Monday, June 16, 2008

June - Half month pulse check

Its past the half month mark for June and I dread doing the pulse check. June had been the month of unexpected expenses while we were still recovering from the splurge of India trip. Some of the expenses were voluntary, food processor anyone? some necessary but tripped us badly over the projected budget.
The major budget spoilers were - My shopping in India, this time I got some really nice formal shirts and trousers while I was in Bangalore. Since I have a really hard time getting my clothes in US, I thought it was ok to splurge on this one. I'm poorer by about $250 but I am all set for this year.
Grocery was another major budget breaker, though I didn't spend too much in buying real groceries but our two trips for cherry picking did show up badly on the budget, we bought and ate huge amount of cherries this year. I just want to cut myself some slack on this one. After all, we are not going to get any cherries after July, so better make most of the time we have.
Household goods - One food processor and the budget goes out of the window. As much as I love this gadget, I really regret impulse buying it.
Silver Lining in the cloud
Well, not everything went this bad after all, we tried and reduced out insurance bills, telecommunication bills. We haven't spent anything on eating out so far, and I'm hoping that we'll spend less than the allocated amount this month. We also tried t minimize our laundry expenses by rediscovering line drying. Lets hope that we will finish the month quite close to our targeted budget, if not matching it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've gotta say, I'm impressed with how in touch with your finances you are. Do you do this twice a month then?

Anshu said...

Thank you Sara! We don't do budgeting twice a month, but I do try to check how we are doing in the middle of the month. It does help that hubby is as focused as I am when it comes to finances. We want to completely eliminate wasteful expenses from our budget. Thanks for dropping by!