October Budget Wrap Up

I successfully came in well under budget for October despite that fact that I had a pricey 40k mile service due on my car. Now that mint.com let’s you roll over money not spent from month to month I have a nice cushion ready for me in November.

I’ve decided to only break out my rent and annual and semi annual bills. Everything else is now in the everything else category. I like this set up because I’m motivated to save in every category now so that I have more extra room in the budget for fun stuff. Also, this month I’m sharing the actual numbers with you because the everything else category doesn’t really make sense unless you can see the breakdown.

octoberbudget

October also included a nice $627 extra income above and beyond my day job. That came from my photography over at iStockphoto, blogging, mail in rebates, and selling some stuff on eBay. All that money went straight into savings.

As of October 30, I got a 10% raise at work. I’ll see that reflected in my paychecks starting in November. I’m still trying to decide if I should up my total budget because I got a raise or not. Some months I’m over budget, some months I’m under budget. It probably all balances out in the end but I would like to have more money available for travel (my best friend and I are planning a trip to Hawaii after she graduates law school and passes the bar next summer) and for a new computer in about a year. I could put that money into the budget now and let it start rolling over so I don’t look insanely over budget then. Or I could leave it out of the budget and just reset my rollover numbers after I go way over budget in the months I pay for those expenses next year. Still trying to figure out how to handle it.

How’d October go for your budget?

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