Thursday, March 6, 2008

The March Budget and Goals

Looking towards March with a more positive outlook, here is the budget I've come up with. I've not included my income, I have to see how my little raise figures in to the whole equation, but here goes with what I can foresee at this point. Fixed Expenses are in blue.

I know I've been really bad the past two months about adding up my cash receipts (miscellaneous money) and those should be budgeted to each category, but I don't. Last night I stopped at the grocery store and spend a whopping $5.50 on groceries, but paid cash out of my miscellaneous money. I just need to use my debit card for any and all food purchases so I can track it better.

I got my new student loan booklet two weeks ago and my student loan for dropped from $174 to $171.50, I'm keeping it at $174 so the additional $2.50 can snowflake off the total amount due to the loan. I do the same for my mortgage, my payment is $553, but I pay $555. Not a ton of money, but every little bit helps.

My goals for March are:

1) Continue to work on second job prospect (see other post about that).
2) Find more things to sell on E-bay/half.com
3) Talk to neighbors about holding a block yard sale in Mid April
4) Get my act together and join a gym (I don't have a choice in this one, MD's orders,I;ve been putting it off and stretching at home is not a work out).
5) Start on yard clean up and garden planning. Spring IS supposed to arrive in about 15 days!
6) Stop dipping into EFund!-this is a biggie, I should have almost $500 in my Efund, but I've dipped into it to cover some expenses when I should not. BIG shame on me.


Expense Budget
Mortgage $555
Health Insurance $120
Utilities $200
Food $175
Phones $60
Internet $15
Misc $100
E fund $200
Car Insurance $90
Student Loan $174
Transportation/Gas $110
Continuing Education $100
Clothes $50
Laundry $40
ING Savings $25

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