Expenses/ Tighten that belt!

I have got to do something about my spending. I don't know where it goes. Okay...I think I do. Eating out and having fun! I am going to give myself 40 a week for eating out (that seems kind of hard) and $25 dollars a week for misc. (drinks, entertainment, etc).

I will use the envelope system and whatever I don't use will roll over...I really have to cut down on drinking out. That adds up quickly.

We go out for free pizza and trivia at a local bar on Friday's. They have cheap beer and that usually only puts us back 10 bucks or so.

I have also started making a menu for the week. It is a loose menu, but at least we keep up with what we have and know we can eat at home. It makes me think ahead to what I need to bring out of the freezer, etc.

We are such foodies, so I will try hard to control our going out! I have an entertainment book and lots of coupons are available on restaurant.com

I get paid the 1st!

Rent-> 630
Car->376
Student Loan->120
Internet->36
Electricity -> ~70
Water-> ~30
Cell Phone-> 55
Car Insurance-> 100
Grocery->(split with partner) ~70
Auto Gas-> ~130 i think

Aiming for
Eating Out -> 160
Entertainment->100

When we officially move in together and she doesn't have her other apartment to pay for then some of these will go down for me.

I also just spent $60 dollars to join a kickball team and I could not be any more excited!

Time

(This is where I refrain from singing out lots of lame 80's songs)

Whenever I make a decision to change things, I want to results right then! Who doesn't? I KNOW it takes time, but still...come on...give me something. Well, things are ticking along. We are making small changes here and there that will add up. Vacation this month put savings behind, but increased sanity! However, I can't spend any money until the 1st. Ow.

Last night we realized we let the pork chops go bad. I thought they could last longer than 4 days, but no. We resisted temptation to just go out and get more. I decided that since we screwed up, we should just eat something else we have in the house. Shrimp and rhubarb it was! Yum!

We have to go out of town for tonight, luckily I have a full tank of gas and the concert tickets are paid for. I also found a coupon for a free night of boarding for the dog!

I can't wait to get paid on the 1st and drop some of that cash into my savings. I look forward to it every month.

Auto Insurance Shopping

I have not shopped around for auto insurance in 11 years...so, really...never. I am with the same company my parents have been with forever. I really really like them, but as I am trying to find my partner a good deal on moving her auto insurance off of her parents, I might as well get quotes for myself. This is just such a pain to figure out what you already have and put it into each companies online portal (all with different ways of explaining the amount and deductable and yadda yadda). I want to scream, but this could end up paying off...at least a little bit.

Any thoughts?

Free stuff and discounts!

In the past week I have gotten a box full of Take 5 bars and a Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner kit from Bzz Agent. My girlfriend tells me the candy bars are good and I just put up the shower thingy last night.

I booked our hotel a while back through some Seattle Super Saver site for a cheap 45 bucks a night! (and it is not a craptastic hotel) Plus, I had a coupon for a 1 night stay at the Spring Hill Suites from Bzz Agent. I only got a rental car for two days and there didn't seem to be any coupons you could use for only a two day rental, so last night, I just went ahead and applied the free upgrade one. For some reason this also brought my price down by 7 bucks.

I then went to Old Navy to buy some new khaki pants since I didn't have any...and they were one of those with the metal clip hook thing with a button that you can't see. Well, the button was missing (and I always forget that they are there) so, I asked for a discount and got 50% off! They were regular price to begin with! I felt like it was my day.

Now we are looking at Restaurant.com to see if there are any places listed on there that we would like to go to...with a coupon code from them in my email we can get a 25 dollar certificate to these places for 4 bucks! I use that site all of the time.

Ok, Ok, I will breathe and calm down now and get excited about leaving tomorrow.

out of the loop

I am away at a conference for three days....then back to work for two....then off to Seattle for vacation for a week.

I took the time over the weekend to print out my expenditures for the past two months. Looking over the numbers, I am going to set a few goals to cut down in several areas.

1. Dining Out
2. Gas
3. Entertainment


Now, dining out will face the most drastic cut - I really had no idea how much was going to that! Gas, I won't be able to cut toooo terribly much, but in keeping with my goals to trim down a bit....I am going to aim to ride my bike to work. Not everyday. First, perhaps once a week...we will see from there. It is only about five miles, so this should be ok. Right? right.

We have been good lately with the entertainment, but there was such a variance over the past few months that I want to put a watch on this area and see what is an appropriate amount.

I am trying to start getting on track.

Oh, I also changed my tax info at work to stop giving more to the government than necessary. I opened an HSBC account and got the free $25 dollar deposit and put in about 2500 of my own money. I will take the difference in tax money on my paycheck and deposit that automatically into the HSBC account.

Now all I need to get done this week is to figure out my girlfriend's crazy gradschool taxes. This is not going my way.

I may be very MIA the next few days, but that doesn't mean I will be thinking about this any less.

IRA, Debt, and Budgets - oh, my!

Earlier this week I said I had a goal to write the agencies about credit cards I paid. I have yet to do a thing about that and will force myself to get some stuff together on that today.

I have done several things that just kind of happened. First, the IRA is set up. Funds will be sent by Smith Barney. Second, I now have three months of data on how my money has been spent. I put everything into Quicken. Now, I am still trying to figure out the program, but I can read that colorful little pie chart quite well. I wanted to have a few months data before sitting down to make a budget. Now there are no excuses (eeek).

It is a bit hard to be in the beginning stages of it all....and easier at the same time. I find myself wanting to learn more about investing in stock...(and it is ok for me to learn)...but I have no money that can go towards that right now. I am trying to keep focus: pay car off, shove money into savings....pay car off, shove money into savings...

This has just been one of those weeks. Scrapes and bumps at every corner.

Still reeling over all of Jeep's repairs yesterday. I also called about getting the papers to roll my 401k into an IRA at my credit union. They say they don't have any papers for that ...that I need to call up with who to make the check out to and my account number. Back and forth back and forth.

I am a web developer by trade and also do some side work for an old college buddy of mine. At least I received a decent check from him for this month...$350 bucks to go towards the repairs. Bad news is that one of our potential clients backed out for next month. It is my goal to put all of this "extra" money towards paying off the Jeep. I have been working way too hard.

Time to lift my chin up, go home, and walk the dog. It is such a beautiful day!