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Personal spending money changes and determination of monthly goals

June 19th, 2015 at 09:06 pm

So since I quit my job (in February), we decreased our personal spending money from $20 per week to $10 per week. I generally didn't spend most of this, and just threw whatever I didn't spend at the student loans (now just one loan). DH, on the other hand, likes to eat lunch out during the week and would often spend his entire $20 on eating out (his friends often spend 4 times this per week). Yesterday I was going over our budget with him to figure out how much we can save for retirement (from his pay alone), and he requested that we re-up the personal spending money to $20 per week. Personal spending money will now also be what we use to buy family/friend gifts/cards/postage (not including nuclear fam Christmas gifts--though I'm going to try to figure out some more frugal options for these) and clothing.

I've agreed to the change, as he has been so good about honoring the rest of our budget (he loves to spend, so I know this must have been difficult!) and this way I can budget for gifts and clothing more easily. I need some new clothes, but since it isn't specifically budgeted for, I feel guilty to spend anything (since it seems like such a personal expense).

Soo...adjusting our budget. It looks like we will be trying to save at least $75 per month for retirement (more once I get a job). This past month was a little strange because of the car repair and the laptop purchase, but next month should be better. My mom is coming to visit in July, but she's pretty low-key and likes frugal activities (as a single mom of 3, she is very used to finding low-cost, fun things to do Smile!). She's not in a great place financially--especially retirement-wise--for her age, so we'll be paying for everything (she's covering airfare). I don't expect her being here to radically change our budget, though--and outings will be covered by our travel savings fund.

Next month I am going to try to track ALL of our expenses. I've been a bit loosey-goosey lately, guestimating the budget amounts and all...I was planning on going over our statements at the end of the month to separate everything out...but without receipts I can't categorize everything properly since I honestly can't remember what I bought at Target/Sams/wherever like two weeks ago...

Oh, also had an ahhh crap moment when I realized that our various insurance policies cost more than I previously estimated...it all works out to $910 per year (before I estimated just under $800). I forgot to include our roadside assistance in there and under-remembered our renter's insurance. So per month that's about $10 more than I estimated. I don't like "saving up" for these though, since they're staggered enough to where I can cash flow them.

In other news, I'm fairly certain I didn't get the job I interviewed for Frown...bleh. Time to start looking again. I guess the worst thing that could happen is I don't work in July and get to spend more time with my mom Smile

Also, not gonna lie, not working rocks. But it's also a bit rough--we would be able to save so much more if we were a dual-income household!

1 Responses to “Personal spending money changes and determination of monthly goals”

  1. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1434786899

    I hope you get a job soon & get to have a great time with your mum Smile

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