Day 30: End of Month Budget Analysis

Budget...............................Actual Expense.......Balance

$170 Utilities.......................$332......................($162)
$115 Phone.........................$116.....................($1)
$150 Gasoline.....................$116....................$34
$900 Groceries...................$942.....................($42)
$53 Eating out....................$60.......................($8)
$200 Clothing/personal......$200.....................$0
$50 Entertainment..............$53.......................($3)
$75 Babysitter.....................$0........................$75
$50 School Expenses..........$359....................($309)
$100 Miscellaneous...........$103....................($3)
$150 Vacation....................$163....................($13)
$150 Gifts..........................$167....................($17)
$150 Doctor/Dentist..........$136........................$14
$150 Car maintenance......$0........................$150
_____________  ____________________ 
$ 2463 Total                      $2747 Total         


O.K.  Biggest hits were utilities and school expenses.  Utilities will be less next month because the waste bill ($87) covers three months.  But even if I were to only add a third of that, bringing our actual monthly utilites to $274, that is still almost $200 over my budget.  Water is high at $157.  It is the one to target getting lower.


School expenses hopefully are mostly over.  Free public education, not quite, but it is cheaper than when we were writing private school checks.


I almost made it with groceries.  I was doing cloth diapers, and cooking up the last bit of pantry stuff, but we had an ant infestation and it broke me.  I needed that bug spray.  I got diapers too. I am weak.


Clothing and personal is $200 which sounds like a lot until you realize there are six of us.  It seems someone is always in need of something.  I was hoping to have personal money to roll over to next month, but Jeffrey needed some clothes.  There goes my roll over, and next months personal is spent already as well.  


So, overall not a great triumph, we spent $284 more than I had in my budget.  I'll have to do better next month.  The groceries got off to a rocky start with my small runs at the beginning, so that should be easier to keep under control next month.  Focusing on water use will be a priority, and then just trying to have a few extra dollars rather than a few less dollars in the other categories.  It was a good first month's try.