Expensive October

I've braced myself that October is going to be an expensive month for me. It's my birthday on Saturday (the 17th) and I usually celebrate all month long. I love birthdays and I couldn't resist - I never used to be this way. When I turned 20, I was hyperventilating because I thought I was "too old" but I'm turning 28 in 3 days and I just could not wait. Finally, I'm relishing getting older!

My $200 Week 2 budget just sufficed (kind of - I had to use the black card once or twice). Some major expenses include:

$23 - treated a friend at work to a birthday lunch on the 8th. She bought me lunch today for my birthday. Now we have a new tradition!
$50 - Sydney Harbour Island hopping ticket - my girl friends and I went on a half day cruise around the islands (4 in total) and it was fun albeit a bit cold. We bought drinks and food and just ate and chatted our way through out the whole day
$20 - wine & beer. We had dinner at J's parents place and we brought some drinks over.

The remaining was spent on groceries and more food! We've eaten out so much since last week. Last Saturday night, we had Spanish tapas for a friend's birthday dinner, we had the Indian dinner on Sunday night and I treated J to Thai on Monday night.

And I'm going out again for the next two nights... eep, that's another post in itself plus new budget!

Week 1 Budget Round-up

Week 1: October 1 to 7
Budget: $150

Thurs (1st Oct)

$3.50 - iced tea
$30.60 - groceries
$1.90 - bus home
$30 - charity (friend's bike ride for MS)

Fri (2nd Oct)

$1.90 - bus to work
$2.50 - Cadbury chocolate
$1.90 - bus home

Sat (3rd Oct)

$12 - 5 weekly DVD's from Blockbuster

Sun (4th Oct)

$20 - dinner at Sushi Samurai

Mon (5th Oct)

$10 - groceries

Tues (6th Oct)

$7 - can of V and carrot cake for a snack at work

Total: $121.30
Left: $28.70

I think I'm definitely going to be on budget for this week. I only have today left and I actually still have money to spend! Today, I'm meeting some friends for a Cate Blanchett play in the city around midday. Because it's a matinee, I really hope that Cate would be there instead of her understudy. And look at that! I haven't bought a single piece of clothing for the week, that used to be rare for me but now it's becoming normal!

Budget: Period from Oct 1 - Oct 14

Income: $1970

Rent: $400
Family: $249
Private Health: $127
Personal Training: $89
Uni Loan: $146
Credit card: $150
Travel Fund to J: $450
Week 1 budget (01 to 07): $150
Week 2 budget (08 to 14): $200

My week 2 budget is larger because I'm going out with a few friends to celebrate my birthday. We're going island hopping ($48) and then I have another friend's birthday dinner coming up on the 10th.

Budget Update : Sept 21

This weekend has been heavy on the budget due to us hosting a BBQ at our place. I always over prepare for these situations. I shop too much and prepare too much and at the end of the day, there are a lot of leftovers. This time, there weren't so many and J & I are having what is left for lunch. I think that's the last BBQ we're hosting for the year at our place. October through to December are busy times and I'm still not sure if we're hosting a Christmas dinner/BBQ at our place this year since they all usually happen at J's parent's place.

Here's how I did starting

Thursday:

$7 - breakfast (I was not at work on Thursday, I was doing a course and I only had 4 hours sleep because I woke up at 3am for some reason and I couldn't get back to sleep so I had a very large double-shot coffee and a cake of some sort hoping that the sugar buzz will get me through the morning)
$3.50 - another coffee boost

Friday:

$14 - cake tin & A Long Kiss Goodnight DVD from Target
$11 - 1 kilo lamb mince
$20.75 - 2 kilos chicken breast
$28 - Groceries
$24 - 2 huge bottles of champagne & beer

Saturday:

$12 - Blockbuster
$5.60 - Groceries

Sunday:

$15 - Groceries
$7 - muffins
$10 - groceries from IGA (what a rip-off!)
$3.60 - bag of mixed salad leaves

Total: $161.45

That means I have $28.55 until Wednesday! Today is another day off and it's looking good to be another No Spend Day. I'm not going out unless it's going for a run tonight.

Leaking Money & New Budget

My CC debt went up from $387 to $620 in the last week. Yikes! We were short while paying for the groceries so I had to pay using the black CC. J sent me $50 by direct debit for his share but silly me, spent the money instead. Oh well, my savings are still intact and I'm putting more on my CC for this pay.

J also had an unexpected expense this week. He wears monthly contact lenses and on April this year, he got an ulcer in his eye from a cut possibly from his contacts. So he had to go to his optometrist then to the eye hospital to get eye drops. Last night, he came home and his right eye was really red and looked infected so he had to go through the same process again this time. The eye drops and the consultation are expensive but hopefully he can get some of it back on Medicare (public health system) and on NIB (our private health). Contact lenses are a bitch and he's planning on getting LASIK next year. I got my eyes done in 2005 and it was the best thing I've ever done! More on this later...

Payday tomorrow so here's the budget for the next two weeks. I thought I was going to be short of my goal to save $1000 this month as I had to send extra money overseas to family but it turns out that I got paid a bit more than anticipated.

Income (next two weeks): $1965

Rent: $400
Family: $359
Personal Training: $87.55
Uni Loan Payment: $146
Credit Card: $175
Home Deposit: $450
Week 1 Budget: $190
Week 2 Budget: $150

Week 1: Sept 17 to Sept 23
Week 2: Sept 24 to Sept 30

My week 1 budget is about $40 more because we're having a party at our place on Sunday. J & I are going halves so our budget is going to be around $60 for food & drinks but I budgeted extra anyway, just in case.

P.S. That black card is going to be locked away again! It's just too dangerous to be around.

Budget : Period from Sept 3 - Sept 16

Income: $1965

Rent: $400
Family: $259
Private Health Cover: $127
Personal Training: $87.55
Uni Loan Payment: $146
Credit Card: $100
Savings: $550
Week 1 expenses: $150
Week 2 expenses: $145

Week 1 - Sept 3 to Sept 9
Week 2 - Sept 10 to Sept 16

Alas! My new budget for the next two weeks. I think this will work better than separating my expenses into categories. Now, if I buy a $100 dress, then I have to make do with $50 for the rest of the week.

Budget Recap

Period From: August 20 to September 2

Rent: $200 ($200)
Family: $259 ($259)
Personal Training: $86 ($87.55)
Uni Loan Payment: $146 ($146)
Credit Card Payment: $100 ($100)
Savings: $800 ($800)
Gifts: $30 ($40)
Groceries: $85 ($111.40)
Entertainment: $100 ($120.60)
Personal Items: $20 ($0)
Shopping: $50 ($0)
Misc: 34 ($35.95)

Too much red! As I said before, category budgeting is not working for me at the moment. I just end up using money from the other categories. My next budget will be a set amount weekly. I'll withdraw the money allocated at the start of the week and see how I go from day to day.

New budget coming soon!

My Weekend Recap

I have 4 days off this week from Friday to Monday - so good!

Here are my expenses for the last 3 days:

Friday:
$25 - dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant - Sushi Samurai
$2.99 - Knowing DVD

Saturday: NO SPEND DAY - J bought me lunch and we had a BBQ dinner at J's parent's house.

Sunday:
$35 - groceries at the markets

Total: $62.99

Not bad. I did make a massive change to my budget though. I don't think the categories are working out for me because I just end up substituting the shopping money, for example, for entertainment and everything just becomes one big blur. At the moment, I'm over in the Groceries, Entertertainment, Misc and Gifts category and I've had to use my Shopping money for that. I'm re-doing my budget for the next pay and instead of categories, I'll just use a weekly tally and I can pretty much spend on whatever I want as long as I have the cash for it (no more credit cards!).

September 2009 goals coming soon.

Mid-week Budget Update

A quick update of where I stand in my 2-week budget with 8 days to go until the next pay day!

Remaining monies in my variable categories:

Gifts - $0 (over $10)
Groceries - $13.60
Entertainment - $29.30
Personal Items - $20
Shopping - $50
Misc - $8.85

Depending on what the weekend will bring and J & I are going to have a 4-day weekend (Friday to Monday off!!), I think I will be short in the Entertainment section. Since I'm not planning on buying any personal items, I might transfer my $20 over plus I still have the $8.85 in Misc. I don't really want to touch my shopping budget if I don't have to. I'm in dire need of black work shoes but I'm looking at buying an $80-90 pair so I might add this week's shopping budget to next week's which will also be $50. As for groceries, I'll probably buy lunch stuff with my $13.60 for next week (Mon - Fri), J still has to do a mini shop for the weekend and remaining days.

No Spend Day tomorrow - I have a bus ticket to go to work and I have breakfast & lunch (and I'll rummage around in the cupboard for snacks). J will pick me up from work tomorrow as well!

August 20 Budget

My first attempt at a specific budget. I usually budget for the fixed items and then with my remaining $300 or so, it's usually whatever goes and most of the time, I'm out of pocket a week before the next pay day.

A brief description of each category:

1. Rent - this is going to be the last fortnight where we have to pay $250 for rent. In my next pay, it will go up to $450.

2. Jumpstart - is a personal training service I started two months ago. At the moment, I go to two classes per week. This is a direct debit that gets taken out of my account every fortnight. I enjoy the classes and this is my main motivation for exercise. If I haven't paid, then I just won't go.

3. Uni Loan Payment - long story cut short. I have about $13K+ uni loans (HECS). Usually, an amount gets deducted off the person's salary once they earn over a certain threshold. I certainly have been earning over the threshold for two years but they haven't been deducting it from my pay. So instead of getting a refund back with my tax return, I have to pay instead. I owe the tax office around $4K+ (including interest) and I've made an arrangement with them to pay $146 per fortnight until next year. They've sent me coupons in the mail as well with due dates so I don't forget!

4. Credit Card - I have $597 debt on my CC and I'm not going to be using it for a while. I'm hoping to pay this off very soon.

5. Home Deposit - self explanatory. Where the bulk of my moolah goes!

6. Gifts - I usually prepare in advance for birthdays and anniversaries. I have a birthday party to go this fortnight so I've budgeted a bit for that. But this would usually be $0.

7. Groceries - includes dinners & also lunches for work. I have a feeling that I will fall short on this one. We'll see.

8. Entertainment - includes dinners out, travel (public transportation is very expensive in Sydney!), movies, etc.

9. Personal Items - mostly beauty items & services

10. Shopping - no explanation needed!

11. Misc - this is not really earmarked for anything special. I think this will just be a back-up just in case I need more cash for the other categories.