Welcome to How I Save Money and tracking of income and expenses for the month.
Income for the month to date: $76.46
Expenses for the month to date: $1764.26
Net effect: -$1687.80
So far I have gotten some money for doing surveys and other items at various sites. I also got some interest from my ING holdings and a few dollars from advertising on the blog.
I have paid the major expenses like rent and the electricity bill was $50.20 which is a more satisfying number than the bill that was over $90!
I am also doing so much better on gas as it is almost the middle of the month and I have spent $23.35 on gas which is way less than half of $85 (the total budgeted for the month.)
I have spent just over $50 on groceries but that was because I did buy some more expensive stuff like hummus this shopping trip. Hummus was not a regular part of my budget in the past, but I really like it so it will now be on my shopping list.
I will see you guys and gals later as I continue my journey to save money and become debt free!!!!
Have you considered trying to make some extra money online by doing something like the Thirty Day Challenge? (http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com). It’s completely free to do, and has helped a lot of people get on the track to earning a full-time income online. (Don’t mean to sound like an advertisement here – I have no affiliation with the site, I just think it’s a great resource.)
I actually had not heard of this challenge yet..but I will check it out.
We would love to be able to spend $50 on groceries, we are at about $200 a month, but health body makes a healthy mind. so its worth it.
I just discovered your blog today and have been enjoying reading through your posts. But I was a little surprised by how high your monthly expenses to date figure was ($1764), as you only mentioned rent & electricity, and from what I gathered from your other posts, you either live alone or with a SO so your place is probably not that big. Maybe there are other major expenses that you didn’t mention..? I live in L.A. where both housing is expensive and energy consumption (AC AC!) is high, but my total monthly expenses are about $1500 if I live frugally, and if I downgraded from my nice, centrally located 1-bdrm apt to a smaller place, I could live off of $900 per month. One big reason I chose this place was b/c utilities are so cheap – all included except electricity which runs $10-20/mo depending on whether a tenant has AC or not. I’ve gathered that tenants of apt buildings tend to have cheaper elec like I do whereas apt complex tenants tend to pay alot more ($50-100). Anyway it just made me wonder whether you couldn’t save money on rent/elec by moving into a more economical place, although, obviously, not right away. 🙂
@ Libra
I only talked about the rent and electricity this time but I have a few other things that make up that amount.
I have to pay for water here and then there are items like car payment, various credit card payments, loan repayments, food etc that were part of this.
I lump all my expenses together in the reporting for the month, not just living.
As you can see by my debt charts I have a good bit of debt…..so a lot of the expense category is various payments on parts of that loan.
Just signed a one year lease so I won’t be moving anywhere for a while. 🙂
Things really add up, don’t they? Now I understand why your monthlys are what they are, loans and car payments are nothing to snicker at. I wish you well in your efforts to get out of debt and in everything else!
@ Libra
Thanks for the well wishes. As you can see by my debt repayment chart I am making steady progress.
I just need to keep sending in those payments…and stop buying socks 🙂