Not on track

Wow, just checked out my expenses for this month, and I am not on track at all. While my coffee purchases have declined significantly, my bar and restaurant tabs have increased exponentially. Summertime has always been bad for me, but I know just how bad...

More to come later.

Nearing the end of the month...

And it appears I've going over my budget again. I'm not sure what the issue is. I keep trying to readjust my budget, and I keep being just a little over it. Maybe the trick is to set my budget low so that when I go a little over it, it's actually not too much over?

Aggregating across the last four months, I am about $400 over my budget. Is my saving rate of 10% unrealistic? Should I be spending more/less? Does the 10% even mean anything if that's what I budget for, but I'm always over budget every month?

Sticking to a budget

Is really tough. So far this month, I have already gone through 25% of my food budget and 15% of my "discretionary" budget.

Food has mainly just composed of going out to eat, while discretionary budget has been spent mainly on expensive bars / paying for parking.

I expect even more expenses this weekend, as I have my fun night in NYC planned, plus someone's birthday on Saturday.

With all of these unexpected expenses occurring, my budgeting is all out of whack. Maybe I'll only eat and have fun for the first two weeks of the month, and turn into a monk for the last two weeks.