Money Check: Period 5

I am freshly back from the UK and now is the time to get serious about this money thing. All of my traveling the first quarter of the year bounced me off track a bit, but now I have the time and space to make the changes I need.

This means, going out a little less, making a more of my own meals, and taking advantage of the free 🙂

MARCH

Pay Period	Spending	Reimburse	Goal	Total	Difference
Feb 27 – Mar 14	$1,012	$1,673	$583	-$661	$1,244
Mar 14 – Mar 29	$0	$0	$583	$0	$583
TOTALS	$1,012	$1,673	$1,166	-$661	$1,827

 

YTD Budget	Spending	Reimburse	Goal	Total	Difference
March	$10,343	$6,412	$14,000	$3,931	$10,069

By the end of the month my spending allowance for the rest of the year will probably be close to $8,000. Not the greatest, but I’ll make it work.

Money Check: Period 4

So…it’s been awhile. My excuses are I was busy at work, sick, and then on vacation. Don’t worry I’ll do better.

Anyways, onward and upward. Before I jet away to my next trip here’s a quick overview of my progress the first 2 months of 2018.

I expected expenses to be high because of my trip to Mexico, but I still need to work on reigning things in.

JANUARY

Pay Period	Spending	Extra Income	Goal	Total	Difference
Jan 1 – Jan 12	$1,203	$436	$583	$767	-$184
Jan 13 – Jan 30	$2,303	$751	$583	$1,552	-$969
TOTALS	$3,506	$1,187	$1,166	$2,319	-$1,153

FEBRUARY

Pay Period	Spending	Extra Income	Goal	Total	Difference
Feb 1 – Feb 14	$4,158	$1,578	$583	$2,580	$1,997
Feb 15 – Feb 27	$1,667	$1,974	$583	-$307	$890
TOTALS	$5,825	$3,552	$1,166	$2,273	$1,107
YTD Budget	Spending	Reimburse	Goal	Total	Difference
February	$9,331	$4,739	$14,000	$4,592	$9,408

I have one more major trip coming up next week – London with my mom to visit family. Hoping I can keep expenses down during and not splurge too much for the rest of March.

Money Check: Period 1

To jump start my attempt at frugality I decided to attend a free Financial Planning seminar on Tuesday night (bonus this also counts as attending a non-work event). It was good, but ultimately did not provide any earth shattering information. I’ve been absorbing personal finance knowledge via blogs and podcasts ever since I was a college junior and really started thinking about the amount of debt I was accruing. So, I know what to do already. Yet, I’ve still allowed myself to amass a pretty tidy sum on credit cards in addition to my overwhelming amount of student loans.

But this is the year I’m going to actually make changes and start seriously digging myself out of the hole. It really comes down to behavior. I can no longer live so drastically beyond my means. Rather than buffing up on financial knowhow I need to start accruing tips for challenging my triggers and remembering my true goal – Financial Freedom.

One book that really resonated with me a few years ago was Financially Fearless by Alexa von Tobel, the founder of Learnvest. Her strategies are perfectly tailored to the life of a young professional woman. The tips made sense and the advice was actionable.

von Tobel urges readers to just focus on one number. The amount of disposable income they have available after bills and savings are automated.

This is usually calculated on a per month period, but I am changing things up a bit and looking at my year holistically. It’s too easy for me to overspend during one month and not make it up the next (despite the promises I make myself). So if at the end of the year I run out of money I just have to do without. Basically, in December I’ll be living on rice and beans and doling out my love to my family instead of Christmas gifts.

Without further ado (but after much number crunching), I discovered my magic number for the year is $14,000.

Yes, it is pretty aggressive and it will be rough, but goals are about pushing ourselves, right? To help out any extra income (interest, reimbursements, credit card cash back, etc) that comes in will offset my spending. Ideally, I’d want to save it but that’s just not my reality right now.

I get paid bimonthly so my tracking will be calculated per paycheck. To stay on track I have $583 to spend each period. Of course, due to my yearly budget this number is more of a checkpoint to keep me in check.

Get used to the charts below. I’ll be posting these each pay day to show my progress or lack thereof.

Pay Period	Spending	Extra Income	Goal	Total	Difference
Jan 1 – Jan 12	$1,203	$436	$583	$767	-$184
Jan 13 – Jan 30	$0	$0	$583	$0	$583
TOTALS	$1,098	$436	$1,166	$767	$399
YTD Budget	Spending	Extra Income	Goal	Total	Difference
January	$1,203	$436	$14,000	$767	$13,233

As you can see, I haven’t quite gotten the hang of this yet. Let’s just call it residual 2017 spending. I’ll be better in the future, I swear.