Mogul In Training

For the second week of my $40 weekly spending and entertainment plan my total came to $40.77. Not bad, but not my target--77 cents over my target. I can honestly say I went over because I did not track every expense as it was spent (using my checkbook ledger). Sometimes I got lazy and tried to track all expenses by the end of the day. So, this is a lesson for this current week--track all expenses as soon as the money leaves the hand.

It is true what all the finance books said about once I start this journey I will find new ways to challenge myself to save money. Since going over my budget by 77 cents, I am determined not to miss my target again--not even by a penny.

From this point, I will only give the tally for my spending plan occassionally--probably only if I go over budget by a lot.

Maybe I am the only person on the planet who doesn't like Quicken, but I just don't like it. I readily admit that maybe I just didn't have the patience necessary to set it. But, at this point it's 'whatever' because I have found two great, free, online money management programs that I absolutely love. The first one is Mint--and I'm sure most people have heard of it. The second is SpendingDiary.com. Both are links on my blog.

Mint allows you to see all of you accounts in one place. You can download bank accounts, retirement accounts, credit cards, mortgages, student loans, you name. All of your money and debits are all in one convenient place. Mint also sends you emails when there are any changes to your accounts. Additionally, you can set up your monthly budgets, set alerts, etc. I love Mint and cannot say enough good things about it. Did I mention it is free?!

The other online money management program I use is Spending Diary. I only use this program to keep tracking of my entertainment/eating out spending because all of my bills are accounted for in my spending plan. I love this program because it is so simple and so dead on for what I use it for. I can enter my spending for the day, along with the name of the item I bought and what category it falls into. At the end of the day, week, or month, I can generate a report that shows me what I spent in each category and the total amount spent. I love the simplicity of this program.

Both programs are extremely convenient because you simply go to the website and log in. I would recommend these programs to anyone who is looking for a simple way to keep track of his/her finances.

In a nutshell, I was able to stick to my $40 a week Spending Plan. In order to keep track of every penny I spent, I put a container in my car to store receipts. Also, I found a website called SpendingDiary.com that I used to track my entertainment spending. Once the numbers are entered on the site, a report can be generated for daily, weekly, or monthly spending. What I did find, though, is that my $4 a day spending should not be for the work week, meaning Monday through Friday; rather it should be Sunday through Thursday because Friday and Saturday constitute my weekend. I would exclude Sunday because I usually go to church, then home to do chores and run errands. Therefore, my entertainment is usually on Friday and/or Saturday nights.

So, my total spending for the week was a whopping $39.57. This included spending my $4 free money everyday at work and having drinks and an appetizer at 'On the Border' on Friday night with the girls.

Another revolation for me, now that I am finally taking control of my frivolous spending, is that I need to include at least $20 a month in my budget for miscellaneous spending. In the miscellaneous spending category, I spent $3.85 to buy some handwipes, sanitizer and a small notebook.

I am SO proud of myself for sticking to my entertainment spending plan. I know that having this blog has made me more accountable. Even if no one reads it, it is my way of holding myself accountable--kinda like an online money diary.

My biggest money vice, by far, is eating out. I can easily spend $300 a month eating at fast food and casual dining restaurants. It is so crazy because I can easily spend $80 a week eating out for lunch and dinner, but will cringe at paying $13 for a facial moisturizing; then conclude that the purchase will just have to wait until next month because I simply don't have the money this month. Subsequently, I turn around and spend another $80 eating out the next week. Afterwards, I realize I could have bought 6 jars of the cream. Crazy, I know! I've also noticed that when I'm on a diet (sue me, I'm a girl), I save SO much money.

This is part of the reason why I started this blog. I am so close to Financial Freedom, I can taste it! By June, I will be debt free, everything except my mortgage and a $5,0000 student loan. I plan to have the student loan paid off by the end of the year. Despite all of these strides, I still need to get rid of this thorn in my side, called 'eating out.' Therefore, my goals in this area are the following:

1. I will give myself an entertainment budget of $160 a month--that is all! This amount will include eating out and activities.
2. The amount is broken down into $20 each work week for frivolous spending at work (e.g. sodas, snacks from vending machines, etc). This amount breaks down to roughly $4 a day for Monday-Friday. The other $20 dollars will be for weekend entertainment. This includes activities AND eating out. Therefore, if I know in advance that my weekend entertainment will cost more than $20, then I better spend less than $20 during the work week to supplement the weekend. The total amount I am allowed to spend for any given week is $40. This isn't a large amount of money, but considering the fact that I am single and some weekends, I don't do anything at all, this should be more than enough money if I carry over unused money from each week.
3. Additionally, if I cannot afford to participate in all invites I receive for the week because of my spending plan, I will just have to learn to turn down a few events, here and there.
4. I will hold myself to this spending plan (the word budget always conjures up restrictive and negative thoughts) by only using CASH for entertainment spending. I will only carry $20 with me for the work week and the other $20 dollars on the week.
5. I will withdraw the total amount from my bank account at the beginning of each month.
6. Finally, I have taken all debit cards out of my purse, to ward off temptation. I have one credit card and my checkbook in my purse, in case they are needed for something other than eating out.

So, this is my plan. Today is April 5, the first work day of April. I have not gone to the ATM yet--as I am typing this post in the a.m. But I will venture to the ATM for my one-time only $160 monthly withdrawal; AND I brought my breakfast and lunch to work with me today. Yeah, me!

I will keep you posted on how well I kept to my monthly entertainment/eating out budget. Wish me luck! Do you think my plan is realistic/unrealistic? Speak on it...