I think this is the first month since I started my new budget in January that I actually 1) didn’t come in over budget 2) didn’t put anything on my credit card 3) didn’t go to Chipotle at least once a week (I only had two Chipotle receipts!)
Groceries
Budget: $350
Actual: $347.20
Creative accounting: I had $30 in gaming snacks I brought to our work LAN party and $5 in soda that I decided to count as “fun” money instead of grocery money in order to balance my books.
Fun Money
Budget: $150
Actual: $124.70
Creative accounting: I had $21 in pizza early in the month that should have gone here, but I budgeted $29 for internet that it turned out was already paid at installation, so I “saved” $29 and put this toward that. Like I said: creative accounting. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I also accomplished this by mistakenly believing I’d only budgeted $100 in fun money on this new budget, so I went the last two weeks of July thinking I’d blown it until I opened up my spreadsheet today and totaled up all my receipts. Go-go self-deception!
CC Payment
Budgeted: $750
Actual: $750
Creative accounting: None. This one hurt to pay. There’s going to be a party when I pay this off. I better start saving for it now.
I did, in fact, “save” $100 this month. I have $100 every month budgeted towards meds. I’ll end up using this month’s meds money to get new contact lenses.
It’s not glamorous, this life, but it’s getting my shit together, one buck at a time (did you know a bottle of Coke zero costs $1.39???? $1.39, seriously. It’s fucking criminal).
