Financial Friday

 It’s been one week since Operation: Stop Spending Money began and so far I think it has gone well.  Especially for the first week ever on a true zero balance budget.  I separated all of my envelopes by how my paychecks fall.  Since I get paid biweekly, I’ll be refilling every paycheck approximately half of my monthly budget for those items.  My monthly budget is:

·         Home (groceries/house supplies/basic toiletries/paper products/cat food/any food related purchase, including restaurants): $300/month ($150/paycheck)

·         Personal (mostly for clothes, cosmetics, and any entertainment expenses):  $100/month ($50/paycheck)

·         Gas:  $90/month ($45/paycheck)

Things like rent, car insurance, cell phone bill, etc., all get paid directly out of my bank account.  I tried to give myself a reasonable amount of money so that I wouldn’t just get frustrated and quit.  It’s not quite perfect yet, but I’m not 100% sure if that’s because I didn’t give myself enough of an allowance in personal or home.  When I replenish my envelope funds next Friday (payday), I’ll probably keep the amounts the same and see how it goes.  I’m really hoping that I can get by on what money I have in envelopes through next week but I won’t be too upset if I have to “borrow” $40 from my bank account to get me through just so I can still enjoy the holiday season, especially since I’m not traveling home.

Right now I have $4 left in the home budget (mostly due to an unexpected rodent problem due to a neighbor who is less than immaculate) and two or three restaurant splurges I should have avoided (once I left my lunch for work on the counter at my house, which not only caused me to have to buy lunch but also ruined a frozen dinner.  This left me one meal short for my week.).  I have $20 left in my personal budget and $20 left in my gas budget.  I did go off completely off plan once due to a necessary midday wardrobe malfunction that lead to me putting $30 on a credit card.  (Full disclosure:  I still have money in my checking account but all of my bills for the first part of the month haven’t been deducted yet and I wanted a bit of a buffer zone so the money I have sitting in my savings account didn’t get moved over to checking.  Plus, my interest rate on that card is pretty low so it’ll only end up costing me around 50 cents to get it taken care of next month.)

In theory, any money that doesn’t get spent in the home budgets roll over into my travel fund.  The travel fund doesn’t really get funded like a regular envelope though.  It’s just any extra, unexpected income that I might get.  For example, I just upgraded my cell phone and may be selling my old one on Craigslist or eBay.  Since that’s not money that I banked on coming in to pay bills or direct to another purpose, that money would go into the travel fund.  The gas fund will keep rolling over in case emergency or unexpected travel by car is needed (this would have been great to have earlier in the year for a death in the family).  And the personal money left at the end of the month will roll over month to month into a clothing allowance envelope because clothes, especially winter clothes, aren’t cheap, wear out, and require replacement/dry cleaning/mending/alteration, etc.  (If I had had this earlier this week then I wouldn’t have put any money on my credit card!!)

On Monday I’ll go over some plans that I think might help in planning my  budget for the upcoming year as well as some mini goals to hit by certain dates.

Do you work off of a budget of any kind?  If so, what works for you?

What percent of your take home to you commit to household needs and groceries?  I think I’m around 11% total for all home purchases including groceries.