Financial Reflections and Goals for 2010

I'm approaching the end of my first year of keeping a budget! I'm proud of this accomplishment, but I have so much farther to go before I'll be where I want to be in the struggle between controlling my money and having it control me. So before I start in on the negatives, here's what I'm proud of from the last year:

• I actually stuck with it! Every few days, for the last year, I've gone over my statements and transferred everything into my meticulous budget spreadsheet. Now it's habit.
• I got in the habit of saving. Except for a few months where I was too cash-strapped, I've been putting away $100 or $200 each month toward going to Italy. After that trip I plan to continue saving. Saving makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
• Contrary to my fears, now that I can look at the whole year in review, most of my budget slip-ups weren't from profligate eating out expenses or other small expenses - it was because every few months I made a pretty major purchase - a computer, a TV, birthday/Christmas gifts, a mattress (I couldn't avoid that last one, but still). Luckily resisting big-ticket impulse spending is fairly easy. I'm now entrenched in a stubborn "I'm poor" attitude.
• I'm getting a lot better at cooking and making use of what's in my kitchen. My diet has definitely improved.
  

And now for the negatives...

• Try as I might, this year I just kept getting poorer. After the summer I quit my tutoring job, because it's very hard to be a full-time student with two part-time jobs. Then financial aid kept decreasing in conjunction with tuition going up 14%, culminating with this quarter where suddenly I had to start paying out of pocket for books and $100 of tuition. Yikes. I'm trying to get out of here with as few loans as possible, but I definitely need to plan for this next year. The situation will likely get worse.
  
• I suck at not eating out. Lunch isn't the offender - I'm very good at either bringing it or going hungry. It's going out to dinner with friends. The answer obviously isn't to become a recluse, so the most likely way to deal with this cost is to trim spending elsewhere. I already order the cheapest things on menus and don't get drinks.
• In general, I need to think long and hard about whether I need something or just want it before I buy. This has been getting easier in the last couple months: I rarely go to places where I have the opportunity to buy things. Mostly I just go to the grocery store. When I did my Christmas shopping yesterday I almost felt empowered; passing chic clothes, handbags, and all sorts of baubles, I thought, "I don't need you! I already have everything I need to make me happy!"

Goals for 2010

The most obvious goal is: don't spend more than you make in one month. For several months in 2009 I bankrupted myself by using September's first paycheck to pay off the rest of August's expenses. Naively I thought I could get by on one paycheck for September, and when I couldn't, the cycle continued.

Not anymore. I want to start 2010 with a clean slate, which means spending this month living on one paycheck - for real. Luckily, I'll be going home at the end of the week, so I won't have to worry about food/gas/electricity and all of the uncertain expenses of living on your own. Unfortunately, this month is also December. Because my family is awesome and supports me so much, they deserve Christmas presents. But in order to start off 2010 clean, I gave myself a budget of $50 for all of my Christmas shopping this year. Here's how it worked out:

• Every few months I get a free $25 amazon gift card as a perk for using their credit card. I saved the latest one and used it to buy presents for my dad, stepmom and boyfriend. Score!
• My mom, stepdad and sister came to a grand total of $54, but to help offset this I sold some old textbooks today and got $36 back! Yes!
• Everyone else will be getting yummy and lovingly-wrapped baked goods.
  

Besides this Christmas spending, I've tried to absolutely reduce all non-necessary spending to zero this month. The one slip-up came when I took on an extra shift at work in the middle of the day - I hadn't brought anything in for dinner because I thought I would be home, so I bought something because I was starving. But, I'm on track to start the new year in the green.

One thing that this month has taught me so far is that it's really not all that hard to not spend. There's enough food in my kitchen to last a couple weeks. After about a week I wouldn't be eating fresh vegetables or fruit anymore, but my nutrition wouldn't take a very big hit. It just takes meal planning creativity and getting myself up off the couch. Last night I made homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese, which definitely hit the spot on a cold and dreary Seattle night.

So besides actually living within my means, here are some other financial goals for next year:

For about a year I've been saving up to go to Italy with my parents this summer. Once that trip is over, I want to keep saving monthly:

- Build a $500 emergency fund. Within five months at the latest (putting away $100/month) I want to have $500 in the bank to be used in case of emergencies: unexpected car costs, health costs, and other unforeseen and unplanned emergencies.

- Keep a $200 fund for recurring expenses. Keep $200 set aside at all times for recurring expenses throughout the year: textbooks, out-of-pocket tuition expenses, and gifts. This way these expenses won't take me by surprise and bankrupt me ($200 is a lot when you make just under $8,000 a year!).

- Don't make a large purchase until all of it has been saved. This one is probably a no-brainer, but unfortunately I need to make it a rule. Last year I was saving $3- or $400 for a TV and caved to purchase a great deal when I was still $100 short. While it's been a great TV, ultimately I don't need a TV and I'm a little ashamed that not waiting until I had all the money ready meant that I had to do some scrambling to cover that $100 I didn't wait for.

My usual method for saving for fun things (like the TV, or things like a weekend trip to Victoria) is to take 10% off each paycheck and put it in savings. This is a small enough number that I can manage its loss, but it still adds up relatively quickly. The amount of time it takes to save for something also has the added benefit of helping me realize if I really want it or not. Of course, sometimes I just sabotage all my well-thought-out plans. But I'm determined to learn from my mistakes.

A Christmas tree decorating party

Photo by Matt Wei

Though I live in a small apartment in Seattle, I was determined to put up a Christmas tree this year. My family has a 'spare' fake tree that my mom let me use, along with a box of lights and ornaments that we haven't used in years. It was the perfect opportunity to bake lots of cookies and invite friends over last weekend to decorate.

I spent Saturday baking: gingerbread men, chocolate chip walnut cookies, peanut butter hershey's kiss cookies... I bought store-bought sugar cookie dough because there just wasn't enough time. I cut the cookie dough into bells, trees, stars, and snowmen for everyone to decorate with colored frosting.

Photo by Matt Wei

Since I don't have a rolling pin, I used the next best thing: a wine bottle! After a thorough scrubbing it worked quite well.


My friend Katie brought her famous Santa cookies and homemade frosting. After eating one of these cookies you'll very likely go into a sugar coma and be unable to consume anything else for about a half hour. But they're delicious.
It was a great night. We decorated cookies, ate pizza, drank spiced cider, watched A Christmas Story, and, of course, decorated the tree.

Photo by Matt Wei's handy 10-second timer

And the tree!

Filet Mignon

Last Friday I made dinner for my boyfriend's birthday and invited two of our best friends over to help celebrate. I decided to pull out the stops and make something that we could never afford out: bacon-wrapped filet mignon. I was so busy preparing for dinner and having so much fun when we were eating it that I completely forgot to take pictures, which is a shame, because it was beautiful and delicious!

My first-ever dinner party was a success, I'm happy to say. On the menu was bacon-wrapped filet mignon, cooked to medium-rare perfection thanks to the handy meat thermometer I got off Amazon (I'm far too paranoid to cook meat to anything but well done without one). I also made rosemary-garlic red potatoes and steamed asparagus. Our friends brought a 2002 Merlot and we drank the rest of the red zinfandel that I used in the sauce. For dessert I bought a box of Ghiradelli walnut brownie mix (delicious!) and served it with fresh raspberries on the side.

The hardest part was timing everything so it was all done when they arrived, especially since almost everything had to go in the oven at different temperatures. The potatoes could have cooked a little longer, but everyone said they tasted great. I was pretty nervous and jittery while cooking the filets - I almost never cook beef - but I'm sure with practice it'll get easier. Although the presentation on the filets wasn't the best (some of the bacon was falling off), they tasted great.

Cost

I bought everything except the wine at QFC.

4 ~8oz filet mignon: $37.60
4 slices of bacon: $1.40
Red zinfandel: $8.49
2 T shallots: less than $0.50
6 red potatoes: $1.71
2 cloves garlic: $0.26
1/2 onion: $0.63
Rosemary and olive oil is negligible, and I had both already.

Ghiradelli brownie mix: $1.99
Raspberries: $6.99

For a total of $59.57 for four people, or about $14.89 a plate! While this is certainly not a meal I can afford to make every month, it was a great special occasion meal and muuuch cheaper than buying it at a restaurant.

And now for the recipes!

Pan Seared Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon in Red Wine Reduction Sauce

• 4 filet mignons wrapped in bacon (6 or 8oz each)
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots (or to taste)
• 3/4 cup red wine (I used a red zinfandel)
  

Sprinkle steaks with a combination of garlic powder and ground pepper. Pat into steaks and let the steaks sit covered and unrefrigerated for approximately 1 hour.
Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat; turn oven to 375 degrees F. Add 2 tablespoons butter and let foam. Add the steaks and cook for 4 minutes per side. You should get a nice sear on each side. Remove the steaks and put them in the oven on an oven proof platter or casserole dish.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining butter. Once melted, add the shallots and cook for about 1 minute until they soften, then add the wine and thyme. Raise the heat to high and let most of the sauce bubble away. Reduce heat to low.
Cook the steaks about 8-10 minutes. When the steaks are close to cooked - 140 degrees F at their thickest point - remove the steaks from the oven and let sit for 2 minutes. Toss the steak in the pan with the sauce, and then serve with a coating of the red wine sauce.

Rosemary garlic potatoes

• 6 red potatoes, quartered
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• rosemary to taste
  

Combine ingredients in a gallon-sized ziplock bag and shake until potatoes are evenly coated. Cook potatoes for 30-40 minutes at 425 degrees F or until outsides are golden brown.

A Halloween Murder Mystery Party

Who says hosting a dinner party has to break the bank? I certainly don't!

For Halloween this year my friend Katie and I decided to throw a murder mystery party. We began planning for it in... oh, August. She decided to take care of the housing and the actual dinner, and I would take care of the murder mystery. I researched online for a few days but couldn't find anything for free. I wasn't about to pay $60 to buy someone else's party, so I decided to write my own. It's actually wonderfully fun and a good exercise for a creative writing major.

Writing your own murder mystery party takes a lot of time and planning, but can be really rewarding! Here are some tips for writing your own:

• Choose your theme! The possibilities are limitless: Hollywood glam, pirates, Jane Austen... we chose to do a Halloween-themed 1940s murder mystery.
• Look at murder mystery kits online. Many of them provide party samples and character descriptions. They'll also help you familiarize yourself with murder mystery party formats.
• Decide on your party size and guest-list. It's a lot easier to plan your guest list in advance. You'll have to make up each character, and it can be helpful to pair guests with a certain character personality at the get-go. As you can imagine, the smaller the party the easier it will be to create fully-fleshed characters. For our party we had ten characters.
• Start by writing a party premise. What happens leading up to the murder? Here's ours: 

Hollywood Actress Jean Heather is throwing a dinner party to celebrate her newly released film Double Indemnity, and you’re invited! Not long into the party, Jean realizes she forgot to buy mint for the mojitos! Jean's fiancé, Harold, runs down to the grocer's to buy some, but he never returns. Eventually Jean gets worried and goes to look for him - and finds him sprawled in the lobby. While waiting for the police to arrive, the guests start to wonder if foul play was involved, and if one of the guests themselves could be the culprit…

•  Now you'll need to create the characters, decide on whodunnit (and why and how), and plan the order of events.
• After you're done with all the writing, it's time to create an invitation! (Or, if you're not the creative type, ask a friend who is)

• In addition to the invitations, there are of course more things that need to be printed out: character descriptions, objectives, the evidence, nametags, and the solution to be read out at the end of the party.

The name tags and objective (A) envelopes waiting for everyone at the start of the party.

• And finally, think about printing off awards to give to the guests who guess the murderer correctly, best actor/actress, and best costume!

While I was busy writing the murder mystery, Katie was busy planning the menu. She wanted a fall menu since it was Halloween, and I have to gratuitously include it, because it was amazing: there was hard cider and red wine to drink, then arugula salad with pecorino and toasted pine nuts, crushed red potatoes, and pork medallions with sage and mustard sauce. For dessert she made chocolate hazelnut brownies with vanilla ice cream, and I made pear apple crisp with pine nuts.

If the cost of dinner would be prohibitive, you could ask each guest to bring a dinner dish (or at least a bottle of wine). Our group of friends rotates hostess duties, so at the end of the day we all come out pretty much even.

Happy partying!

Hotroot Soup

When I was a kid, the Redwall books by Brian Jacques were one of my favorite series (in addition to Harry Potter). The stories take place in a world inhabited by talking animals - mice, hedgehogs, squirrels, moles, otters, hares, and badgers were among the "good guys," and stoats, weasels, rats, foxes, and cats were among the "bad guys." Each book featured clashes of good against evil (where good always triumphed, of course), coming-of-age tales, and lots and lots of descriptions of feasts and food. I always salivated while reading them. Over the years my friends and I experimented with Redwall cuisine: when I was in high school we had a "Redwall feast" featuring "Deeper'n Ever Turnip'n'Tater'n'Beetroot pie," (a mole specialty) "Daynurr's Zoop," (an original creation) strawberry scones, nutbread (still one of my favorite bread recipes), and sparkling cider.

Our Redwall feast

But my favorite Redwall dish is Hotroot Soup. This was the otters' specialty, and it is supposed to be very spicy. I can't handle spice too well, so I put in as much as I can handle. Here is my hotroot soup recipe, adapted from a recipe on redwall.net: (Edit: I made this again on 11/16 and have updated the recipe)

Hotroot Soup

• 1lb cooked shrimp
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (or fresh, naturally)
• 1 15oz. can corn
  
• 2 tsp basil
• cayenne pepper and chili powder to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 cups water
• Vegetable bullion
  
• 1 cup brown rice

In a pot or rice cooker, cook 1 cup of brown rice (should yield about three cups cooked). In a large pot, add 3 cups water and vegetable bullion and set on high. Coat a skillet with olive oil. Salt and pepper the oil, then add onion, red pepper, celery, and spices and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until tender. Pour into boiling broth and stir in tomatoes, corn, and basil. Mix in the shrimp. Cover and simmer 30-40 minutes. Add cooked rice, mix well, and cook another 5 minutes to heat through. Makes about six servings.

Fall baking

For me fall isn't complete without the smell of goods baking in the oven. On Wednesday I made oatmeal butterscotch and chocolate chip cookies, and on Thursday I made pumpkin bread. They both turned out great!

The pumpkin bread is amazingly moist, and though the recipe said to use three loaf pans, I only have two, so I made it work. I had to cook them about fifteen minutes longer to make up for the fact that there was more batter in each pan.

Here is the recipe, from Allrecipes.com:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Now I've got enough sweet things to keep me happy for awhile :)

A week of simple and cheap (but repetitive) meals

Last Thursday I wanted to make something quick and easy for dinner, without having to go to the grocery store. So I made refried-bean enchiladas.

This involved filling corn tortillas with canned refried beans, placing them in a 9x13 pan, dousing them with canned enchilada sauce, and grating liberally with cheese. After about a half hour in the oven at 350 degrees F, I had a delicious, if simple dinner that would feed me for a few nights. And since I could happily eat Mexican food almost every day of the week, I don't mind.

My enchiladas after I'd eaten the first serving

Yesterday I went to QFC to figure out what to make for dinner for Dom and I, and I picked up one of those awesome roasted chickens. I love those things! For $7 I get a pre-cooked, pre-seasoned chicken that will feed me for a few days at least. We ate the chicken with garlic bread, Stovetop stuffing and heated canned green beans.


And for dessert I made a healthy and delicious fruit salad. Well, healthy except for the dollop of cool whip. But it's better than brownies and ice cream, anyway. The fruit salad consisted of bananas, strawberries, an apple, and grapes.


And for tonight I'm going to cut up some of my leftover chicken and put it in my leftover enchiladas for chicken enchiladas, with more fruit salad for dessert. Woo!

New Curtains!

In the spirit of saving money and creating with my own hands, I just finished making curtains for my living room. It’s the first time I’ve ever made curtains, and I’m very happy with them! Luckily my mistakes aren’t visible in the front (which is what matters, right?). I thought about doing a ruffle at the top but in the end the fabric wasn’t long enough. I like the way they look now though.

I was stuck for how to tie it back - I didn’t want to go out and buy tassels or anything, and then somewhere I saw a picture of curtains with self-fabric ties, and I thought that was a great idea. So I made ties out of the yellow and bound the edges with red fabric I have for when I get around to re-covering my couch pillows. The curtain ties close with two hooks and eyes each. Again, the backs of the ties are kind of messy, but at least no one will see them, right? I can always go back and tidy them up. I was just too excited to see my curtains finally finished. (for about two weeks I only had one half of the curtains done, until I had enough free time to finish the other side)

Hurray for projects getting done!

Baked chicken and veggies, or "Ye Olde Standby"

It finally got cool enough in my apartment that I was able to turn on the oven again, so I made one of my favorite meals: baked chicken breasts and veggies. If I can't think of anything else to make for dinner, this is what I turn to. I almost always have the ingredients on hand.

I forgot to take a picture of it before it was mostly eaten, but I usually make this a few times a month, so hopefully I won't forget next time.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a 9x13'' pan, place two whole chicken breasts in the middle.

Place these vegetables around them in the pan:

• 4 red potatoes, chopped
• 1/2 onion, diced
  
• 4 large carrots, chopped
• 2 sticks celery, chopped

Then I spread just a capfull of vegetable oil on top of the chicken and add salt, pepper and basil to taste.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for one hour or until chicken is done.

Serve with stuffing or mashed potatoes! It also went great with a bottle of blackberry wine.

My cousin's wedding

This weekend was my cousin's wedding. It definitely qualified as both frugal and awesome! The wedding and reception were held outdoors at my grandpa's house. It was such a beautiful setup! The ceremony's backdrop was his garden, and the only additions were wreaths of flowers arranged around the archway where they were married.

My cousin had ten bridesmaids, including my sister and I and her two sisters. We ordered our dresses online from a Hawaii-based website and they were only $40 each, including shipping! It was a bit crazy getting everyone coordinated, but I know my cousin had a great day.

Her husband is hispanic and his family cooked most of the food for the reception. It was some of the most delicious Mexican food I've ever eaten: tamales, rice, tortilla soup, this amazing pork-and-tomato stuff...My mom contributed a ham and the cake was amazing as well.

The whole event was family-designed from top to bottom, from the homemade table decorations to the music during the reception - my grandfather's rock 'n roll band! What a great weekend!

Chicken curry

Tonight's dinner was just for me, and it was a completely improvised chicken curry. I looked at a few recipes online, but I didn't have all of the ingredients for any of them, so I decided to wing it. It's not as spicy as I would have liked, but surprisingly yummy!

Put a quarter of an onion in a pan on medium heat with a dash of vegetable oil, and added one cut up chicken breast. Put in two cloves of garlic and about half a cup of water.

I added all of the spices to taste, because I only had a vague idea what I was doing!

-Lots of tumeric.
-Oregano
-Lemon pepper
-Chili pepper
-Nutmeg
-Cinnamon
-cilantro
-cashews

I put the curry over a Rice a Roni package of brown and wild rice and had some of last night's salad.

I don't know why the picture uploaded sideways! The next time I make curry, I'd like to have some of the ingredients I should have had - tomato sauce or paste or coconut milk, cumin, coriander, etc. But I definitely enjoyed it as is.

Chicken mole tacos

Tonight I made dinner for Dom and I: chicken mole tacos and a salad using the fresh greens my stepmom gave me from her garden last weekend.

The salad uses lettuce and spinach with a tomato thrown in. It could have used another tomato, but I only had one.
For the chicken I cut up two chicken breasts and cooked them in a pan with a dash of vegetable oil. I added pepper and chili pepper to taste.

For the mole sauce I looked up a couple recipes online, but I ended up mostly winging it. To my surprise, it turned out pretty well!

I put a dash of vegetable oil in a medium pot and added a quarter of an onion, finely chopped. I cooked it on medium until it was tender. Then I added a bit of garlic, cilantro, an 8 oz. can of tomato juice, and melted semi-sweet baker's chocolate to taste. I stirred, added pepper and cinnamon to taste, and cooked it until it was heated through.

I heated up corn tortillas on the stove and filled them with the chicken, then spread the mole sauce on top and garnished with fresh cilantro.
(Um... why is this picture sideways?)

Next time I'll also make Spanish rice and grate cheese on top of the tacos. I might put refried beans into the tacos as well, or maybe just rice. But I definitely want to make this dish again.

Oatmeal Apple Crisp

This is one of my mom's recipes that I tried last Christmas, and I love it. I've made it twice since, and made a few changes of my own (I like more cinnamon and oats, and less flour). Everyone loves it!

• 5 large peeled, cored and sliced apples (A mixture of fujis and granny smiths work well)
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup flour
• 2 sticks butter
• 2 T cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Arrange apples in greased 9x13'' pan. Mix in lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add butter; mix until crumbly. Press mixture over apples. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes or until top browns. Makes 10-12 servings.

Financial reflections after five months of budget-keeping

Now that May's over, this is the fifth month that I've been tracking my spending and attempting to keep a budget.

I have a pretty detailed and (if I may say so) awesome budget spreadsheet that I made back in the beginning of December, when I had no idea where all of my money was going, and my mom said I could go to Italy with her and Mark next spring break, if I could pay for it. So I decided to make a budget that would reel in my spending and help me save up for Italy.

In December my plan was to give myself a spending cap, and then record all of my spending on a spreadsheet. By the end of December I learned it wasn't enough just to have a number in mind that I couldn't exceed; I would think, "well, I should still have enough money to eat out/buy that for my apartment/get a couple shirts," and by the end of the month I'd spent much more than I'd meant to.

So in January I created the itemized awesomeness that I've been using ever since. First, there are sections for each source of income: what I'm projected to bring in, and then, next to it, what I actually bring in (this fluctuates because some months I miss work, others I pick up extra cover, etc). Below that are my fixed expenses, the things that I always have to pay: rent, parking, utilities, internet, groceries, gas, and also my monthly savings. I've been putting away $200 a month for Italy since December, and I'm on track to go to Italy. I'm glad I have these saving habits ingrained now, because after the trip I can just keep saving and have a nice chunk for emergencies or future trips or whatever.

My fixed expenses plus all of my savings amount to 80% of my monthly income (52% fixed expenses, 26% savings). I read this article on MSN about keeping your basic living expenses below 60% of your total income - and I'm glad I'm able to do that.

Next come the variable expenses. School-related expenses take up about 10% of the remaining income, though they're only incurred once every three months. The last 10% is for the fun stuff. I realized that by allowing myself to budget in fun stuff (like two movies out a month, and $50 on eating out - roughly eating out once a week), I generally don't spend more on those things than I would have before.

Of course, all that is very nice in theory. What I've learned over the last five months is that in some areas, I fight my budget tooth and nail. Each month the eating out tab has been higher than I want it to be, and every couple months I decide to make some bigger purchase that puts strain on other areas. There is built-in flexibility, but I really wish I was more in control of impulse spending (which usually happens in the middle of the month when I say, "hey, look, I have a lot of money left over!"). But I'm going to try and not beat myself up about it too hard. The first step is to figure out where the money is going - and I've got that down. Now the goal is to really try and reel in spending.

The most obvious place to cut is eating out. Despite my best intentions, I eat out a lot. Usually for lunch, because I figure, "it's only five or six dollars." But that adds up alarmingly fast. Keeping my kitchen better stocked with lunch foods and making lunch the night before will help. Most days I'm out of the house from 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM at work and school, so if I don't pack lunch, I'm starving. During June my goal is to only eat out for lunch once a week, if that. After summer's over I hope to reduce that number to zero, except for the rare case. But little steps.

Eating out less for dinner is also a goal - or rather, the goal is to stick with the original goal, which is once a week.

I guess also, looking at the itemized lists of everything I've purchased over the last five months, most of it is stuff I don't really need, or it's stuff I could have gotten cheaper if I'd looked harder. Especially stuff for my new apartment. So in the future, I really want to ask myself, "do I need that," not just want it, before I make a purchase. And if I really decide that I do need it, I should shop around online and look at thrift stores (or make it myself) before buying it. I really do have all the necessities already - all of the other things on my list are just things that would be nice.

So, I've got a way to go before I'm confident and comfortable with my spending habits. But at least I'm getting there.