I am 28 and I have written up my first solid budget.
Wait, what? Really?
Yes. Really.
Over the years, people (particularly my dad) would ask me if I had a budget. My answer would be, "yeah, I'm budgeting." This actually meant that I have a loose idea in my head how much money I need to make ends meet, and I make enough money to cover that, so I'm good. I'm not spend much over my general ballpark figures in my head. I'm alright with money.
And yet, like many people in the working world, I was never able to have money set aside for long. A vehicle would need repair, I'd buy a huge amount of vegetable seeds for next spring (they grow food, I'm saving money in the long run!), I'd eat out a little more than I meant to because I'm too tired when I get home to make dinner, and so on and so forth. You know this tune right? It might sound a bit like yours. Thousands of small poor decisions nibbling away at the bit of money that wasn't in your "budget". It's called lifestyle creep, though I think it should be called insidious expenditures mostly because I love the word insidious.
About 6 months before I discovered FIRE and started to get off the hamster wheel, I gave myself a reality slap-in-the-face; I looked at what myself and my then-husband were spending our money on for the months of May, June, and July of 2018. I knew we were bad with money, both of us, and this exercise put it into sharp relief. However, I felt no relief. He and I had always argued over money, so instead of discussing it with him, I left both of our summaries written out on the dining room table for him to view and absorb as he chose. He had no idea how much money he had been spending on unnecessary things. I was a little less shocked at my numbers but it still gave me great pause to see what I was wasting my hard-earned cash.
I almost made a budget then, but my relationship there came to a dramatic end and I had to move out very quickly after. I had a pseudo-budget for the last year, but again it was mostly just making sure I was making at least a certain number to cover my basic needs, and the rest just went where it went.
So now, my friends, I have created a monthly budget that I am not going to allow myself to go over. If I adhere to this new goal, I should be able to save at least 30% of my income, which is a great improvement from before; my work is casual so some weeks I make a bit under full-time, other weeks I make full-time. My budget isn't super tight since I took the numbers from my average spending the last three months, and I intend to re-evaluate each month. Right now my budget is as follows per month:
Groceries: $300
Food Out: $100 (date night is our sacred ritual once ever two weeks)
Alcohol: $50
Gas: $200
Phone: $30
BCAA: $13
MSP: $36
ICBC Insurance: $165
Birth Control: $30
Other: $75
Now, right away there are some things I could cut back hard on, such as the alcohol. I like a glass of wine with dinner, but I don't have it every night, and I don't buy wine every week. I think I won't hit the top of this budget often, but I'm curious to see how my decision-making process is altered as I actively keep track of where I'm spending my money. Also, I don't necessarily spend that much on gas every month, just sometimes I work further away and sometimes I work close to home. Such is the nature of my job.
So here we go. A real budget starting October 1st. Wish me luck!
Wait, what? Really?
Yes. Really.
Over the years, people (particularly my dad) would ask me if I had a budget. My answer would be, "yeah, I'm budgeting." This actually meant that I have a loose idea in my head how much money I need to make ends meet, and I make enough money to cover that, so I'm good. I'm not spend much over my general ballpark figures in my head. I'm alright with money.
And yet, like many people in the working world, I was never able to have money set aside for long. A vehicle would need repair, I'd buy a huge amount of vegetable seeds for next spring (they grow food, I'm saving money in the long run!), I'd eat out a little more than I meant to because I'm too tired when I get home to make dinner, and so on and so forth. You know this tune right? It might sound a bit like yours. Thousands of small poor decisions nibbling away at the bit of money that wasn't in your "budget". It's called lifestyle creep, though I think it should be called insidious expenditures mostly because I love the word insidious.
About 6 months before I discovered FIRE and started to get off the hamster wheel, I gave myself a reality slap-in-the-face; I looked at what myself and my then-husband were spending our money on for the months of May, June, and July of 2018. I knew we were bad with money, both of us, and this exercise put it into sharp relief. However, I felt no relief. He and I had always argued over money, so instead of discussing it with him, I left both of our summaries written out on the dining room table for him to view and absorb as he chose. He had no idea how much money he had been spending on unnecessary things. I was a little less shocked at my numbers but it still gave me great pause to see what I was wasting my hard-earned cash.
I almost made a budget then, but my relationship there came to a dramatic end and I had to move out very quickly after. I had a pseudo-budget for the last year, but again it was mostly just making sure I was making at least a certain number to cover my basic needs, and the rest just went where it went.
So now, my friends, I have created a monthly budget that I am not going to allow myself to go over. If I adhere to this new goal, I should be able to save at least 30% of my income, which is a great improvement from before; my work is casual so some weeks I make a bit under full-time, other weeks I make full-time. My budget isn't super tight since I took the numbers from my average spending the last three months, and I intend to re-evaluate each month. Right now my budget is as follows per month:
Groceries: $300
Food Out: $100 (date night is our sacred ritual once ever two weeks)
Alcohol: $50
Gas: $200
Phone: $30
BCAA: $13
MSP: $36
ICBC Insurance: $165
Birth Control: $30
Other: $75
Now, right away there are some things I could cut back hard on, such as the alcohol. I like a glass of wine with dinner, but I don't have it every night, and I don't buy wine every week. I think I won't hit the top of this budget often, but I'm curious to see how my decision-making process is altered as I actively keep track of where I'm spending my money. Also, I don't necessarily spend that much on gas every month, just sometimes I work further away and sometimes I work close to home. Such is the nature of my job.
So here we go. A real budget starting October 1st. Wish me luck!
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