Where'd My Money Go? - Week of 3/28

Bills
$825 - Rent
$300 - monthly transportation
$15 - Credit Report (I meant to cancel this...obviously not soon enough ::grumble::)
Total: $1140

Extras
Entertainment
$20 - Restuarant for 2 (Groupon) (planning date night with C)
$20 - xxx (Groupon) (also for the date night with C)
$24 - 4 movie tickets (BuyWithMe)
Total: $64.00

Shopping
$60 - 6 pairs of FlexFlops (Groupon)
$65.00 - CVS (mostly stuff for mom's gift basket, with a few things thrown in for me)
$65.00 - Target (some groceries, stuff for mom's gift basket...)
$8 - purse
Total: $198.00

Other
$12 - Jean Louis David Hair Salon (LivingSocial)
$5.00 - Metrocard
$4.00 - Burger King (at least I didn't buy the meal this time, only the sandwich!)
$75.00 - Wedding Present
Total: $96.00

Grand Total: $1498.00

Do you know what that amount says to me? I've been overspending/frivolously overspending. $60 for 6 flip flops? My idea is to give all but one pair away as presents (especially bachelorette presents, since they have really cute "Bride to Be" ones). But you know what? I have 5 pairs of scarves I bought over the winter that I bought for the same purpose- easy and cheap presents (they were $5 each) and all but one (I think) are still sitting in my closet.

I went into Target looking for a pair of classy nude heels for the wedding last weekend. You know the one thing I DID NOT purchase at Target? The heels. They were sold out/unavailable- and yet I spent $65, at least half of which were on grocery items that we got "because we were there" and didn't want to stop at the grocery store. ::SMH::

$40 for a date night. A DATE NIGHT!? Umm... yeah, we could have used that money for a more cost-friendly date. Like those movie tickets I bought and a (cheaper) dinner option.

$12 for a haircut-- actually I don't feel bad about this one. Except that I was supposed to use it on Friday night (in prep for the wedding) but I was too lazy to go. But I really do need a haircut, so this will come in handy soon. $5 Metrocard was spent because I took too long in CVS...easily could have been avoided if I used better time management skills while in the store. Le sigh.

What I Learned:
One trend that stuck out the most here-- I spend too much on "daily deal/group discount" sites. Yes, they have fabulous deals on them...but maybe for now I should opt out of those emails- because saving that money would be the best deal of all.

I need to make a budget and stick to it. So I did. The one thing I didn't add to the budget yet is "Groceries." I read somewhere that you should take a month's worth of grocery bills to figure out how much you're spending there, so I will do that tonight (hopefully...at least this week sometime, before I post the budget).

I will share soon, along with some goals for April. Stay tuned...