$1000

Days 12 - 15

2009-05-20T12:20:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I suck at life again. But now I'm catching up so it's forgiven, right? Moving on.

Last balance update: $191.38

Then I had to pay rent: -$310.00

Then I bought gas twice: -$37.00

Then I bought pizza... but was reimbursed so: $0?

William did laundry: -$7.00

I bought a few groceries: -$9.00

I paid my student loans: -$332.00

Bought cigarettes... twice (double ick): -$7.50

Which leaves us at a current balance of: $ -511.12

Wow. Thank goodness the first month is just our see how much we actually spend month... and there aren't any harmful penalties for spending more than $1000 (other than the guilt). Figuring out where to cut back next month is going to be reeeeaaaalllllyyyy important. Yikes.

Day 15 Balance: $-511.12

Days 10-11

2009-05-15T14:26:00.003-04:00

Well, William is out of town and thus, living on the government dollar. Yay! On the other hand, we spent $26.00 even at Don Chavas the other night. I spent $12.00 on fuel yesterday and I'm going to Walgreens after work so I can pick up cotton balls and stuff. So....

Day 11 Balance: $191.38

And as of this afternoon (when I pay the rent) we will be in the negative numbers. Which is fine for the first month. It's rough calculating your living expenses and realizing how expensive you are (Sorry Mom & Dad). But I think it will be well worth it next month when we hopefully don't go over $1000 because we will have learned so much. Either way, I fully expect this to be more of a longitudinal research study and possibly take us six months to get it right. As long as we're saving, I really don't care how long it takes. Well, have a good weekend, faithful readers!

Days 6 - 9

2009-05-13T15:51:00.004-04:00

Sorry about the gap there, guys. I'm pretty easily distracted. Anyway, a full legal pad page detailing our expenses for Days 6-9 is above.

A total of:

$7.75 for cigarettes
$45.00 in gasoline/car stuff (brake & power steering fluid)
$10.00 in whiskey
$17.00 for Mother's Day Cards (we had to buy 5)
$64.00 for my prescription
$129.19 for groceries (only 52.19 of that was legit groceries though, and part of the other $78 was booze)

Also, we've slightly adjusted this months mission statement. In order to better understand how we blow our money we're just going to spend as usual. Then at the end of the month we're going to go through our documents and cut out all the stuff we don't absolutely need. Make sense?

Deciding to just randomly live on $1000 without any prior planning revealed itself as a rather silly plan because we didn't know where we needed to cut back or how to determine what's a definite need and what we can still splurge on. So starting June 1 will be our first official $1000 or bust month.

How about an example? Our current balance would obviously put us in the hole as soon as we pay the $310 in rent. So next month we list rent as absolutely necessary (duh) and cut back on the extra groceries we bought for the cookout ($78) p.s. that link is a cartoon... click it, hopefully the cigarettes (careful, that link is gross...just like smoking) and something else. I might have to find a way to spend less on gas... although with an hour commute everyday that might be damn near impossible.

Day 9 Balance: $229.38

Day 5

2009-05-08T14:04:00.002-04:00

Well, faithful readers, this one is going to be rather quick because I am unexpectedly getting off work a bit early today!

Moving on! We spent $15.75 yesterday. $5.00 on a library late fee, $7.00 on (2) Newcastles at the Brass Rail while waiting out the rain, and then $3.75 for cigarettes (ugh). That brings our new grand total to...

Day 5 Balance: $504.62

Day 4

2009-05-07T10:37:00.003-04:00

If you click on the image that goes with this post it will take you to a screen shot of our excel spending sheet. Maybe I'll try to do this more often because me explaining it gets confusing. (Mostly because I'm slightly retarded. Please overlook this fact. Thank you. -Management)

Yesterday our expenses included gas, cigarettes, two whiskeys, coffee, and dinner. On one hand our expenses make me realize exactly how much cheaper it is to put fuel in his ca r as opposed to mine. On the other hand... I kind of wish I still had an extra $3.75 in the running. Maybe posting it on the internet that I seriously hope he quits smoking will speed up the quitting process? Or maybe you'll keeping seeing cigarettes listed on our spreadsheet every other day or so. (That last link is kind of gross, don't click it if you've got a weak stomach) This weekend doesn't look like it will put too much of a damper on our experiment but we do tend to go buy stuff when we get bored. I get paid tomorrow and it goes straight into the savings account. That's actually pretty exciting. At least the perks of this whole project will start showing up and maybe I'll quit worrying myself about buying things I need (I've been putting off a trip to the pharmacy :\ Oops?).

Day #4 Balance: $520.37

Day 3

2009-05-06T14:19:00.004-04:00

Yesterday set the record for the "Least Monet Spent in a Day" thus far. Which isn't hard to do considering we're only on day three and spent more than $400 on the first day. Anyway, just looking for something to be excited about.

We did go and do the laundry ($5.75), and it only took us about an hour and a half. And bought a 2-Liter of 7-Up ($1.88)... we needed something to drink the whiskey with. I'm a bit worried about when we run out of whiskey other people gave us as presents and we have to start buying our own again. That could make quite a dent unless we go back to drinking the stuff out of the gallon plastic chugs (count on it).

Day #3 Balance: $553.62

p.s. For those of you who are following (there are a few!) hints? suggestions? let us know!

Day 2

2009-05-05T10:20:00.005-04:00

Well it's day two and we've set up the excel spreadsheet. Ended up spending $41.25 on groceries (Yes, we really do drink that much milk) and putting $24 in fuel in my truck (which miraculously gave me half a tank).
And then there was $40 spent on adapters for the laptop at home. At EOD the total spent was $438.25. Tonight we've got laundry to do, and although I'm not worried about making an $8 dent in our balance it suddenly seems like a bigger chunk than it was last month. And then there's the fact that it's Cinco de Mayo and we'll probably feel the irrational need to drink more tequila than we ought to. All of this little money tracking is going to seem silly until the next big thing comes and we realize all five of our bar tabs for the two weeks add up to the rent... translation: Ten days until $310 in rent is due.

Day #2 Balance: $561.25

Day 1

2009-05-04T14:07:00.000-04:00

Today is officially Day #1 on the "$1000 a month" living experiment. I've transferred everything extra out of the account so I have an even $1000. And since the project starts today the $ 333.00 in medical fees I didn't pay last Friday gets taken out of our $1000 for the month.

Considering I have to go grocery shopping yet today and put gas in my truck I think we're going to be down below $600 quicker than I thought.

Day #1 Balance: $667.00