Let me first start this post by saying that I hate failing. I mean I REALLY hate it. Even worse, I hate admitting when I fail. But here it is in print...I failed my budget. There it goes, I said it. We officially ran out of money at the end of last week and since I am not about to go make us go hungry, we went over budget.
On a positive note, I feel like this month I really put our spending into perspective. Paying cash for all of our groceries, entertainment, personal items, and stuff for Roxie was a real eye opener and definitely made me think twice about some of our purchases. So we are going to continue with that system of paying cash for anything that isn't a bill or gas.
I also discovered that my almond biscotti makes a great gift. A couple times this month I avoided buying gifts by making food. In each instance, the people that received the gift expressed that they felt it was much more heart felt than a gift card or something that took a 10 minute effort that I just picked out of the store.
I also have to say that August was one of the most activity packed, fun filled months we've had in awhile. We visited lots of friends at their homes and as a thank you for hosting we supplied food and drinks which the hosts appreciated and enjoyed. We played games we already owned, caught up on life, and enjoyed each other's company.
I didn't go to Target and don't plan on going for awhile. That is another rule that I want to stick even though we didn't completely succeed with this month's budget.
Even with going over our budget we still contributed over $700 to our cc debt (plus whatever I put in at the end of this week) which is the most we have ever been able to save. We also didn't use the credit cards once, expect for my work related expenses.
So overall, even though we didn't hit our magic number, I feel like we did succeed (in a way) in this month's budget. August was a fabulous eye opener and we have a great plan laid out for September.
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5 comments:
I really don't think you failed Teresa. Not meeting your goal is not necessarily failing. And putting that much toward cc debt is absolutely a success!!
Even though you didn't hit your goal, it sounds like you learned a lot. So I would call that a success!
And totally off subject...Jeff loved the cake! He was impressed that it was all made from scratch. :-)
Some months are going to be harder than others....but I totally know what you are saying. I get really pissy when we go over our budget, too, even though we still put a nice chunk away in savings. And I agree--not ever going to Target has helped us out tremendously [but it's only b/c we live too far away now].
I'm soooo behind on my GR, but I think you did great this month considering you put $700 toward your cc debt. There are so many fun, free activities in Sept to look forward to as well.
I hope my beautiful cake didn't push you over the edge!
I would kill to put $700 toward credit card debt. Sounds like you're on a roll, at least. Responsibility is the first step. :)
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