Well, not tracking my finances for the last month has left me in a bit of a bind right now. I can't believe how reckless my spending has been. I really need to remember that I'm making an entry-level salary, and until I get myself back up to the $50k+ that I've been so used to making, I need to chill out and stick to a budget.
I'd like to do a mid-month review of my proposed budget:
- Projected monthly income (after taxes) from FT job: $2,200 - this is just about right. After tax, I'm making about $675 per week after taxes, so that should equal to $1,100 after tax for 2 weeks. I'll know for sure on Friday.
- Rent & all utilities:
$700- my rent and all utilities will come out to around $670. I could have found something a little cheaper (around $600-650, all utilities included), but I'm saving so much money by being close to work (I don't even need a bus pass), I really like my landlord, and the house I'm living in is clean and looks new, and I feel safe in this particular neighbourhood. That's really important to me, especially living in a big city like this for the first time.
- Cell phone: $40 - my bill this month was $64 b/c of LD charges when I answer calls while in Vancouver. I plan on switching my number over to a local number sometime soon, and that should drop my cell phone bill down to around $35/month b/c I added a $6 text messaging plan so I can chat throughout the day with J, my sister and a few of my friends. It's cheaper than calling them LD, and it's a frugal way to keep in touch.
- Gas & public transportation:
$50- I definitely don't need to budget this much money. I live so close to work that I anticipate spending less than $5/month (!!!) on gas (1 tank costs $5 and will last me about 160-180km of city driving), and maybe about $20/month on public transportation. Although I did take a $6 cab ride last week, but that was because I didn't have my scooter over here yet. So I'm probably going to reduce this category down to about $25.
- Groceries: $150 - this is a tough one. I eat so simply, but I feel bad because I don't feel like I have anything that J would want to eat whenever he comes over (which is often). And one time, he brought his own food over. I think this may improve once I get some time to do some mass cooking/freezing. I think I'll keep this at $150 and just see how I do. I know I'm going to go over this amount for the month of February, because I had to re-stock on a bunch of the essentials that I needed, but I'm sure I can stick to this come March.
- Entertainment: $100 - I haven't exactly done anything exciting this month, but I'm confident I can stick to this budget. Looking at it, $100 seems like a lot of money, but when I think that a dinner out at a decent restaurant will probably cost $50 for two people, it doesn't seem like it'll go far at all. We'll see.
- Miscellaneous:
$80- This number still seems appropriate, but I think I'm going to add an additional $55 to bring it to $135. It gives me a little more flex in my budget, so that if I do want to do something fun, or if I decide I want to make a fancy meal at home with specific ingredients that I don't normally buy (or even go out for dinner), I have the money in the budget. Plus, this category will house my clothing, personal care items and renter's insurance.
- Travel: $80 - I'll have traveled 3 times to the island in February, when it's all said and done. Last weekend we took J's car across on the ferry, which I wasn't anticipating ... so my cost was around $62 for that trip alone. Ouch! But bringing the car was necessary - I was able to bring back so much stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to carry across on the ferry myself. The next few months I only anticipate going back home twice a month, and each trip should cost me between $24-40, depending on what my transportation method will be to get to and from the ferry terminals.
Published by krystalatwork
Labels: budget
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"Miscellaneous: $80 - This number still seems appropriate, but I think I'm going to add an additional $20 to bring it to an even $135."
Wait, how?
hahaha whoops. I had originally added $20 to make the Miscellaneous category an even $100, but then I changed it as I was writing the post. Thanks for catching that.
cell phone plans in canada need to get with the program! In US, almost all plans are nationwide, meaning you can answer your phone anywhere (as long as your provider is there) and you can call "long distance" just as if it was local. In-network calling doesn't count against your minutes.
They may be slightly more expensive (not sure, mine is $10 to be added to the family plan) but much more practical, especially for young people who move every couple years.
Anyway your budget looks quite reasonable. It is good to have flex in the Misc category!
SJean: I can call locally anywhere in Canada, so all my outgoing calls are free ... it's just that since I'm outside of my local calling area, I get charged LD (not roaming) whenever I answer calls. There is a Canada-wide plan, but the price point starts higher than what I'd like to pay ... so I'm sticking with what I have. :)
Krystal -
I don't want to be a meanie here, but when you say things like the following, it raises a red flag....
I added a $6 text messaging plan so I can chat throughout the day with J, my sister and a few of my friends. It's cheaper than calling them LD, and it's a frugal way to keep in touch.
I hope you only mean that you are texting on Saturday and Sunday and not M - F when at you're at work.
Seriously.
I've had to put staff on probation and suspend their computer's internet access because of missuse of instant messaging.
My business (architecture) is service based. Our revenue is generated by "billable hours." We work for our clients for a set fee and need to be as productive as possible for every hour we work on the client's behalf. As a managing supervisor, I've watched, and there is no way someone can be focused on their job and tasks if they are IM or text messaging.
With one staff member, I calculated that while he may have been at the office 8 hours a day, we were only getting 2 to 4 hours of good productive work from him.... the rest of time he spent socializing, taking breaks (he was a smoker and insisted on taking a smoking break every hour), planning his personal life (i.e., IMing his partner about dinner plans, movies, concerts, vacations, etc.), surfing the internet (craigslist was commonly on his screen), or taking personal phone calls.
An Example Of Why I Put Him On Probation:
One day I asked him what he was working on - he said the name of the project (I was his supervisor, so I already knew that), I asked him what he was doing, he said waiting for a phone call from an engineer with information so that he would know how to proceed with a certain aspect of the design. He gave me the impression he was just waiting five minutes for this answer. Turns out, he'd been sitting idle doing nothing but IMing, surfing the net, etc., for three days!
In reality the information he needed was very minor - he could have (and should have) been forging ahead. As it was, there were three days of lost productivity for a project on an already very tight schedule. When it came down to "crunch time" to finish the project the guy needed to work some during the course of a weekend to meet the deadline... and, had the nerve to complain about not getting paid for overtime.
Currently, I have one guy now who has a small cellphone earphone. He comes into the office in the morning and begins talking with his girlfriend non-stop for two hours while he drafts. Believe me, he is more focused on the conversation than he is on his job and he's not getting that much done.
I am getting close to "banning cellphones" in the office in the office again. If it is an emergency, they can call on the office number. We can't seem to break this guy of his habit... and in the meantime, he's on his earphone every morning for two or more hours talking about things no one in the office is interested in hearing about.
You might think that you can do IM or text message on the sly and no one will notice, but trust me, they will. And it will get discussed. And discussed.
Again, I don't want to appear to be a meanie - just share with you some of my 20 plus years of wisdom and experience. Afterall, there is a reason why "work" is a four letter word.