September expenses

If it's in red, I never should've done it. 

9/1     $50 Nutrition counseling for eating disorder
9/2     No spend day
9/3     No spend day
9/4     $45 guitar lesson
9/5     No spend day
9/6     No spend day
9/7     No spend day!

September week 1 total: $95 

So happy! I could learn to live like this. Until Lululemon puts out another line of purple clothing.





9/8     $13.50 dry cleaning
9/9     $1 soda
9/10   $35 visit to the eye doctor, $65 pool membership
9/11   $45 guitar lesson
9/12   No spend day
9/13   No spend day
9/14   $40 on supplies for my hydroponic garden, $30 on lunch w/ a friend

September week 2 total: $229.5 Bad week.

 

9/15    $50 Nutrition counseling for eating disorder

9/16    $50 ED group therapy, $10 for swim cap and earplugs for swim practice.

9/17  no spend day

9/18    $45 guitar lesson; $30 for eyebrow shaping

9/19 DUMB!! $43.50 on a discount gift card for next month's eyebrows, then found out that they don't take gift cards anymore. Can't return the gift card. Fortunately I can use it at another salon when I have to get my hair cut. But I now have money sitting around that I can't use. Oh, and I spent $3 on soda.

9/20    $3.50 on food at work
9/21  No spend day

September week 3 total: $235 

9/22  $120 therapy appointment

9/23 $20 metro tickets

9/24 no spend

9/25  $8 on a new journal, $100 on new shoes <what?!>  I found out that my eating disorder therapist is moving to California. All the way across the country. So I have to start out with someone new...this is incredibly stressful. I bought myself new shoes to make my self feel better, and an $8.00 journal to help me do the cognitive behavior therapy techniques that I've learned so I can cope with this. The shoes made me feel better about taking care of myself. The $8 did more to make me realize that this isn't such a horrible event and that I'll get through it and still continue to recover. Skipped my guitar lesson today because of an all-day class downtown.

9/26  No spend day

9/27  $50 on Christmas ornament. $5.00 on supplies for hydroponic garden.

9/28  $7 lunch at work.

Expenses for September week 4: $310.00

9/29 metro $20, notebook for eating disorder notes $8
9/30 no spend!

Total expenses for last days: $28

Total: $898.50!  Yay! I kept my spending under $1000!

Except I've been neglecting to add in my church tithe ($45 this month) and my student loan: $95. That brings the total to $1038.50. Not bad compared to what it's been!

What did I learn from this?

• Writing everything down and keeping a running total really does help keep track of my spending.
• I start out strong in a month and then get weaker as time goes on. I need some kind of incentive to encourage myself to behave in the second half of the month. Not sure what though.
• It's important for me to look at the expenses I know I will have in a month before I have them. That way I know how much disposable in come I'll have.