Since I started the
Money Crunch blog, I learned that one important thing is to manage the cash flow. I spent some time and tracked down my incoming cash and expenses for September. I hope this would give me a more revealing picture of my finances. I welcome your suggestions and comments as well!Incoming (all figures are after-tax):
$4,200 signing bonus
$5,769 salary and misc
Total: $9,969
Outgoing:
$645 Automobile - car payment, gas, tolls, parking
$2,492 Bills - housing, utilities, cell phone
$560 Cash withdrawal - probably goes to dining out
$171 Clothing
$150 Dining out
$262 Groceries
$141 Household - things to make the place clean and tidy
$402 Leisure
$201 Vacation - plane tickets, hotel to a wedding in Austin, Texas
$900 Misc - black hole
Total: $5,924
The numbers are not typical, since it includes:
* one-time signing bonus (after scary 40% combined federal and NYS tax rates)
* one-time security deposit
* one-time moving charges
I expect income to stabilize around $4,500. Since I get paid bi-weekly, some months have 2, some have 3 paychecks. I expect expense to drop to about $3,500, well, assuming I'll eat out and play less.
My goal is to put $1,000 to $1,600 into savings each month!
I'm going to tally up the income & expenses for month of October (October cash flow), then post it here soon. In the mean time, I'm going to write a bit about financial things. Stay tuned!
November 1st, 2006 at 04:33 pm 1162398826
November 1st, 2006 at 05:21 pm 1162401689
November 1st, 2006 at 05:49 pm 1162403362
Uh... so the numbers kind of scare me a bit. I mean, personally, I would freak if I didn't know how I lost $1500 in one month, but that's just me.
On the other hand, if you can live with cutting back-- even temporarily-- you can recover a significant amount of money to turn your financial ship around!
November 2nd, 2006 at 05:38 am 1162445898
great idea! i'll write one right now.
November 2nd, 2006 at 06:16 am 1162448187
i know... $500 on eating out and drinks, yikes. the other $900, hm... tough question. i just got a new job and moved recently, some details probably got lost in the chaotic shuffling. i hope those expenses can become savings in november!