State of my Life (Feb 2019)

We spent about 91% of what we made this month and about $400 less than last month.  Of course, this month had two fewer days than last so I’m not sure if we showed any actual improvement.  If you factor out our aggressive credit card payments we spent about 77% of what we made.

What are we spending our money on? 

4% Car

2% Entertainment

9% Fashion & Leisure

27% Food

3% Home Goods

38% Mortgage

4% Pets

2% Wellness

11% Education

Notable breakouts

Almost 3% of all spending went to vet bills to get Sagan’s teeth cleaned.

5% of our spending was on clothes.  3% of our spending was on clothes for me because I needed them and I’ probably not done yet

We somehow outspent ourselves in food this month over the last by nearly $220.  This one really boggles me because I feel like we ate more at home in February (I know we did) and I was trying to shop for cheaper groceries.  The only thing I can point to as being a factor was Dana’s birthday diner as well as the treats we bought for the kid’s to eat at the Youth Dance Fest

And speaking of dance, we somehow outspent ourselves this month over the last by a little more than $100.  Once again, I’m baffled excepting to say that at least $200 of that should have been a January expense (Old check) and the rest was mostly due to Elissa’s rehab training which is making a difference.

For gifts we spent about $200 more than we did last month because of Dana’s birthday and Valentine’s Day.  This is a no brainer.

As for the diet:

Well, almost every day that I tracked I exceeded my calorie budget and most days were over 2,000 so I’m not going to even bother doing a breakdown.  Let’s just say that this month was not ideal.  I did lose a bunch of weight when I was sick but quickly put it back on.  Only during the past week have I started pulling it back into place.  As of today, I’m 1 pound lighter than I was when I started the month.

I can’t say I’m happy with Feb but at least I showed a little improvement and it was a very tough month.  With being sick, the Rodeo performance, and trying to keep Elissa current in school I felt like there was never a single moment to just focus on any one thing. 

I am getting better at ticking off all of my daily task on my list.  I think this is a result of (1.) learning how to make more realistic lists and (2.) getting back the extra time during my week when I used to be dancing Rodeo.  I know I complain about it a lot but that’s because it really was a terrible imposition.  I enjoyed the experience but it was essentially an earthquake that I’m still suffering aftershocks from.

In March, we have out trip to Atlanta which will disrupt both spending and diet, I’m sure but beyond that, I can’t think of too many other things that could cause me trouble.  Hopefully the road ahead will be smooth and the weather dry.