*NOTE: This budget is for shopping/food/gas only, or expense that I can control fully. I’m not including fixed expenses (mortgage, utilities, medical bills) because they’re fixed and honestly pretty boring to talk about. My TOTAL spending is not reflected in this budget. “Food & Dining” = Eating Out + Groceries *
Blown Budgets:
1. Shoes & Accessories
- Havaianas Sandals from Revolve Clothing - $11.58
- Clearance Target braclets – $37.89 (seen here & here on Twitpic)
- Ted Baker Boots from Hautelook (sign up here) – $67.49 (size 6 so may have to return if it doesn’t fit)
2. Home Decor
- 2 Target lampshades for the living room – $11.58
- Silver toast rack from Goodwill (similar here) for organizing paperwork/mail – $1.59
- The last payment (I spread out the payments over a few months) towards Nate Berkus rose gold HSN lamps (twitpic here) – $87.46
Overall budget:
$+4
The Verdict?
Nicely done. Clothing and toiletries categories are in the black for once! (My $50 UO clothing haul from Black Friday was an early Christmas gift from my mom. Thank you Mom!) It’s difficult to pine for new items and not purchase them, that’s for sure. At least this month I didn’t give in to as much temptation. I even thought about buying another Chanel bag, and at one point, a $150 bag at TJMAXX. BAD! 
I’m glad I didn’t give in.
Also, this month I started a 9:30AM to 8:30PM work schedule (with an hour lunch break, sometimes 2 hours) and that will last for another month I think. Last month I planned to cook a little bit but its difficult to find the energy and time. The only dish I’ve cooked this month was some fried rice for Justin and that’s it!
Next months plans?
- Schedule some more LASIK consultations. If you follow me on Twitter you’d know that I’ve been thinking about doing the surgery next year. I had an appointment today for the doctor who did Steve Wozniak’s (from Apple) eyes but it was a whopping $5300! And that’s after vision insurance! I have to do some more quote shopping.
- I’m putting in $4000 in my FSA to go towards a LASIK procedure.
- I think I need to purge my closet again. I’m not wearing much of what I own lately.
- Enjoying the holidays with Justin and the rest of my family!
♥ E&I
Good luck on working long days! You can do it!! Good job on resisting temptation on buying a new bag. I had the urge to buy some random Zara bag too but I’m glad I resisted.
Did you go to Dr. Manche for your Lasik consult? He did mine and a bunch of my friend’s but can be pricey – I think you can get cheaper other places, but need to make sure that they take care of you afterwards – let me know if you need recs!
Yes please!!
I’ll email you…
I should be good at budgeting even with the use of Mint, but the month of November blew my budget over by 10 times. Yeah, I’m cringing looking at the credit card statements.