New year, and time for a new budget! You might remember that I was given a raise last year and that raise took effect beginning with my first paycheck of 2014. It was a nice little boost and it should definitely help my finances as well as for me trying to meet my student loan goals. It’s always nice to know that there is a little extra income in case something unexpected comes up. I will not be increasing my spending due to this raise though! Any extra money will go into my savings account which will then be used to either pay off extra on my student loans or go into my Roth IRA contribution.I feel that I’ve kept my good pace up from December’s budget with low spending (but not nearly as minimal spending!) carrying over into January which was a bit of surprise. Let’s take a look at the budget for this month:
As you can see from the above, there was definitely some additional spending on my part for this month but I don’t think it was on anything ridiculous. I spent $95 on gas this month which was just under budget. I ended up spending $39 on eating out and $79 on entertainment this month too. I went out for drinks once, lunch another time, and then I also went out to dinner with my girlfriend and some of her friends
The extra spending for this month was high, but most of it was out of necessity. I spent $150 on new contacts which takes up a huge chunk of that spending. I also spent around $50 on clothes which were on clearance and I also had a coupon for them, plus getting cash back! I really needed some clothes for winter and I manged to get 7 items for that $50. Whenever I can spend less than $10 on each item of clothing is usually my perfect price point (except for pants, they usually never go that low!).
The other spending that makes up the “other” category is getting a haircut for $15 as well as spending money on train tickets to visit my girlfriend. It’s a little more expensive up front but it saves the wear and tear on my car and the gas money. Plus I can just sleep on the train if needed.
You might have also noticed that my income was actually higher than what I expected this month by a little bit. That is because I redeemed $50 in cash back from last year’s spending on my credit card which was a nice little bonus. I also re-listed some of my old textbooks on half.com in trying to get rid of them. I went through all my books that I still had if they had any value at all, I listed them dirt cheap. I donated the rest of the books through better world books. I managed to sell one book for $40, probably someone getting it for Spring semester. Maybe I’ll be able to sell more over the Summer? A little extra income never hurts!
Overall I think I did well on my budget this month. Spending was up a bit but it wasn’t anything crazy, and a majority of it was a necessary $150 purchase of contact lenses. There’s nothing I can really do about that, and the rest of my spending categories were kept in check. Thanks to the extra $90 I made I ended up banking $87 extra this month, which is just fine with me.
photo credit: ecstaticist via photopin cc
Sounds like you did an awesome job keeping January’s spending in check- congrats! One month at a time, right?
Thank you and absolutely taking it one month at a time. It’s nice to look at the summary and know that even though I did spend some money, I still managed to come in under/at budget. This month might be a little more difficult though, as I just recently found out that my laptop has a dead motherboard 🙁