Yesterday’s receipts
Posted on July 1, 2006 7 Comments
Yesterday I managed to spend nearly $100 on a completely average day. Here was the breakdown:
- $13 on muffins for my office
- $6 for lunch at Burrito Beach
- $7 on a cab ride to the train station because my bus never came
- $12 on dinner (some friends were in town, so we ordered Thai as we got ready)
- $32 on a round of drinks at Trader Todd’s
- $20 on a cab ride from Southport to the train station so I could go home
All those costs seem pretty small in themselves, but they add up. And they show waste. If I had slept over at a friend’s house in the city, I could have saved $20 on the cab ride and taken the el in the morning. I could have brought lunch and ate leftovers for dinner. And I surely didn’t have to buy muffins for my entire office.
Looking back at your spending patterns is the first step towards understanding where all your money goes. If you wake up on Monday and your wallet’s empty, take the time to figure out where all that money went, and what you could have done differently. Then, make a game plan for the next time you go out.
I’m doing pretty much the same thing tonight (going out in the city), but my day’s off to a more frugal start with homemade coffee and a peanut-butter sandwich. I’m supposed to take a friend to Old Navy and I also have to buy a birthday present for my dad this morning. So, it’s not going to be a terribly cheap weekend in all. I’m going to analyze my budget for the last month and see how I did. I’ll be sure to report back.
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July 2nd, 2006 @ 2:50 am
I find that I often have the same problem with the little things adding up.
July 2nd, 2006 @ 8:35 pm
That $13 for muffins and the $32 for a round of drinks may be money well spent!
The base need that people have to nourish themselves is a powerful force to (subtly) exploit.
I always really appreciate and remember anytime someone else provides for me in an edible manner. No matter how big the muffin.
(I deleted a comment because I could not figure out how to edit it. I had a case of mismatching tenses.)
July 4th, 2006 @ 4:07 pm
Dear BB, Alberen is off his rocker. Are the people you bought rounds of drinks for really going to be there when you hit the buffers?!
My father was on the verge of death last month and my partner and I had to book last minute round trip airline tickets (peak season) from the UK to the States. I am studying part-time and had been hoping to use the time I was in the states to find a job. No such luck yet.
Thank God about 2 years ago, i woke up to myself and my spending and started reading sites like this and putting savings away first rather than last.
Because of this, I don’t have to abandon my course, tap family for cash or feel depressed because I can’t afford to go out for dinner or drinks every once in a while.
It’s not about being a skin flint. It’s about being prepared and giving yourself a bit of dignity.
July 5th, 2006 @ 5:06 am
Do I need to jump up and down and beat my chest and defend myself?
Noooo…. but I’sa will anyway…
Kris, you are right, if you are spending money you don’t have on things for other people then you shouldn’t. (and many do spend on others for lots of people-pleasing-i-should-get-some-counselng reasons)
But, I did say MAY be money well spent and went on to make a bigger point.
Ya’ll have fun.
July 6th, 2006 @ 6:21 pm
Actually, I bought the round of drinks because I got a new debit card and couldn’t remember the password to get cash at the ATM.
So I bought the first round of drinks on my debit card, then my friends all bought for me the rest of the night to repay me!
July 8th, 2006 @ 12:56 am
SEE! Repaid even sooner than I would have imagined!
With that in mind–
I can’t believe you blew your budget on drinks!
July 10th, 2006 @ 8:59 pm
Ha ha. I’m a lush, what can I say? It’s not blowing your budget if you’re having fun, right!
Bad mentality, I know. But I actually do budget to go out and have drinks every month as my “entertainment.” The part I didn’t budget for was all the cab fare. My transportation budget is pretty tight each month.