August Round-Up

Last month, I mentioned that we're in a transitional phase with the budget because we recently moved from an apartment to a house, and I'm trying to work out the numbers. Last month, I couldn't finalize the categories for energy and water because we hadn't gotten full month's bills yet. Those are finalized now, but I discovered that we now have a recycling bill as part of the water bill - I guess the apartment complex covered that before.

The other change is that I decided to start including specific numbers for our energy and water. I know that rates vary across the country, so the amount we pay might mean nothing to most of you. Hopefully, including the numbers will make it easier to judge how I'm doing and compare your own numbers.

Finally, I'm going to stop including the "Changes I Made" and "Goals" sections in the round-up since I've pretty much "gone green" and haven't been making goals lately. Instead, I'll be doing "Best of" and "Next Month I'll Be..." sections.


Monthly Spending (budgeted amount in parentheses)

• Groceries: $650.01 ($650)

• Transportation: $222.54 ($150)
  

• Energy: $135.72 ($150)

• Utilities: $58.50 ($50)

• Entertainment/Miscellaneous: $299.47 ($400)
  

• Clothes: $0 (no set budget)

• TOTAL: $1,366.24 ($1,400)

The Numbers:

• Trash: 4 bags of trash (13 gallon bags); 1 recycling bin with plastic, metal, and glass; 2 paper grocery sacks of paper
• Average daily electricity use: 33 kWh
• Average daily water use: 111 gallons
  

Best of...

• Last Month's Most Popular Post: Make Your Own: Homemade Febreze
• Last Month's Most Commented Post: Weekend Ramblings: Housing

Next Month I'll Be...

• Shopping for school supplies (my baby starts kindergarten)
• Starting a worm bin (I swear this time I really am!)
• Going camping
• Mapping out my garden
• Reading Nickel and Dimed