November has flown by, and the numbers are in!
This time, I only went over budget by… $382.
āWOOOOO!
I know.
I know what youāre thinking.
Clo Bareā¦ You suck. Thatās terrible! You still went way over budget!
BUT!
I went over budget by less than half of what I went over last time– so thatās an improvement.
Again, there were some surprise expenses, some extra spending, and mistakes were made.
āWhere I Went Wrong:
1. I didnāt budget for an increase in grocery money for Thanksgiving.
I ended up going over budget for groceries by about $55. Next time, I know I should plan for what extra money Iām going to spend on things like that.
2. The Bare had an expensive month.
I decided to splurge and purchase a ticket to the Inspire Society event in Chicago that brings together photographers and bloggers for an all day long photo shoot. Ya girl needs some new photos and Iām excited to network with other Chicago-based bloggers and photographers.
Itāll be nice to get some high quality photos to share as well, and Iām kind of pumped to try something WAY outside of my comfort zone. I am TERRIBLE at taking photos that are supposed to be casually-modeling-but-effortlessly-perfect. Like– you should see my camera roll. Itās literally a million terrible photos of me taken with the self-timer and out of those million thereās usually one or two that I donāt mind sharing with the world on this blog or on a FuckFlatteringFriday post.
Itāll be interesting working with a photographer and Iām not mad that I went over budget for it. So, I went over the Bare budget by about $190 for the event and some Facebook advertising.
3. Transportation was an expensive month.
I got not one, but two tickets. My fault, but also DAMN YOU CHICAGO TRAFFIC CAMERAS. That put me over by about $126.
4. Entertainment!
This one Iām actually proud of– I ONLY went over by $42! Thatās NOTHING! Especially when last month I went over by almost $200 (See October 2018 Spending Report). Going to pat myself on the back for that one.
5. Personal was a bit higher than usual.
I went over by $40 and that is mostly because I got a massage while in Florida and purchased some vitamins when I got sick. Cause the placebo effect is real.
6. Travel.
I technically didnāt go over because my friend owes me about $350 for it but Iāll make mention of it here. I booked ALL my accommodations for my trip to Italy, paid in full and if I take into account what money Iāll be receiving for my friendās portion of the trip– Iām actually under budget! Yay! ā
So Iām feeling kind of encouraged even though I failed. Thatās good, right? Itās progress! Plus, I actually brought in about $785 of extra income from little freelance projects so my freelancing more than covered what I went over in budget.
By the Numbers: Categories
ā
Clo Bare: Planned– $120, Actual– $310
Groceries: Planned– $300, Actual– $353
Health/Medical/Therapy: Planned–$10, Actual, $17
Home (Rent): $825
Transportation/Car Insurance: Planned– $200, Actual–$326
Personal/Dating: Planned– $150, Actual– $190
Entertainment: Planned– $250, Actual– $292
Utilities/Cell Phone: Planned– $230, Actual– $214
Travel: Planned– $1200, Actual– $1,507 (technically actual is $1,150 but I donāt want to track it as $1,150 if for some reason I donāt get paid back!)
Debt Repayment: Planned– $800, Actual– $1,093
Woo! When I look at it like that, I made some serious progress. Last post I mentioned that Iād like to cut my entertainment spending in half (last month it was $670) and I did that! I spent less than half, and thatās super exciting to me.
November 2018 Spending Report
Time for a truth bomb time.
If you take a look at my spending report below, youāll see ābingeā listed on 11/7. I was actually considering taking that out and calling it something else like groceries, but that wouldnāt be honest. I had a little binge– one of those nights where I decided to give in and eat my feelings instead of facing them head on.
The reason Iām talking about it is because I want those of you who are in eating disorder recovery to know that RECOVERY IS NOT LINEAR.
Sometimes you have moments that take you backwards. Sometimes you fall back into old habits. Sometimes you give in and sometimes you feel like giving up.
Just remember, that it is completely and utterly normal to fall back into maladaptive coping mechanisms. That doesnāt mean all is lost, in fact itās a warning that something is wrong and itās time to look inward.
That particular binge was around the same time that I was feeling extra lonely and even more disconnected. I was exhausted, a little confused, and just angry for feeling all the ways I felt. I was so friggin’ tired of feeling lonely and unsure of myself, and so I decided to find comfort in old habits that served their purpose. And I ate all the macaroons, all the chocolate, and all the pizza.
And you know what?
It made me feel better in the moment, but it didnāt really solve what I was feeling. The only way to solve what I was feeling, was to feel it. No surprise there, right?
Anyhow. Take a look at my last four weeks of spending. Weāll call it the November 2018 spending report because as I mentioned before, I budget based off of how Iām paid.
Also– as many of you know, in November I gave up drinking. Youāll still see some booze purchases in October while I was at the wedding in Florida. Some of the āTravelā purchase youāll see are from my trip to Florida and the other āTravelā is for Italy!
november 2018 spending repo… by on Scribd
Total Debt: $65,619.51
Goals
It’s still a lot of spending, but I feel like I’m on track even with the money I’m spending on my trip to Italy. Slowly chipping away at that number, and once this trip is done I’ll be able to throw even more money at that debt pile.
My goals that I wrote down for November were:
- Put another $1,000 on my car: Didn’t meet but I got close. I put down $750 on my car, but since I paid for lodging for Italy, I didn’t have as much left over to put down on debt.
- Save $500: Completed! In fact I saved about $800.
- No āextraā spending on entertainment: As in tickets to shows or trips or other weird random things. Technically I didn’t spend extra on entertainment, unless you count the Inspire Society ticket I bought, but that is more of a Clo Bare expense. So… I’m not sure. I’m going to say that I did well on this goal.
- Book and pay for all accommodations for Italy: Done and done! I put it on my credit card for the month and then paid it off on December 7th, so I’m not sure if that counts or not but I feel good about it.
āDecember 2018 Goals
- Save another $500.
- Put together a budget and stick to it for family trip to Florida for Christmas.
- No extra entertainment costs that are outside of budget.
- No extra costs for Clo Bare.
We’ll see how this month goes! It’s an odd month with a little bit of travel, a holiday, and just a lot of fun and craziness as per usual. I’m feeling encouraged but also a little like OKAY HURRY UP AND DO THE THING in terms of sticking to a budget for once.
ā
Got any tips on how to stay on budget during the holidays? Drop them in the comments!
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What are your suggestions on overdue bills, we have car payments behind, gas and electric bills are behind and we have back taxes that are due so we don’t lose our house.