April Finances

Ok so it is officially May which means it’s time for an update on our finances. At the end of April Matt and I were successfully able to finish funding our new to us car fund. Now any extra money we receive will focus on our emergency and general savings. We’ll continue to put 5% of the extra income into the car fund to allow it to grow.

As of 5/1 our accounts were as follows:

- Car: $4,315.91
- Emergency: $ 1,005.08
(Need $5000)
- General Savings: $ 1,005.08

Matt and I are making a lot of progress on our savings goals and I love seeing the numbers grow, but in analyzing our numbers for the month I id stumble a cross some scary realizations. We are spending way too much on fast food. From April 1st until the 22nd we spent $331.77 on fast food! And that was only until the 22nd I was too scared to add up the whole month. I have no idea where that money came from (which is scary) but it makes me sick to even look at it. I wasn’t going to blog about our blunder but if I don’t confess how can I learn from it right?

Because we are obviously out of control and can’t keep our food consumption under control we’re doing a little experiment for the month of May. We have handed over our credit and ATM cards. Each Sunday we’ll get $10 a piece to last us for the week for all food choices.

Matt and I are only home together for dinner during the week on Monday and Thursday nights we we’ll cook together on those days. Friday’s we’ll pool our money and make it the one day we do eat out (hey we need some kind of reward).

So far last week went well. My goal for May is to get our emergency fund at least half way funded. We still have $11,000 to go in our general savings and spending money for Vegas so there is a long way to go.

How did you do during the month of April? Anyone else struggling with fast food purchases, I’d love to hear your advice on how to curb it?