My Budget

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
– adapted from “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns

I am a planner. All who know and love me know that nothing sets my heart on fire like a great plan. While many folks read the above line as a sad commentary on life, it actually makes me happy. What does one get to do when a plan fails? Make a new plan!! Huzzah!

On this page, I’ve posted my monthly budget. This may get tweaked as the months pass, but this is the basic outline I’m trying to stick to. You can check back here whenever you want to see if I’m ahead of or behind the budgets.

My Monthly Budget: $2770

$330: House costs plus cell phone
$ 65: Auto insurance
$290: Student loan payment
$ 35: Gym membership

$370: Wedding payment
$500: Credit card payment

$500: Groceries
$150: Gas
$120: Cash
$ 90: Target
$ 20: Netflix
$ 35: Eating Out
$ 35: Gifts

$30: misc. 

$200: my “fun budget”

$2770: TOTAL

Comments: I get paid monthly, but plan everything on four-week months. I have a “Week Fives” fund in my ING account for those four extra weeks in the year. The future husband pays all mortgage and houses costs. I give him $330 a month to help with those expenses and cover my share of our family cell phone plan. Grrr on the gym membership! I foolishly signed up for a three-year contract. Only one and a half more years to go! The future husband pays when we eat out, so my eating out budget is just with the girlfriends. I pay for all the groceries and one case of wine a month. The wedding payment is a little odd. I send that to the credit cards each month to offset what I’m charging for the wedding. After July, that will all roll into one $870 payment to the credit cards.