Bills (rent, phone, etc.): $646.94
Credit Card Payments: $300
Entertainment (primarily restaurant and bar tabs): $249.75
Marathon registration and flight to Philly: $203.00
Food: $184.60
Halloween (costume + party expenses): $180.00
Clothing: $111.98
Indoor soccer registration: $100
Gifts and Charity: $55
Miscellaneous (dry cleaning, stamps, etc): $50.65
Transportation: $37.25This wasn't a good month for me financially- let's just say I was in the red, and I didn't contribute anything to savings. My credit cards are still in the freezer, though, and I've been chipping away at that debt, so that's a good thing. Some of October's spending was due to a couple large one-time-only expenses, like the marathon stuff and Halloween. But it seems like every month, something like that comes up. I don't usually by much clothing, but I did get a couple of new things this month. The one category I should cut back on is entertainment. I don't go out very often, but when I do, I spend a ton. Honestly, I think aside from going out less, the only thing I can really do is to find a way to earn some additional money. Any ideas? MJ already suggested "Escort Service" but I shot that one down.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
A month of spending
I am notoriously bad with money. Let's put it this way, in the fable of the ant and the grasshopper, I'm definitely the grasshopper, especially if the grasshopper, in addition to goofing off, lives beyond her means and racks up significant consumer debt with minimal savings. One of my coworkers has made it a pet project to help me with my money management, and devised an experiment (since we're scientists and all). He gave me a little notebook to carry around and record everything I spent money on for an entire month. Here's where my hard-earned cash went during the month of October:
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10 comments:
i still think the escort/date thing is a great idea. it would be purely a companionship service, nothing sexual.
ew. no way. I cannot tolerate socially awkward situations. I hate regular dates, with (supposedly) ordinary people, so I'd hate that even more. Ugh. It would be worse than going skiing and going to the dentist combined.
Eileen, you work in a bio lab, right? I'm sure there's a few guys in the Middle East that will pay you some money for some of the material you work with. Go for it.
eileen, i think i'm going to do the experiment this month and hate it and dream of when i will once again have an income. hang in there and i'll see you and the bar tab this weekend.
After 2 and a half years of making no money, my first paycheck was the best thing I ever saw. The paycheck and I had a little dance around my living room.
liz, please start choreographing a dance of joy for me. it HAS to be ready by mid-2007, ok?
two words: Sugar Daddy
I did a happy dance of my own the other day when I found a crumpled up $5 bill in my pocket. Years from now, when I received a paycheck with some monetary significance, I'm going to do a full on Nutcracker ballet.
The best part of the dance was that it was with an actual paycheck and not the usual direct deposit. I feel like the dance would have lost something if it was just with my ATM receipt... although I think I still would have had a celebration running man or something of the sort.
Eileen, I think a great investment would be some slutty clothes. That way when you go out dressed like a dirty girl, your entertainment expenses can be significantly reduced, even going to zero. Trust me, I work in finance.
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