stick to my budget

This budget business is tough. I had been looking for a job for a while because, a) I graduated college, so it was time to put waiting tables behind me, and b) because my bills were exceeding my income (due to working in an industry whose employees rely on tips to get paid, and tend to suffer a great deal when the general public is lacking in disposable income…like I am).
Anyway, I after setting up a promising interview, I decided to build a dynamic budget worksheet to see how well the prospective job would meet my needs. As it turns out, the pay is adequate to pay the bills and begin restoring my savings (little by little) every month. However, the pay is still modest, so I have very little left over for spending money.
I have cut down on my spending lately. I have been spending the majority of my nights at home, and not spending extravagantly when I go out. However, even after having had to spend quite a bit on repairs for my car (enough to flip out a little), I still found myself going to a consignment store to do a little shop-therapy after work. That being said- I really need to find better, cheaper (read: free) ways to blow off steam. I cannot afford to do that all the time…or, really, I can hardly afford to do it at all (Well, to be fair, I don’t do it ALL the time…but I could still afford to reign in the spending). I guess that my point is, I need to stop relenting to to my desire for immediate gratification.

Working on this. I use mint to get a clear view of where my money is going. I’m not quite there yet with my budget, it’s a slow process but I’m starting to see little improvements, mostly in the way I think about where my money and the choices I make.

Because sometimes the hardest thing about sticking on budget is the fact that the people in your household are not as motivated as you are to do this.

After weeks no, months of moaning about being skint I am going to do something to start improving the situation.

I have found a little journal to write down EVERYTHING I am spending. I have heard this is helpful and i think it will shock me into realising where i am wasting money.

Anything that is left i will pay as an extra into my credit card to reduce that. If i can do this for 6 consecutive months I will be so proud of myself as it will be such a monumental change.

doing pretty well so far. Actually put money into savings, paid EVERYTHING on time. I went over a little because I bought my daughter a new pair of dress shoes. I found some on clearance for $7. I say it was worth it.

We definitely stuck to our budget in December, which is impressive considering, you know, Christmas. But, I did a lot of early shopping to spread out the financial damage. So that worked out well!

It’s only going to get more difficult after this though. My budget changes on a monthly basis because our pay periods at work end on the 15th and the last day of the month. So, some pay periods are 80 hours, some are 88, and a couple are 96. Unfortunately, in Feb and March, I’m in for 3 80-hour pay periods in a row. :(

Wish me luck!

I have a budget, and I’m really good about saving money and keeping track of my spending. The problem is that, each month, more money goes out of my checking account than comes in.

Granted, some of it is going into my savings account.

But I’m still not satisfied. I need to stop spending so much money on going out to eat, and clothes, and toys, and blah blah blah.

If I can spend less than I make for 6 months in a row, I will count this goal as done. It’s a tall order, but someday it’ll happen!

i made a train subscription today that gives me a discount of 50% that’s good cuz i’m travelling by train at least once each month!
i’m telling myself now how much i was stupid! i was suposed to do that 2yrs ago! i was such a lazy jerk!
what’s really tough is to abstain from buying useless stuff! cuz there is always that small voice telling me: why not?!that’s cheap!

this year is going to be my 3rd year in college…i have many expenses( rent,bills…) i don’t have a job! i depend on my parents at 100%! and that sucks…because i have to stick to a budget that i never respect! for the last 2 years i was so bad in managing my budget properely so most of the time i had debts!!
i want this to change this year…maybe i’ll look for a job to make more money!or just stop spending money on stupid stuff!

I managed to do this all last month. It’s hard because I give myself I strict budget, below that of my friends, so I can save up quicker. I will try to kepp this going forward, but I’ve alreday gone over budget this week bcause my computer needed repairs. Generally I need to stop buying food at work and stop buying clothes, jewellry & toiletries I don’t use to reduce my spending!