Hello and happy Sunday! It’s been a while since I posted here. I lost motivation for a while, and I still don’t quite have it back. I wanted to post a brief update though, because I did something kind of exciting recently. I paid off my credit card debt. Now, I will just have about $10,600 or so in student loans to tackle. That’s still a lot of debt to repay but I’m so happy I don’t have to look at a credit card statement each month that tells me it will take me 20+ years to pay off if I only pay the minimum balance each month.
Happy Sunday! I keep forgetting to do this as regularly as I’d like. I didn’t do one for the end of July and now it’s a bit late so I will just post what my budget for August is today.
Everything here is pretty standard for me except the “other” category. I already bought something for about $42 so that was added in after I did the initial budget for the month. I may have to adjust some other things too but this is kind of a bare bones budget for me. It gets a little boring posting about it all the time so I need to think up some new personal finance topics for this blog.
The reason this is still a “bare bones” budget for now is because I am still on furlough. I feel really lost and almost want to change careers sometimes. I also feel like I’m too introverted to do most things though. Maybe I’m just too afraid…. Well, I don’t want to get too deep here so I’ll end this post now.
Happy Tuesday! I haven’t posted on here in a while. I’ll get right into what I spent money on though.
I spent $221.50 on food for the end of July. I did go over my food budget in July. I’ll try to do better this month. I also spent $119.37 on food for August which I put into my August budget.
I paid for my iCloud which was $2.99. I also paid my phone bill which was $47.63.
I paid the minimum on my credit card which was $125.
I paid my rent for August which was about $887.
Finally, I spent $16.21 on miscellaneous items, including some face masks.
I’m trying to keep my spending to a minimum so these have been easier to do biweekly.
Happy Monday! I’m just going to get right into what I spent money on during the beginning of this month.
First, I spent $158.59 on food. Not too bad for almost half the month for two people.
I also spent $79.21 on miscellaneous things. This included some body wash, a new bed sheet, a meat thermometer and some supplies to clean my dryer. The most expensive item was a shop vacuum that I used for cleaning my dryer.
That’s all that I’ve spent money on this month so far. Not too bad, if you ask me. I thought I had spent more, honestly. The most unnecessary purchase was probably the meat thermometer but my old one broke and I’m bad at gauging when chicken is done cooking.
Happy Friday! It’s taken me a while to post my end of May budget overview and I almost decided not to. However, since I’m posting my overview for the end of June I decided to just include it in this post also. I’ll get right into it.
June 2020 budget
As you can see, I went over my planned budget in June. I’m not surprised since I didn’t give myself a lot of wiggle room for anything extra and I chose not to edit my budget to compensate for my overspending.
So let’s talk about where I overspent. I discussed in one of my previous blogs that I did visit a butcher where I spent $52. On that day, I also bought a $15 jar of honey from a local business. Those two transactions alone got me over my food budget. That same day, I found that I needed some clothing replaced which cost about $50 and is how I went over in my “other” category.
I always write these budgets for what I anticipate I will spend. I don’t try to allocate all my money to things in my budget. So while I did overspend, I had enough money to cover everything. I choose not to do the zero based budgeting method. I am just not a fan of it for myself.
Next, I’m going to show May’s budget. This one was a little harder for me to post, I think. That is why I hadn’t yet.
May 2020 budget
So there is May. It feels like I did well. I didn’t overspend. I adjusted my food amount by $1 because I would have been over if I left it at $350. The only other things out of place are the debt and savings categories. I chose not to pay my student loans which are in forbearance and I opted to cut my savings to nothing when I found out that I was being furloughed from my job.
As of the day I’m writing this, my furlough is still in place. I am grateful for the unemployment program in my state, cooking, and television. This is a hard time to hold myself accountable for things because so much is out of my control. That is why I feel that it is more important than ever for me to document how I spend my money and try to create a tentative plan for the future. I don’t know how long this will last and that is scary. It’s giving me time to learn things about myself though. For that, I am grateful.
I hope to post again soon. I may go over my July budget in my next post.
Happy July! I keep forgetting about writing posts and I am a bit behind so I’m gonna get right into this.
I spent $87.72 on food so I went over budget but it’s ok. I’m not worried about it.
I also paid my credit card bill which was $125.
Finally, I paid my $887 rent for July and paid $67.73 for a few months of renters insurance. I’ll need to pay for renters insurance again in October. It’s one of those things I always forget about so I hadn’t planned to pay that but it happens. No big deal.
That last paragraph went into my July budget. The two things I listed are both July expenses.
Happy Wednesday! I decided to take a break from this blog for a week so I’m back with two weeks’ worth of spending. There still isn’t much going on for me though.
First, during these two weeks, I spent $275.89 on food. That is a lot and I will definitely go over my food budget for the month. I went to a butcher for some meat and overspent. Total oversight on my part but I’ll be ok.
Next, I bought my boyfriend’s birthday gift. That cost me $17.13 out of pocket. I had a gift card and coupon that I used to save on that.
My monthly iCloud fee was $2.99 as per usual. My phone bill was $47.63.
Finally, I had to purchase some clothing items. The ones I have are wearing out so I needed some new ones for when they inevitably are no longer wearable for me. That cost me $49.32.
I’ll try to do my end of May budget post soon. I just haven’t been feeling it lately. I guess I’m just lost without having a job right now.
Happy Monday. I know I’ve skipped my end of May and beginning of June posts but I’ve felt really stressed lately so I may just do them later… We’ll see. For now, though, here is what I spent money on in the beginning of June.
First, I paid my rent electronically and that was about $887.
Next, I spent $92.16 on food and consumables.
Finally, I went and got gas. It cost me $19.28 so that’s just under the budget I had set for myself. I’ve been going outside on occasion but this is the first time I’ve gotten gas since March.
Ashley The Millennial 