mid-month update

I can't believe it's already the middle of September!  This is one month I wish would slow down!!!  I've been plugging away at the goals I set for myself this month and have been pretty good staying at within my budget.

Since my son was sick Labor Day weekend we didn't go on his scout trip and that saved us some money.  Also, we had planned on going as a family to the Tour Championship that is at the end of September and it sounds like the boys would rather spend the "entertainment" money on something different.  So, that will give us some wiggle room as well.  Here is how we're doing so far.  {This post is more for my sake than yours, as it's forcing me to take a look at how we're doing!  :)  }  The first # is the budgeted amount and the 2nd is where we are as of today!

	Budget	a/o 9-15
Utilities	800	869.21
Groceries and household items	900	630.08
Gasoline	350	130.52
Clothing	200	0
Restaurants (incld fast food/pizza)	100	58.51
Insurance	136.5	136.5
My Blow Money	100	5
Entmt/Rec	175	20.28
Gifts	25	35
Guitar lessons	100	25
Date Night	75	0
Haircare	100	98
Golf	75	0
Boys Commissions (Potential…)	80	27.5
Subscriptions	25	77.18
School lunches	50	0
School expenses	200	57
Dry Cleaning	30	8.72
Boy Scouts	147	0
Vet Bill - surgery	2300	2284.72

We are over by $10 in Gifts because the Room Mom for my son's class is collecting $10 from each family ahead of time for the teacher's Christmas and End of Year gifts.  (I love that it's paid and I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the year!)   Subscriptions is way over!  It was time to renew my Norton software on my computer -- I thought I had another month before it was time to do this!   My grocery spending is a little higher than it ought to be.  But I still have $370 left for 2 weeks...that should be more than enough!

Thank you for the comments from my post on Tuesday.  I'm not sure if you see my replies when I reply in the Comment section or not, so I thought I'd reply this way:                

Sharon - I usually keep my apples from turning brown by sprinkling them with Fresh Fruit.  These apples were on sale though pre-sliced (and "pretreated") so I didn't have to do anything to them!

Carla & Canadian Saver -- yes!  It's a huge time saver in the mornings!  One less thing to worry about.

And in reply to the "Italy" post:

Canadian Saver -- We are flying on Delta and had to pay the taxes and fees at $79.20 per ticket. Not too bad for 2 first class tix to Italy! :) And yes! I can't wait to move onto the FUN planning!

sft-- last time we went to Italy I was about 20 pounds lighter. I don't want to lose 20lbs, but would love to be much smaller and try to look as great in pictures as I did 10 years ago!