Budget Review: January

One of my resolutions for this year was to make, keep, and stick to a budget. Let's see how I did:

- Groceries: I went over budget on groceries for a variety of reasons. The first being I tried to buy a month's worth of groceries in a day and then needed to go back constantly to buy things that were perishable. Additionally, buying in bulk doesn't work as well when things can go bad. Some of the things I bought I still have though, so I see January as more of a pantry building month. As such I am increasing my February budget by a modest $25 to match my new buying schedule, which I intend to buy every week instead of every month to hit more sales, increase my variety of food eaten, and to buy perishables weekly.

- Booze: Surprise, surprise! It is possible to buy a month's worth of booze in one outing and stay under budget! That being said, I will also be buying booze on a more weekly or bi-monthly basis so that I can give myself a bit more variety in my purchases. I also don't think I need to have as much money budgeted for booze, so a -$20 reduction for this month.

- Gas: Only filled up once. I had budgeted for two fill ups, so I'm good on that one. -$10 reduction based on most likely driving habits over the next few weeks (it's a short month after all).

- Entertainment: $0 dollars spent. this was to be my "going to the movies" fund with the idea of one movie a weekend or if there was a concert on campus I would use this part of my budget. I never did any of that soooooooo, yeah. No change for this month since this ends up being where the "Other" category takes it's money from.

- Going out: I only went over budget by a little bit on this one so I am confident that I don't need to adjust this category.

- Rent: Flat rate, no further comments.

- Utilities: This was a tricky one because I hadn't anticipated our electric bill o be as much as it was, so this ended up going over budget. I increased this for this month, but hopefully it won't have to be changed again.

Other: the stuff you don't budget for, but an interesting category all the same because it shows how much "extra" spending one does every month. The thing about "Other" is that you can plan for it, but it usually only happens once so it's not the end of the world.

So, all-in-all, I'm increasing my budget for this month by $15 to accommodate the more realistic spending habits as identified last month.

Until next time!