Welcome to  tracking of income and expenses for the month. Please note that I get paid on the last day of the month so my cash flow net effect will usually be negative until the last day of the month.

This does not mean that I am adding to my debt, it just means that the money coming in is less than the money going out because bills are due starting on the first but I don’t get paid until the last day.

twentyIncome for the month to date: $1.59

Expenses for the month to date: $1304.57

Net effect: -$1302.98

Wow it is only the first week in and already the net cash flow looks UGLY. This is because I am paying the bills and have not had much income yet. I will not be getting paid until January 30th so unless I get some money from the blog or something the net flow will continue to be negative.

Since the last posting I have spent an additional $8.34 on food. I needed to get some fresh fruit and since I like my bananas greenish I got some this weekend.

I spent $38.75 on general household stuff….including a new purse for work. My old one was really old and outdated and I splurged $15 on a new bag!!!!

I also sent off $310 to my brother to pay the loan at home and incurred $9.46 in Money Gram fees.

I am feeling more relieved about my streamlined budget which accounts for

Food and
Non Food items.

Non Food includes clothing, medicines, bath gels and other random stuff that I purchase that cannot be eaten or classified as a bill. This falls under the Simplify section of my Simple Goals For 2009 and it feels really liberating. I used to stress over each penny and over classify things like a crazy woman.

I had a section in money for fruits, general groceries (milk, bread), candy, vitamins etc. It was really too much to manage and it took a while to separate everything into the various categories in Microsoft Money. Now I just enter two categories and I am done. Whew!

I will see you guys and gals later as I continue my journey to save money and become debt free!!!!