The Conscious Shopper: September Round-Up

I wrote my first blog post on The Conscious Shopper on September 9, 2008, so I've been recording my monthly spending on this blog for a year now. We're way over this month - a visit from my older sister, lots of unexpected school expenses with First Son starting school this month, and new shoes for me - but we're still on target with our goals. Our monthly average for the year is $1,409.89 - more than our original budget of $1,300 but very close to our current budget of $1,400.

The main thing that I'm concerned about this month is how high our transportation expenses still are. With this house being so close to downtown, I had expected to be driving a lot less, but so far the amount we're spending on gas has stayed about the same (not good since I cut the transportation budget in half after we moved). Also, if you compare the amount we spent on gas to the number of miles we drove (listed in the "Numbers" section), you can see that we are getting really crummy gas mileage.

Monthly Spending (budgeted amount in parentheses)

Groceries: $651.36 ($650)

Transportation: $150.55 ($150)

Energy: $125.59 ($150)

Utilities: $58.50 ($50)

Entertainment/Miscellaneous: $585.65 ($400)

Clothes: $62.90 (no set budget)

TOTAL: $1,634.55 ($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
Miles Driven: 778
Average daily electricity use: 32 kWh
Average daily water use: 111 gallons

Best of...