Ok, it's been a while since i've been on here. Thankfully, finals are over and I can continue posting. I just added up everything and put them into categories. I broke it into needs/wants, and then from there, I broke the categories down further into sub categories. Here is my finding
Needs- $181.95
- Gas- $50.50
- Other Expenses- $131.45
Wants- $110.08
- Cigarettes- $32.50
- Coffee- $9.41
- Food- $21.19
- Fun/Going out- $46.98
Looking at this, I spent a total of $292.03. Below is the percentage make-up of needs/wants
Needs- 62.31%
Wants- 37.69%
Total- 100%
When I was looking at different budgets, I decided that I don't want my wants to be any more than 30% of my total check. I'm not too far off, only 7.69% off. Out of the wants, I am looking at what I can cut out of my budget, so that my wants will only be between 25%-30%
My most costly want is obviously smoking. I am taking a big step to quitting. Recently at my doctors, I received a prescription for a drug called Chantix. The purpose of it is to reduce the physical side-effects of smoking cessation. I've planned to start taking that and quit for my new years resolution.
If I remove smoking from the list, my wants would be reduced to $77.58, which would make my wants only be 26.57%.
Conclusion- I will be able to meet my goal of spending under 30% of my budget on wants by quitting smoking. Considering smoking is related to my finances, I have decided to post about the progress I will have made quitting smoking. These posts will begin in the new year.
I highly recommend you to try this experiment if you have not already done so. I have become a lot more aware of my spending habits through tracking my weekly spending.
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2 comments:
great idea frank...i will do the same specially that my husband is a smoker and here in malaysia his brand marlboro light menthol costs RM8 and he is buying 1 pack a day...great job!
Hello Frank,
I found your blog because you reviewed my website at Link Referral, thanks. Good idea about the smoking. When I have figured out personal budgets for myself in the past, I have not used percentages. No need to. It all comes down to spending less than you bring in. I will post some ideas I have used in other places or send you an email. With the smoking though, I smoked from when I was 13 up until I was 25 years old. What helped me stop was I had a reason. My wife was pregnant and I wanted her to stop so I stopped with her. If you have a reason, you can do it. The same goes for anything you try to accomplish in life. Once we stopped smoking (and drinking at the same time), we used the money we saved each year to go to Disney World. Instead of killing ourselves, we had fun. It was well worth it.
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