Showing posts with label spending habits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spending habits. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 29–December 5, 2010)

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This is a weekly review of my spending habits for the week of Nov.29 - Dec. 5, 2010.

Date Amount
Monday Nov. 29 330.30 kr. ($60)
Tuesday Nov. 30 233.95 + 193.20 + 44 = 471,15 kr. ($42.50 + $35.20 + $8 = $85.70)
Wednesday Dec. 1 342.45 kr. ($62.30)
Thursday Dec. 2 160.90 + 200 = 360.90 kr. ($29.25 + $36.40 = $65.60)
Friday Dec. 3 280.95 + 625 = 905.95 kr. ($51.10 + $113.70 = $164.80)
Saturday Dec. 4 0 kr. ($0)
Sunday Dec. 5 0 kr. ($0)

TOTAL: 2410.75 kr. ($438.40)

So there you have it. A tally of what I’ve spent during the course of the week. I’ve split things up with plus’es (+) because I wanted to differentiate between my actual spending habits and bills. So the first amount is my actual “spending habits” (this is mostly food and some toiletries) while everything after the first amount are bills.

So there you go. An overview of my spending habits for said week.

If you’re interested in reading my posts for the previous weeks, you can take a look at them here:

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 8-14, 2010) 

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 15-21, 2010)

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 22-28, 2010)

This is week 4 of my expense tracking:

On Week 1 I spent $80.

On Week 2 I spent $189.

On Week 3 I spent $143.50.

On Week 4 I spent $438.40. (Because it’s the 1st of the month, and all my bills come in at this time.)

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

30 Easy Ways To Save Money - Day 3: Brown-Bagging Lunch

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So over a year ago I started this blogging series called 30 Easy Ways To Save Money – Am I Doing All Of Them???, that tackled Dumb Little Man’s blog post 30 Easy Ways to Save Money (and No, you are not doing them all!) and the 30 different savings tips that were presented there. I’m a huge fan of serial posts, so I wanted to dedicate a blog post for each individual entry on the list. The time has come for no. 3 – or Day 3, as I happened to call it back then. I had it in my head that I wanted to do this over a 30 day period. Obviously, *ahem* it’s been a little longer than that ;) But anyways, I’ll go ahead and continue this blogging series, as I think they are immensely fun.

A few notes before we begin:

 

So the logic behind the Day 1 and Day 2 was pretty much there at the beginning :)

 

I’m however going to disappoint you people who are expecting a daily posting on this series, as I am not of yet, a daily blogger. Due to time constraints I currently only blog 1-2 times a week. This blog is, of yet, just for pleasure, not for pay, so I’m taking my time and taking it easy with all my postings. I’m thoroughly stressed out enough in my real life as it is, I don’t want my blog to contribute in any way to that as well. So don’t expect Speedy Gonzales when it comes to this blogging series. It’ll probably take a while :) But anyways, I’m happy. And I’m enjoying it. So that’s the most important part.

 

On we go.

 

This is Day 3 on my series “30 Easy Ways To Save Money – Am I Doing All Of Them??? based on Dumb Littles Man’s list of 30 different ways to save money.

 

  • 3. “Brown bag lunch at least a few days a week: Lunch times are great opportunities to network and make connections that could improve your career growth. So unless there is a common eating area for brown baggers, you may choose to limit brown bagging lunch to three days each week. Find a balance between saving some money and making the connection. In my case, I take my lunch with me 2-3 times a week and eat out the rest of the time.”

brown bag lunch

Quoted from original post at: Dumb Little Man, Photo: brown bagging.

No one knows this, but I actually brown-bagged my lunch for a while at first when I began my new job. I eventually reverted, because of the very reason that was stated in the above. Lunch for us at my job was centered around the in-house cafeteria. A lot of socializing and networking and old-fashioned cameraderie would take place revolving around the in-house cafeteria, and for a young just-out-of-university newly hired employee who was ambitious and driven, this was unfortunately too good of an opportunity to pass up. BUT!!! I consiously have made this decision, so I am well aware of the fact, that I have to make up for it in another area of my life – so I only eat bread for dinner. My daily hot meal is eaten at lunch at the cafeteria, and when I get home in the evenings I eat bread with some meat slice or spread. That’s my dinner. So I’m completely aware of the fact that, if you have to choose one thing and make that a priority (for your career), then something else must go. Which I’m fine with.

 

So there you have it my thoughts in this particular saving tip. This wasn’t actually how I wanted this blog post to go, as I would rather have taken the specific saving tip to heart, and tried it out in my real life, so that I could save. However, on this particular post, I ‘ve had to put my foot down, and state that I’ve already done this, but that it however was not the right way for me to go in this particular stage in my life. I however have made compensations in another area of my life - to even out the fact.

 

So there you go, my Day 3 on this blogging series of mine. I look forward to the next time :) See you there.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 22-28, 2010)

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This is a weekly review of my spending habits for the week of Nov.22-28, 2010.

Date Amount
Monday Nov. 22 $24.50
Tuesday Nov. 23 $24
Wednesday Nov. 24 $15
Thursday Nov. 25 $43
Friday Nov. 26 $37
Saturday Nov. 27 $0
Sunday Nov. 28 $0

TOTAL: $143.50

The last 2 weeks I’ve made similar posts:

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 8-14, 2010) 

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 15-21, 2010)

This is week 3 of my expense tracking:

On Week 1 I spent $80.

On Week 2 I spent $189.

On Week 3 I spent $143.50.

 

Final Thoughts

I started this rigorous expense tracking 3 weeks ago to take a closer, introspective look at how I was spending my money. Very honestly and very openly. I’ve already had a couple of those “aha” or “Eureka” moments during  these weeks. I normally pay attention to what I spend, but when you’re living on around $537 a month after all fixed expenses are paid (not including phone bills, electricity, or food) , you not only have to pay attention…you  really have to control every single coin and bill that goes out of your wallet. Keeping a close eye on every cent you spend. So this expense tracking has really helped me get a clear and concrete overview (one that I realize I needed) of how much money I spend daily and weekly.

I realize that I spend on average $75 a week. However, this average is misleading as I was sick on the first week. So the average should be based more on the last 2 weeks, which should be $166.25.

So I realize I spend on average around $166.25 a week.

I realize that I should budget for $181 on average a week - to give myself a realistic buffer.

However, $181 a week would be $724 a month, and as mentioned above, I only have around $537 a month to spend. So no wonder I’m in the hole right now and having difficulty beginning my paybacks to my Dad. I really needed to see this black-on-white. I’ll have to take a good look at my paycheck next month, take a look at the bills I need to pay (because I know that there’s a $124 annual bill that’s coming up very soon), and then budget weekly. What I mean by that is make a budget for each week. And take an overview every fortnight, as well as weekly & monthly. Just to really keep a close eye -and close hold- on my spendings.

 

Well, that’s all for now. Bye, again.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 15-21, 2010)

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This is a weekly review of my spending habits for the week of Nov.15-21, 2010.

Date Amount
Monday Nov. 15 $43.50
Tuesday Nov. 16 $0
Wednesday Nov. 17 $33
Thursday Nov. 18 $33.50
Friday Nov. 19 $39
Saturday Nov. 20 $40
Sunday Nov. 21 $0

TOTAL: $189

Last weekend I made a similar post  named Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 8-14, 2010).

I began only just last week to rigorously track my expenses everyday. This is week 2 of my expense tracking.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 8-14, 2010)

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This is a weekly review of my spending habits for the week of Nov.8-14, 2010.

Date Amount
Tuesday Nov. 10 $21
Wednesday Nov. 11 $15.50
Thursday Nov. 12 $8.5
Friday Nov. 13 $35
Saturday Nov. 14 $0
Sunday Nov. 15 $0

TOTAL: $80

As you can see in the post (right below) called Spending Habits: How much money I have spent today, Thursday 11/11/10 I began to keep track of my daily expenses here on the blog to keep myself accountable for my spending. However, I also kept a written record outside the blog, so I found that I was doing “double the work” because I was typing every single item AGAIN. So I decided to keep my daily expense trackings off the blog and just post weekly expense trackings instead.

Another reason for not posting daily expense trackings is because I want to keep the blog posts varied and fun to read – I realized that a daily expense tracking post like the one below would – in large numbers – begin to clutter up the blog with monotonous posts of just spreadsheets and dry numbers. But these are just my feelings right now. They may change someday. Maybe it’s just the way I present them. Perhaps with some cool graphics or design they’d be more fun to look at. Hmmm…I’ll have to give this more thought and keep this one open. But for now, weekly is the way to go.

A few notes about the past week in retrospect: I‘ve been sick since Friday and that explains why I haven’t spent any money this weekend. What a rotten time to get sick, but I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. I spent a large amount on Friday for grocery shopping for the weekend.

That’s all.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent today, Thursday 11/11/10

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My spending habits today on Thursday November 11, 2010

Amount What Where
$3 croissant, chocolate drink bakery
$5.50 lunch cafeteria

Total: $8.50

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