July Goals and Budget…

I get paid next Tuesday for July. Below is my budget. It's going to be super tight for the month and you will see that the part-time job came just in time.

Goals:

Bring my lunch 3 times a week.

Call State Farm to increase my car deductible from $250 to $500.

Workout 3 times a week.

Expense Breakdown/Explanation:

Utilities: Includes Cable, Cell Phone, House Phone, Internet, Home Security andGym Membership. At&t, the security company and LA Fitness automatically charge my credit card each month so I have been lumping the $45 gym membership into this category. The budgeted amount this month also includes my Quarterly Water Bill. Going forward, I will accrue or escrow $40 in a seperate account for this bill on a monthly basis.

Transportation: Transportation includes the train, 10 parking passes, gas/fuel and parking lot fees at the train. I work downtown about 45 minutes from home on the train and about an hour drive in the car. I attend after work events and now I have the part-time job. After 6:30, the train runs every hour and makes every flag stop so the commute can be in excess of an hour on the train. Since my schedule at my part-time job ends at 8:15 during the week, I don't have time to catch the 8:20 train and would have to wait an hour for the next train at 9:20pm only to get home after 10:30pm at night. I cannot do this for two several reasons. 1) It is not safe for me to ride the train that late at night by myself, 2) it is not safe for me to walk to my my car in the parking lot that late at night, and 3) I would be dead tired for the next day at work since it's already a long day working two jobs. By driving, I get home by 9pm. I am on the schedule 2-3 times a week in the evening so I am now purchasing ten discounted passes at $125/month instead of every other month.

Business: I worked a couple of years ago for an attorney downtown doing part-time legal work. She suggested that I set up a company to track my revenue and expenses related to the work that I performed. So, I still have to pay for my professional liability insurance ($106), business website/email ($40/quarter) and efax service ($12/month). I also pay my professional membership fees through the company. Since I am open to performing additional work, I continue to keep the efax service ($12/month) and the business email ($40/quarter) since it's tied to a domain should I ever decide to put up a website. The benefit is that I get to write off those expenses which also boosts my tax return each year. I also charged that CLE writing class and the annual filing report so the excess of the $200/month after the monthly expenses goes to reduce the balance on my business credit card. The class was $600 and the annual filing fee was $250 so the balance on the card is $900 right now. I am chipping away at the balance and I hope some business comes my way which will allow me to pay it off in full.