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Well I was able to put together a recap for June after all. There was minimal impact to my net worth but like so many of you know, I am not good at staying on budget. I dipped even further into my savings to make it all work. I hope this part-time job will make me appreciate the mighty dollar and how hard I have to work to earn it so that I am more conscious about my spending.
The chart above shows how I did in comparison to my actual budget. I blew it. Below is a further breakdown of the expenses. All of my student loans are now in repayment. I will need to make further adjustments to account for the higher student loan payment amount. Hence...the part-time job. I am looking now at how I can cut committed expenses.
I put off dry cleaning for 3 months and couldn't do it again. I know I need to go to the cleaners when I start saying I don't have any clothes and think about online shopping.
The Memorial Day cookout took me for a large lump sum and started the month on the wrong foot. I won't be having anymore gatherings at my house for some time to come.
This was a big month for personal care products. I am wearing my hair natural in an effort to curtail my hair care expense when I was going to the salon once a week, to every other week, to every four weeks to now every eight weeks. I still have to buy the products which are relatively expensive but my hair is no longer falling out and I actually get a lot of compliments. I will need to buy some proactiv again in July but I won't need any hair care products until August. Even then, I won't need to purchase all of the products (i.e. shampoo, deep conditioner and leave-in conditioner). I will just need the leave-in-conditioner. If anyone is looking for good products for naturally curly hair...Mixed Chicks is wonderful. The website is http://www.mixedchicks.net/.
My credit scores are steadily climbing in the right direction. I know some of my classmates that only make payments on their student loans when they can. I am trying to ensure that I am always able to meet my monthly debt obligations. Once I get my spending and debt payments under control, the next goal will be to work on getting back to saving for retirement.
As a side note, I am no longer just looking for legal job opportunities, I am also pursuing other Banking opportunities and I am going to refocus on getting my own practice in real estate and family law up and running. So, I will be spending whatever free time I have getting back up to speed in those areas of the law, working on my business website and putting plans into action.
3 comments:
Yowza. I hate months like this. There's nothing that makes me cringe more than having to dip into my savings :( Oh well, we're only 7 days into July, so it's a whole new month!
I think I am disheartened for you. I just can't imagine how discouraging this must be. I mean, yes, you need to control expenses, but those monthly debt obligations on your salary are really rough. That said, your food/dining numbers are so high. Especially considering that you also have separate money for groceries. Have you thought about really attacking that? I completely understand that meals out with friends add up, I fall victim to that all the time. But I try and compensate by being really careful at all other meals. Its a pain and popping out for a sandwich is much easier but I'd rather save that money for meals out with friends.
Are the food/dining numbers high due to you paying for 2 people?
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