So I have not been able to save the $1000-$1500 extra this month. I did put an additional $1,000 towards my credit card and have been saving $100 of every $200 I take from the ATM. Apparently I take a lot of money out of the ATM a month, since I have almost $900 saved in cash in my wooden box. But, hey, savings is savings. Looking at the numbers, I withdrew $1670.85 from the ATM - no wonder I have so much in savings. That's about $200 in cash a week. Most of it goes to lunch at work ($50-$60 a week), cabs and drinks on the weekend. As much as I will try to cut this back, I don't know how realistic it is. The problem with cash is that if I have it, I will spend it. The problem with not having cash is that I am not as aware of what I am spending. The point of this blog is to make me more aware and make my cash more precious, so we will keep an eye on things over the year and see how it progresses.
My big expenses this month were $292.29, which was an engagement present for D, it was kind of an accident and I didn't really mean to pick up the tab for a 6 person dinner in the W. Village. But once it was done, it was done. She did get me a Longchamp bag as a thank you, which means that I don't actually have to buy one, since I have been wanting one forever, but couldn't justify spending over $100 on a bag that I was going to use like a gym bag.
The clothing expenses look higher than they are, at $831.87. But $364.68 was spent at Paris, which was pre-year of living frugally, and $100 was spent on my deposit for my bridesmaid dress for Emilie's wedding. So I spend around $400 on clothes this month. I think a lot of it was before the resolution - thinks I bought between Christmas and NY that did not post until after the new year, because I don't remember buying that much, other than maybe a top at Anthro.
That doesn't mean that I didn't spend money this month - and that there are not some things that I can do to cut back. First, the Hudson Valley trip was about $600 ($200 for B&B; $200 for dinner; $200 for rental car) . MC theoretically owes me for half of the trip, but I don't expect to see that money back any time soon.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
2009 the Year of Living Frugally
January, 2009. So this will be the year of living frugally. I've been working at the firm for two and a half years now and have only $10k to show for it, especially now that that bottom is dropping out of the real estate market and the apt isn't holding its value.
I've pretty much failed every time I have tried to save money, but hopefully I will be more successful this year. Last year the goal was not to be a bitch to people I didn't know (or to generally be more open to new people) and I think I am actually a more open person now (whether or not that's a good thing is another question). So maybe themes work better than goals. So the year of living frugally.
Ian says to set concrete goals and as much as I hate it when people give me advice, he is probably right. Concrete goals, manageable goals. Maybe I can actually stick to this one.
First, every time I take out $200 from the ATM, I am going to save $100. This is only save about $400 a month, but its better than spending that. Goal number two is to save $1,000 from the second paycheck of the month. The goal depends on keeping the credit card bill down. Its now at $5,000-ish. If we get our raise, I should be able to save $1,500 a month.
As of today, I have put half of the first ATM pull into savings. Woo hoo.
Of course, this also means that I can't shop for clothes like I have done in the past. Le sigh. That will probably be the hardest part - keeping my expenditures down when I have that extra cash lying around. So another goal should be to keep the money out of my bofa checking and savings account where I can get to it quickly.
I've pretty much failed every time I have tried to save money, but hopefully I will be more successful this year. Last year the goal was not to be a bitch to people I didn't know (or to generally be more open to new people) and I think I am actually a more open person now (whether or not that's a good thing is another question). So maybe themes work better than goals. So the year of living frugally.
Ian says to set concrete goals and as much as I hate it when people give me advice, he is probably right. Concrete goals, manageable goals. Maybe I can actually stick to this one.
First, every time I take out $200 from the ATM, I am going to save $100. This is only save about $400 a month, but its better than spending that. Goal number two is to save $1,000 from the second paycheck of the month. The goal depends on keeping the credit card bill down. Its now at $5,000-ish. If we get our raise, I should be able to save $1,500 a month.
As of today, I have put half of the first ATM pull into savings. Woo hoo.
Of course, this also means that I can't shop for clothes like I have done in the past. Le sigh. That will probably be the hardest part - keeping my expenditures down when I have that extra cash lying around. So another goal should be to keep the money out of my bofa checking and savings account where I can get to it quickly.
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