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
+ $1,432.28 Honey’s Paycheck
– $704.00 (rent and bills)
– $94.13 (cigarettes)
– $19.95 (honey’s whiskey)
– $39.98 (gas @ 3.389 per gallon)
– $36.01 (Red Robin)
– $137.32 (groceries)
– /+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)
Saturday 28th
No spend day 
Sunday 29th
No spend day
Monday 30th
No real spending today 
– /+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)
Tuesday 31st
No real spending today
– /+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)
Wednesday Feb. 1st
No real spending today
-/+ $5.00 (auto transfer to START acct.)
– /+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)
Thursday 2nd
– $16.22 (beer 4 honey)
-/+ $166.14 (50% over Root Income– transfer to Emergency Fund)
– /+ $1.00 (transfer to savings)
-/+ $2.00 (transfer to ING to save for Car insurance)
Total Weekly Spending: $1,233.75
Pre-tax 401K Contributions $120.58
Categorized:
Savings $176.14
Rent & Bills $704.00
Dining Out $36.01
Cigarettes $94.13
Groceries $137.32
Gas $39.98
Alcohol $36.17
Save 4 Car insurance $10.00
Left-over for remaining week $198.53
Notes: We spent so much money on groceries last Friday. We got lots of stuff though, you know…filling our pantry and such. I don’t know why, but normally on payday (if I’m going to do it at all) I transfer the 50% over our Root Income to savings ASAP—but I hesitated this time. I ended up doing it last night, but I really just need to do it right away. I stayed home since Saturday, so that helps keep the spending low.
How did your budgeting/spending go this week?
Good job on the no spend days! I need to have more of those.
Thanks Michelle.
It’s amazing how many ‘no spend days’ I have when I don’t go anywhere.
Our spending was right on track this week. We did make a big purchase (an iPad2 !!) but we had money set aside for that.
Great job, Tim.
Oooooh, an iPad2. Okay, I’m jealous now. I keep trying to convince myself that I don’t need one, I just want one. I’ll probably end up saving to buy one eventually—probably the next model though.
Great job on the no spending days! I finished January and successfully stuck to the monthly grocery budget, which can be challenging with four kids! Good luck on your spending/saving for the upcoming week.
Thanks Pam. I couldn’t imagine buying groceries for 4 kids, wow. Good luck on your upcoming spending/saving too.
Nice commitment to tracking. Those cigs can really put a dint in finances over time eh? To try and get high school students to quit I show them how they could be a millionaire by 65 if they saved and invested their smoking money. It has the best success rate of anything I’ve tried.
Thanks, the longer I track it, the easier it gets. Yeah, smoking really wastes a TON of money. That’s actually a great way to get through to HS students, or even middle school students—most of my friends were already smoking in middle school. Pretty bad.