The Wallet Watch: Wallet watch lasts from February 1 - February 29. If you wanna know more about it, go here. These are my parameters:
- No more than $50 on take-out/food out, period: Fail. Over by $51.08
Date of Infraction: 2/1/16 (off to an amazing start, no?!)
Location: Coffee shop at work
Item: Coffee
Cost: $2.25
Notes: I forgot my travelers mug of glorious coffee on my kitchen counter at home. My train was delayed by 50 minutes. It was a Monday. Need I say more? It was also some of the worst coffee I've ever tasted, which made it that much worse. Ugh.
Date of Infraction: 2/5/16Location: Blockheads
Item(s): Dinner/drinks
Cost: $41.00
Notes: My friend came into town unexpectedly for work. Obviously we needed to go out!
Those two would have been okay, but then...
Date of Infraction:2/12/16
Location: Mariachi Grill
Item(s): Dinner for 3
Cost: $57.83
Notes: My old neighbor/friend wanted to come over for dinner after work one night, and Blue was coming over as well. I didn't feel like cooking. She took a TV, an Easy Bake Oven, and a laptop bag with her though, so it was definitely worth it.
- Check the checking account for fees, and change banks if necessary: Check!
I found that my bank charges me $7 in monthly fees. And I considered changing banks, but then I remembered that I just got a bunch of checks for this account, and ordering more checks would cost more than what I would be saving, so I guess I'm going to stay for now.
- Open savings account: Check
Calling this a pass because I'm going tonight.
- Grocery budget $60: Check!!!
I think this is the one I was most proud of. I only went tot he grocery store once, and the total was $84.62. HOWEVER, this was the day before our Superbowl party, and a lot of items were purchased solely for the party. So I deducted those things from the total, and found I only spent $40. 64 on actual groceries for myself! Adding in a few items I picked up at CVS (see below, 2/27) and the Dollar Store, I spent 56.64 on groceries this month! BOOM!
- Get taxes done: Check!
- Check my credit score: Fail.
Isn't there a way to do this for free somewhere? I forgot and didn't want to get charged, or lower my score by checking.
- Talk to those pesky student loan peeps: Check!
- Revisit and readjust the budget: Fail
I didn't see the point of doing this before the Wallet Watch. It made more sense in my head to revisit and readjust afterwards.
- No unapproved spending of any kind, for anything. Approved Spending: Valentine's day gift for Blue, Mom's birthday present, Boss going away present. Fail.
Date of Infraction: 2/11/16
Location: Rite Aid
Item(s): Part of this was Blue's Valentine's Day present (don't judge me, they had a Star Wars mug), but as for the rest ???
Cost: $47.11
Notes: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED.
Date of Infraction:2/12/16
Location: PetValu
Item(s): cat toys/treats
Cost: $14.96
Notes: I decided that Keebler (Blue's cat) needed Valentine's day love too. Whatever, it was totally worth it.
 |
| the cat who won Valentine's Day |
Date of Infraction: 2/22/16
Location: online, Club W
Item(s): wine subscription
Cost: $26.75
Notes: Because, wine.
Date of Infraction: 2/27/16
Location: CVS
Item(s): Passport pics, toothbrush, lipsticks, 2/$5 chips, Pepto
Cost: $47.89 (-$11 grocery)= $36.89
Notes: I had a 20% off coupon and needed to take my passport pics. Blue needed to replace her toothbrush and lipstick which was B1G1 50% off, and we were paying together. So not all my fault!
Date of Infraction: 2/29/16
Location: online, BonTon
Item(s): a Star Wars traveler's mug and 3 pack of K-Cups
Cost: $46.08
Notes: I was weak. I looked at Brad's Deals. Forgive me.
Total Infraction Costs (including the $51.08 from eating out): $222.87
Have you done a no-spend month or Wallet Watch? How did you do?
I used Credit Karma to check my credit score! It's free and you don't have to actually do a full report which dings you. You just connect it to your bank account and student loans and all that. Unfortunately, mine isn't all that accurate because my one credit card that isn't a store card is through a credit union and for some reason CK doesn't pick it up...so I'm missing a big chunk of my score. But it's worth a shot for you anyway, especially if you bank at a national bank!
ReplyDeleteThe official place to check your credit is www.annualcreditreport.com, and I think you get one freebie per year. Checking once per year is not going to negatively affect your credit. That being said, Mint just started checking for me and that's easier since I use them already, so I haven't used the website for a few years.
ReplyDeleteI need to get my taxes done!!! Ryan always waits until the last minute but it's starting to stress me out.
lol 'off to an amazing start' made me laugh because it's day 3 of march and i've already 'failed' like 5 of my goals, including spending money. oops.
ReplyDeleteyou should look into changing banks anyway, and see if you can't get free checks somewhere? we got free checks when we opened our account back in like 2012 and we are still using them lol.
under $60 is AMAZING. good job! i really need to see if i can reduce our grocery budget at all.
lol at notes 'i have no idea what happened'. seriously.. yep. that's me 9 times out of 10... awww Keebler looks totally okay with the valentine's day love :)
You went grocery shopping for a month under $60?!?!?! I think I spend $60 a week in just meat and veggies. How?!?!?! You must be a wizard! I am with Mattie, I use Credit Karma as well. I really like them because they tell you ways you could make your credit better too and compare you with other people your age/financial situation.
ReplyDeleteI'm only 4 days into march and I already spent more than you did in February and have no clue how! I think its time for me to get on it and do a wallet watch so I can see where all my money goes.
ReplyDeleteJenn is mostly correct. www.annualcreditreport.com is where you should go to pull your report from the bureaus. You're allowed 1 report/year from each bureau, so I pull mine quarterly (end of March/early April and then so on). If you want your credit SCORE, the official one (that you pay for) is www.myfico.com but Credit Karma and Credit Sesame will provide it for free each month (I use both of these and love it).
ReplyDeleteI should probably call my student loan peeps as well. Doesn't hurt to at least see what my options are.
I cannot believe you spent only 60 for a month at the grocery store. I go way over that weekly. I have been trying to spend less but it is hard. I do try really hard to limit the amount of coffee I buy outside the house. I can make it at home and it is so much cheaper.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could spend less than $60 a week let a lone a month at the grocery store! Kudos to you , girl! A suggestion for your bank account fee, check to see if they waive the fee if you sign up for online banking/e-statements or have some other feature that you could use?! I think you can get free credit scores at Credit Karma or Free Credit Report.com. Good job keeping track of your spending! I am terrible at budgeting! lOl
ReplyDeleteI am astounded and proud of you for your grocery spend. That's awesome!! I spent eleventy billion last night and got no pantry items. The cost of food is insane.
ReplyDeleteKeebler totally needed V-Day treats. Cats are family members too!
I don't know what Brad's Deals is and I probably should not find out.
LOL @ I don't know what happened in Rite-Aid. Been there.