September Finances, Part 1

In the interest of complete full disclosure, I am going to share with you our check book register (seriously . . . register or registry?) and our budget for the month of September.  I think it's pretty self explanatory, but here's where our money has gone this month.  One of our goals next month is to cut the amount of purchases we have, mainly with groceries.  As I said here our budget is $400 per month for groceries, and we're going to try to spend $100 per week.  This week we did really great with that, spending $100.98 on groceries (if you're really paying attention, you'll notice that we actually spent an extra $40 at Walmart, but that was for toilet paper and The Avengers movie, which my son paid for out of his birthday money).  There were also several runs to local grocery stores, which ends up costing more because prices are more expensive where I live versus the 30 minutes south where there's a Walmart.  DNR is a grocery store where we buy our produce and meat, but it's also a closer drive than Pen going all the way to the other side of town for the Walmart.

I made this in a Microsoft Excel document.  The reason I didn't use the little insert that always comes with checks is because we do a lot of our spending with our debit card.  It was just easier for me to keep tabs with out money in the Excel document, but use whatever works for you! 

Again, if you're really paying attention (I'll give you a cookie the next time I see you!), you'll notice that I paid someone to clean my house.  I actually did that in August when I was having company over for the weekend.  I did that before we made the decision to change our spending habits, and I regret wasting that $30, because she didn't really even do that good of a job.

I kept on this all month, updating it every day so we always knew exactly how much money we had.  My goal was to end of the month of September with $600, but we just had too many bills to catch up on.  It's a noble goal for a future month . . . sometime . . . eventually.

So without further adieu, here is our check book register/registry for September:

Check #	Amount	Item	Date	Balance
ATM	-20.00	ATM Withdrawal, Movie	9/4/2012	465.84
Debit	-27.08	Amazon, School supplies	9/4/2012	438.76
Debit	-92.96	Cell Phone	9/4/2012	345.80
107	-106.75	Internet	9/4/2012	239.05
1131	-134.00	Daycare, 8/13 - 8/17	9/4/2012	105.05
1139	-30.00	Housecleaning	9/4/2012	75.05
Debit	-10.00	Fuel - Me	9/5/2012	65.05
1135	-10.00	Check cashed at hospital	9/5/2012	55.05
Deposit	411.06	Paycheck - Penn	9/6/2012	466.11
Deposit	3000.00	Tuition Check	9/6/2012	3466.11
Debit	-15.01	Fuel - Penn	9/6/2012	3451.10
Auto	-54.56	Dish Network	9/6/2012	3396.54
Debit	-0.33	PMH - Test	9/6/2012	3396.21
Deposit	697.65	Paycheck - Me	9/7/2012	4093.86
Debit	-2912.50	Tuition Payment	9/7/2012	1181.36
1083	-618.54	House Payment	9/7/2012	562.82
Debit	-65.00	Internet	9/7/2012	497.82
1140	-115.00	Daycare, 9/3 - 9/7	9/7/2012	382.82
1182	-33.00	School Pictures	9/7/2012	349.82
Debit	-10.00	Fuel - Penn	9/7/2012	339.82
Debit	-5.98	Groceries - DNR	9/7/2012	333.84
Debit	-51.83	Fuel - Penn	9/8/2012	282.01
Debit	-5.05	Groceries - DNR	9/7/2012	276.96
Debit	-3.25	Groceries - IGA	9/7/2012	273.71
Debit	-20.00	Fuel - Me	9/9/2012	253.71
Debit	-5.00	Groceries - Family Express (milk)	9/9/2012	248.71
1084	-5.00	Check cashed at hospital	9/7/2012	243.71
1085	-182.77	Utilities	9/10/2012	60.94
Deposit	79.20	Return from Amazon	9/10/2012	140.14
Deposit	40.00	Transfer from Mine to Main	9/10/2012	180.14
Debit	-18.74	Decorations for Party	9/11/2012	161.40
Debit	-2.05	Groceries - DNR (lettuce for tacos)	9/11/2012	159.35
Debit	-0.42	Excess from gift card	9/11/2012	158.93
1086	-112.00	Daycare, 9/10 - 9/14	9/12/2012	46.93
Debit	-28.19	Groceries - Walmart	9/12/2012	18.74
Deposit	507.17	Paycheck - Penn	9/13/2012	525.91
Debit	-1.69	Snack - Family Express	9/12/2012	524.22
Auto	-88.09	Car Insurance	9/13/2012	436.13
Debit	-1.19	Hospital - Breakfast	9/13/2012	434.94
Debit	-1.07	Snack - Family Dollar	9/12/2012	433.87
Auto	-59.76	Sallie Mae	9/16/2012	374.11
Debit	-125.48	FedLoan	9/13/2012	248.63
Debit	-2.99	Hospital - Lunch	9/13/2012	245.64
1087	-4.48	Stamps - Party Invitations	9/13/2012	241.16
Debit	-8.41	Groceries - DNR	9/13/2012	232.75
Debit	-2.48	Groceries - IGA	9/13/2012	230.27
Debit	-25.78	Groceries - DNR	9/14/2012	204.49
Debit	-2.25	Groceries - IGA	9/14/2012	202.24
Debit	-5.00	Groceries - Family Express (milk)	9/14/2012	197.24
Debit	-20.25	Groceries - IGA	9/14/2012	176.99
Deposit	48.00	Return from Amazon	9/14/2012	224.99
Debit	-48.07	Internet	9/17/2012	176.92
Debit	-3.50	Groceries - Dollar General (chips)	9/17/2012	173.42
Debit	-30.00	Fuel - Penn	9/17/2012	143.42
Debit	-30.02	Fuel - Me	9/18/2012	113.40
Debit	-5.00	Groceries - Family Express (milk)	9/18/2012	108.40
Debit	-1.69	Snack - Family Express	9/18/2012	106.71
1088	-10.00	Groceries - School Lunch	9/18/2012	96.71
Deposit	433.65	Paycheck - Penn	9/20/2012	530.36
Auto	-283.61	Car Payment	9/20/2012	246.75
1089	-115.00	Daycare, 9/17 - 9/21	9/20/2012	131.75
Deposit	705.44	Paycheck - Me	9/21/2012	837.19
Debit	-18.19	Party - Games, Favors	9/21/2012	819.00
Debit	-30.00	Prescriptions	9/21/2012	789.00
Debit	-20.00	Groceries - Walmart	9/21/2012	769.00
Debit	-32.34	Party - Walmart	9/21/2012	736.66
Debit	-7.78	Groceries - IGA	9/21/2012	728.88
Debit	-16.06	Party - Balloons	9/21/2012	712.82
Debit	-9.75	Groceries - IGA	9/21/2012	703.07
Debit	-3.21	Groceries - Family Dollar	9/21/2012	699.86
Debit	-43.26	Eating out	9/22/2012	656.60
Debit	-110.06	Gas Bill	9/24/2012	546.54
1090	-10.00	Check cashed at hospital	9/20/2012	536.54
1091	-176.55	Utilities	9/24/2012	359.99
Debit	-30.01	Fuel - Penn	9/21/2012	329.98
Debit	-30.17	Fuel - Me	9/25/2012	299.81
1092	-115.00	Daycare, 9/24 - 9/28	9/26/2012	184.81
Debit	-30.00	Fuel - Penn	9/27/2012	154.81
Debit	-6.87	Groceries - IGA	9/26/2012	147.94
Deposit	438.33	Paycheck - Penn	9/27/2012	586.27
Debit	-108.92	Cell Phone	9/27/2012	477.35
Debit	-16.54	Netflix	9/27/2012	460.81
Debit	-40.98	Groceries - DNR	9/27/2012	419.83
Debit	-99.79	Groceries - Walmart	9/27/2012	320.04