How am I doing and what can I improve
hello all,
I've recently (this month) decided to finally start keeping a personal budget and tracking all income and expenses on a excel sheet. I've been living 34 years with zero budget and no real plan so this is all new territory for me. one trend I've noticed after a few weeks of tracking and planning is net income is still equaling up to my expenses so little to no savings being made. I was hoping some input from the community on what I can change will shed some light on my spending habits.
my monthly plan (goal) looks like this:
MONTHLY INCOME (this is take home pay after taxes)
PAY 1 $1,154.54
PAY 2 $1,154.54
RENT PAY $250.00
Total net income $2,559.08
FIXED COSTS
RENT $825.00 firm
CELL $101.14 negotiable
CAR Ins. $47.34 negotiable
bank fee $10.95 firm
CREDITCANADA $200.00 minimum
TTL $1,173.48 45.86%
FINANCIAL GOALS
Emergency fund $400.00
new car/ $200.00
travel $75.00
TTL $475.00 18.56%
VARIABLE SPENDING
Gas $200.00
Car maintenance $100.00
groceries $300.00
eating out $100.00
haircut $20.00
TTL $720.00 28.14%
a few clarifications. I had a lot of credit card debt the last few years and it eventually became too much so I signed up with CreditCanada to consolidate all my debt into a monthly payment. the minimum is 200$/month and the total debt is 8k$ +. I'd like to pay this off in less than 2 years ( I have the exact details online for this).
I live in Quebec Canada so all monies are in CDN (if that makes any difference). I have a 9 year old car in good shape (Hyundai Accent, 2007 manual, 110000km) but it will need to be replaced in 2 years I estimate.
I am single and live in an apartment so I assume food costs are a little high even for me. I try to shop at walmart but not sure if that is as cheap as I can go. I would eventually like to get on a health plan (estimating 50-100.month... it's Quebec)
my big question is... are my priorities in order? (pay off debt, create emergency fund and savings for car) . I assume after all that I can dive into the world of investing. what say you?
I've recently (this month) decided to finally start keeping a personal budget and tracking all income and expenses on a excel sheet. I've been living 34 years with zero budget and no real plan so this is all new territory for me. one trend I've noticed after a few weeks of tracking and planning is net income is still equaling up to my expenses so little to no savings being made. I was hoping some input from the community on what I can change will shed some light on my spending habits.
my monthly plan (goal) looks like this:
MONTHLY INCOME (this is take home pay after taxes)
PAY 1 $1,154.54
PAY 2 $1,154.54
RENT PAY $250.00
Total net income $2,559.08
FIXED COSTS
RENT $825.00 firm
CELL $101.14 negotiable
CAR Ins. $47.34 negotiable
bank fee $10.95 firm
CREDITCANADA $200.00 minimum
TTL $1,173.48 45.86%
FINANCIAL GOALS
Emergency fund $400.00
new car/ $200.00
travel $75.00
TTL $475.00 18.56%
VARIABLE SPENDING
Gas $200.00
Car maintenance $100.00
groceries $300.00
eating out $100.00
haircut $20.00
TTL $720.00 28.14%
a few clarifications. I had a lot of credit card debt the last few years and it eventually became too much so I signed up with CreditCanada to consolidate all my debt into a monthly payment. the minimum is 200$/month and the total debt is 8k$ +. I'd like to pay this off in less than 2 years ( I have the exact details online for this).
I live in Quebec Canada so all monies are in CDN (if that makes any difference). I have a 9 year old car in good shape (Hyundai Accent, 2007 manual, 110000km) but it will need to be replaced in 2 years I estimate.
I am single and live in an apartment so I assume food costs are a little high even for me. I try to shop at walmart but not sure if that is as cheap as I can go. I would eventually like to get on a health plan (estimating 50-100.month... it's Quebec)
my big question is... are my priorities in order? (pay off debt, create emergency fund and savings for car) . I assume after all that I can dive into the world of investing. what say you?
Don't let the floor be your ceiling