The Budget

I suppose the last thing to do before I get into the money saving tricks is to outline our monthly budget:

Food: $200 (or $50 a week, we add $50 in months when there are 5 weeks)
Personal Care (Home/Drugstore): $50
Clothing: $25
Entertainment: $25
Allowances: $100 ($50 each)
Gas/Parking: $150
Public Transit: $150
Car Insurance: $120
Money to Emergency Savings: $100
Rent: $550
Phones: $160 (we both have smart phones because it helps with our jobs)

I keep a spread-sheet which includes all of these numbers plus periodic expenses (oil changes, gifts for birthdays, travel around holidays, text books, etc.) It usually works out to about $1500 a month

Because we are in full-time school, our income does not quite cover these expenses, however - that's what summer income is for! We have a savings account from the summer which evens everything out.

I'll break all of these down a little more in future posts. But I figured it would be a good idea for people to see the baseline.