Gas, Groceries, Dining, Entertainment

So, how'd this month go? When I started this blog, these are the areas I wanted to get under control. Just putting everything into Quicken helped me to see exactly where everything was going. While this month was bad in other expenses, here are my big bad categories:

My past spending: Feb-April

June

Gas- $101.07

Dining-$106.04

Entertainment-$120.91

Groceries-$142.52

June numbers are good. Yes, we were pinched, but we still did good considering my birthday was this month :)


I didn't post May, last month...so here are the bad numbers


May

Gas- $108.63

Dining-$221.05.66

Entertainment-$114.07

Groceries-$162.09


May was a bad month in terms of spending on crap, but we had friends in and we went to two of our favorite restaurants. Ouch.

Nothing went to savings this month - discouraged

I have pulled more money out of savings this month than in a long long time. Thank goodness the end of the month is approaching! I will post the numbers and see where it all went.
I have spent $420 on my new tattoo. I had $400 put away for it. I made that money through doing a little side work for the reason of getting this tattoo. So, I shouldn't feel so bad about that.

Next, $452 went towards auto insurance. Thank goodness I upped my premiums!

Next, $275 went towards our financial advisors (my other half paid the other half :) - and this lasts us for a year.

$1147 more than normal!!!

Total I took out of savings? $1,100. Pretty on target. I just saw that when I got paid I put $350 into savings. So, really I took out about 750 for this month. Not AS bad.

I also paid an extra $200 towards my auto loan.

So, savings went down this month :( and my check engine light is on. Can I get a break??? Please!!

I want I want I want....How I will get what I want

That is what I feel like right now. Not that I want things, but I want to do! Like I have posted before, this is a craptastic month as far as money goes. I know we are going to get back on track next paycheck and adjust to not having the girlfriend's income, but man - it sucks.
This is my birthday week and I want to go to a semi-nice restaurant. I want to go see Nacho Libre. I want to go to Dave and Busters. I have basically 90 bucks to last us two weeks.

The meal - we can't go out on the night of my birthday. My team has a kickball game and we will go out like normal afterwards. I keep going back and forth on if I REALLY do want to go out to eat. I am on a diet now - and I just don't know if it is worth it. I think what I may be wanting is just to get out of the house.
My suggestion to myself: make a picnic - go out to a park without the dog

The movie- We usually go to the Alamo Drafthouse for movies. You can have a good meal and a pitcher of beer while watching the new releases - or wacky specials. I want to see Nacho Libre so bad. So, instead of spending more than we need to...
My suggestion to myself: I have a free movie pass from fandango. We can sneak in our own snacks - heck, maybe even a flask - to a "normal" theatre. The cost would only be one movie ticket instead of 2 tickets + beer at the Drafthouse.

Dave and Busters- I love this place. SO MUCH. I have $20 dollar in gift cards coming that I could use anywhere. I was going to put the $20 bucks towards D&B. I got a coupon from them for my b-day with free chips, plus they are having a June special where if you buy $20 worth of game play you get another $10 of play for free. I don't have my giftcards yet!
My suggestion to myself: Go ahead and shell out the $20 and get all the free stuff you can. I can take the giftcards and apply them to grocery or gas next month and just shift around our budget money. Suck up the cost for a few beers, cause it's your birthday!!

I got a new tattoo!

Yup. I have wanted it for a year and was only going to buy it with money I got from outside of my salary job and after losing a bit 'o weight. I still have more color to go, but look!

This month is a hard one...

With family birthdays and father's day, out goes money. Not tooo much, but still enough to make a difference combined with other June money issues.

My car insurance came up this month, so that was around 450.
We got our financial advisor - that was 550.
The girlfriend isn't working and I am trying to pay for more.
We haven't gone out toooo much, but with the World Cup on, it is hard to say no!

There will be no savings this month and some money will come out of savings to pay for the financial advisor.

Things will be getting back on track. Indeed. Sometimes it just feels like it is going to be forever.

My Young Guns on Money and Mates in Queercents blog

Here is the link - Besides the horrible picture- it's not so bad.

We are getting financial advisors

We met with a financial advisor last week. I was pretty skeptical going in, but I really liked these folks. We talked a little bit about where we wanted to see ourselves and what we wanted to get out of the advising. They told us the many services they offered. (and didn't push any one company's products/services) I really think this is a good thing for us. What about the cost? Well, I was very happy to find out that it is a flat fee for a year. I couldn't believe it. So, I said....well, if I call you with 3 different questions, will that use up my yearly fee. Nope. Flat fee- no matter how much I call - how many meetings - whatever. They took into account our age and lack of money , so it is very reasonable.

They are going to help us:

-find insurance for the girlfriend while she is in pastry school
-get smarter about how we save and how we spend
-work towards our goal of a house
-and much much more :)

One of the advisors is gay and has gone through all the legal stuff with several clients and can also help guide us through that aspect.

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I need to update my monthly totals. How about tomorrow :)