I’ve decided to get intense and reorganize my finances. I blame May. This month has been nothing short of disastrous, and to make up for May’s slacking ass-ets, the future months will just have to pay.
Here are some changes:
During lunch yesterday I opened the fund that will eventually help me survive when I am old and gray! I finally just gave in and opened a Roth IRA. I will begin to contribute $100 towards this monthly. I’d love to work up to the $5k minimum, but I’ll start small and work up to it. Time is on my side and contributing this year may make a huge difference in the long run.
I’ve decided to pause my Wedding Fund. Seriously, I’m not getting married or engaged any time soon and just seeing “wedding savings” right here makes me 1) anxious that I have so little and 2) a little excited about possibly being married–two emotions I don’t need to feel right now. I doubt I will be engaged in 2009 or 2010. And I’m okay with that. I will add money to it only when I feel like it. :)
I’ve reorganized my budget and hope to keep un-bill related expenses at $400. My budget will show more on this, but basically anything that is not a bill or automatically taken from my account (like gym fee), I want it to be under $400. This includes food, groceries, clothes, household items, etc. Yipes!
Whenever I reorganize, I feel like I’m abandoning some of the goals or objectives I’ve set for myself… but reorganizing does not mean failing. Those goals are still very much apart of my financial focus, but just reworked a bit. I’ll have my June budget updated soon.
It’s always nice to reorganize every once in a while. Thanks for the birthday wishes, too!
I wouldn’t “pause” the wedding fund, just scale it back.
It’s important to keep your eyes on your goals, and weddings are insanely expensive. Most importantly, I think you have to put your money into what you value.
I must say, I’m actually really proud of your for this organization. =)
I think it is AWESOME that you’ve started contributing to an IRA, even if you can’t max it out. I know that I have struggled a lot with the IRA issue because part of me thinks “if I’m not maxing it out, what’s the point?” So you’ve really inspired me on this. =)
Also, I think that cutting back on the wedding fund is smart. I understand HAVING a wedding fund, but it seemed (to me) that you were going at it a bit too aggressively (especially without a fully funded e-fund). However, I agree with Dog that perhaps just scaling it back would be best. Perhaps just do $25-50/month. That way it is steadily growing and when you do get engaged you can go at it full throttle.
Congrats, I think you’re making smart decisions here. =D
Oh, and non-bill related expenses down to $400! Holy crap, I would go insane. I’m barely squeeking by on $700! (However, I do spend about $300/month on the pets, so maybe it wouldn’t be TOO bad).
Well done. IMHO the only way to make the most out of your money is to keep re-evaluating what you need to spend month by month. I don’t think it would work for anyone if we assigned a monthly budget in January and stuck to it for the whole year!
Great job on starting an IRA. You’re right, time is on your side. I actually max out my Roth IRA, but am nowhere near the max on my 401(k), so it’s not too much money getting stashed away when it comes down to it.
I’m kind of in the same boat as you on the wedding thing – I’ve been dating my BF for 2.5 years and we plan to get married, but he is paying off debt before we head that direction. That day is coming soon (September), so I’m like do I start saving now or does that make me look weird? I’ve hinted a couple times that maybe we should put some money away for our honeymoon, too…LOL.