blue artichoke

I like to listen to talk radio, especially financial talk shows. Every one of the hosts I have listened to say how important it is to have a budget. I nod along in agreement. Yes, that's important. But I've never made a budget for myself, so I decided to do one now, starting today. All along, I've dutifully kept my receipts and tallied them up at the end of the month, tracking how much I spend on food, clothes, gas & car maintenance, etc. By far, my biggest expenditure is food. In my new budget, I'm allotting $400/month for food, or $100/week. That sounds like a lot to me, but I spent ~$700 on food in May. Of course, that included a Cinco de Mayo party, a week of eating out in TN and two shopping sprees at Trader Joe's in St. Louis. So, although an arbitrary guess, maybe $400/month is reasonable. Before I was married and I lived alone, I spent about $200/month on food. But, again, I worked full time in a restaurant and took many meals there, and lived on cereal and sandwiches at home because I often was tired of cooking.

Despite the great Pantry Purge of January/February, my cupboards are again filling up (thanks in part to the Trader Joe's shopping sprees!). I think that the stocked pantry will help me stay within my budget, as I've already got quite a bit to start with.

The other big part of my budget is to leave my credit card at home. I pay most of my bills with my credit card, and I will continue to do so, but everyday purchases will be made with cash. Laying down some presidents makes it a whole lot more difficult to justify impulse buys. Do I really need a skirt with built-in shorts or another silicone spatula (this one in tangerine)? Nope. Swiping a card makes it much easier to be impulsive, so the credit card stays at home in time-out. I'm sure kinks in my budget will emerge in the next several weeks, but in the meantime, I feel rather virtuous for having embarked on a budget in the first place. Although I won't be retiring by the time I'm 40, perhaps I'll be able to retire in luxury a bit earlier if now I start limiting my purchases of frivolous items.

Dinner last night: Tarte à L’Oignon (Onion Flan), pork sausages from the farmer's market
Dinner tonight: orange pancakes with vanilla-orange syrup, Morningstar farms breakfast sausage patties