February Budget In Review

An important part of maintaining your budget is examining how well you are doing throughout the month. Waiting until the end of the month to see that you went a hundred dollars over in food expenses could have been prevented if half way through you realized you were already twenty dollars over. That said, let's take a look at my budget:

Foremost, I want to state that considering I don't have a fixed income, it's somewhat difficult to come up with a budget. For my income, I figured that I make on average a hundred dollars a shift plus two biweekly checks of roughly 150. That gave me the grand total of 1900 dollars a month (16 working days x 100 dollars + 150 dollar checks x two pay periods).

Fixed Expenses-Amount Spent-Difference
Rent: 600- 600- 0
Auto Insurance: 181- 181- 0
Car Payment: 272- 272- 0
Cell Phone: 86- Not paid yet- n/a
Credit Cards: 300- 300- 0
Savings: 150- 190- +40.00

Flexible Expenses-Amount Spent- Difference/Amount Left
Clothing/Auto: 50- 0.00- 50.00
Gas: 80- 16.43- 63.57
School Supplies: 10- 12.94- -2.94
Household Items: 11- 8.43- 2.57
Entertainment/Going Out: 60- 36.10- 23.90
Food: 100- 49.89- 50.11

Income- Amount Expected- Difference
Checks: 242.76- 150.00- +92.76
Tips: 624.00- 800.00- -176.00
Pinecone: 6.00- 0- +6.00

Total Income: 872.76- 950.00- -77.24

Explanation
For my fixed expenses, I only need to pay off my cell phone at the end of the month. Everything else is already taken care of. My uncle slipped me forty dollars last night so I put it towards my savings. I resisted the urge to get my toenails done or blow it on delicious wine. As for my flexible expenses, most of the categories still have money remaining in them. I've already used up two thirds of my 'going out money'. Le sigh. As for food, thirty dollars was towards Valentine's alone. I doubt I'll use the rest of the fifty this month. I went slightly over in school expenses, but I had to buy a reader for a class. Nothing I could do to avoid that.

My real concern is in my income. Tips have been considerably less this month. That bothers me. I've been averaging 89 dollars a night instead of my usual 100. Fortunately, my checks are higher because I've been picking up extra hours with training to be a manager. Hmph. We need to do something about that income! At least I get a third paycheck this month, although I want to spend the least amount possible out of it.