Debt Hater

July Monthly Report: In the Black Thanks to Vacation, Ironically

I finished July with $56.83 remaining. I was out of town and on vacation for 12 days this month, spending primarily money I had saved for travel.

Report for June
End of the month: $56.83 in the black

Saved: $1,886.67 (39% of my monthly income)

Total Net Worth: $40,000

As you can see, my net worth is down nearly three thousand dollars from June -- that's due to some annual expenses that I pay out of my e-fund (I save for those expenses all year) and my vacation expenses.

Now, I had fun on vacation. Lots of fun! And I did quite a bit of spending, which I will get to in my next post.

But it's nice not to have to make up for overspending in August!

DH

June Monthly Report: In the Black Despite Overage in May

Woo hoo! I finished June with $10.43 remaining in disposable income. This is despite carrying over a $230 deficit from May because of the bank's mistake and subsequent overdraft charges.

How did I do it? Not with frugal spending practices, not this time.  I finally got paid for some freelance work I had done a few months back and I got a reimbursement from my FSA. Voila, May deficit and then some paid back.

Report for June
End of the month: $10.43 in the black

Saved: $1,931.54 (31% of my monthly income)

Total Net Worth: 42,826.31

Why, you may be asking, isn't my net worth $1,900 more than it was last month?
Added into this amount if my travel fund, which I am always saving money in, but I recently used money in it for my vacation this month.

And... that's about it.

I spent more than $400 on meals and random snacks out. That's a heckuva lot of money for just little ole me. But I did eat out a lot this month!

Other than that, looking forward for a fiscally sound July!

April Monthly Report: In the Black, Spending Spree Notwithstanding

If I had to go on a spending spree (and of course I didn't have to), I guess this was the best month to do it -- three paychecks kept me well in the black and boosted my savings.

My Report for April

End of the month: $731 in the black

Saved: $2,305.55 (nearly 25% of my monthly income)

Total Net Worth: $40,857 (last month I only reported liquid cash; this includes my 401k, car and some other minor assets)

That $731 left for the month is going into savings for a month with five weeks and and only two paychecks.

Going Over Budget Makes Me Feel Guilty

Back at the start of April, I was already on a path to spending way over budget.

But, it was also the same old same old -- clothes, dining out, random mess. And every few blogs posts, I self-flagellate, beating the drum of discipline and my failure to adhere to it.

Then I feel guilty.

But there is something amiss. There's always something amiss when the same thing keeps happening month after month and nothing changes. Maybe I am in denial about how much money I tend to spend on certain things. Perhaps my budget categories are unrealistic.

Debt Was Then, Debt Free Is Now
When I was in debt, I had no saving plan, no plan to pay off the debt and no discipline to get my act together. Once I did get it together, it took discipline to stick to my repayment plan, which meant I had to monitor every last dime and where it went. If I went over somewhere, it automatically meant there was no money available for something else.

My circumstances have changed.

I am saving every month. The savings come out of my paycheck automatically and the amounts don't change, no matter what I spend. I don't have any debt balances by the end of each month. I use my credit card, but I can pay the balance in full by the due date each month. And there some spending categories where I never reach the budgeted amount -- I'm always way under. So, if there are others where I go over, it shouldn't matter. The money is saved. The spending money is available.

Now, if I DO go over income and have to borrow from my savings to pay for my spending, then I have a problem. But even so, it just means that the following month I need to save as usual and ADD whatever I borrowed -- so less spending for me to make up for borrowing from myself.

So why the guilt?

There may be something else afoot. I may be unfulfilled. I may be dissatisfied with some other area of my life. Now, if THAT'S the case, then I need to identify that and rectify it. But coming in on budget for clothing isn't going to fulfill that need.

Going forward, I think the most important thing for me to do now is to focus on saving, not spending, and staying in the black, even if it's by 10 cents. It's ok so long as I met my savings goals. If I arrange for those first, then all the money left over for the month is for me to do with what I please.

I will continue to keep track of all the pennies to see where they are going, but as long as I am saving and not incurring debt I can't repay in the month, then I shouldn't feel guilty about spending the other money.

How about you? For all my debt haters still paying off debt, what's your stumbling block? How do you handle it?

For all of you basking in debt freedom, what trips you up instead? How do you remedy the problem?


DH

March Monthly Report: On Budget and in the Black!

I am going to do my monthly budget recap posts slightly differently from now on. Starting this month I'll include what I've saved, not just what I spent.

Changing Personal Finance Focus

Before, I explained where I went over budget and such (always clothes and food) and then let you know how in the black or, more often, how in the red, I was each month. I'll continue to do that, but will also include how much I saved. I think that was missing in previous reports, so it looked like I either spent every last penny and then some or just finished out the month with a little bit. In reality, I was putting money away. I just didn't count that toward my total for the end of the month. Why? Because money I save is not for spending. So, for my own psyche, I counted it as gone, unavailable. But I think reporting it on the blog that way painted an unrealistic picture of what I was doing with my money.

My Report for March

Here's the breakdown of how I did in March:

End of the month: $161.74

Saved: $1,289 (21% of my monthly income)

Net Worth: $26,234 (I am excluding my "tithe" saving -- this is money I am saving expressly to give away, which I will explain in another post)

Where I Went Over Budget

Dining out and clothes. What else is new? Seriously, on March 30, I treated a buddy to dinner (it's a monthly thing we do. He treated me last month. But since I know this will happen every month, there's no reason I should have gone over here).

On March 31, I bought a pair of shoes. Each of those purchases alone put me over budget for each of the categories ($31 and $25 respectively). Boo! No excuses.

Even with me starting to buy organic groceries, I stayed under budget on groceries this month. Meal planning and taking lunch to work PAYS. I knew that already and I shouldn't need any more proof.

Entertainment. Went $56 over. Why? I just didn't plan well. I may also be in denial about how much I spend here and may need to readjust my budget (or stay my butt home... nah).

My Plans for the Black Money

Save it! I allow plenty of room in my budget for shopping, fun and dining out. The money I don't save by the end of the month should build assets for me (including training, education, experiences and travel), not help me accumulate more stuff.

How'd you do in March?

DH

November Monthly Report: Whoa

I'm going to keep this short.

I went $800 over budget for the month.

I could blame it on the handful of Christmas gifts I bought.

I could blame it on some holiday decorations and such I bought for my apartment.But in real life, I went that far over budget because I just went nuts. I spent $600 on clothes, saw a bunch of movies and just, just didn't do what I knew I should.

This does not put me in danger of not meeting my six-months-living-expenses goal, but I basically wiped out what I had left over from previous months when I was in the black.

Like I said, I'll keep this short. I just tossed all I learned about managing my finances to the wind this month and won't make a bunch of excuses. I just bought what I wanted when I wanted it and didn't pay much attention.

Simple.

Silly.

'Nuff said.

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

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

July Monthly Report -- $1.51 in the Black

I finished the month with $1.15.

Ha ha! Yeah.

I went $70 over my non-essentials budget, but I don't really care.

See, I have been coming under budget on most of my necessity spending (just to recap, I consider rent, groceries, the cell phone, transportation and such necessities; dining out, clothes, travel, movies and such are non-essential). It would be better to stay on budget for everything and transfer the money I save to my emergency account. I admit that. But I am meeting my savings goals each month, so I'm not falling behind.

Remember I planned to use $250 from a freelance assignment to pay for prettying up my bedroom? Well, I decided to keep that cash in savings and work that project into my regular budget for the month.

Now, I did start to get a little antsy with one week and about $40 left. For some reason, I just had the spend-money-anyway bug biting me. I bought an iced coffee for kicks (and y'all know I ain't into coffee like that) and I couldn't stay outta CVS, eyeballing make-up and what nots (and y'all know I rarely wear make-up!). I forced myself to stay on my homemade lunches and snacks, though I did get a $2 cupcake from Whole Foods after a particularly trying day in the office. So, little bits and such burned about a little less than $15. I went to a movie and bought snacks... burned another $15. Had to do laundry... that took $10.

My plan for August? I am making a list of items I had planned to purchase this month and figure how much it will cost. This will help me plan and spread the buys out instead of loading up the first week of the month as I tend to do (when I do that, by the end of the month, when I'm out of money, I always want to go shopping!).

So ho hum, readers, but still black so it's all good. :-)

$27 to Get Through the Rest of June

Wow, so, like, yeah. I have a few hours left in June and thankfully my time will be completely occupied so I WON'T spend every last penny I earned this month.

But dang, down to the wire!

I can tell you right now that eating out, clothing and just plain partying were the culprits.
I went $110 over on eating out (I know, I don't even know how I did it), $35 over on clothes and $65 on "entertainment," which includes everything from books, to movies, to happy hours.

I also got a parking ticket and paid nearly $10 in late fees to the library. It ain't free if you don't return the stuff you borrow!

So, according to my budget, I spent $30 over what I budget for discretionary money (the money left over after I save, pay the bills and get necessities). I said in a previous post, that I MUST spend just the $650 I budget for discretionary funds, otherwise I'm going to run into problems or accidentally spend money allocated for necessities or bills. The only reason I have $27 left for the month is because I DIDN'T spend very much on necessities. I came under budget in many of those categories.

But, I also have to say that the other reason I got down to $27 left in June is because I saved more money that i budgeted for. I am pushing hard to get to six months of living expenses saved and I squeezed a bit more out of the budget. I have four months down. I expect to reach my savings goal by the end of the year -- right on schedule.

So, it's already the end of the day. I'll finish June in the black (barely), but really need to consider just how to quit going nuts on dining out. But I love eating out!

DH

Finished May in the Black and On My Way to Tokyo!

So, I had just $75 of disposable income for the last week of this month, and was concerned that I wouldn't make it. But, I returned a pair of shoes I ordered this month (didn't fit), which put back $35. We were treated to lunch by the company one day this week, I had lunch in the fridge from last week I didn't eat and then my leftovers at home were plentiful enough to make last the remainder of this week.

I finished the month with $180 in the black and didn't spend all of my disposable income. I plan to stick to my Tokyo shopping, eating and getting around budget of $1,300 (that's about ¥123,162).

So, I'll holla back when I am home. And I plan to Twitter my Japanese adventures, so if you don't follow me, you may want to get on board.

Tootles!

DH