It's been a pretty slow week so far. Work has been busy but not crazy, so the time has gone by quickly. I got my end of the month incentive check today, and will be using $60 for spending money until next paycheck. I had planned on using all of it for savings, but I went a bit over budget this month.
I've narrowed my boyfriends Christmas gift down to two options. I'm buying him a little practice guitar amp. One is $400 (which would pretty much be my whole Christmas budget) and the other is about $240. Previously I had a different one in mind (see post below), but it doesn't really come highly recommended so I did a little more research and decided on another option - of course the one that's $400 Now I just need to decide between the two.
I don't really want to base my decision completely on money, but right now the cheaper one is the frontrunner (mainly for other reasons). However, in anticipation of *possibly* going over my Christmas budget, I'll move money from my incentive check into my savings account rather than use it to pay back my emergency fund. After going over the numbers, I'm still on track to pay back my emergency fund in December, but won't be able to make as large of an extra student loan payment.
Spending/Savings:
11/27:
$11 phone bill
$28.21 internet bill
11/28:
$5 coffee and snacks at work
11/29:
$13.03 cigarettes
$4 coffee
11/30 (incentive check):
$60 to spending budget
$113.42 to short term savings (Christmas fund now at $500, Dentist in Dec at $90, and Xmas travel at 13.51)
I think I need about $90 for my half of a rental car for Christmas travel, other than that all of my short term savings categories are where I want them to be I may still be under budget for Christmas spending, but I haven't made all of my gift decisions yet.
$72.46 left in budget (til 12/9)
Christmas spending plans
December 1st, 2005 at 02:25 am