Expense Tracking Challenge hosted by Mom's Plans -- Join in and share your expense tracking posts if you like!
For my posts: Variable expenses will have dollar amounts; recurring expenses like rent and bills won't unless there's something unusual going on.
Week 2 (May 2012)
MON -
no-spend day
TUES -
$14 for compressed air and a mini-screwdriver to take apart and clean my laptop
$10 cat food
WED -
$250 deposit when booking wedding photographer
THURS -
$25 Clipper card (still working on getting it hooked up for auto-refill from the right card)
$11 manicure before engagement photos
FRI -
$6 food storage containers (will be returning since my mother gave us a whole bunch during our weekend visit)
$16 Clipper card
$100 Food Lion (what's this?? See below)
SAT -
$9 Clipper card
$9 Goodwill shopping for wedding supplies (teacups, beverage dispensers, baskets, etc.)
$23 Salvation Army shopping for wedding supplies
$18 Goodwill shopping for wedding supplies
$120 (early) Mothers' Day dinner for 4
SUN -
$35 Goodwill shopping for wedding supplies
$16 Michaels shopping for wedding supplies (floral wire, ribbon, wax seal that matches invitations)
Over the weekend, my sweetie and I went to my parents' house and spent time with them (for Mothers' Day and also to go thrifting). My mother happened to be up in the city on Saturday, and she picked us up, which saved us the cost of a rental car. We took them out to dinner on Saturday instead of struggling through brunch crowds on Sunday, which was a good move all around. On Sunday morning, my sweetie made pancakes and eggs for me, my mom, and my grandmother (my dad got called into work at the last minute), we looked at old family photos, and we went through a lot of my mom's classroom picture books and craft supplies (setting some aside for library and school projects as well as wedding DIY). She's also taken on the responsibility for providing silverware, servingware, and tablecloths for the reception. We couldn't actually carry all of it home!
We spent a big chunk of money on wedding supplies (and of course the photographer deposit), but we've saved cash for that, so it's not a problem. What was a problem (minor inconvenience, really) was that someone used my credit card number to buy $100 worth of groceries at a Food Lion store in North Carolina! I was puttering around on Mint Friday afternoon, doing some budgeting, when I saw the charge and thought, "I don't even know where Food Lion is!" My sweetie had just gotten home from a shopping trip, and was just as mystified when I asked her about it. So I called Chase to report the charge and they issued me a new card (should be in the mailbox today). It's a good thing we have cash in the wedding account, so I could still do the shopping we'd planned on.
Amount spent: $662
- $100 (bad charge that will be voided)
- $6 (returned Gladware)
-----
$556
When is the wedding? They can be so expensive, but I like your strategy of shopping at Goodwill and the Salvation Army to save costs.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be at the end of October, and I think we have enough china now. :) I was surprised to find Goodwill prices so much higher than I remembered (it's been a few years since I've shopped places other than smaller local thrift stores and sometimes garage sales), but there are still a lot of good deals!
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