Where Did The Dough Go? #65 (Mystery Gas)

Welcome to another weekly edition of “Where Did The Dough Go?”. Below you can get a completely open and honest view of what we’re spending money on, how much we’re saving, investing and putting away for retirement. Please feel free to learn from our financial mistakes if at all possible, it’s way better than making them yourself. ;-)

Friday 27th
+ $1,642.32 Honey’s Paycheck
-/+ $542.32 (100% over root income to House Fund)
– $96.00 
(cigarettes)
– $20.95 
(honey whiskey)
– $47.66 (dining out)
– $43.99
 (gas @ 3.679 per gallon)
– $8.31 (gas for moving truck)
– $107.24 (moving truck rental)
-/+ $25.00 (to Roth IRA)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)

-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Saturday 28th
– $117.58 (groceries)

Sunday 29th
No spend day

Monday 30th
– $14.73
 (more gas for moving truck)
– $2.34 (zippo fluid)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings) 
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Tuesday 31st
– $25.00 (bills)
$400.00 (home appraisal)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Wednesday Aug. 1st
No spend day
-/+ $5.00 (transfer to START acct.)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings) 

-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Thursday 2nd
No spend day
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Total Weekly Spending: $1,476.12
Pre-tax 401K Contributions $22.30

Categorized:

Savings $557.32
Rent & Bills $25.00
Cigarettes $96.00
Moving Expenses $130.28
House buying expenses $400.00
Groceries $117.58
Other $2.34
Gas $43.99
Alcohol $20.95
Dining Out $47.66
Roth IRA contributions $25.00
Save 4 Car insurance $10.00

Left-over for remaining week $166.20

Notes: Now that we’re all moved into my parents house (just until we get into our house), the dining out should become almost non-existent. Maybe we could go out once a month for like a date night or something, but aside from that I’d rather save the money.

I was hoping to be able to save more this paycheck, but the silly appraisal came up and our moving expenses were more than anticipated.

We didn’t get done with the moving truck until after they had closed, so we had to drop the keys and papers in their box and leave the truck outside the gate. That’s not going to happen again.

We filled up the truck (like you’re supposed to do) 2 blocks from where we returned it. It sat outside their gate and magically used up 4 gallons of gas. Wtf? We only drove the truck 22 miles. We put in 2.25 gallons of gas 2 blocks from the truck rental place.

Gas we put in: 2.25 gallons
Missing gas: 4 gallons
Total Gas Supposedly Used: 6.25 gallons

22 miles DIVIDED by 6.25 gallons =  3 and 1/2 miles per gallon for a brand-new (4,000 miles) 16 foot moving truck.

Really? How in the world does that even make sense to the people? I couldn’t get them to see the logic, so I just paid for the extra 4 gallons they said they put in. We have our storage unit there, so the last thing I want to do is p*ss off the people who have all my stuff.

Still, lesson learned. I will always return the truck before they close and have them verify the gas and everything else.

How did your budgeting/spending go this week?

About Jen Perkins

Likes: saving money, being debt free (aside from our house), zombies, travel, getting money, blogging and dogs. Dislikes: debt, being broke, bunnies, wasting money, not having enough money to travel the world and paying interest. Facebook  ♥  Twitter  ♥  Google+  ♥  RSS

Comments

Where Did The Dough Go? #65 (Mystery Gas) — 12 Comments

  1. Congrats on the big savings this month. There are a lot of pluses listed which is great.

    I have rented vehicles before and been screwed on the gas. It is much cheaper to fill the tank yourself and then return it. However in this case you got screwed. I am not sure what to say other than the fact their guage might be off. Or the reader is blind.

  2. That sucks that you got screwed over on the moving van gas. I guess ultimately it is a rather small charge compared to all the other expenses in your life recently. It must really be time to give up those cigarettes 😉 Maybe if we all harass you about it, you’ll give in lol.

  3. I’m not saying this to be snarky…I’m 100% serious. A friend of mine is trying to quit smoking and bought one of those electric flavored cigarette thingies. It tastes like a blueberry cigarette and gives you a blast of nicotine. It was amazing! I tried it for fun and it felt similar to taking a puff off a real cigarette- minus the smoke.

    Like I said, I’m just sharing this to be helpful because I hope you quit wasting $ on cigarettes!!!

  4. The numbers look great. Congratulations! But it will be bigger savings if you quit from smoking. You will not only saving money because you will not spend on cigarettes anymore. You will also save your health and more money because you do not need to buy meds when you get sick due to smoking. What do you think?