control my spending

Gas prices have gone down, and I am working at home two days per week, so a tank of gas now lasts twice as long and is cheaper. That helps. Since I’m not travelling to the States every other weekend, the savings now seem large. I’m just waiting for January when Christmas is over. I don’t spend a lot at Christmas, but from May to now, it’s just been one large expense after another. The expenses are expected, but there’s not enough time to recover between each. 2009 should be less problematic.

The realization of last month’s overspending (and debt use) has made me super-conscious of spending. This week I’m quite happy to have taken lunch to work and foraged in the kitchen to use what we already have before buying more.

Planning to staying at home in the evenings, only going out when we have enough tasks to fill an evening also means less gas money spent, and far less impulse buying.

Last month my husband moved in, we fixed up our new apartment and got everything in order.

While I know this month was odd, we spent almost 50% more than my entire month’s take home pay. I can account for most of that in one-off purchases that will not occur again for a long time, and too much junk food in place of real meals.

It irritates me to no end to have so much debt that I have less than $100 per week to do everything. I’m working on the debt, but how many more ways can I lower my spending?