Sigh. Yes, I fell off the face of the earth again, but I have made significant strides on my expense tracking and budgeting as I am still trying to find out what works for me.
Here’s a recap:
- I am a paycheck budgeter. I am not yet ready to truly forecast for the month, even though many people advise to do this. Because I am (gratefully) employed as a W-2 employee, it is easier for me to budget by those major paychecks, rather than try to plan around everything else.
- The first pay period (March 31 – April 14, 2020) was the first one in a long time where I got my expenses to match down to the penny!
- I track credit card spending separately. Credit card spending is still a work in progress, though I note it for accountability’s sake.
My first pay period spending breakdown was:
- Debt – 1180.51
- Eating Out – 17.88
- Food – 113.17
- Fun Money – 35.48
- Gas – 28.83
- Household – 28
- Housing/Utilities – 996.05
- Insurance – 143.39
- Misc – 10
- Sinking Funds – 155.76
- The Kid – 0.21
- Carryover – 298.31
Credit card spending was net $473.77.
My second pay period breakdown was as follows:
| Description | Budgeted | Actual |
| Income | 2587.02 | 3060.18 |
| Savings/Sinking Funds | 116.94 | 98.94 |
| Envelopes | 145 | 132.35 |
| Savings | 47.93 | 559.57 |
| Bills | 1514.09 | 1462.93 |
| Debt | 763.06 | 806.39 |
Credit card spending was net $827.63.
I decided to take advantage of a 0% balance transfer offer to bring two of my higher interest-rate credit cards to an almost zero balance, with a plan to bring the balances to zero by the end of June.
With everything going on in the world, how did your April turn out?