Figured out where the money is going

After going over my account and trying to figure out where the money went, I realized a few things I had not factored into my budget.

1. School clothes, uniforms and school supplies.
2. Fast food-yeah not good!
3. Morning coffee-kicked the energy drink habit but found myself in the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru every day.
4. Car expenses-we needed new brakes and minor car parts for both cars. At least we installed them ourselves saving some money.
5. OK, one last tiny little splurge-a few Starbucks Pumpkin Lattes. Their seasonal and only around for a few months.
6. My husbands lottery habit-I am seeing at least $20 a week going to that.
7. Looked over our water bill, and found some overcharges-of over $30 this month and last month.

I know now where the money is going and I know why. I can’t justify $10 a day on coffee for me and my husband. It is ironic, that is what everyone tells you to drop when you are budgeting and I somehow did the opposite. I have been drinking energy drinks for years and thought I’d never stop. These specialty coffee drinks I like are a heck of a lot more expensive than my Red Bull!

Solution: I bought some coffee at Target on Clearance for $3.50, some flavored creamer and took the old coffee maker out of the box. We will start making our own coffee tomorrow. I will not deprive though, maybe for Thanksgiving and Christmas I’ll get a nice Pumpkin Spice Latte for a treat. No Starbucks every day though-do I think I am rich or something? I know it is expensive! I tell you, being addicted to coffee(caffeine) is probably more expensive than a drug habit!

No more fast food! My girls don’t need it and we sure as heck don’t need it. Besides, we started our official diet last Monday…more on that next post.

Car expenses should be done with…

School clothes are bought for the year.

Husbands lottery habit…I am working on it. He is not budging. I am getting the “I don’t smoke-I don’t drink” speech-he enjoys playing his lottery. We will come to some kind of compromise.

Called the water company and seen apartment management about the water bill-they are doing an investigation. Something is not right with that water bill.

If you don’t keep track of what you spend, little things here and there add up. So if buy coffee 5 times a week, that is $50 bucks a week-$200 a month. Add that to my husbands lottery numbers he plays every week—$20 x’s 4 weeks=’s $80 a month-$280 bucks spent on…what? Gosh, math hurts my head-no more math for the day…lol

So there are my changes so far. They may seem little but these slip ups can turn into bigger ones if I let them. And I will not!