Plan Bean: Over In All Categories
OR
Plan Bean: Because Reporting To The World That We Overspent Is So Much Fun
I already knew last Monday that we'd be over in the grocery department, try as I did to keep our last grocery shop of 2011 under $26 (or some odd number I'm too lazy to look up right now), and I suspected that we might be over budget in the other categories, too, but not to this degree.
Speaking of degrees, mine isn't in math. But this is what I budget for:
Groceries: $520
Gas $173.33
Date $40
Other $325
Don't ask me why Gas is so precise and the rest of the categories aren't. Also don't ask me what "other" means. It means other.
In December, the actual spending looked like this:
Groceries: $548.69 (+ 28.69)
Gas: $342.44 (+ 169.11)
Date: $47.99 (+ 7.66)
Other $537.20 (+ 212.20)
The groceries I'm fine with. Same goes for the date, obviously.
The gas I'm a little stymied by. I asked Mr, and he says he didn't accidentally charge work gas on our personal card this time, but we didn't go anywhere unusual.
I'm irritated by the "Other" number, but I know exactly what that is - it's the number of times we bought lunch or supper either because of busyness or sickness - of which there was plenty. It wasn't Christmas-related overspending, thanks to our super-duper Christmas savings account.
As it turns out, I didn't have to pull anything from savings to make up this number, because the overlap of paydays and overdraft usage worked out pretty well in December. If the next paragraph weren't true, I would be pulling at least part of this month's overage from savings to keep us from paying overdraft fees and interest, but - as it happens - the net paragraph IS true.
I have a clever debt restructuring plan that will reduce the interest rate on our total debt AND reduce the payments - by a lot - and this will mean big changes to our budget in February. (Hint: it involves renting out our home to a circus.) As if the maternity leave wasn't enough of a change...
Is anybody else bored? I'm bored.
Money doesn't usually bore me. Somebody call an ambulance.
This time last year: Spilled Milk And The Mrs
