Recap September

So this month was our first on our budget/Debt Diet. It was exciting and interesting. I updated the budget every 2 or 3 days or so and we were able to stay within our means and pay extra on our cards this month. It was not the amount I was hoping for, but it was a lot better than the last 3 years have been.

It's amazing how old habits are hard to kill. Even though we were trying to stay within the perimeters we had set for ourselves, we overstepped what I thought was reasonable. For example, we spent $87 in "dining out" and even though we were eating extremely healthy (baja fresh), that is more than I used to "budget" for and more than we need to spend in a month on outside food.

Another thing I forgot to configure in my budget was "unexpected items" - which is hard to plan for, but I didn't even think about. Our brake pads needed to be replaced, and luckily my husband is awesome and replaced them himself (even though he'd never done it before), saving us half the cost. However, adding that to our other "unexpected costs" and "necessary/unnecessary expenses" and we were off of my projected dream payoff amount for the month.

Overall, it was a great and successful month. On to October!!