July was our first month of working toward paying off our debts. Last night after our “budget meeting”, the extra amount being sent toward debt is $800. II expected more, but I can deal with that. 800 is better than zero.
By keeping track of every penny, here are some things we found out about how we spend money:
- We are still spending way too much on eating out. In July we spent $161.36. That doesn’t include eating out on vacation because Pool Boy’s business paid for all non-hotel vacation expenses.
- “Fun” expenses (hotel on vacation, golfing, book stores, clothes, etc.) were too high, coming in at $668.61.
- We spent $528.32 on groceries, which I didn’t think was too bad for a family of four. We made small trips all month just to get milk, bread, etc. Toward the end of the month, we did one big trip to Super Target to stock up on groceries. I love that place for groceries!
We actually had a larger amount that could have done toward debt at the end of this month, but then we figured in the following:
- $500 will remain in savings each month, so we subtracted that out.
- Property taxes are due in September, so we subtracted that amount out.
- We did not use any of Pool Boy's business income because he's going to pay for his mower at the end of the summer.
Next month we’ll have back to school expenses: registration, shoes, supplies, etc., so I expect we’ll end up with about the same amount available to go toward our debt.
