Monthly Budget Recap: July 2010
Since incomes are relative, I have decided to go over my budget recaps in percentages instead of dollar amounts.
Fixed Expenses
My electric bill decreased and car insurance increased just enough to balance each other out.
Total May Fixed Expenses: Budgeted – 50%; Actual – 51%
Variable Expenses
I went over in groceries! This happens time to time but I really need to get better on watching it. I certainly do not need more than $115 worth of food a month for myself.
Thanks to my Lipsy dress debacle, my entertainment expenses came in way under budget. I was credited $165 for the dress, which means my entertainment expenses were practically negative this month!
Total March Variable Expenses: Budgeted – 42%; Actual – 41%
Savings
I helped my father out with some car issues he was having. Unfortunately, I had to take that money out of savings, so I challenged myself to replace it by the end of the month. And I did! I saved 19% more than I had planned to. This certainly teaches me that I definitely can be putting more money into savings. I like the idea of learning my financial limits. What starts out as a sacrifice, soon turns into you realizing you don’t miss it at all.
Total Savings: Budgeted – 5%; Actual – 24%
Readers, how did your July budget turn out? I would love to hear!
Dee said:
Aug 10, 10 at 11:54 pmI’m really bad at grocery spending, mainly because a.) I have no organized plan and b.) i’m lazy and like to eat out.
Good job on backfilling the extra spending with saving.
Serendipity said:
Aug 11, 10 at 12:53 pmI was able to save almost an entire paycheck thanks to a 3 paycheck month and properly balancing my budget. :)
leslie said:
Aug 11, 10 at 9:11 pm@Dee: I do not have an organized plan at all either. However, I balance that out by very rarely eating out ($50/mo). So literally all of my food for a month comes from groceries.
@Seredipity: Congrats!!
Brendan said:
Aug 12, 10 at 10:27 amJuly was a good month for me. I was able to increase savings last month as well. August is already starting to suck me dry though…
leslie said:
Aug 12, 10 at 4:03 pm@Brendan: That is great to hear considering it is summer! Always seems summer months end up being more expensive.