A review of January
Happy February, readers! The beginning of a new month is a time to start over, wipe the slate clean. This morning JP and I reviewed our January spending. This is where you take a look to see where you need to make adjustments to your spending and then get to work.
The area of spending that we always have to watch is our food budget. A reminder that our food category includes groceries, eating out, coffee, cat food & litter, alcohol and household items. Below is a breakdown of our budget to actuals.
You can see that we went over on our food budget. I think the spending category was the groceries. We normally do not spend this much but we attempted to do a date night in with sushi but it was a bust. Sushi will remain a date night out.
Some of our other categories are below.
Here you can see other areas where we spent more or less. Once you start to look at your spending you can start adjusting the different areas you feel need adjusting. Just like having a bad eating day, you may have a bad spending day and that is ok. You just learn and move forward. Especially if you are just starting out to budget, you will break your budget for months before starting to understand your spending habits and that is normal. The fact that you are starting to tell your money where to go is a win and you should feel proud of that.
For February, JP and I are going to watch our food budget more closely. We are going to Houston at the end of the month, and that is always good eating. So we are telling ourselves, "Just wait til Houston!" when it comes to eating out. We also are aware that I will need to restock my coffee supply and we are running low on wine. I did dry January so it was easy not buying anything, but I am ready to drink some fine wines! Another category that will increase is our gym and yoga costs. Right now it includes JP's boot camp at $59, plus we both signed up for unlimited yoga at a discount rate. We will have to adjust for this in February. Thinking ahead is key when budgeting.
Do you celebrate Valentines? I know a lot of couples like to go out for romantic dinners and get all fancy. This is something that JP and I have never really gotten into, but be sure to budget for this. If this is holiday that you look forward to, I suggest adding it to your flywheel account so you can save all year.
What areas do you need to tighten up this month? Anything coming up that you are budgeting for? Be sure to comment and subscribe*.
*As of today, readers have to subscribe thru a desktop. I am looking into why you cannot subscribe from a cell phone. Thank you to those that have pointed this out.
For February, JP and I are going to watch our food budget more closely. We are going to Houston at the end of the month, and that is always good eating. So we are telling ourselves, "Just wait til Houston!" when it comes to eating out. We also are aware that I will need to restock my coffee supply and we are running low on wine. I did dry January so it was easy not buying anything, but I am ready to drink some fine wines! Another category that will increase is our gym and yoga costs. Right now it includes JP's boot camp at $59, plus we both signed up for unlimited yoga at a discount rate. We will have to adjust for this in February. Thinking ahead is key when budgeting.
Do you celebrate Valentines? I know a lot of couples like to go out for romantic dinners and get all fancy. This is something that JP and I have never really gotten into, but be sure to budget for this. If this is holiday that you look forward to, I suggest adding it to your flywheel account so you can save all year.
What areas do you need to tighten up this month? Anything coming up that you are budgeting for? Be sure to comment and subscribe*.
*As of today, readers have to subscribe thru a desktop. I am looking into why you cannot subscribe from a cell phone. Thank you to those that have pointed this out.
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