Thoughts At the End of May

I am feeling a little unmotivated to blog this morning. Usually I am fired up and ready to write, but today I seem to acquired a case of writer's block. I am writing anyway to see if I can knock it lose.

I've got several items on my "to-do" list that I want to finish up before the end of May. I've been working on my new budget for June 2009-2010, but I seem to be having a bit of a block with that too. Finally I printed off the entire thing and I have it sitting here waiting with a handful of #2 pencils, my calculator and a legal pad. Computers are wonderful creations, but sometimes I just need to see it on actual paper in front of me so I can scribble all over it. Once I get it all roughed out, then I can program it back into my spreadsheet (and write about it, of course).

The other thing I want to do is work out a plan for my "No Spending" months like I mentioned yesterday...

Going over my budget, I was once again confronted by how much I have gone over my grocery budget for this month. I am over by nearly $100! Some of it was unexpected expenses, some of it was impromptu purchases while I was up at the cabin over the holiday weekend, and some of it was the non-food pharmacy purchases I made. I'm considering next month using the envelope system for both groceries and home improvement - which are my two categories most likely to see overspending. Now that summer is nearly here, I can do a lot of my grocery shopping at the farmer's market and it is easier to use cash there anyway. That might really help with keeping those costs down. In addition, I think I am going to try to clear out the pantries and get creative with what I have in the cupboards. I'm pretty sure if I put my thinking cap on and spend some time with some recipe books I can go quite awhile without shopping.

I think the rest of this week is going to be a lot of contemplation rather than action. I am definitely in a planning stage. After now blogging about it for a year, I want to revisit my finances, my budget, my plans... a little bit of everything. If things are a little quiet here it is just because the wheels in my brain are turning as I try to figure out what lies ahead.



Photo by: De Shark