Payday Progress

Remaining debt: $1150
Checking: $94.00 (excluding March rent)
Savings: $0

(Two friends owe me money that will go a long way towards replenishing my savings. I'm not going into detail about it here- but I should see that money in about two weeks.)

Basically all that comes out of my checking is gas and fun - and I'm not planning on having time for much fun over the next two weeks (March is only slightly less crazy than February) so I should be more than set.

I am beyond excited that in two short weeks my debt will be down to three digits! I need to start setting aside some money in a travel fund, as I have personal trips coming up in May and June, so my debt repayment will slow down significantly after the next check.

Ready for March!

So February crazies are finally winding down – and I couldn’t be more excited.

In the last month I…

Have not cooked a single meal for the wonderful man
Have probably gone to the gym once a week, if that often.
Eaten chips and salsa for dinner more times than I can count
Ruined my eyes with the amount of reading I’ve done for work
Enjoyed too many after-work drinks with co-workers (when we finished reading applications after dinner hours)

In this coming month I am planning on….

Going to the gym three times a week
Cooking one meal per week from scratch (hey…starting slowly!)
Get back to drinking primarily water
Deep clean my apartment
Purge (donate) all of the clothing that I haven’t worn in the past year
Sticking to a budget religiously

Here’s hoping!

February's budget

This post should really be titled “What to do when a budget gets totally out of whack”. But alas, that seemed like far too many words. Thankfully February is a short little month and seems to be coming to an end rather quickly.

What made the budget get so off track? Actually, that question should really be “what made me get so off track?” And the answer, my friends, comes down to two bad habits that I have been trying desperately to get away from.

The first is poor planning. I never truly took the time to sit down and figure out what reasonable amounts for food and gas would be for the month. I spent more money than necessary on food-and let too much go to waste, a major pet peeve of mine. I simply underestimated how much I was traveling this month, which caused the other thing that got my budget off track. Extra traveling led to more fast food purchases than normal. (Both the wallet and the waistline are unhappy about those purchases!)

My plan to combat the February disaster? I’ve already begun planning my March budget. March is shaping up to be a good month! Something very exciting will happen. For the first time since I was (I think) a junior in college, my credit card balance will be under $1000. Three figures! I cannot tell you how excited I am for that to happen. I already have a mini-reward planned out for myself, which includes using up an iTunes and fast food gift card that I was given for Christmas. What fun!

One little thing I should metion

Before I get so involved in moving stories and apartment hunting and all of the details of budgets and homemaking etc, I should probably mention one little fact.

M(the man) and I are not.getting.married. There. I said it. And I should mention that we are not getting married yet. We plan on being married. And one day in the fairly near future. But that day will not happen before we move in for a variety of reasons that I am sure I will end up explaining at a later date.

On that note, I should probably mention one of my favorite benefits of working at a college. It's Thursday afternoon, and because most every student on campus plans to go out partying tonight (it's a small and crazy place; so yes, I really do mean almost every student)...campus already has that great weekend feel to it. I know I'm getting excited and I'm sure not to be the only one. Bring on the weekend!

Yours, mine, and ours

We're still a few months away from beginning to look at apartments for next year. but this whole two-into-one household thing is quite a process, and so we're starting early.

Our very first order of business is finding out what all we own, so that we'll be able to figure out what we do and don't need to buy for our new abode. This is slightly easier for the man who lives on his now than it is for me, because i have a roommate and also have a few things still at the parents' house that I never brought with me after moving out after college.

To that end, we are each working on building spreadsheets of what we have. He has lumped all of his things into one big spreadsheet; I have several documents spread out by room. Because mine are all nice and separate (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room) they are going to be the master lists when we merge the two. We'll be able to see what we have duplicates of and what we can purge (one of the multiple sets of silverware) and what we still need to purchase (a kitchen table).

What can I say? We are both ridiculously into planning down to the last meticulous detail. Right now we're both hoping that this means our move will go off seamlessly!