Midyear Budget Update

I've gotten around to doing my midyear budget update. The most interesting thing is to compare it to last year.

Luckily, I'm about $16,500 ahead this year. The big difference is school. No more school loans! That does not, however, include the cost of my new furniture ($4,000) and the new healthcare costs (still figuring out how much I'm actually going to end up paying).

This is where I am ahead of last year:
Rent (slightly less; I paid more the first few months of last year)
Groceries
Phone (no phone bill; saved about $500 so far this year)
Charity (this expense will even out in the end)
Gifts and Entertainment
and slightly ahead in Personal Care, Fees, Restaurants (miraculously)

I have spent thousands more this year so far on Travel and Clothing. Clothing is catchup spending from years of not buying anything. Travel might end up being not too far ahead, as I took my big trip earlier in the year this year than last. Of course I'm tempted to take another big trip this year, but have been fighting myself on this. Am planning a mini-break to Montreal later this month with my friend, so that has to be my last getaway for this year if I want to keep my travel costs reasonable.

Overall, I have so much more wiggle room without the massive school bill that even my $4,000 furniture does not make a substantial difference. School debt sucks.

Money in, Money out

I was going to do my midyear budget update, so I can compare it against last year's and try to make myself feel like I'm not reeaally spending so much more this year, haha. However, I realized its hard to keep track of my expenses right now. I still download my Mint transactions every month and categorize them in an Excel grid. But even in my not very active balance sheet there are certain expenses that make things more complicated. These fall into a few categories:
1. Work-reimbursed expenses: I always have $ outstanding that work owes me. Usually at least a few thousand dollars.
2. Health care: This year this is complicated. I pay for my care, and then for $1250 worth, my company reimburses me. For $1,000, it comes from my FSA. Also, right now I've got a $600 claim that just got denied. I have to call on Monday and figure out why they are not covering it. I think I needed preapproval (despite being told I didnt), so that could be a very costly mistake.
3. New furniture: Right now this is an off-balance sheet expense. I'm just recording my monthly minimum payments of $42. For same reason I am carrying this on a card for six months, I don't want to put it on the balance sheet!

Next week I should have a better understanding of what part of healthcare is still outstanding and in two weeks I should get a new expense report. Of course I already have work travel between then, so I'll rack up more expenses.

Overall, I know that I've spent a lot more on clothes, health care, furniture (4,000 more!) and possibly travel than last year. But I think my quality of life is better and I'm feeling more balanced.

Midyear Budget Update

Each month I scrub the data from Mint.com (Best personal finance tool ever and it's free!) and I enter it into an Excel spreadsheet. Above is what I've spent so far. It's probably pretty difficult to see. I'm going to upload a Word doc version at some point in the future.
Overall, I'm on track. The big standout is the Education category because I had budget of $200 a month, but I made large payments in the early part of the year so my loan is fully paid off. Yay!

In terms of day to day living, there are some areas I'm on track to run over:

Clothing -- I budget the absolute bare minimum. However, as much as I hate buying them, I did need some clothes. Especially because my pants seem to be getting tighter, sadly. And as I mentioned I bought an expensive bathing suit. I'm fine with running over on this. These are items I needed.
Charity -- My day-day Charity budget for the year is $500, but I plan to give $1,000 total, so the fact that I'm running higher is fine.
Fees -- I pride myself on not paying ATM fees, so I budget $0 for this category, however I forgot I have two airline mile cards with annual fees. I don't really have a choice. I need to use miles and I can't cancel these or it will affect my credit score negatively.
Personal Care -- When I budgeted I was really strict and assumed I would by dying my own hair. Hasn't worked out that way. I only feel confident enough to do it myself occasionally and end up going to a salon. I also got a few massages when I was training for my race, because I needed them and they felt good!
Misc. -- Each month I spend about $300 in cash that I don't track. I'm trying to get better about saving receipts for cash purchases. The problem is that they are always such small amounts that it's hard to keep track of them.

Now, the good area. Health care. When I made this budget, I set a limit of $1,000 a year for my health care expenses. However, this budget tracks my post-tax spending. I forgot my health care costs are pre-tax. I put away $1,000 a year in a non-taxable HSA to cover anything not covered by my insurance. Also, I negotiated with my landlord to lower my rent by $150 a month (he is so nice and the market has tanked and I wasn't scared to ask). So as of May, I've been paying $150 less than I budgeted for. That should save me $1,350 this year. Awesome!

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with where I am. I've been able to keep my restaurant spending under control. I thought I spent more like $500 a month, but I've been really good about keeping it to about $300 a month. Except for March and April. April I was on vacation and ate out a lot so that doesn't count, right? I wish!