $7.00 (cash - lunch) + $10.15 (cash - coffee for my coffee machine) + $1.58 (cash - Timmie's) = $43.73
27: $20 (cash - dinner) = $20.00
Total: $139.08

So, only two no spend days :( But I am ok with the amount spent. Definitely a few items that I certainly didn't need. We ate out as more than normal and I bought some snacks and a magazine. Dinner out on Friday was with my Mom and then we went to a local theatre company play. We hardly do these kind of things together so I don't regret that. We went out for dinner and a movie with friends on Sunday (free movie because of a 2-4-1 movie deal) so that was fun. But dinner on Thursday was one of those "I don't feel like making anything" days. We've made progress on having less of those than we used to but there is certainly more room for improvement in this area.

I have $20 to make it until payday on Thursday, I don't foresee any issues, more no spend days this week is what I need :)

TTFN,
Morgaine

Weekly Spending Report: March 14-20

14: No Spend!
15: No Spend!
16: No Spend!
17: $176.50 (email money transfer to fiance - as follows: $123.25 food + $53.25 entertainment) + $92.72 (debit - clothes) + $67.79 (debit - anniversary gift) + $11.29 (debit - umbrella) + $30.00 (cash - dinner and drinks) + $32.66 (debit - 2 CDs of Irish music - what can I say, St Patrick's Day put me in the mood!) =$410.96 (ouch!!!)
18: $1.35 (cash - breakfast) + $18.93 (debit - personal items) + $6.20 (cash - lunch) + $4.00 (cash - snack) = $30.48
19: $20 (cash - brunch) + $4.00 (cash - snack) = $24.00
20: No Spend!
Total: $465.44

Obviously not a typical week for me (even back when I used to be a lot more carefree with my money), I basically had to pay back a week's worth of spending to the fiance to cover March 11-16 and then I went a bit crazy buying some stuff I had put off for a while (new work pants, anniversary gift - March 10 was our anniversary, and an umbrella) I suppose some of it could have waited but I figured since Thursday was going to be spendy anyways due to money being transferred and going out for St Paddy's Day then I may as well go "crazy" in one day rather than spread out the craziness. This is the way my mind works.

Anyways, back to being more cautious with my money for the foreseeable future.

TTFN, Morgaine

Weekly Spending Report March 7-13

March 7: $15.36 (credit - taxes online)
March 8: No Spend!
March 9: $2.89 (cash - Timmie's coffee and bagel - one of those mornings!) + $50 (debit - gift card) + $11.29 (debit - lunch bag - lost my old one) + $4.80 (debit - birthday card) + $8.46 (debit - lunch) = $77.44
March 10: No Spend!
March 11: No Spend!
March 12: $5.00 (cash - Timmie's breakfast) + $24.26 (debit - personal items) + $32.21 (debit - $5.09 gifts + $9.04 entertainment + $18.08 household) + $5.85 (debit - food) = $67.32
March 13: $20 (cash - lunch)
Total: $180.12

Ok, a bit over what I should've spent this week, I went a little insane at the dollarstore ($32.21) but now that I don't live next to one :( I have to think of all the things I want to get from one and get it all in one shot. I picked up a gift bag and wrap for my friend's birthday (also explains the $50 gift card). I bought some plastic containers for my soap supplies and molds and I bought all the items I need for my St Patrick's Day get-together on Friday (i.e. plates, cups, napkins, etc) plus a pen holder for my new desk at work. I only have $20 left until Thursday but I have no planned spending until then anyways. However, I do owe the fiance for dinner on Saturday and a few groceries that are specifically for the party, which I will promptly pay him for on Thursday and will mark all this down on this week's spending report (when the cash leaves my hand).

I'm very glad that the birthdays are going to settle down for a while (cousin and 1 friend in late April, fiance in late May) and then none in the summer! But there is Mother's Day in May too. Does it ever end?!?

Can't wait until Thursday!!!!!!!!
TTFN, Morgaine



Weekly Spending Report: Feb 28 - Mar 6

Feb 28: No Spend!
Mar 1: No Spend!
Mar 2: $58.26 (debit - Old Navy: $22.52 gifts, $32.19 clothing, $3.55 household) + $7.22 (debit - dinner) + $11.29 (debit - snack) =  $76.77
Mar 3: No Spend!
Mar 4: $1.85 (cash - breakfast) + $3.98 (cash - food)= $5.83
Mar 5: $6.78 (cash - dollar store gift stuff) + $30.00 (debit - movies and snacks) = $36.78
Mar 6: $3.16 (cash - tim horton's)= $3.16

Total: $122.54

All in all not bad. I certainly could have done without the Timmies on Sunday and had 4 No Spends instead of 3. I went to a friend's baby shower on Sunday and I felt that I spent a reasonable amount ($25) on the present (Old Navy was having a sale!) this is something I need to do more. I feel that I try and not look "cheap" when I give presents, but perhaps I just need to be on the lookout more for good deals for gifts I know certain people would like. I will have more spending to do in the gifts category this month, that's for sure. My bff's birthday is today and we are getting together on Saturday so I have until then to get her something. My and T's (dating) anniversary is Thursday and we will be going out for dinner. I will be getting him something, but not until the 17th (more on this in tomorrow's post). We've agreed to keep gifts to each other small for the next 2 years as we have wedding savings to worry about, but I'm sure I can come up with something within budget :)

TTFN, Morgaine

P.S. Still waiting on my last T4! Grrrrrrr! :(

Spending Report: Feb 21-27

21:  $20.74 (debit - dinner for 2) + 25.50 (debit - movie for 2) = $46.24
22: No Spend!
23: No Spend!
24: No Spend!
25: $1.40 (cash - Tim Horton's breakfast and free coffee!) + $40.00 (cash - food and drinks after work) = $41.40
26: $20 (cash - lunch) + $4.92 (debit - birthday card) = $24.92
27: $3.45 (cash - $2.32 gift wrap and plastic sandwich box $1.13) + $10.09 (cash - Timmie's breakfast for me and T) + $10.00 (cash - dinner) + $6.20 (debit - pet food) = $29.74
Total $142.30

Not too bad, I'm pretty happy about the 3 no spend days. Monday was a holiday and we went out for dinner and a movie. Friday went out for drinks and apps after work, $40 was a bit expensive but it was nice to unwind and celebrate the new job with my co-workers. Saturday I went to an "Ice Festival" with ice carvings. I've seen them in pictures but never in person before. They were neat! Pictures below. Sunday it was a friend's birthday: we went to Denny's for dinner (I've never been before, had chicken fingers as I'm not much of a breakfast person) and glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing. That was fun, but we definitely ate out too much this week, hopefully this week will be better.

Tomorrow, February's monthly numbers :|


TTFN, Morgaine

Spending Report: February 14-20

14: No Spend
15: $2.00 (cash - chocolate, damn co-workers!) + $28.74 (credit - amazon.com for soap molds!)=$30.74
16: No Spend
17: No Spend
18: $8.69 (cash - lunch) + $21.10 (debit - personal care items, damn cold!) + $31.00 (cash - dinner) + $22.13 (cash - personal care: contact lens solution and some other things) + $3.78 (debit - entertainment: 2 books)=$86.70 (ouch!)
19: $14.72 (personal care: BC pills) + $12.58 (cash - dinner)=$27.30
20: $6.00 (cash - tea that my Mom is going to reimburse me for)
Total: $150.74

I'm happy that I had 3 no spends (almost 4, in fact since my Mom is going to reimburse me, I would like to count that too, but anyways) but Friday I went overboard! There was some personal care items that I had been putting off buying for a while (hair ties and clips) but I knew that I was going to have to buy the contact lens solution since I had just bought contacts and the BC pills. The hair items could've waited. I HAVE to do much better on controlling my spending than that!

On the 18th I went out with my Godmother to the show I had bought tickets for her for Christmas: "The Man in Black: a Johnny Cash Tribute" which was a really good show. I didn't really know much about Johnny Cash before the movie "Walk the Line" but I did enjoy the movie (Joaquin Phoenix TOTALLY got robbed of an Oscar on that one!) and I found that his music was one that I could appreciate even though it isn't my usual style of music. Anyways, we went out to a nice dinner and so that put me back $31 but it was a place that I really enjoyed, I had a nice glass of wine and we shared a desert, so it was a very nice evening :)

Spending Report February 7-13

Feb 7: $0.75 (cash - coffee)
Feb 8: No Spend!
Feb 9: $0.75 (cash - coffee)
Feb 10: $8.46 (cash - lunch)
Feb 11: $0.75 (cash - coffee)
Feb 12: $14.73 (debit - gift) + $25 (debit - gift card) + $14.38 (debit - $12.68 gift and bag $1.70 household), $70 (cash - reimburse from planned spending - eye doctor), $25.25 (debit - Valentine's Day gift) + $4.52 (cash - gifts) + $14 (cash - bingo - for friend's birthday celebration) =$153.88
Feb 13: $20 (cash - lent to brother) + $3.00 (cash, conveince store) + $164.18 (credit - to be reinmbursed from planned spending - eyeglasses and contacts) =$187.18
Total =$351.77-$234.18(from planned spending acct)=$117.59

Notes: friend's birthday caused me to spend $58.25 ($12.68 gift for another friend's birthday later this month, I saw it and said this is PERFECT for my other friend so I had to pick it up - last one!) Plus $25.25 for Valentine's Day gift for the bf. We decided not to spend a lot of money on Valentine's Day for two reasons: (1) we are saving for wedding (2) our anniversary (1st date) is March 10th so we tend to celebrate this day more than Valentine's anyways.

Glasses are EXPENSIVE! glad I planned ahead for this purchase! And, I will be reimbursed the $70 eye exam fee from bf's medical plan, so it can go right back into PS account. Although, this time I ordered them from clearlycontacts.com which was a lot cheaper than my last pair of glasses which were over $400! I also ordered some contacts to wear on special occasions.

They just made the move from free coffee to $0.75 for coffee at work, but rest assured, I have now brought in my own tea and will use the hot water from the machine for free from now on :) So, there may be more no spend days in my future ...

TTFN, Morgaine

Spending Report: Jan 31 - Feb 6 - Finally!

In my efforts to ramp up my budgeting by tracking my expenses more effectively, I am tracking my cash purchases in a notebook and regular purchases from my debit/credit card weekly on the blog. I'm hoping to put this up every week on Mondays, but this week I wasn't feeling well at the beginning of this week. Well, without much further ado:

Jan 31: $1 (cash - snack) + $12.19 (visa - ebook) = $13.19
Feb 1: no spend!
Feb 2: $2.48 (cash - snack)
Feb 3: $7.98 (cash - lunch) + $8.99 (cash - magazine) = $16.97
Feb 4: $8.80 (cash - lunch) + $38.02 (debit - personal care) + $16.70 (debit - $13 clothes, $3.70 food) +$2.15 (cash - snack) + $7.10 (cash - snack) = $72.77
Feb 5: $22.30 (debit - hobby) + $15.32 (debit - $9.13 hobby, $6.19 food) = $37.62
Feb 6: no spend!
Total: $143.03

Wow, the 4th was a really bad day for me! Why are vitamins so expensive? Also, I bought a pair of those portable slip on shoes because I had an interview and I was wearing my winter boots. But since they have multiple uses (and I am interviewing quite a bit lately) I figured it wasn't a really bad purchase for $13 (even though I didn't get that job :( ) But, I do have 2 jobs that are checking my references, so that's a good sign, right?

TTFN, Morgaine