Feeling Discouraged

Well, tracking all of my daily expenses has not been going very well. I started out with high expectations, but my performance has not been stellar.

It started two weeks ago (I know, that is almost right after I started!) when we went to a friend's beach house for the weekend. Up until that point I had budgeted $100 for "vacation" for little trips and such during the month (after all, it is summer vacation for the kids). Well, boy was I off!!! And looking back now - it seems so obvious that $100 was not going to cover the things we had planned to do in August.

So, we ran out of money during that weekend, so we dipped into the grocery envelope. After all, most of what we were spending was on eating out.

Then we went to visit my sister. Big mistake not figuring out all the money before we left. But, I did realize we needed some extra cash if we were going to bring the kids to Story Land like we had planned. So I upped the vacation fund from $100 to $400 (at least in my mind). So, I took out another $200 to pay for that trip.

I did okay on that trip, but the money was a jumble. So much had been moved from envelope to envelope that I really wasn't sure where I stood.

To be honest, I'm still not really sure.

I went to the grocery store and spent over $100 and used the debit card. (I actually forgot to bring my "envelope system" with me.)

So, the budget is a mess.

Yesterday I bought a tiny notebook to keep in my purse so I could begin again trying to track my daily spending. It shouldn't be this hard.

So, I need to go on line to check my account for all recent transactions and I need to did out my envelopes and do a tally and start over.

I'll let you know where I stand once I do.