Budget Recap – January 2007
January held some difficult challenges to overcome. The biggest was being $500 short in income due to overspending in December (no, not because of gifts). However, as I said I would, I had faith that we’d make it through the month meeting the majority of our goals. Instead of making month-specific goals, we decided to take a running start at our Goals for 2007.
Savings: Increased Savings to $700/month
We followed through with the goal to increase our direct savings contribution from $300 a month to $700 a month. This is a very difficult stretch for January, but I’m glad we made it happen.
Debt: Pay Down Debt
We put more than $600 toward the credit card debt this month. Most of the payments were all minimum payments except our highest interest rate card which received an additional $300.
Cell Phone: Too High
Our cell phones continue to cost us more than $100 a month – too much. I’m hoping to get this resolved before May.
Food: Almost Within Budget
We actually stayed within our dining out budget for the majority of the month. However, we failed to factor in the trip to Oklahoma and the meals that we’d be eating out while there. Overall, $220 on eating out is a good number for us. We also cut groceries down a lot this month to help make up for the shortage we started with. Our pantry left us with plenty of good meals and February will show a spike in grocery purchases.
Personal Funds
The partner continued to pass on taking out the personal funds we both agreed we would get each month. This makes me uncomfortable and we made up for it in February by taking out twice as much as usual for him.
Additional Income
The 2007 plan includes increasing ebay sales and other income streams. January was not a good candidate for this and we’re trying to pick up the slack in February.
Overall, January went much better than expected. We’re still having to catch up on some things in February, but I think things are looking up.