One Month In – My Budget so far
So last month I decided that I need to pay back some loans (credit card & line of credit).. so what did I do? Went out and got a new car…. well done Len, well done sir.
Ok, well yes.. I did.. however I’m really only spending around $25 more than I was before when I had the Cobalt.. actually likely less once I sell the winter car I drove during the winter. Without getting too far into it, I have leased a new 2009 Pontiac Vibe (absolutely love it) to replace the Supercharged Cobalt SS I used to lease, and I had a winter car I drove the last 2 chilly winter seasons. The Vibe is $40 more a month, but $5000 less in a residual, in fact.. that IS the residual.. $5000.. whereas the Cobalt SS was $10,800.. same 4 year lease time frame.. and costs less for insurance. Also, the winter car is added into that insurance cost, so it will likely be another $20 or $30 less a month premiums. So no difference whatsoever.
Ok having said all that, I’m getting off topic.. last month I set myself a budget, and so far I’m trying to stick to it even it if is rather difficult and I’ve slipped a few times. C’mon,I’m only human.. this is new to me! Basically what I’ve done is setup a Google Documents spreadsheet as my budget.. listing in everything from how much I owe, how much I bring in, what bills I have to pay, and eventually.. how much money I have leftover for food, gas, and fun (read: beer). What I then do is go to the bank and withdrawal that amount. This way, I actually have the physical amount of money sitting in my wallet, and once it’s gone.. it’s gone.
This has worked out pretty well in that it’s curbing my desire to just interac everything and not worry about how much it costs or how often I do it. I have a bunch of bad debt (not tax deductible such as my credit card and line of credit) and I want to get rid of it… pronto! I have my google document setup so that it tells me how many months to go before I get out of debt.. before new Vibe, it was 9 months.. with new Vibe, it’s now setback to 11 or 12 months. Keep in mind however that I will be plunking down a few lump sum payments on that line of credit which is the larger of the 2.. in fact, I had the credit card paid off had I not purchased the new car.. DOH!
Anyhow, as I write this I am 12.07 months from being out of bad debt. We’ll see how I am in a months time.
