Budgeting

My breakthrough – I have gone back to writing checks! I have found with my check card, I was so dependent on most transactions being taken out of my account immediately, that it through me off when one wasn’t. It makes me feel like my money last longer when I am waiting for checks to clear. 

This is something I did years ago, and have gone back to it.  In my check register I round down my credits and round up my debits.  Then when I balance my check register, I transfer the difference over to my savings. 

Old school tricks, but effective.

Instead of paying an extra $30.00 a month for cable, I signed up for Netflix instead.  $9.00 a month, and I have watched 3 movies in one week!

I've made the decision to go back to using cash for my groceries and spending money, because I've been finding that I just keep spending with my bank card.
I've done a little fiddling with my budget this week. I've got 6 envelopes for the things that I tend to know that I'll spend money on at some point but don't know how much or how often. My envelopes are for:
Craft - threads, fabrics, kits, patterns, etc - this way I know I have money when I want to pick something up for a new project. I'm using cash - as this will stop me spending too much when I use this one.
Household - things like kitchenware, etc - it would be nice to be able to pick things up for my flat without checking if I have the money in that week's budget. Ill be saving this one in cash too.
Clothing - so that I can actually buy clothing regularly rather than waiting until I absolutely can't wait any longer. Another in cash.
Lush Cosmetics - I use a lot of products from this store, and would like to be able to treat myself to some of their more expensive giftboxes every so often, which is easier with money put aside. In cash again.
Medical - doctors visits, prescriptions, ankle supports, etc - At the present, I just budget for doctors visits and prescriptions the week that I go, which means sometimes I try to put off going to the doctor. I want to be able to just go to the doctor if I need to. This will be being put into the same account that I put the money for the monthly bills into.
Electronics - some of this is wants, although with my PC throwing more and more tantrums, a new computer will soon be a need. This is being saved in my savings account.

For the non-cash envelopes, I'll be putting the evidence of the funds transfer in the envelope.
I do need to come up with a way to save for books, but having a little bit more trouble with that one for two reasons. Many of the books I purchase are purchased online via Amazon because the bookstores here stink, however I do buy some books locally. So I prefer to be able to pay cash when I'm buying from a local bookstore but if I put aside the book buying money in cash, then I have to make a trip to the bank so that I can purchase online. The other issue with buying online particularly from the likes of Amazon is figuring out how much I actually need to put aside because of exchange rates. I'm figuring the best option since I've never seen the exchange rate drop below NZ$1 buying US$0.50, that just doubling the price of the book in US dollars might be the best way to go. At present, I'm still print book reader because we can't get e-book readers locally yet, something to do with DRM (I'm scratching my head over that, because I can still download e-books to my PC.) If anyone has any ideas of how I can handle putting aside the money for books, I would love to hear them.

I'm usually on top of things, money-wise, but I had a minor screw-up this week.

I had a $20 bill in my wallet and used it to buy an item for $8. Instead of putting the $11 change in my wallet, I think I just dropped the cash in my tote bag. Haven't seen it since.

Maybe it'll turn up, but for now, I'm kicking myself.

P.S. AND, that was the last of my allowance for the pay period, so now I'm walking around with my change jar money in a baggy, just in case!