The answer was "No", I don't want to.
I spent Friday by myself and went out to watch the University of Texas/Ohio State game on Saturday. After four hours of football, chips, queso, guacamole, too many french fries combined with a massive garden burger, and two Shiner bocks, I spent the rest of the evening on my couch, trying to figure out why I can't stop myself from eating sometimes.
I figured it was about time that I updated my budget for August, just to witness the carnage that is my budget vs. actual expenditures. Fortunately, I was paid out for my vacation time at the Houston Food Bank and then managed to get two full paychecks from them and one partial paycheck from my new organization. After all the dust settled, the difference between my income and my expenditures was only -$40.34, quite possibly a new record for me. Of course, I think you are supposed to save money when you get a windfall of it....I'm still working on that. Bear with me.
(Item: Budgeted/Actual)
Food: $250/ $452.11
Gas: $160/ $125.22
Miscellaneous: $150/ $255.41
Clothes: $100/ $392.53
Entertainment: $50/ $45.75
Gifts Given: $25 / 0
Gifts Received: 0 / $100
Savings: $200/ $100
Let's start out with the big one, the gargantuan food expense - $452.11. Last month a number of people commented that they were surprised that I spent roughly $200 on food and hygiene supplies for Zac and I. I was as well. Then I remembered that I went out of town for roughly a week in July and some of my extended family helped with some baby food and diaper purchases. I also had every meal either prepared for me or served to me in a restaurant.
This month? Well, as you can see, the damage is significant. I also decided in August that it would be a good idea to start cleaning. So I bought cleaning supplies - a lot of them. No single household item will destroy my budget faster than carpet cleaner, foaming toilet bowl products, and Soft Scrub combined. Seriously. I also had to buy diapers for the house and diapers for day care. Then there was that whole, eating to stay alive bit, that I try and do.
The other biggie is my Miscellaneous expense, which includes a $100 car deductible from Saturn, Weight Watchers expense, a scale for my bathroom, a pedometer (that never seems to really work right), and some products from the Body Shop. So, yeah, it was a bad month in the Misc. Department.
Gifts received helped out a bit. I spent an hour filling out a survey on "This American Life" for the University of Notre Dame, which kept asking me if I was a Roman Catholic. I kept saying "no" and the stupid program kept repeating the question. I got $50 for completing the survey and Zac got a $50 gift from a relative. YAYYY!!
Monday, September 11, 2006
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6 comments:
Don't you just love surprise money? You should stick it back...but still.
Hope September is better for you.
April
Thank god for that answer. Though a "yes" probably would have yielded some great reading (you know, for the rest of us).
1. i love love love "this american life," even tho ira glass ends all this sentences with a question/upswing.
2. how do i get paid 50 bucks for doing a survey? currently, i'm in a medical study for one of the new HPV vaccienes and i get paid $50 every time i see the doc (which is a couple times a year for three years), but i gotta do the whole feet-in-the-stirrups thing. your way sounds easier. :P
Jenna - The survey was, alas, not for the program, "This American Life," that was just the name that the University of Notre Dame gave the survey. They got a grant (I'm guessing a huge one) from the Currie Foundation. It involved someone knocking on my door and trying to distract Zac for an hour while eating dinner, putting him to bed, and answering questions like, "How many sexual partners have you had in the last five years?"
Good times. After that question, I had better be taken to dinner and a movie. $50 was a minimal compensation in my book.
P- if you think naked men aren't dirty, you haven't heard enough male conversation centering on swamp ass and sweaty balls...maybe I just have a unique perspective.
you might want to try using baking soda for most of your cleaning needs.
I started using baking soda on everything: the bathtub, the sinks, the floors (I add lemon juice and dish soap to the bucket also), the spigots, the fridge, the stove, and it is perfect. I buy an economy box and add dish soap (the enviornmental safe kind) and then all I really need is windex and toilet soap and the house is clean.
Dame O
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