Before the budget, the purge

This is  the followup to yesterdays post.  I guess since I asked you to track your spending for a month I really should post this in a month.  But it is my blog and I'll do what I want.

So now you have an idea of were your money goes.  If you are anything like me you found some surprising if no terrifying results.  I was spending between four to five hundred dollars a month on eating out.  That and random unplanned purchases are where the most of my money went.  Unplanned purchases are when you are wandering through a store and just see something and buy it, fifty dollars for this video game, buy a couple of shirts, etc. I was losing another hundred to two hundred dollars a month on unplanned purchases.

So before I worried about a budget I determined to cut out the waste. I first figured out a clever way to deal with unplanned purchases.  I didn't allow myself to buy anything.  I could not purchase anything that was not essential.  Eventually I allowed myself to buy things If I had saved up the money.  This removed the temptation to buy things when just out and about.   I didn't have to argue with myself over whether I should or should not buy something. There was no discussion just no. I am not good with subtlety.  I need black and white decision making.

You can see my need for black and white in my handling of eating out.  I allowed myself a couple of times out a week.  Very quickly I was back to spending four hundred dollars a month.  Guess you can't win them all.