March update

With March officially ending today... it is time to review my budget and goals. I did fairly well sticking to my budget (minus the few setbacks from the last weekend). I was on target on everything except a few categories. I went over my grocery budget by $4.77; my eat-out budget by $28.83; my gas budget by $24.56; and my misc budget. I came to the conclusion that I need to further define my budget because anytime I didn't have a category I placed the money spent in my misc budget. Needless to say, I went WAY over budget in that category. Thankfully, I was under budget on a few categories so I had the money in the account for my misc budget.

I am on track for my goals, but think I am going to change things up a little bit. On the first of every month, I am going to deposit $900 in my ING account, on the 20th I am going to withdraw $566, and then when the money is in my account I am going to pay my cc bill with the $566. This way, I will make my final payment into my ING account to reach $6000 in December, but my cc will be paid off beforehand. Once my cc is paid off, I am going to snowball the $566 into my student loan payment. I know that may people have mixed feelings about paying extra on their student loans, but with $107,000 worth...every penny counts. I just really want to be under $100,000 by Dec. 31, 2008.

Also, this month I think that I am going to participate in Krystal's (at give me back my five dollars) challenge. I think that I am really going to stick to the $100 eat-out budget. There is no way I should be spending more than that in a month. Got to cut somewhere and this is my downfall.