August Tracking Adventure Week 2

Woop. The second week of my August Tracking Adventure has come to a close and here are the results:


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Circle K		$21.01		Gas
Pharmacy		$30.00		Pharmacy
Subway		$9.00		Food
OnCue		$8.30		Food
Louie's		$36.00		Food
Target		$10.83		Miscellaneous
Aldi		$47.93		Groceries (joint account)
Crest		$53.67		Groceries (joint account)

Groceries $101.60- This is more than I planned on spending... Groceries come out of our joint account so the boyfriend and I are both paying for them. Now, I do meal planning and I take a list to the store so how is my grocery spending so high? Because I take the boyfriend with me and let's just say he doesn't understand the concept of sticking to a list. (*side note-boyfriend does appreciate my budgeting and attempting to save money here and there, he even fist bumped me when I found black beans for 0.61 instead of the 0.99 I thought I was going to spend)

Food $53.30- So I think I did pretty close to the same as last week... I went out with a couple of friends on Saturday and spent more than I would have liked to but I did have leftovers for my boyfriend afterward so really I got 2 meals out of it.

Pharmacy $30- I spent $30 on my birth control, sounds high but I actually get 3 months at a time.

Gas $21.01- I filled up the tank this week, the pump stopped at 20.89 but I was shooting for a nice whole number... #fail

Miscellaneous $10.83- I bought a dry erase board to go on my fridge to write out what we are having for dinner each night. Even though this was for the house it wasn't a necessity so I paid for it myself instead of taking it from our joint account. 

Total spending for Week 2: $216.74

I spent more than Week 1 but I'm not too upset about it. I'm really proud of myself for sticking to this tracking thing for 2 weeks. My meal plan is set for next week and I don't have any plans that will involve money spending so I'm thinking Week 3 is going to be a hit!

(PS I originally included the dates on the spreadsheet above but when I pasted it into Blogger it caused funky things to happen so I deleted the dates.)

Budgets for dayzzz, y'all!

Here is something that probably about 90% of my friends, family and acquaintances know about me: budgeting is my life. There is no exaggerating that fact. I have a note saved in my iPhone of bills and various budget categories, a similar word document saved on my work computer, and multiple little slips of paper in my purse with budget notes written on them at all times.... When I say budgeting is my life, I mean it.

I feel like everyone should have a budget of some sort to help keep track of your money, and make sure your money is working for you. There are tons of different budgeting methods that you can research and try out to see which one fits you best. Or if you're like me, you can take bits and pieces from different methods and make something that is totally your own. 

Here are a few budget methods that you could be a good fit for you:

50/20/30 Budget: 50% of your income goes to "essentials," which are things you HAVE to pay for, such as housing, utilities, food and transportation... 20% of your income would then go to savings... 30% would be "personal expenses," Mint describes those as cell phone bills, gym memberships and coffee shops etc.

Zero Based Budget: This is one of the budget methods that I use to make my custom budget method. A zero based budget is where you "give every dollar a job." This is the preferred budget method of personal finance guru Dave Ramsey recommends. If your paycheck is $1000 then you plan for each of those $1000. 

Envelope/Cash Budgeting: This is another portion of my custom budget method. Basically you figure out how much you need for certain things, let's say $50 for groceries, you put that in an envelope and once that $50 in the grocery envelope is gone then you have no more grocery money until you get paid again. You have to have some self control with this one, you're not supposed to borrow from one envelope to put money in another envelope. If you get to your next payday and you have $10 left in your grocery envelope you can either only put in $40 or you could put in the normal $50 and have some extra for the week.

After you decide which budget method (or if you're like me, which combination of budgets) sounds good for you, it's time to plug in your numbers! Most people will tell you that to create a new budget you need to track your spending for a month, others will tell you that you can go thru your bank statements and figure out where you spend your money. Once you've got that done you can re-evaluate how much you spend on your daily Starbucks trips or in my case, Whataburger.

Now that I've rambled on explained some different budget methods and how to create a budget, I'm going to tie it all together and tell you why this is my first in depth post! I am going to use the month of August to track my spending and start a fresh budget. Honestly, I've never tracked my spending for a month... I just pick a number for my budget categories and go with it, and I'm not saying my budget has been failing me but I know it could be better.

Wish me luck on my August tracking adventure!

Does anyone have any tips on coming up with a new budget? I'm definitely all ears!