Hi all! Since I talk the talk about saving money and budgeting, I thought I would walk the walk and start sharing my budgeting reports – today I’m sharing my June budgeting report.
My dad always taught me to save 30% of my income, and my mom always taught me to never spend anything. Since I’m living the young city life so right now my budget is designed for me to save 27.5% (a happy medium between 25% and 30%).
I use mint.com for all of my budgeting. I love mint because it’s super easy to use and lets me create as many categories as I want for my budget (see below).
Here’s my June budgeting report:
Even though I overshot on groceries this month, I still met my monthly budget goal. I actually exceeded it, and saved 35% of my income??? I honestly think knowing I was going to start sharing my spending on my blog was a good motivator for me to keep my spending down. Next month I’m going on vacation so that’ll be a whole other story 🙂
Let’s break it down – here are the categories I budget by for my budgeting report:
Gas & Fuel:
I’m lucky that I only have a 2 mile drive to work, so I don’t spend much on this! But I keep it in the budget so I account for what I do spend.
Television:
I pay too much for internet/cable, but I am incapable of giving it up. I cannot live without live HGTV. Someone please help me negotiate my cable bill, I’m begging you.
Entertainment:
I use this category specifically for any money spent on “extra” recreational activities I do during the month. For example; concert tickets, bowling, seeing a movie, etc.
Lunch:
Once a week I treat myself and order my fave chicken salad sandwich from down the street for lunch. On the other days I pack lunch. This budget prevents me form going wild and eating out every day – that adds up so quickly!
Groceries:
I’ve recently boarded the grocery story train. Man, it takes a lot of money to feed yourself. (But less than it does to eat out!) My boyfriend and I have a relationship motto of “I fly, you fry.” Meaning that I fly to the grocery store and do the shopping, and he does the frying (cooking). It’s a good balance.
My boyfriend also generally venmos me for ½ of our groceries. I keep track of those venmos so that I know how much I actually spend, which for this month is: $182. I feel okay about going over budget since it was spent on groceries and not dining out.
Restaurants:
I try to limit eating out for dinner to 3ish times a month, and am always conscious of what I order and how much I order so that I can stay in budget!
This month I think I only went out to eat/ordered in three times. My boyfriend also paid for one of our meals with friends (thanks!) which kept me below budget.
Starbucks:
It’s embarrassing that I needed a budget for this, but if I didn’t my life’s savings would go entirely to decaf-iced-sugar-free-vanilla-lattes-with-soy-milk. My boss and I do our weekly check-ins at Starbucks and trade off who buys, so now I feel like this is a work-related expense I budget for. How professional of me.
Chiropractor:
I go to my chiropractor once a month. Sadly he is moving offices next month, so soon I’ll get my $30/month back, along with my shoulder pain.
Medicine:
My newest insurance brought the cost of my anxiety meds down to $6/month. Hallelujah! Even though it’s a small cost, it’s a recurring expense so I still keep it in the budget. Every dollar counts, y’all.
Mortgage/Rent:
I blacked this out for privacy, but obviously this cost sucks away the majority of my money and my soul. I can’t wait to own a home one day.
Shopping:
I’m not a big shopper, but I set aside $100/month just in case I get bitten by a shopping bug. When I do get in the shopping mode, it’s nice that there’s money for it in the budget.
This month I received a $100 amazon gift card for writing a blog post for my company, which definitely kept this shopping cost down.
Rental Car & Taxi:
Although Ubers make me notoriously motion sick, I do use them to get around the city from time to time. Spending $8 on an Uber ride several times a week/month adds up, so I avoid it and try to walk/drive whenever I can. My boyfriend also paid for one of our Ubers this month.
Everything else:
Haircuts, drinks, doctors appointments, random drug store purchases – this all goes into this extra category that doesn’t fit neatly into any of the above. I curbed my spending here as well by letting my teeth decay and my roots grow out.
Things to note:
In full transparency, I have a couple advantages that make it easier to save:
- I’m still on my parents phone plan (milking that as long as I can)
- My car was a hand-me-down, so I don’t have a car payment.
- I have no student loans
I know that I’m very fortunate to not have these extra payments, which is part of why I’m so careful about saving. I want to be wise about how I use my money, and how I save it.
How do you budget? What categories do you make room for? Let me know in the comments!