April Budget Sum Up

First off, I want to apologize for slacking off a bit this past week. I've been feeling pretty tired lately, and before I knew it, it's May already! Crazy. Anyways, it's time for my April $100 discretionary budget summary. Because I did a lot of resting on weekends instead of going out this month, I managed buy 2 new shirts and still come out below the budget. Most of the cash spent were on coffee and other beverages (seeing a pattern here?)

Another reason why I was ultra careful with my fund this month is because I was looking forward to my trip to Boston the next few days. The fact that I know I'll be traveling means that I wanted to save as much as I can in April for that purpose, even if it's a separate budget. That's another thing that I have become aware of when it comes to budgeting money: mental accounting. It's basically a tendency for people to create categories in their mind, thinking that money from different sources can be used differently when, in fact, they're all "your money." For example, someone may spend his tax refund freely while being extremely stingy with his salary from work. At the end of the day though, his net worth is based on the collective amount he has, no matter the source. WellHeeled wrote a great detailed explanation of the concept on her blog a while back; I encourage you to go check it out.

For the month of April (excluding boot camp again) I spent a total of $72 even. Here's a breakdown:

• $33.82 on coffee
• $34.42 on other food/beverages
• $3.51 on socks
• $0.25 on parking

Besides this discretionary fund, I've decided to start a fitness budget. After weighing the cost and benefit of boot camp and other exercise activities, I think fitness is such an important part of my life that it deserves its own attention. This budget will include gym membership, classes (like boot camp), race registration, gear, and equipment. I'm not sure what amount to set this to though. Right now, boot camp is costing me $127 a month, but my rock climbing gym membership that's currently on hold is $55 dollars per month. I'll spend some time thinking this through and report back. Any suggestion is welcomed!

March Budget Sum Up

Another month, another $100 discretionary fund. Well, I actually started this month in the red. Why? If you remember my dilemma in February, I ended up deciding to sign up for another month of boot camp (2, actually. I'm continuing in April). It set me back $127. I was almost inclined not to include it as discretionary spending seeing that the line between need and want here is blurry for me. To me, whipping myself into shape and working through an 18 month plateau is a need, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I ended up adding the cost anyways. It’ll also motivate me to find savings elsewhere.

The $127 turned out to be a disappointing investment. Not because the class isn't good. If it wasn't I wouldn't have signed up. The reason it was a disappointment was because I got sick for 2 weeks, so I wasn't able to attend half of the classes in March. I'm not beating myself up over it, though. Let's just count it was an "unforeseen circumstance." Life is full of surprises. Now I'll just have to make sure to take care of my body, and hopefully, this episode doesn't repeat.

The good thing about being sick though, was that I didn't go out much which resulted in the lack of chances to spend money. Excluding the boot camp, I spent a total of $84.47.

Here's a breakdown:

Don't Get Sidetracked By Instant Gratification

I was reminded while working out the other day of the need for instant gratification. It's part of human nature to want to see immediate results. I'm not gonna lie, it's something I struggle with on a daily basis. Hey, when I pay or work for something, I better see what I expected as fast as possible. I'm too busy/important to wait around!

Week 4 of boot camp just ended, and as I mentioned before, I'm feeling more energetic, my pants are looser, and I'm getting stronger. But when I weighed myself the other day, I gained 3 pounds. 3 friggin' pounds! Now you're probably thinking that I’m angry about nothing because it's just muscle weight. And yes, the logical part of me knows that. In fact, there's physical evidence, too. I lost about 2% body fat. But I've been working my a$$ off for a full month. It's frustrating and even slightly demoralizing to not see "results" in terms of weight loss. Why haven’t doctors/scientists/engineers figured out a way for me to be lazy, eat junk food all day, and still lose weight without any side effects? Yeah! What's up with that?

February Budget Sum Up

Helloooo March! You know what that means...a review of my February budget, of course. If you saw my tweet a few days ago, you'll know that it was a very successful month of spending (or the lack thereof). My monthly discretionary total came out to be...drum roll please....$76.22. Almost 25 bucks under the $100 budget. Woot!

Here's a breakdown:

• $18.67 on coffee (Starbucks and Peet's)
• $49.25 at other restaurants
• $8.30 round trip BART tickets (public transportation)

My estimate of shelling out $20 on coffee for February was on target. I know what you're thinking...you only have $100, and you wasted 20% on coffee??? Well, this month, I'll work on lowering that amount to 15 bucks. Baby steps...baby steps...

My Health/Spending Dilemma

Remember the boot camp that inspired a "buddy system" post a while back? Well, I'm finishing up week 3, and it's no joke. The trainer leads the class through drill after drill for about an hour, four days a week. Classes are fun, the people are encouraging, and I'm definitely seeing results, which is much more than I can say for other things I've tried.

Let me give you a little bit of background, first. At the end of my first year in college, the freshman 15 turned into more of a freshman 30. I tried exercising and dieting every year during break, but couldn't really get my weight down due to stress, work load, and all of the crap I feed my body daily. It became my goal after graduation to get back into shape and maintain a healthy weight. I lost all of the 30 pounds I gained and am less than 10lbs away from my weight goal. That's great and all...but I hit a wall in the fall of 2009. My weight's been fluctuating around the same place ever since.

Go Ahead, Live a Little and Splurge

I stumbled across the Ask the Readers section on Wisebread yesterday. What do you splurge on? They ask. Well, that’s simple enough, good food, of course! With food trucks, unique ethnic cuisine, and all of those fancy schmancy Michelin Star restaurants, the SF Bay Area attracts foodies (me included!) like a giant magnet. But the more I thought about it, the more complicated this question seems to get. Maybe I just like going on tangents or maybe there’s actually something to this. The problem with the word splurge is that it’s relative. In my current state of only have a $100 discretionary fund, almost everything can count as being extravagant. Buying lunch with friends for $12 plus transportation costs? Well, that’s 1/5 of my monthly budget spent in one (half) day! Splurging? You can say that.

But like I said, it’s all relative. These are small ticket items in my tiny budget. The things that will truly impact my finances most immediately are the big ticket items. I guess this means small gadgets, food, coffee, and occasional clothing items are out of the picture. That leaves…oh! The thing that I’ve been budgeting FOR!

Curb Spending By Using Cash

I talked about how cash is still a superior form of payment in my last post. Now is the opportunity for me to put my money where my mouth is. It's the beginning of the month, and I haven't used any of my discretionary fund yet. This morning, I will go to the ATM and take out $80 in cash (out of my $100 budget) to spend for the rest of the month. What about the rest of the budget? Well, because I have to swipe my Chase debit card a total of 5 times a month to avoid a checking maintenance fee, I left that $20 out for that purpose. Besides that, all of my "fun budget," including food (non-grocery), clothing, and going out money will be spent in cash.

So what do I hope to achieve? I'm not purposely trying to piss off the people standing in line behind me, for sure. It's really to test the theory that using cash can help you to relate more closely to your money. By spending (almost) only cash this month, I'm hoping I'll be more aware of how much $$ is physically disappearing from my wallet. It might hurt more, but hey, I call that tough love!

Have you ever used this method to curb spending? Did it help? If you've never tried this cash only spending method, I encourage you to join me. It'll be more fun with more people =D

January Budget Summary (and Happy 1 Month!)

Wow, today marks one month of blogging! It's been a great month. The blog helps keep personal finance on my mind constantly, which is awesome because there’s still so much more I need/want to learn! Not only that, I learned a lot about blogging and social networking, too.

Remember that I mentioned setting a non-discretionary spending budget of $100 a month earlier? Well, the results are in: drum roll, please...I spent $116.11. Not a total success, but not a complete fail, either. I felt so guilty for spending more than a quarter of my budget less than a week after setting it that I returned something I bought in December.

Be Accomplished!

My last post listed some ways to get started on organizing your financial information. If you've done those things already, bravo! Here are some additional goals to set your site on when you're doing your financial planning for the year:

Pay Down Debt
Did you go all out with your Holiday shopping this past year? Are you dreading that credit card bill? That's only one of the many ways some of us end up in debt. While we can't undo what had already happened, we can certainly make it less painful. If you're in debt, chances are you're paying more in interest that your bank is paying you. Sure, the funds you invest in may earn you more, but it's not guaranteed. Moreover, some credit cards have interest rates above 20%.

1.11.11 Resolutions and Goals

If you haven't made any new year's financial resolutions, set financial goals for yourself, or have broken a few already, all is not lost. Today is a new day. It's 1.11.11 to be exact. Sure no ball will be dropped in Time Square, but it's a good excuse to get the ball rolling (again). Hey, this many 1's must signal a new beginning or something. Why else would Verizon decide to make a certain big announcement today, of all days?

Alright, too much? In all seriousness, there is no better day than today to get your finances in order. If you don't know where to start, here are a few suggestions to get things going:

The Budget Experiment

Beginning with the new year, I started a little experiment on myself. I decided to take up the challenge of limiting my discretionary spending to $100 per month. This includes food, entertainment, gifts, clothing, etc. There are a few specific exceptions: I didn't include gym membership in this amount, mainly because of the complications that would result due to the fact that I'm on a family plan. I also did not add two possible reunion trips and a wedding I'm attending this year. They will have a separate budget. In fact, the trips are part of what prompted me to cut my spending.

Okay, to be honest, it's not the most well thought out plan ever, but I want a plan that's challenging yet still doable. I have a general idea that it's going to be a long term experiment without a set ending date. I figured that if I do this for at least 6 months out of 2011, I will definitely come out ahead of my savings goal. The trick, however, is not to go on a spending spree afterwards. That'll defeat the whole purpose.

What other reasons, besides the potentially costly trips, prompted this experiment?