$July Spending$

The full skinny on our July spending is so so. We’re still learning and trying our best to work out a plan for us. Like in June we did some things well and others… not so much.

Here is our percentage break down


The categories are as follows:
House Items
- House payment (insurance & taxes included)
- Gas
- Water/electric
- Alarm system

Entertainment
- Our monthly personal allowance
- Entertainment fund allowance

Other
- Cell phone
- Cable
- Gas
- Gifts
- Groomer

Groceries
- Groceries (including animal food and & health/beauty spending)

Fast Food/ Eating Out
- Fast Food

Payments
- Student loans
- Credit Card

::The Good::
Our electric bill was lower than last month even with our ac on. I’d like to attribute this to some of the energy saving things we’ve been doing around the house. :) We also lowered our cell plan and had a credit from last month so it was much cheaper. We spent $134 on groceries for the month, a little under budget and we had plenty of food in the kitchen. We also paid off ALL of our credit card debt! (more on this later)

::The Bad::
July was an expensive month for us. We did end up spending $40 on getting B.P. a good grooming; he needed it during the hot summer. We had been doing it ourselves to save money but he was just too hot. We also spent all of our personal and entertainment money, even the left over from last month (that I was so proud we saved). We really need to work on that.

::The Ugly::
Worst for the month the $181 we spent on fast food. We wanted to get this number down to $100 but obviously we weren’t able. I really feel that finding a new job will help in this area. Currently I work two 12 hour night shifts a week. I have to eat but with no refrigerator or lockers to keep food in I’m not comfortable keeping anything in my hot car or desk. This causes me to eat out on both of these nights. I calculate that if we could save the money on just those two nights a week by eating at home it would be a $1,500 savings for the year.

::Overview::
Even though we aren’t exactly where I would like to be financially I think we’re making great strides. We paid off about $14K in credit card debt within seven months, I’m darn proud of that! We’ve always had some kind of budget but taking the time to look at our finances after the month has finished is a great opportunity for us to see where the holes are.

Updated our NetWorth HERE we now have a POSITIVE net worth of $1,185. A 222% increase from last month! I think we’ll take a little break in August and celebrate all these financial accomplishments.