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august spending

September 2nd, 2015 at 05:48 am

August was my first month using YNAB. So far, so good. By paying more attention to my money and thinking about how I needed to and wanted to use it, I definitely was inspired to avoid unnecessary spending. It was an easy month to low spend, but it will be difficult to maintain this for the rest of the year.

As expected, I am starting to feel anxiety and regret at not paying more attention to the inflow and outflow of my money for the past 25 years. I could be retiring early if I had! Apparently, the old adage "don't cry over spilled milk" never sunk in. I am definitely crying over spilled milk!

Ok moving on.

I've lived in my house for 11 years and I have never figured out what my monthly expenses are. Honestly, I put so much of my income towards retirement, I'm not really sure that I can successfully live on what's left. I'm using YNAB to reluctantly start to examine if that's true.

August spending

monthly expenses
landline/DSL/wireless 84.35
cell phone 11.57
skype 2.99
electricity 59.59
insurance - car & home 115.77
hair appt 115
everyday expenses
food 64.56
gas 63.65
medical 80
entertainment 20
eating out 35.34
toiletries 7.98
trash 7.5
clothing 44.5
laundry 5.25
cat 27.29
lawn care 160
coaching 75
vacation 4.85
TOTAL EXPENSES 985.19
August $$ available 2082.64
$$ left 1097.45
debt
bathroom reno debt 500
savings accounts
friend's engagement gift 20
prepay heating oil 577.45

At YNAB's suggestion, I used my July income for my August budget, so I had 2082.64 to work with. I spent 985.19 during the month, leaving me with 1097.45. I owe money to the guy who did my recent bathroom renovation (he went over budget and I'm paying him in installments), so I'm using $500 for that. A friend is having an engagement party in October, so I'm putting aside $20/month for August, September and October for a gift. Not sure if they are expecting presents (she's 63!), but I want to be prepared. That leaves $577.45 which I will put towards prebuying fuel oil for the winter.

I'm estimating my prepay fuel bill to be around $1200, due in mid-September. My property taxes are due by October 1st, so I'll have to pull most of that out of savings. And I still owe $2685 for the bathroom renovation. Technically I have all of September's budget already in my account from August's paychecks, so I could use that for the heating oil and/or taxes and then use September's checks for September's budget. I'll decide at some point what to do.

First spending in September was today - $33.16 for gas. I'll be interested to see how my September budgeting plan and actual spending goes!

Wow, just got 51 sw@gbucks for a search to find this site to post this entry. Yay! i got 32 in an earlier search today. Smile

Must go to sleep! It's almost 1:00a and I'm meeting a friend at 7:00a for a walk.








1 Responses to “august spending”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1441243363

    Nice wins Smile
    It seems like you've done the most important part - taking a look at your spending and making a plan. Now you can see what happens over the next few months and make adjustments where you think they may be needed. It's a process. Like they say ... Rome wasn't built in a day. Big Grin

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