2009 Weekly Budget – Week 1
By Matt - Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Last year I started budgeting on a weekly basis and I wanted to continue to do this in 2009. I found that I was able to stay mostly on track with my budget though there were times when I would fall off and lets be realistic its going to happen again. Even if I miss every budget by a little bit the goal isn’t necessarily to be crazy about meeting the numbers. The goal is to aim for the numbers while enjoying my life.
I am not in a situation where going over budget by a few dollars is going to have a profound impact; if I go over a lot all the time then it would and honestly I wouldn’t be budgeting very well. So welcome to the first budget of 2009! Here is my budget for this week:
| Weekly Budget Jan 5-11 |
||
| Budget | Actual | |
| Alcohol | $40.00 | |
| Food-Lunch | $30.00 | |
| Food | $75.00 | |
| Gas | $25.00 | |
| Entertainment | $0.00 | |
| Smokes | $30.00 | |
| Misc | $40.00 | |
| Transportation | $25.00 | |
| Stupid | $10.00 | |
| Total | $275.00 | |
This is pretty similar to my usual budgets and I think that this is a good starting point for the year. The only line item that is a bit lower than I think it would normally be is the food line item and my wife said she would cover some of that this week. The reality is I really expect to miss this budget, most of December was spent playing catch up and dealing with Christmas spending. I doubt that I’m alone in this predicament and after the holidays it can be hard to get back to spending less especially if we know we should be saving money. This week is more about getting back into the habit of keeping tabs on my money though I will try to stay on budget.
This entry is filed under 2009, Budgeting and Planning, Weekly Budgets.
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