T-Minus 2 Days: The Budget

If you haven't noticed, I've been unusually open and forthcoming about the amounts of money that are relevant to this blog. Or, as my friend Brian might say, I love talking about how much money I make (made). My transparency is not due to the fact that I enjoy flaunting my cash flow (some of you make and save more than me). It's due to the fact that money and its allocation is central to the staging of this adventure. Saving it, spending it, budgeting it. In order to show you my strategy at the table, you have to understand how I'm stacking the chips.

This is my roundabout way of saying the money talk below may offend your sense of propriety. If it does, you should probably come back tomorrow for talk about psychic tarot readers. On second thought, maybe you should come back the day after tomorrow.

Now let's do this.

For the past six years, I've been recording every single dollar I spend in a piece of software called Microsoft Money. I record the amount, the date, the location of the transaction, and its category. MS Money tabulates the results, and instantly produces handy breakdowns, projections, and charts. (On my top ten list of video games, number ten is MS Money. It's addictive to watch your cash flow projection adjust itself with every single transaction you input.)

So when it came time to create a budget for my sabbatical, it was as simple as booting up MS Money and asking it for a monthly breakdown from calendar year 2005:


MONTHLY SPENDING IN 2005
(click the pie chart to enlarge)

CATEGORY	$ / MONTH
Rent	622
Dining Out	383
Groceries	247
Leisure	123
Clothing	116
Fuel	95
Gifts	90
Car Service	72
Household	57
Misc	51
Phone/DSL	50
Gym	35
Hair	33
Power	30
Natural Gas	5

GRAND TOTAL = $2009 / month


My reactions:

• I spent only fifty bucks a month on land line phone, DSL, and cell phone COMBINED. I rule.


• I spent more on clothes than on gifts? I suck.


• Owning a car is expensive. I wouldn't need a car in New York. Hmm. HMM.


• Not a whole lot of room for optimization here. I think the two categories where I could easily tighten my belt are Eating Out and Clothing.


• Clothing is pretty much taken care of, as I have a full wardrobe now. From now on, I'm only buying expensive pieces I'm in love with.


• The total for Eating Out is way overstated. I dumped a lot of non-food expenses in that category, including dates. But I could easily trim $100 from that category, because I don't cook nearly enough. I'm suspect my food budget could easily feed an entire family. (Please don't confirm this for me. I feel bad enough as it is.)

So if I can just trim Clothing to $50 and Eating Out to $250, that brings me down to $1810 a month. And that's a conservative estimate. I think I could go even lower.

As a commitment to fiscal responsibility, I'm setting my monthly budget at $2000 a month. If I can keep myself under $1800, that leaves me plenty of breathing room. And if I play my cards right, I can afford an extra plane ticket or two. Maybe a PS3.

I think this just might work.