I was housebound on Sunday. Didn't want to take the baby out in the snow since he's recovering from a cold. So I didn't spend any money on Sunday.
But Monday is a different story.
Food $100 (monthly Costco run)
Xmas $185 (gift cards for friends/family)
Personal $229 (dh HAD TO BUY a new PSP game system; it's his bday tomorrow plus he's having surgery to remove a cyst so he wanted a treat)
Total $484
Daily Expenses 12/10
December 11th, 2007 at 04:22 pm
December 12th, 2007 at 08:27 pm 1197491274
I plan on adjusting the budget and living within it next month. And then cutting expensives going forward.
I use mvelopes.com (a little prices), but I can set up my budget and fund the different categories when my paycheck comes in. I can see instantly, what I budgeted, what I spent, and what i have funded.
The idea is simple. What I get paid gets divided into different buckets every paycheck. Now the hard part, I can only spend what is funded not what is budgeted. So if my budget is $400 for groceries a month and I fund $100/week. I can only spend $100. If I need to spend more then I will need to take the funds from a different category - maybe personal expenses.
To me it seems you need to match your actual inflows to your actual outflows. Once the funding for that category is spent, it's spent. You can't spend any more until next paycheck. This should help you focus on the immediate expenses and quickly proritize your spending.
The way I see it is that it's only the 12th and you are running at 93% of your monthly budget.
That PSP purchase could have halfed your Amex bill. What is the priority? For next year, you might want to add a category called BDay gifts and Christmas gifts and start putting about $20 a month towards each. That way it will be full funded when these occassions come up again.
Again, I am new to all this and everyone's situation is different.