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 7th
+ $1,388.86 Honey’s Paycheck
– $168.75 (dining out)
– $39.20 (gas in mom’s car)
-/+ $800.00 (pretend mortgage & bills to house fund)
– $112.38 (cigarettes)
– $44.12 (alcohol)
– $47.84 (groceries)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Saturday 8th
No spend day
-/+ $25.00 (to Roth IRA)

Sunday 9th
No spend day

Monday 10th
No spend day
+ $132.00 (classes/training expenses)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Tuesday 11th
– $20.00 (gas @ 3.999 per gallon)
– $107.67 (groceries)
– $24.95 (honey whiskey)
– $16.68 (gas in mom’s car)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Wednesday 12th
No spend day
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $1.00 (transfer to Xmas fund)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)

Thursday 13th
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: $1,426.59
Pre-tax 401K Contributions $156.82

Categorized:

Savings $810.00
Dining Out $168.75
Cigarettes $112.38
Groceries $155.51
Gas $75.88
Alcohol $69.07
Roth IRA contributions $25.00
Save 4 Car insurance $10.00

Left-over for remaining week $94.27

Notes: I did really, really awful this week! If things don’t go according to my plans, I apparently don’t adjust well. At least I still…have 5 no spend days this week, LOL!

Right away, I knew something was off because of the amount of the paycheck, but we didn’t get the paystub until a couple of days later. After reviewing the paystub, I realized the problem…the 401k contributions were bumped back up to 8%.

I hesitated transferring 50% over our root income because I didn’t think we would have enough money left-over and didn’t want to turn around and take it back out of savings. I still transferred over the pretend mortgage and bills money.

The dining out was actually spread over the course of a few days, but it was just easier to lump it together. My husband was out of town for a few days taking he classes and getting re-certified  so that was a big chunk of that.

Our daughter and I also ate out a few times while he was out of town, probably because I was missing him and being lazy. Then after he came back, we ate out some more. Awful, awful wasting of money—not his food while he was out of town, just the rest of it.

Then there’s the whole matter of our daughter starting school, which is about 40-50 miles a day I have to do 5 days a week. We’re having her go to her old school until we move into the new house, otherwise, it would be 100+ miles each day. So that’s really adding up, thankfully while my mom was out of town, I was able to use her car. I’m so sick of driving now.

I’m not sure how the last half of the pay period is going to go, mostly because we’re almost broke. I’ll certainly be avoiding eating out and whatnot, but I’m sure we’re going to need more gas soon.

How did your budgeting/spending go this week?