I came into the month of September hoping to keep my spending down and under budget after a few Summer months of going over budget, even if it wasn’t by that much. I planned on changing that pattern this month and really wanted to stick to that goal as we went through September. I ended up having a few expensive days and a night out. I also forgot that I was going to need to more contacts this month, but I still actually managed to come in under budget for the month.
Here what’s my budget looked like for the month of September:
As you can see from the above, I did finish the month with extra money remaining although I guess it was under my “standard” budget – but that’s only because I don’t have zero-sum budget at this point in my life to allow for some flexibility. The first few expenses on the list are standard and don’t change from month to month, but you can see that my gas spending was slightly over budget for this month.
I’ve also adjusted my allotted gas budget up a bit from previous months. This is because we were in the process of moving offices at my work, which enabled me to work from home two days a week. This was a huge gas savings throughout the Summer months but that is now over. I will also no longer be carpooling as the person I was carpooling with must now be in the office an hour early and leave an hour earlier. Unfortunately it doesn’t look I’ll be able to do that, and nobody else really lives close enough to start a new carpool.
I also spent some money on dining out which consisted of treating for pizza one night and then going out for lunch in honor of a coworker’s birthday. It was at a Japanese/sushi buffet so it wasn’t that cheap and I also bought lunch one day this month.
My entertainment spending was going to a barbecue and having some people over, so I bought some beer for those occasions. I also ended up going out one night and probably spent more than I should have at the bar! We did take advantage of Uber though, this was my first time using the service. Our driver was extremely friendly and the entire experience was a positive one. The trip cost $18, so my share of the ride was only $6 – not bad at all.
I added in a “healthcare” category and will probably just budget $0 for that every month, but I wanted to at least separate this out as a category for my own records. I needed to buy contacts this month so that’s where the $90 went to for a three-month supply of my contacts. The extra spending for the month was a raffle that benefited a local food pantry (unfortunately I didn’t win any prizes!) and a haircut. I also spent $26 on getting more Dorco razors, which should last me a year or more. The reason these were so “expensive” was because I wanted to get the free shipping when you spend $25 or more.
September ended up being a pretty good month for sticking to my budget, even with forgetting that I had to buy more contacts to at least last me until the end of the year. I’m going to keep monitoring all my spending categories and adjust the budget going forward like I had started to do last month, but I think the only category that might need adjusting is a slight bump up for my gas spending. Hopefully I can continue these spending habits into October!
Image Source: Death To Stock
Looks like a great month. Well done! I buy Dorco razors for my dad and my boyfriend and they love them. They are way cheaper than buying them at the drugstores and work just as well. I also buy a bunch at a time to get the free shipping.
Yes it ended up being a pretty good month for me. When you do get the free shipping and use a coupon code, they end up being basically half the cost or even better than Gillette or Schick razors. And for me they seem to work just as well, haven’t really noticed a difference.
Very detailed and looks like a good month. Always nice to end up with extra cash at the end of the month. I like to budget for that as well so I have some for me as well!
I agree with that, it’s much better than coming out over budget. The extra money helps to balance out the months where that did happen and at the end of the year I’ll probably either use it towards my student loans or towards my Roth IRA for 2015.
That’s a great month — as is any month where you come in under budget even by a little bit 🙂 Congrats on being so close to paying off the current “target” loan too — that’s a really fun moment even though you’re just moving on to the next one.
Thank you! I think I might start just making a budget where everything zeros out just so that I know for sure that it’s extra money. And my payment at the end of this month should be able to get rid of another one of those pesky government student loans. Always good to knock another one off the list, I agree.