set a budget and stick to it

and I just bought that motorcycle so I have to make sure I don’t start up with the credit card debt like I did in the old days.

(I will even say it’s over as there are only 3 more hours left until midnight :) and I didn’t buy any single unnecessary thing and I’m really happy. I spend all Saturday with friends(afternoon at pizza house and cinema), evening grocery store (but I don’t have problem with buying unnecessary thing there, at least this was solved about a year ago when I started planning what I’m going to cook during the week and write a list of all stuff I’ll need,also I stick not going there if I am hungry: believe me:it’s true..you’ll spend a whole worth if you are hungry and are shopping at grocery shop :)
Sunday…spent morning at home with my boyfriend,afternoon went to buy some fruits from the market place…and that’s it. I must say that I did enter some clothes and shoes stores and I did like many things..but every time I thought about my goal here and said:”No, I won’t buy it! I don’t need it! I’d rather save those money for something bigger..like a summer trip :)” And if you are asking if I felt somehow displeased in the evening I won’t lie: Yes, I felt like this, because I got used buying many things every single weekend…gosh..it’s like addiction..but then after a cup of green tea I felt much better.

and I’m afraid I’ll spend some money on needless shopping again..I have already ordered 3 books online this week and I’m not proud at all. Well, I love books and reading is definitely good thing but…I could buy only 2 fiction books and not order the 3rd one (that i ordered simultaneously because I love traveling and it was on travel topic). So..I have to set up what I really need and to take with me enough money to buy only things I need. No clothes…NO!No cosmetics! Maybe shoes…sigh..I know I’m awful!
The thing I am definitely sure into is :credit card MUST stay at home :)

I keep trying to do this, but my budgets never work. Will try to keep spending as little as I can and living within my means though, I just can`t get the budget thing to work right now.

I`m trying to make a budget for when I move out which will be very soon I hope. But no matter how I cut back on things that aren`t 100% necessary, it just doesn`t add up. At all. Sigh. I do get some money when we sell this place, and I can live off that for a while. But that means I won`t have anything for a downpayment, which will make it pretty much impossible for me to buy a place once I get a job. Which means I`ll have to keep renting, which is an absolutely ridiculous thing to do the way the market is now.
Argh. I was also sort of hoping my bf would let me have the car quite cheap (it`s an old car and we own it together) but he told me today I`ll have to pay him half the value. Which obviously is fair, no doubt about that, I was just kind of hoping he would be a bit nice to me, since he makes about twice as much as I do now, he has a job and he won`t have all the expenses of dogs who can`t be home alone (plus dog food, vet bills and all that, it`s a fortune.) His financial situation will be fine when he moves out, while mine will be a complete disaster. But nothing to do about that.
Sigh. It`s so very depressing.

since I don`t have a job and I don`t know exacltly how much money (or more to the point, exactly how little) I`ll have these coming weeks. But I really need to get to work on saving money and doing something with my spending habits. I`m quite good at this in many areas. I don`t spend much on clothes for instance. Hardly anything at all on makeup (since I don`t know how to apply it.;)) and I`ve cut my spendings on art supply stuff drastically, since I started playing piano I feel that`s my main creatve thing these days.
But I`m no good at all the little expenses. Like not buying stuff in the grocery store just because I want it or it looks good/helathy/convenient. And I need to start planning my meals and bringing sandwiches or something from home when I go to the university, I tend to have to buy something on the way when I get hungry. And, as a friend pointed out to me yesterday, it`s not that hard to bring a can of instant coffee with me to the university and then just buy cups of hot water, instead of buying a lot of coffee that cost 10 times as much.

I was good at this for a whioe, but not anymore. I think for me, it`s about the motivation. I`ve been saving up for my trip to the USA, that I wanted to do this summer. And that was very motivating, I kept thinking “OK, what do I want more, this magazine or a fun vacation this summer?”. I definitely am going to the USA, but because of the bf situation and the financial problems connected with that, I doubt it will happen this summer. I should ofcourse be saving up just to make my financial future as good as possible and get over the money crisis I`m in now, but somehow, that`s not as fun and motivating. ;) But I must get back to it.

So being the poor college student that I am I have decided that I spend to much money on stuff that I want & not stuff I reall need. So I have decided that in stead of buying a new article of clothing every paycheck I am going to wait & reward myself. It’ll be after something like I get good grades, I finish a big assignemnt early, I reach a goal, or other significant things like that. I think that should help a lot.