Budget Freak

Ugh. I just ran my numbers for February, and they weren’t pretty. For the month, I had a Net Income of $46.89. How pathetic. Here’s the breakdown, and then I’ll try and explain myself…

Automobile : Gas $189.58
Automobile : Car Payment $1,000.00
Automobile : Auto Club Membership Dues $47.00
Automobile : Parking $12.00
Bills : Telephone $63.71
Bills : Electricity $49.58
Bills : Rent $652.00
Bills : Cable TV/Internet $76.30
Bills : Cell Phone $49.68
Education : Tuition $179.00
Education : Other $2.32
Food : Groceries $65.44
Food : Dining out $126.34
Gambling $6.00
Gifts $114.48
Healthcare $10.00
Internets : Domain Registration $9.20
Leisure : Gym Membership $29.99
Miscellaneous $81.50

Total Expenses $2,764.12

I had a few rare expenses this month. First, there’s the Education expenses. I decided while back that I might want to get an MBA. So in January, I enrolled in a community college and signed up for a couple business classes – Business Law and Accounting. I wanted to first see if I’d be interested in this type of study (yes, so far), and also to see if I can handle the work load of working full time and taking class at night. It’s been tough, and it’s killed any social life I had on the weekdays, but it’s manageable. These two classes could also count towards my MBA if I go to a Cal State School. Anyways, that’s the first rare expense. This month I also had to pay my Auto Club Dues, $47, register a domain name (this one) for $10, and buy some gifts for family and friends, $114.

I also made a car loan payment this month of a $1,000. I’m way ahead on my loan, so I made these every other month or so. I know it’s a bad way to do it, and it’s something I have to work on. I’m even considering using some of my 0% balance transfer money to pay a portion off. Check back later for that.

All the other expenses are pretty standard. I just missed my Eating Out limit. I try for $120/month. It was probably a late night run to Jack In The Box that sent me over. Groceries was actually really low, mostly due to my new philosophy on only shopping once a month.

I guess if there’s a lesson to be learned from all of this, it’s that I shouldn’t put too much stock in monthly snapshots. The way I handle my finances, it makes more sense to look at the bigger picture, such as quarterly or yearly totals. I mentioned my net income this month was $46. Well, to prove my point, last month, my net income was $2,246. That’s about a 5000% difference. I think it’s still important to look at the monthly totals, to see how my spending is breaking down, but I just shouldn’t get too discouraged/excited about them.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed