Oops. I guess I’ve been too busy saving money to write a post!

So, Project C.R.E.A.M. went well last week. And the week before that was great too. Using cash has become a habitual thing for me now and I’m totally enjoying it. Since I missed a week, I’m gonna double up the numbers to reflect the last two weeks of expenses and savings!

Expenses:
$200 for Groceries - Spent $150.00
$100 for Food & Entertainment – Spent $75.00
$300 for Gas & Car Maintenance – Spent $300.00
$50 for Clothing/Gifts/Misc. Shopping – Spent $50.00

Savings:
$50 for Home Maintenance – Saved $50 (Total so far this month: $200)
$200 for Emergency Fund – Saved $200 plus $75.00 from Expenses Surplus – total of $275.00 – (total so far this month: $501).

So in total, so far, we have saved an additional $701.00 for the month of June – which means my personal contribution is $350.50. I’m looking forward to seeing how much I can save for the rest of this week! It’s amazing that even out of the cash that had been budgeted, I still saved a little extra something. Now, that’s some news I’d love to take to the bank.

With all the budgeting I’ve had to do for the past few months for next year’s big life events (building/buying a house, getting married), I’ve decided to embark on a simple, yet not-so-simple challenge (for me anyways!) of spending only cash for the month of June. This is an effort to save more money and to make myself more aware of my spending habits. I’ve named this adventure Project C.R.E.A.M.. For those of you that aren’t WuTang fans, C.R.E.A.M. stands for Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

It’s not that I have debt tendencies when using my credit card, it’s that my dependency to charge every monthly purchase to the card and pay it off when the bill comes is pretty high. I justify expenses on the credit card vs. debit or cash as a way for me to accumulate Air Miles or Aeroplan points. Well, as ‘grand and lovely’ as it is to gain more miles or points, I always find myself eating out more or buying that extra jug of OJ at the grocery store because ‘I’ll just pay for it later when the bill comes’. Not feeling that immediate pinch of expenditures is something I want to create for myself.

So, I worked out a budget for everyday ‘life and leisure’ items I spend money on that are mostly variable and not fixed (such as my mortgage, utilities, car insurance, or my strict house/wedding fund that gets immediately shoved away into saving accts and TFSAs once I get paid). Luckily, I have no consumer debt so the budget is pretty straightforward. 

The category amounts were determined by my spending habits during the past 4 months (thanks to my amazing Money Management iPhone App, I could get a sense of where I spent money aimlessly!). Because of this, I scaled back my allowance on Food & Entertainment and increased my Home Maintenance and Emergency Savings amounts. In other categories, such as Clothing/Gifts/Shopping, I’m being pretty generous as I don’t do as much shopping anymore. Any $ leftover in this category will go straight to the Home/Emergency Savings category.

Here’s the breakdown of the new June budget (shared between both my fiancé and I):

• $100 a week for Groceries
• $50 a week for Food & Entertainment
• $150 a week for Gas & Car Maintenance (oil changes, car washes, unexpected car issues)
• $25 a week for Clothing/Gifts/Misc. Shopping
• $25 a week for Home Maintenance (b/c you just never know!)
• $50 a week for Emergency Fund (in case something comes up and we don’t want to take money out of our Savings Accts)

So my personal cash allotment is $200 every week. Not too bad (I’m sayin’ this now! Haha!). 

I’ll update and share my Proposed Weekly Cash Budget to reflect Actual Weekly Cash Expenses to create accountability in me every week. Wish me luck….I have a feeling this will be tougher than doing the Master Cleanse for 25 days!