November Budget 2012

 

Hey guys, no time to chat but here's the same budget that I had last month which seemed to be manageable.

I'm swarmed with school/work and going to be stuck hitting the books for at least the next 2 weeks so posts may be sparse. Education first right?

-the Paperboy

October Budget 2012

I finally bit the bullet. There's no way that $100 is enough for food because to be honest, that's where I spend the most money. I rarely buy anything else. Hopefully I can keep within the new limit.

-the Paperboy

August Budget 2012 Review

August turned out to be a pretty expensive month for me.  I really have no excuses for the food category. What can I say? I like to eat. I already went over for September as well, even though we just passed the half-way mark. I'm thinking I may have to raise the limit because I feel that I'm already very restricted when it comes to going out to eat and always going over budget is frustrating since I'm trying hard to not eat out. When I originally put the budget in place, the numbers I set were arbitrary and I was going to adjust them until they were more realistic. Since I feel that I'm honestly trying to stay under budget and it's making me unhappy, I think I should raise the limit. Then again, maybe I'm simply spending too much...

I went over budget in August due to having to pitch in for my little sister's early birthday gift and I had to buy some clothes because I realized that I didn't have t-shirts. With the gift taken out I' d still be on target so I don't feel too bad about last month but I have to do something about the food.

On another note, I was able to put away $1536.44 in August which is great since I wasn't able to work full time this summer. I'm not going to compare one month to another because my income fluctuates so I won't be able to draw many conclusions from that.

-the Paperboy

September 2012 Budget

First month of school but since I start a week in, it's not worth it to get a monthly bus pass yet. So hopefully I'll be able to spend less than $104 on transportation next month. I'll start buying a bus pass in October and I look forward to it to be honest, since it's so much more convenient. 

-the Paperboy

July Budget 2012 Review

July wasn't that bad in terms of spending. I was actually under budget. This is the last month that will have Food & Entertainment grouped into one category. Hopefully I can keep the spending in check for the future.

The app I use to keep track of my spending rounds everything to the nearest dollar including my income for the month. After taking all the spending into consideration, I was able to put away around $795 for the month of July. That's a lot less than what I use to get when I worked full time in the summer but its better than nothing right? At least I'll have a little bit to spend on the stock market for August.

-the Paperboy

August Budget 2012

As mentioned in the June Budget review, I slightly altered the categories for the budget. Miscellaneous is now General and what was once Food & Entertainment is now two separate categories of Food and Entertainment. At first I was going to split the $150 down the middle and allot $75 to each category but then I realized that most of the $150 was going towards Food so it got $100 while Entertainment only got $50 since I really only spend money on Entertainment when I go to the movies (usually on Tuesdays since Cineplex has those cheap tickets on Tuesdays - throw in half price wings at many wing joints and you got yourself a frugal date).

Since getting the budgeting app for my phone also allows me to track my monthly income, I'll also be documenting that from here on out. This way, I'll not only be able to track my expenses, but I'll be able to see how much money I'm actually putting away so that I can invest it.

-the Paperboy

June Budget 2012 Review

June may have been a bad month in terms of dividends but it was good in terms of the monthly budget. If you recall I treated my family out for Father's Day so that put me over for the Food & Entertainment section. I also got dinged again for getting pictures via text. Last month, I couldn't remember when somebody sent me pictures and while I was trying to figure it out, my girlfriend sends me another one... well, you can be sure that July's phone bill will be on target because I quickly told her that it was costing me money.

I really should try to negotiate my phone bill though because everyone I know if paying less and getting more. I just never seem to find the time and for some reason those guys are intimidating to me. I guess I'll just have to buckle down and do it. Hopefully I get around to it soon. Overall I saved $100 which is really good considering I'm usually going over budget. I recently got an app for my phone that tracks my budget so I'm going to be changing the categories for the month of August and while I'm at it, I'll review the budget to determine if the numbers are still appropriate.

-the Paperboy

July Budget 2012

I should be able to make the usual numbers work for July. I don't foresee any crazy expenses coming up so I should be fine. I haven't been able to stay on budget for the majority of the months that I've been doing this so hopefully this one will have me in the black.

-the Paperboy

May Budget 2012 Review

May was the biggest bust I've ever had in terms of staying on budget. Along with the usual overspending on food, I spent a lot of money on gifts last month. This was because I bought my girlfriend her anniversary gift and birthday gift (although her birthday is in August, so I'm saving the second present). I also got charged extra on my phone bill because I received some pictures via text so they dinged me for that. All in all I spent over $1000 last month, which is heartbreaking because I could have used that to buy shares. I should really buckle down and try to be more consistent with my saving especially since I was making progress in April. We'll see how this month goes. I'm sure it'll be a lot better than last month.

-the Paperboy

June Budget 2012

I'm going to be keeping the same numbers as last month. However, last month I went over by a considerable amount; for a legitimate reason though (you'll see it in the budget review). I'll probably be able to stay on budget for June... but don't get your hopes up. I still have to get around to giving Rogers a call to lower my phone bill. I guess it's people like me (the ones who are too lazy to call in to get better deals) that pay people like me (the ones who are shareholders of the companies that provide service to the aforementioned lazy people).

-the Paperboy

April Budget 2012 Review

Since school was out, I didn't spend as much money on transportation as usual. My house needed a new router so I pitched in my part. I didn't buy myself anything this month, except for deodorant, which I think is kind of necessary. Those two offset the overspending of Food & Entertainment (are you even surprised anymore?) which would have been a little less if I read my coupon for the fine print. My girlfriend finished her hospital placement so we went out to celebrate. It was a nice dinner with a great view which means it was pricey. That's okay though, how often do you finish school?

I forgot to take into consideration that my 6th year anniversary is coming up in May so most likely I'll be going over budget. For now I'll enjoy the $31.32 that I saved.

-the Paperboy

May Budget 2012

Let's try this again. Last month, I added an extra $25 to my budget and moved an additional $25 from Item Purchases to Food & Entertainment, giving the expense 50% more breathing room. I'll stick to this for a month or two to see how it goes. Transportation should be a lot less though because it's summer break so I won't be taking public transit as often. I plan to negotiate my phone bill as well because many people I know get more than what my plan gets me, while paying less money. Hopefully I'll get around to that soon.

-the Paperboy

March Budget 2012 Review

I actually got to the budget in the first half of the month this time. That makes me proud. The spending however... that's pretty embarrassing. Again the food and entertainment is killing me. Every time I add it up I'm always surprised because during the month, I don't feel that I'm going out a lot. I guess it's just that when I actually do go out, I spend a lot.

As for the item purchases, the reason I spent so much this month was because I got myself a birthday gift... a new iPhone! I don't buy expensive stuff often (well at least relative to some people I know) and I would never have done it if my old phone was working fine. The thing is, the home button on my old 3GS was broken for a couple months and an opportunity to get a new phone fell into my lap so I took it. Once a year is okay right...? Anyway, I know I make a lot of excuses when I post about my budget so I'm going to try extra hard for April.

It should help that it's exam time so I'm just pent up in my room for the majority of the month. Can't think about spending money if I'm studying all the time. Once school's over you can expect more posts so hang tight... maybe I'll start writing about investing and saving for once... you know making that paper and stuff.

-the Paperboy

April Budget 2012

Okay for April I decided to move money from item purchases to food and entertainment. I also increased my budget by $25, again adding to food and entertainment. That comes to a $50 increase in that expense So hopefully I can get it to work now. Losing the $25 from item purchases isn't too bad because I rarely buy anything anymore. If I do it's usually discount books at Indigo.

I recently stopped taking a shift at one of my jobs so my income will be less. It's more important than ever to try and keep spending under control. It should be easier in April because it's exam time and my exams go on until the end of the month. That means more studying and less fun. Of course less fun means less spending which in turn means more savings.

-the Paperboy

February Budget 2012 Review

March is wrapping up, so it's the perfect time to talk about February's budget right?  I can't even remember last month that well to be honest. I know that I took my parents' car out a lot that month so I felt bad and pumped in $20 of gas. That went into the transportation section. February was also Valentine's Day and my mom's birthday so I went out on both occasions.

Food and entertainment is really killing me. I've really tried to be good though, since I started blogging, I pack my lunch to school and resist the urge to buy food. It's still what I spend most of my money on. Last year was worse; I went out to eat every weekday. If my spending is too much right now, imagine if I started to count how much I spent last year... I don't even want to know, the number would probably be too much for me to handle.

-the Paperboy

March Budget 2012

Alright let's try the same numbers for the month of March. I think February is going to end up being a rough month because reading week alone destroyed my budget for food. Come to think about it, the most difficult part of the budget is the food and entertainment part. I can restrain myself from buying things, but grabbing a bite to eat with friends is so enticing. It's not that I constantly eat out (which I did last year, and that didn't do so well for my wallet), but going out even three times a month is too much. Paying for two people doesn't help, but paying for my girlfriend is one of those things that I'm not willing to give up (I have to be at least a half-decent boyfriend right?). I haven't decided what to do yet, on one hand going over the budget every month is discouraging, while on the other hand, I already reduced my spending significantly and I would still like some sort of a social life. We'll see how March goes, but my birthday falls in March so some crazy stuff might go down...

-the Paperboy

Janurary Budget 2012 Review

Better late than never am I right? I went over budge because I had to buy some mandatory stuff for school. If that wasn't taken into account I would have made it so I don't feel so bad. I didn't spend anything on transportation because I decided to do February with bus tokens. Overall not a bad month in terms of spending, hopefully I can keep it going.

-the Paperboy

February Budget 2012

From now until the end of the school year, I won't be purchasing a monthly bus pass. This is due to the fact that I have every other Friday off from school. Hopefully using tokens will save me some money albeit with less convenience. I should save where I can in terms of transportation, especially when the TTC rang in the new year with a fare hike. Nothing like celebrating 2012 by paying $6 for a round trip on the Rocket right?

Everything else will stay the same because I think I may have finally got my spending under control. Either that or I've just been so swamped with school and work that I haven't really had time to spend money. Judging by the lack of posts, the latter is more likely to be the reason I'm saving money as opposed to the former. Which is good... at least for my wallet, my social life is taking a beating though. That may all change because reading week is in February so I'll see if I can keep up the discipline.

-the Paperboy

December Budget 2011 Review

 

Well it turns out that December wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The big reason is that I didn't really have to go and buy gifts this year. My girlfriend took care of all of it because she's amazing (by the way if you're into fashion you should go and check out her stuff). I knew I was going to be spending a lot for food & entertainment for the last month of the year and I'm actually surprised that I'm only over by $4. Anyway, it's January now so it's time to bring my spending back down and keep it in check.

-the Paperboy

January Budget 2012

I can't believe that 2011 is already over! Well, it's back to the old budget for the first month of the new year. Oh, except for the fact that I increased the amount allotted for transportation from $99 to $104 because the TTC wants more of my money. No much else to say here except if I go over budget once again, then maybe I'll just raise the limits, but I know that's counterproductive so we'll see. I'll have a December Budget Review up soon and I don't think it'll be a pretty sight.

-the Paperboy