I’ve been sorting through the expenditures from last year, sorting out Mom’s and my families expenses, and updating with items we’ve already canceled or renegotiated. It's been a painful process (The magazines will be a story in themselves!)

Here’s what I have so far:

I’ve been sorting through the expenditures from last year, sorting out Mom’s and my families expenses, and updating with items we’ve already canceled or renegotiated. Here’s what I have so far:

Monthly Summary:
Home - $587
Utilities - $570
Transportation - $222
Health related - $675
Grocery/Drug Store - $100
Entertainment/Media - $40
Dog/Wildlife - $10
Clothing - $0
Gifts - $TBD

Total - $2204/month + gifts and charities

Wow, that’s a huge difference from my original calculations.

I'm hugely embarrassed at how out of hand things were, or at least appeared. Those weeds in the budget spread quickly, but were weeded out with many phone calls and a few heated discussions.

Here’s the breakout.


Home
Insurance - $70
Repair and Maintenance - $40
Mortgage - $0
Security System - $32
Lawn Service - $70
Lawn Cutting – in progress
Property Taxes - $375
Total: $587/month

Utilities:
Fuel Oil - $125
Electric - $250
Water Systems - $30
Phone/Internet - $70
Cell Phone - $5
Cable - $90
Total: $570/month

Transportation:
Vehicle payments - $0
Gasoline - $75
Maintenance and Repair - $70
Insurance - $70
Registration - $7
Total: $222

Health:
Insurance for all: $480
Prescriptions - $125
Dental - $50
Eye - $20
Total: $675

Grocery/Drugstore Purchases:
$100/month

Entertainment/Media/Luxury:
Newspaper - $5
Magazines - $8
DVD/Music/Games/Workout - $27
Total: $40

Dog&Wildlife Repairs
$10

Clothing:
$0 (all will be gifts)

Auto-Delivery items
CANCELLED


I'm sure I am forgetting something.

Home - $
Utilities - $
Transportation - $
Health related - $
Grocery/Drug Store - $
Entertainment/Media - $
Dog/Wildlife - $
Clothing - $
Gifts - $
Miscellaneous - $

Total - $/month

no way. we have ALOT of work to do here! Argh!

Average $400 a month

Goal is $100 or less

this includes all drug store, personal care, health and beauty, parents medical supplies, etc., so it should be fairly easy to reduce it this year.

To start our new budget, and find more extraneous spending, I'm breaking down last year's expenses into categories, averaging things out into monthly costs, and them I'll roll them up into an overall spending review.