Dollars & Spends

Another week gone and as usual we’ve spent some bucks.  I posted the budget earlier this month so you know we plan to spend $4,781 in August (Ouch!).  So far we’ve burned through $2,934 of those dollars (um, Ouch!) and we’ve got $1,847 left in the budget.

Via

Here’s the skinny on who/what/where/when/how we spent $2,934 in the past ten days.

Via

There were some regular expenditures and withdraws; rent, car payment, pocket money, utilities, gas and groceries.  All of that ate up $1,798.  Then came all of the irregular expenses…

First we had to pay tuition.  I’m six credits into a 36 credit hour master’s degree.  This semester I’m enrolled in another six hours.  Good news: I’m working toward a degree that will allow me to advance in my industry and I’m paying cash for the degree.  All told this should cost about $12,000 paid out between January 2012 and March 2014.  At a minimum, my experience coupled with this degree should allow me to land a position making $60,000 instead of the $40,000 I make now.  My university allows students to pay tuition each semester in four installments.  I swear when I checked before writing the budget my first installment was supposed to be $447, but I must have made a mistake.  The first payment was actually $493 so I’m $46 over budget in this category.  I can hopefully make that up somewhere else in the budget.

Then we had to pay veterinary expenses.  Kibbe doesn’t cost us money every month, but this month our pup needed some shots to the tune of $156.  Thanks go out to Kibbe for coming in $23 under budget.

My mother, niece and nephew came for a visit at the end of July that spilled over a little into August.  We covered $122 in expenses related to what was really a great “staycation” for Orion and I.

Orion and I continue to wage a losing battle with our eating out budget.  We’ve already spent $75 of the $120 budgeted and it’s only the tenth day of the month.  We better get used to eating at home for the rest of the month.

Orion is a high school teacher and like a lot of his colleagues he spends some of his own money outfitting his classroom.  He’s picked up several computers on Craigslist to augment the classroom and this month he spent some cash to upgrade the software on some of those machines.  That’s what the $90 spent so far in the “Professional Expense” category is all about.

In other getting ready for school to start news, Orion needed some new work clothes and so did I.  We’re both fine on pants, but we each needed a few shirts.  We budgeted $80 and we did come in $3 over budget, but we got a lot for our money (at least I think we did).  We shopped the clearance racks at Kohl’s and managed to snag five short-sleeve button down shirts for Orion and three short-sleeve tops for me.  Eight items for $83 is okay in my book (we did use $10 in Kohl’s Cash to get the total down).

Finally, you probably noticed the big red line at the bottom of our budget overview up there.  $97 that wasn’t in the budget got spent and you’re probably wondering what that’s all about.  In a moment of weakness I (with Orion’s consent) splurged on new Vera Wang bedding from Kohl’s for the new house and I bought a Living Social coupon for Overstock.com.  Good news – the bedding was 80% off.  Bad news – it wasn’t in the budget.  I keep waffling about returning this stuff.  I’m still undecided, but if I’m honest I’ll probably end up keeping it and try to find ways to come in under budget on some other categories.  It was so exciting to buy something for the new house, but I can see that getting out of control fast.  I need to nip this in the bud.  I’m not saying I won’t buy anything for the house, but I do need to put those purchases in the budget ahead of time, not after the fact.

How are all of you doing?  Is the budget on track for August? Are you coming in under budget anywhere?