Budget Busters | brokeGIRLrich
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about my new budget limitations and how I work under the assumption that I have $24.36 a day to get me through, after spending on essentials and hitting some, but not all, of my savings goals.
Fortunately, this based on my salary and not any side hustling, so there is a tiny bit of wiggle room there depending on how much this blog makes and any other side hustling opportunities.
Well, I’ve had about five weeks practice with the new budget and I can honestly say – I suck at it.
$24.36 is just a stupid number.
A single meal out usually comes out to around that number.
Buy a gift for a friend or eat?
Fill up a tank of gas, it’s gone.
I am in a perpetual state of irritation about this. It takes so much effort to just get a little ahead and it’s so easily derailed.
I was super excited yesterday because I bought a cup of coffee and a $5 sandwich, so I was still well under.
Hoorah! $36ish dollars tomorrow is back in the realm of a reasonable!
But then I remembered I needed a power adaptor to go to Brazil in two weeks and $10 later on Amazon, I was now coming in only a dollar or two under the daily goal amount.
And this was on a day where I literally worked 12 hours. Those are the easiest days to not spend on.
I do find my two worst budget busters at the moment are Amazon and Etsy. That one-click purchase button can be dangerous, but I’m also not exactly spending wildly. It’s just the little things that do keep adding up.
Even buying the newest Stage Management book, which seemed sort of necessary for work, knocked me $10 over the daily amount.
A main thing that keeps me calm is the knowledge that my rent is kind of high because it’s a 6 month lease, so if I succeed in my house buying goals, I should free up about $300/$400 a month when all the dust settles there.
I just really need to get a handle on the Etsy browsing, but I keep decorating my imaginary home in my head.
I don’t think I’d be able to get buy if I included all variable expenses into a daily amount like that. I have my budget more spread out into month categories, so I know what I have to spend on each thing. I’m sure if I put those together and then spread them out to a daily amount, it would average out by the end of the month, but I would have some crazy high days (like getting gas or grocery shopping) and some crazy low days (when I don’t need gas, groceries or other things and bring my lunch to work).
But to your question, what busts my budget? It is usually eating out. I try to only eat out once or twice during my work-week but then I end up blowing too much money on the weekend if a friend asks me to lunch or dinner or both….I’ve tried reigning it in, and the amount that I spend usually ends up right around what I’ve budgeted, but every once in a while, we go someplace a little nicer, and there goes half the restaurant budget! Haha!
I can’t believe I typed “get buy” instead of get by…..ROTFLOL!
I agree! Eating out is one of my worst budget busters too. It’s a combination of sometimes being too lazy to cook and just ordering takeout (which I usually do regret) and fun times with friends (which is a lot harder to regret).