I won’t post my budget for each month any longer.
I’ll just post at the end with what I spent.
While I still keep track of all my expenses & budget, I find that once I put the money aside for my fixed expenses, the rest of the cash is up in the air to be spent.
I just use my discretion to decide whether or not to buy something now, later or not at all.
Some months, I budget & end up deciding it’s not useful so I spend the money elsewhere.
My savings, emergency fund and whatever else, has now just become a huge pot of money to be drawn on for various (logical-ish) reasons.
I’m calling it “hands off budgeting“. Seems to work for me.
SEPTEMBER 2009
INCOME
- $1500 – Taken from savings
- $100 – Swagbucks finally paid me with Cash via Paypal after 21 business days
- $125 – One-off blog advertising (by the way, the Sexis magazine is v. interesting)
- $18 – Bank Interest
- $0 – Google Adsense. Been waiting for my 2-year $100 CAD cheque since August July.
Total = $1743
EXPENSES
- $371 – Rent
- $260 – Groceries (BF has now made a “Treats” section in the Grocery budget)
- $0 – Utilties (They’re paid bi-monthly)
- $50.79 – Cellphone/Only telephone
- $0 – Internet (I take care of the telephone, BF pays for the internet)
- $12.75 – Transportation (Metro tickets)
- $65.61 – Eating Out (Candy treats & drinks and a lunch I paid for us)
- $39.48 – International Electronic Adapters
- $17.77 – Headbands (Some purchases here)
- $487.84 - Brown leather boots & Birkenstocks (Purchases here)
- $21.95 – Language books (Some purchases here)
- $69.39 – Jewelery from Etsy, the devil (Some purchases here)
- $263 - Car Registration for ONE YEAR (they’re a bunch of car reg’ pirates here!!!)
- $100.26 - Hosting & Wordpress Switch (Part 1 & Part 2 here)
Totals:
- Without pirate car registration = $1496.84 — squeaked right under budget
- With pirate car registration = $1759.84 — just a bit over my total income
Other Upcoming Money Events
Going back to Ontario = Will cost money
Am going to meet up with my network to find contracts in Ontario and just to chat.
Not going to Asia = Will save money
Been cancelled. Read my gloomy piggy news here.
We had a budget of $5000. I guess I’ll just sit on my savings now.
NET WORTH = – Decreased $3018.19 (due to taxes)
- $45 = Cash
- $12.77 = Chequing
- $10,050.35 = Savings
- $30,722.84 = Retirement (Individual Stocks and Indexes)
- $24,000 = Emergency Fund
- $4923.15 = Business (Taxes ate my money)
- $2000 = Car
TOTAL = $71,754.11
- July 2009 Budget Recap
- What are your emergency fund rules?
- October 2009 Budget Recap
- Fun Final Year End in Review: Budget & Blog
- How to bust out a budget, step-by-step
Cheapskate Sandy
on Oct 1st, 2009
@ 12:10 PM:
Swagbucks?! Why don’t I know what this is? I have to check it out right away. Thanks for sharing.
Cheapskate Sandy´s last blog ..Finance 101: What the Heck is Peer-to-Peer or P2P Lending?
Carrie
on Oct 1st, 2009
@ 4:10 PM:
i’m using mint.com for budgeting and just decided to start using their “everything else” budget for everything but my rent. i think it let’s me be more flexible and spend my discretionary income on whatever is interesting to me that month. and i had to shell out about the same amount for my car registration in september so i feel your pain.
Carrie´s last blog ..September Budget Wrap Up