September Mid-Month Spending & Income Roundup
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2 days late… but here it is, my breakdown of our spending and income thus far for the month of September. The grocery spending looks a little high because I’ve spent a lot of money at Walgreens lately with all the good deals. The number is skewed because it doesn’t take into account the $30 of Register Rewards Sitting in my Wallet. Also, I’ve decided that instead of deducting the anticipated rebates from the grocery spending (i.e. if I buy something at Walgreens that is going to give me money back next month) I will only deduct the rebates after they come. If that happens to be in the next monthly period, then that amount will be deducted from there. Its less confusing for me that way, although still not the clearest way of figuring out exactly how much this stuff costs me. Does anyone else who does rebates and tracks their grocery spending have a better tip for how I should account for this? Please leave comments if you do!
Anywhere, after a long intro, here it is:
|
Groceries |
$128.67 |
Grocery After Rebate: |
$88.71
|
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Pets: Food |
$31.86 |
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Gas (Me) |
$44.81 |
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Gas (Him) |
$51.81 |
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|
Parking |
38 |
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Car Insurance |
$56.99 |
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|
My Student Loan |
$800 |
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F Student Loan |
$131.52 |
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|
|
IRA Contributions (Me) |
38.25 |
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Phone Bill |
$125.19 |
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Household |
$5.44 |
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TOTAL |
$1452.54 |
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And, here’s income:
|
9/2/2008 |
Parking Refund |
$51.00 |
|
9/2/2008 |
Survey Check |
$10.00 |
|
9/5/2008 |
F’s Check |
$1,180.52 |
|
9/5/2008 |
My Check |
$512.64 |
|
9/8/2008 |
Garage Sale $ |
$171.43 |
|
9/16/0208 |
Rebate Check (Grocery Rebate) |
$39.96 |
|
9/8/2008 |
Online Surveys (Paypal Transfer) |
$38.25 |
|
|
TOTAL |
$2,004 |
We’re doing pretty good this month, so far. We’ve managed to pay $931.00 toward our debt and it’s only 1/2 the month. We have spent less than we earned by $551.48 (even with that large debt payment). We haven’t had any unforeseen expenses yet (knock on wood)! And I’m hoping that I can keep grocery costs really really low for the rest of the month, since I have the Walgreens Reg Rewards now and since my gift card from last month came in finally!
September 17th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I deduct what the item cost me out of pocket from my grocery budget in the month I buy it in. Then, when rebates come, it’s like “free money” added to the grocery budget that I can spend on grocery items (versus like … Starbucks) and not have to count against my total. This allows me to stock up rebate checks and hit great sales for minor stockpiling that would otherwise blow my budget. I like counting the out of pocket price so that I’m even more challenged to stay under budget.
September 19th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
So do you not actually track how much you get back? Maybe I’ll try it that way and just have a seperate spreadsheet where I track how much I get in rebates, and then if I want to at some point I can just subtract that number from my “annual grocery spending” column to get a really accurate picture of my after rebate spending…
So confusing to work out all these kinks!
Thanks for the advice
October 1st, 2008 at 8:02 am
I don’t add the Wags gift cards back in, I figure I had that initial outlay of cash and now I’ll pay for everything off the card and just enjoy the free stuff so my grocery budget will hopefully be reduced elsewhere. Thats why I like CVS and Wags a little better than Rite-Aid, easier to account for because once you’ve spent the money once you (ideally) just keep rolling without putting too much new in.
Of course the downside is I don’t actually get to see how much I get free from Wags doing this… maybe I’ll start a separate spreadsheet if I get motivated enough to track what I get for free… or, maybe I’ll decide it doesn’t matter as long as I keep getting stuff and my grocery budget goes down elsewhere…