January's Breakdown

The First Month…

Dun Dun Duunnn

Since I'm a hair stylist,

I receive cash tips.

And every week, 

we allow ourselves $50 each.

Hey, we live next to a Dunkin Donuts,

we love our coffee!

This was our monthly breakdown for January.

We learned a lot in January.

First off, we completely under estimated

how much we spend on groceries per week/month.

After January, we upped that amount to $400 from $250.

I, Nicole, had a hard time the first couple of weeks

not grabbing a bite to eat with a friend, or that 

new lipstick at Target.

Towards the end of January,

we did find that my tips were enough for our

weekly 'allowance' and to pay for groceries.

Which means more saved than anticipated.

As you can see-

we've put $800 into our savings account

and over $1500 into our first debt,

the credit card.

We saved an extra $1200 in the first month,

on top of the $1200 we planned on saving per month.

We were super excited to be seeing so much savings

in our first month!

And seeing all the savings helped-

I'd find that I didn't want to spend money

(which is crazy because I love my makeup and clothes)!

I'd go online window shopping, 

have about $100 worth of goodies in my cart,

but never purchase them because I love

seeing the savings.

Some might be wondering if we are bored because

we aren't doing anything anymore.

Quite the contrary!

In January,

we went out to a nice dinner to celebrate Dans birthday,

had a party at our apt,

and I actually signed up for an eyelash

certification class which was a big unexpected expense.

By putting out for the certification, 

we found that even though it's a major up front expense,

the amount that will be made after is worth it.

And our party…

well that was a great time- but no expense.

We had alcohol from previous parties,

and everybody brought an appetizer!

There's ways to do everything, 

on a budget!