Income/Spending breakdown - July 2007
Unless something happens today, these will be the July actual numbers. I don’t anticipate spending anything today. If I do, the numbers will have to be adjusted of course.
In July, our net income was $3,588.56. This includes $114.51 of income that came from me selling things (craigslist and textbooks) and taking online surveys. The rest was my spouse’s salary after taxes, 401K, flexible medical spending, and health insurance were deducted and my contracting work after taxes (estimated).
We spent $3189.83. So a difference of $398.73. First a celebration - we spent less than we earned! :cheer: Of that $398.73, $187.59 is carried over into next month’s budget for irregular expenses. The remainer is $211.14, our July surplus.
Surplus!
This money is earmarked for our emergency savings account and will be transferred there when my spouse gets his first August paycheck on the 10th. The exciting idea to me though is that when the emergency fund is completely established, I might have months where $211 extra pays down our debt… wow! I never imagined I might be able to put $500+ in one month towards the credit card.
This month, we paid $944.81 towards debt reduction. $733.41 of that was minimum payments, so we paid $211.40 above our minimum obligations towards reducing our debt. All of that was towards the credit card. As stated above, $114.51 of that was from selling things and online surveys.
I spent $19.89 frivolously on Harry Potter and iced tea (in cash) and a matching amount was snowflaked to the credit card.
Several of our budget categories suffered overages this month. The significant ones were diapers, gifts, miscellaneous, and car maintenance/repair. The diapers was planned, and I have plenty of diapers to last through August (and part of September) so my two month average should be at budget. I am hoping to actually have my son potty trained in the next few months so that overall expense will go down significantly then (whenever it actually happens). Gifts - we have no planned gifts in August so I am hoping that will get back on track as well and the two month average will be under or at budget. Miscellaneous…. well, Harry Potter is what put us over budget. I am going to try to be very careful with the miscellaneous spending and keep the two month average at or under budget… we’ll see. The car repair included the locksmith. I can’t anticipate what will happen with the car, really, and I suspect we will be at or over budget for August as well, for I need to have my tires rotated and balanced as well as an oil change and maybe more. Well, we’ll see. I am going to have to look hard at the car repair budgeting line item after a 6 month period and see where we stand.
Gasoline for the car came in slightly under budget and utilities (electric/gas) came in about $30 under budget. It has been hotter this month though so I think August will not be so budget friendly electricity wise.
Anyway, all in all, a good month. Budgeting is going well and I hope to be able to generate ~$100 of “extra” income this month as well through sales of our belongings and surveys. I have $23.62 to that end in transit from paypal to our bank account right now in fact to start August off ($21.62 textbook sales, $2 survey).
~J
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February 16th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Sorry I’m only just reading this now, but just wanted to say that I completely relate to the difficulties often faced when tyring to stick to a budget it’s just such hard work (but essential) it also made me smile about the “Harry Potter” purchase, I just love the books and i think an overspend for any Harry Potter book is more than justified, Hope the budget continues to go well!