Where Did The Dough Go? #70 (Adios T-mobile, Hello pre-paid?)

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 31st
+ $12.00 (US Bank reversed statement fees)
+ $55.00 (deposit return from crappy apartment)
+ $6.68 (over payment on Comcast closed account)
– $159.00 (storage rent 4 September)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Saturday Sept. 1st
– $54.18 (prepaid phone and card)
– $33.39 (groceries)
– $20.15 (gas in mom’s car)
-/+ $5.00 (transfer to START account) 

Sunday 2nd
No spend day

Monday 3rd
– $27.65
(cigarettes)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Tuesday 4th
– $3.79
 (beer for honey)
– $15.00 (gas @ 3.999 per gallon)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Wednesday 5th
– $17.23 (household)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Thursday 6th
No spend day
-/+ $6.59 (transfer leftovers to house fund)
-/+ $1.00
 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Total Weekly Spending: $361.98

Categorized:

Savings $21.59
Cigarettes $27.65
Household $17.23
Bills $213.18
Alcohol $3.79
Groceries $33.39
Gas $35.15
Save 4 Car insurance $10.00

$$$ Entire Paycheck Totals $$$

Pre-tax 401K Contributions: $23.06
Income: $1,759.78
Investing/Retirement $25.00
Saving: $1,124.64
Spending: $610.14

 

Categorized:

weekly spending 70

Savings $1,124.64
Cigarettes $129.97
Household $17.23
Bills $213.18
Groceries $102.43
Gas $81.35
Alcohol $45.98
Roth IRA contributions $25.00
Save 4 Car insurance $20.00

Notes: As long as we’re able to save over half of our paycheck, I’m insanely happy. Though I would have liked to have saved a little more this paycheck, we did have to pay for this month’s storage unit. If we’re lucky enough to move into our first house in September, then we won’t have to pay for storage again in October.

Also, I was on a family cell phone plan with my mom and she wanted to switch to Verizon…without me. Not that I wouldn’t love Verizon, but she and her husband got on a family plan and I don’t think they wanted me to tag along, which is perfectly understandable.

Since T-mobile has ridiculously awful coverage (unless you’re smack dab in the middle of a fair sized city), I didn’t want to sign a 2 year contract with them, so I’m out. We grabbed a pre-paid phone (TracFone) and will only use it for emergencies and important calls.

We’re considering getting a land-line (even though we both hate talking on the phone) when we get our house and then just keep the pre-paid phone for emergencies only. Since we’re still waiting for the loan to finish (it still needs to be approved by the USDA), we’re not sure exactly when we’ll be in our new house.

There is so much that we’re just not sure about right now because of this whole house thing. It’s taking forever to buy our first house, we tried to hurry to get it before school started to make things easier on our daughter, but that didn’t happen.

So she’s going to her old school until we move into our new house, then she’ll have to switch to the new one. Crazy stuff, but I can’t really afford 100 miles worth of gas, five days a week just to make things easier on her. Life changes all the time, so at least she’s learning that early on.

Have a great weekend everybody! :-)

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? #70 (Adios T-mobile, Hello pre-paid?) — 10 Comments

  1. When my wife and I switched to prepaid instead of a contract, we saved TONS of money. Our contract was over $150/month, while the prepaid was only $50/month. Well worth it!! IN fact, my sister told me just the other day that most peopel in Europe do prepaid and that in America we’re just suckers sticking with cell phone plans like we do, lol.
    TB at BlueCollarWorkman recently posted..Get an Oil Change Without Getting Ripped OffMy Profile

  2. Our first home loan was through a government program for first time homeowners and it did take forever. We thought we were done several times and then they needed something else. We ended up having to move to start our new jobs and had to live in this dinky motel for the last week while we were waiting to close. Kicker was that we could literally see our house but couldn’t move into it! It all worked out well in the end. Hang in there! I’m also glad you got your money back on the bank statement fee.
    Kim recently posted..Use Credit Cards to Get Free ClothesMy Profile

    • Wow, that must have really sucked. :-( Our realtor said that if we have to do another extension for closing, it’s going to cost us our earnest money. He said it’s no big deal, but 1,000 bucks is a really big deal to me. Grrr.

      I couldn’t believe the bank manager actually refunded both of the fees, he said it was because of the hassle and my having to come back to the bank again just to talk to him. Such a sweetie. :-)
      Jen recently posted..Sublime Saturday Assemblage #34My Profile

  3. That’s too bad that your daughter has to change schools after the move. Hopefully that doesn’t put her behind her classmates. It obviously wouldn’t make sense to drive her to a different city for school each day in the meantime.

    As for your phone, have you considered getting an online phone service like skype to use as your landline? There might be some that are pretty much free these days.
    Modest Money recently posted..Beginning of September 2012 Blog UpdateMy Profile

    • Haha, you’re so funny Daphne. :-)

      We just both hate talking on the phone and would much prefer emails instead. Also, I don’t work and my husband doesn’t need a cell phone for work.

      It just really depends on the people and their particular needs, thankfully we don’t need it much.
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