Debt Hater

September Monthly Report: Back In the Black After A Lovely Birthday

Last month, I was $120 in the red.

Carrying that deficit into September, I finished the month with $45.
Whew!

Being in Hawaii for a week spending money I had already saved for the trip saved me!
Which, I must confess, is not a good thing. If I finished with $45 by essentially eliminating a week from the month, then I undoubtedly would have run deep into the red again.

There are two problems as I see it:

• I am NOT sticking to spending only the $675 I have available in flex money. Instead, I spend what I save in other budget categories. So, if I save $50 on groceries, $50 on gas, then I just spend $100 more on clothes. Technically, that's not terrible, but if I stuck to my pre-determined spending allotments, there would be more available to save each month, getting me to my six months of living expenses goal faster.

• I front load spending. I spend up to 45% of my budget within the first week of the month. Um yeah. So I spend the rest of the month trying to stop the bleeding to stay in the black. It's a cycle -- I curtail spending so much for the last half of the month, that I kinda go nuts at the start of the following month. If I can spread it out, I think I can avoid blowing my wad before the month gets started good.

The question is: Just how do I solve these two problems?
I wasn't always doing this, so I need to figure what worked before and why I am having trouble now.

DH

Happy Birthday to Me from Hawaii!

Hello readers!

I have not forgotten you. I am just on vacation on Maui for my birthday.

Aloha!

Went hiking Haleakala and today went surfing. Heading to a luau for my birthday dinner this evening.
I will be back, when I am back in the continental US.
Until then, hang loose!

Mahalo!

DH

My August Monthly Report: I Blew It! And On Just Two Things...

I was $120 in the hole for August.

While that is bad, I gotta tell ya it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be!
I told y'all I tossed my budget to the wind. I spent $400 more on non-necessities than my budget allows (currently, that's $650 a month not earmarked for savings and the essentials). That's way crazy. The only reason I'm not further in the red is because I came way under budget in every single spending category besides my rent and such. I even came under budget on groceries and dining out! Merciful heavens, I don't think that's ever happened before!

So what the heck happened? Two spending categories are responsible for my entire deficit: Cosmetics and Clothes.

I include hair care and such in my cosmetics budget (it still tickles me that I even have a cosmetics budget) I never get my hair done, but this month I wanted to and I found a neat little salon on my clandestine visit to NYC this month (Clandestine because all I did was stay home with my mom and gram and visit with my brother. I didn't tell my peeps I'd be in town.). My stylist was off the chain and she created a cool style that would play well at work, keep for two weeks and look HOT when I unbraided and untwisted the whole shebang. Well worth the money I spent -- $80, a small sum for what I had done, but $10 would have been too much because I hadn't budgeted a penny for this.
But before I even got my hair did I was over budget on cosmetics by $4. As I mentioned in my post on my sudden cosmetics hunger, I talked about all the stuff I was suddenly so interested in. Spent more this month on make-up than I think I have total in the past three months. But my eye shadow is fierce!

Clothes, fall approaches and I just wanted some new digs. I wish I could say I am done shopping, but not even close. I bought most of what I got full price (I know, please don't throw anything at me) and at my favorite boutiques, which tend to be overpriced as it is anyway. I didn't do any of the  searching pricing, considering that smart shoppers know to do. I saw what I wanted, tried it on and bought it. Shopped like a man... a fashionable spendthrift man, but a man nonetheless. I burned $433 in this category this month. At least I love everything I bought...

And that's it ladies and gentlemen. So now I have to commit to holding in the reigns to make up for the hole I dug. I am sure I can do it and, like I said in my previous post, I really don't have a choice. I HATE consumer debt and I am not in it now, but keep on running into the red each month and that's just where I'll wind up. Not this tall brown girl. Been there, done that and NEVER going back. Here's to a more responsible September!

DH