Create a budget and stick to it

OK. There are several things that need to happen before I can manage to do this. The first thing: I need to get my student loan payment reduced to match my income, per the new income based repayment guidelines. Right now, it is ridiculously high.

There are couple of excellent reasons for reducing my student loan payment. 1) I will qualify for federal loan forgiveness in 10 years, provided I continue to work in public libraries and provided the policy remains in place…therefore, increasing the repayment period for my loans is less problematic than it might otherwise be. 2) My current loan payments are high enough that putting savings away is difficult.

I have the paperwork I need – what I’ll need to do next is to submit this paperwork to each of my lenders (I have 2). According to the calculators I’ve used, there is a good chance I qualify for income-based repayment.

Once this is sorted out, and I (hopefully) have a more reasonable monthly payment, I’ll be able to actually budget savings for several purposes.

I’ll soon be back to having a paycheck that will go far enough to allow me to pay down debt and put away something for short- and long-term savings (I think so, anyhow).

Living paycheck to paycheck as an adult was kind of an eyeopener. Not a terrible place to be as a college student with few worries, but as an adult, not fun. And it made me kind of throw up my hands and avoid budgeting much – because even when I did, there was no real savings at the end of the month. I budgeted just enough to make sure I could pay my bills, and that’s it.

I desperately want to live WITHIN my means, now that they’ll be more respectable.

ETA: I’m trying out the various online budgeting software(s). The only way I’m going to be able to do this intelligently is to face the whole picture (student debt and all).

Ish. I need to contact my student loan folks and hopefully apply for a different payment plan. The one I am on right now does NOT suit my ability to pay. Right now, the budget is very tight. However, I have included a slightly more generous grocery allowance (because a lot of my entertainment comes from cooking), and also built in monthly payments to my parents and my credit card. I’m also trying to underestimate my take-home pay for this new job; that way, if I make even a smidge more, I will feel wealthier.

However, I think the budget will continue to be tight until I get a better job. That’s just the way it will be. It should give me more motivation to get a better job, hopefully.

I’ll do fine with day-to-day stuff for awhile, and then mess up in terms of unnecessary expenses. I’d really like to do better.

For the last few weeks, I’ve done really well with groceries, though. If I can just make that a habit, I can start tackling the other stuff.

Also, I am going to cancel my Netflix subscription. I just don’t use it enough for it to be worth it. The library would work just as well for the amount of movies I’m watching.

ETA: Actually, since I’ve already paid for this month, I’m going to rent one more movie and then put my Netflix account on hold for 90 days. After those three months are up, I’ll evaluate whether my new budget has room for Netflix, or whether I should cancel it completely.

Went shopping again today and remained under budget (though not by as large a margin as last time). I kept vacillating between feeling deprived and feeling amazed at how much food $40 can buy if managed correctly. Then I saw the Thanksgiving bags from the food pantry sitting near the checkouts (the ones that contain one can each of corn, tuna, beans, jar of peanut butter, etc.) and remembered how really rich I am. $40 doesn’t buy as much as I was accustomed to buying…but it buys more than adequate nutrition and quite a lot of variety.

I think I can keep this up. The next step will be to curtail all online purchases. Period. I hate to admit it, but I have a problem with online impulse buying. It needs to stop. If I can do that, most of my budgeting issues will be solved.

...is to stop using my credit card for anything but unavoidable purchases such as plane tickets or other large items. While I don’t spend money I don’t have with it, I definitely spend more than I would otherwise spend.

I have gotten into the bad habit of using it for grocery shopping. The result is that I can more easily splurge on things I didn’t plan to buy. Most if not all of these splurges are not good for me, unnecessary, or otherwise wasteful.

So today, I bought my groceries with cash. Withdrew $40 (my weekly grocery budget) and shopped. Added up my total as I went along. The result was that I rethought my purchases as I went along, and actually ended up both under budget and with a decidedly more nutritious and sensible cartload at the end. It took a little longer (I am slow but accurate with arithmetic), but that is a small price to pay.

The other advantage of doing this is that I will more quickly learn what a “good” price for certain types of items is.

I stayed within my (revised) grocery budget for this week – was tempted to go over, but then realized that I didn’t NEED some stuff. I tend to plan as if there will be a famine or natural disaster in the next week or so. Which is good in some ways I guess, but not good if you’re a single person on a budget with limited storage space averse to Sam’s Club memberships. Soooo…

Groceries and alcohol are my biggest (somewhat) negotiable expenses. I don’t buy clothes very often at all. I’m cutting waaaaaay back on the alcohol because it’s a waste of time a lot of the time. I don’t need a beer a day. One thing I am thinking about doing is keeping track of any grocery savings from week to week and then allowing myself a splurge of a six-pack or decent bottle of wine at the end of the month with the leftovers. Seems reasonable to me.

...doing this again after failing in a major way. It’s not a hard and fast budget, but I figured up my monthly expenses and am now socking away at least $50 from each weekly paycheck in a savings account that I’ve promised myself I won’t touch barring emergency. It’s a good feeling to watch the balance grow, and gives me some motivation to save money in other areas.

I am $9.00 under budget. Now the question becomes: do I save that $9.00 for later? Or spend it on a bottle of wine?

Think I’ll hang onto it for now.

Out of necessity more than anything – I’m basically sitting on my butt until the next round of funding comes in for the digital library I was working on (keep your fingers crossed for me). I’m looking for an additional job, but the pickings are rather slim (if I would have known the funding would be a problem, I’d have started looking much earlier). I have enough to live on, I think, but it’s going to be rather tight for a few months.

Most of my budget decisions center around groceries (my biggest expense, apart from rent and utilities – not counting tuition). I want to keep things cheap without eating beans and rice day in and day out. I just can’t stand to do that, a, and b, cooking is my entertainment most of the time, so I feel OK spending a bit more. I have given myself a budget of $37 a week for groceries; might sound like a lot but that includes personal care items as well. So far, it’s working out fairly well; it’s kind of fun actually. Helps that I have CSA produce to supplement that $37.

I’m going shopping tomorrow, and I think I might even come under budget! Yay!