Money

I've been reading a lot of personal finance blogs lately. People that do little things that save big money. And I've decided that in light of my own personal finance crisis, I'd do some tracking and saving of my own. I registered an account with Expensr and as of right now all of our outstanding and due bills are paid.

I decided to make a change to my cell phone plan. The Boy and I have a shared plan. We have T-Mobile, and we currently have the Fave 5 Plan. Which isn't really that exciting except you can have unlimited calls with 5 phone numbers, landlines included. It sounded pretty sweet at the time because I was still talking to Sarah at the time. Now, however, the only person on The Boy's 5 is me (and we'd get unlimited in-network calls anyways) and the only person on my 5 that I ever talk to is my mom (and we talk at night- hello unlimited nights and weekends) we decided to downgrade our plan. We have the same shared minutes, but no Fave 5. It's going to save us roughly $20 a month.

It would be a ton easier to plan budgets for things if I had a semi-fixed income. Unfortunately I'm at the mercy of my part-time (lower paying) job. I don't have a lot of expenses lined up, except for repairs to my car and maybe a new (used?) couch. The couch will probably not happen. I'm really trying to be smart about what I WANT and what I NEED. I looked at my Expensr account and realized I spend way too much on fast food. I'm going to keep up with my $10/month Starbucks limit, and I'm probably going to give myself a Subway budget as well (sometimes its just easier to get a sub at work. And more yummy. And hot.). Other than that, I need to start either not eating out, or bringing my own food places.

I need to stop buying new clothes at such high prices. I need to either be more diligent about Goodwill, or frequent the evil Wal-Mart more often. Although, it would probably be smarter for me to find bargains at Marshall's and have higher-quality items than cheap things that won't last me a single season at Wal-Mart. Goodwill is always tough because you never know what you'll find. And if you're looking for something specific it can be a huge headache.

So far, the only things I NEED in the near future are new tires for my car, a few repairs for my car, and some decent-fitting clothing (not much, mostly just excersise stuff so I can actually go out for runs now that it's getting nicer). Oh, I also need a new winter coat, but I'm waiting just a smidge longer on that so I could get one on the cheap. Gotta live clearance!