September 2007 Finances

Well, this month, things are still a little screwed up. You see, we spent about $900 more than we earned in July paying for August. We had vacation, car repairs, medical expenses, ate out too much, etc. So, in calculating September's finances- I factored in a -$900 for August's overbudget category. I'm hoping to be able to eliminate the "overbudget" category soon.

So, we then have about $1000 left for all other expenses during September. I've currently budgeted $1200 a month for other expenses, but that is being VERY frugal. In reality, we may be able to get by with a budget of $1500 a month after all bills and utilities are paid. In any case, we're starting off September 2007 with -200...IF we stay in budget. And I don't know where we can find $200 extra dollars or how we can only spend $1000 this month.

Savings: our savings is $25 right now. I want to put $975 more dollars in that account before we start tackling our debt...which is around $30K, not including the mortgage.

This will be a challenge! My family is trying to go the entire work-week (luckily it is only 4 days this week) without spending ANY money. This is difficult...we've made it 1 day so far! If groceries and gas for the week are already paid for...and we don't eat out...and no unforseen expenses arise, we'll be able to do it.

Then this Saturday will be the day to refill the cars with gas and stock up on groceries for the next 2 weeks. If we find that we can do it this work-week...we'll try it again next week. Maybe with 4 weeks of living like that we WILL spend less and break even, or at least be less in the negative as opposed to this past month.