I'm currently in the midst of all the magical limbo that is "I have a job, probably, almost certainly, but not yet and not until... eventually..." and also packing/preparing to move a 20+ hour drive away. It's a great mix of excitement and yet all the uncertainty.
Noemi over at Not A Wasted Word is doing a stick to a budget challenge for the summer and I decided to jump in with a personal spending embargo for our family. Until the end of the summer (so probably the start of September but maybe just before, depending on if my spouse needs a work wardrobe revamp) we are buying no clothes (except I need a third sweater and my spouse replaced 3 pair of underwear), no music, and no toys. There will be some kind of weekly (during the weekend) post about how this goal was met. Not sure what this will look like yet, but here's a starter!
At the same time we are doing some heavy purging of things in preparation for moving. First we thinned our expenses down to the bare minimum. We are ditching our TV service, internet, and a monthly donation to a cause we are lukewarm about. That nets us almost $100 a month, but we are increasing our trash pick up to potentially double its current cost so we only save about $65 total. There was no other room in our expenses to cut aside from eating out, groceries, and driving places. Lucky for us, we have food on hand to last us most of a month if not two, so our grocery budget shrunk as well.
Today we cleared out Little Monster's clothes and shipped a box to a friend who is expecting soon (along with a box of cloth diapers and other baby miscellany) plus 5 grocery bags of additional clothes between the girls (but mostly hers). Then we boxed the first bookshelf and donated a full box. Tomorrow we will purge adult clothes and hopefully the Kid's as well. #whoneedsit
I'm thinking I will post our different categories of budget for the week as a percentage - did we meet, exceed, or undershoot our goals - in addition to the specific categories where we should spend zero. Next week at the latest I will post what portion of our monthly income is budgeted for each of these categories. It's depressing how tight we are in terms of budget and income right now so the clear solution is for me to get a job already... 83% of our monthly income goes to fixed expenses, not including car operations. When you include internet and phone, it puts us at 88% and the car is only for show. If we use 2 tanks of gas, we are up close to 93%. Sigh.
Monthly budget categories
Rent
Utilities
Phone/internet
Health insurance
Car loan
Credit card
Student loans
Car insurance
Car operations (oil changes and fuel etc.)
Groceries
Snacks
Entertainment (aud.ible, DVD rental)
Toys
Music
Clothes
Did I miss any budget or spending categories? Anyone suggest a tracker that might be appropriate? Tracking what?
Do you need a category for household goods? (Toilet paper, kleenex, laundry detergent, etc?).
ReplyDeleteI want to get on this bandwagon as well. I'll try to post something in the next week or so.
Good luck with your move and (almost) job!
Good point. I was planning to lump that with groceries but it really ought to be split out, especially since we usually don't purchase it at the same time as groceries.
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