Mid-Month Expense Report

Goal: spend less than $1600
Total spent to date: $1350

$821 – rent, utilities, gas, food
$76 – withdrawn in cash ($24 remaining)
$191 – Vitamin Shoppe: half on meal replacements, half on multi-month supplement supplies
$91 – hair and prescription drugs
$98 – renewal to The Economist
$85 – Fall donation to The Cause

Ralphs Shopping Trip – 9/11

Nothing beats walking through a grocery store while hungry with gaping holes in your mouth that prevent you from eating 99% of surrounding products. The tooth issues that led to this situation have kept me from eating certain foods over the last couple weeks, resulting in $20-30 in food spoilage. Not particularly happy about that, but I made it up with today’s shopping trip.

Ralphs is running a buy combination of 15 selected items, get $5 back deal. For some reason I received 3 of these $5 rebates, which makes up for past mistakes Ralphs has made in my search for savings.

Total spent: $43
Total saved: $91

August Expense Report; September Budget

Unavoidables
Rent & Utilities: $605
Cell Phone: $62
Credit Cards: $61 (+$971)
Food & Toiletries: $266
Gas: $104
Transportation, Other: $16

Grocery Shopping: 8/21 – 8/29

Ralphs – 8/21 – $34

Coupon Items:
2 x Tree Top Juice – $1.00 (retail: $6.00)
5 x Lean Cuisine Frozen Crap – $6.35 (retail: $15.00)
Jose Ole Frozen Skillet Meal – $2.99 (retail: $7.59)
Degree Deodorant – $0.50 (retail: $4.49)

August Expense Report; Month To Date

Unavoidables
Rent & Utilities: $605
Cell Phone: $62
Credit Cards: $61
Food & Toiletries: $174
Gas: $75
Transportation, Other: $16

The Ethics of Couponing

When I decided to get hardcore about clipping coupons, I inevitably ended up consider coupon ethics. I also started using words like “hardcore” to describe couponing. When I first start getting back in the game – the hardcore coupon game – I ran across an article on coupon ethics. It covered the basics: don’t use expired coupons unless your store has a policy of accepting them, don’t try to get coupons scanned that you didn’t actually buy a product for, and when there are restrictions on size or quantity adhere to them. This is all ethical child’s play.

I was more concerned about the big picture – the implications of my calculated, excessive, coupon usage.

Guilty Pleasures, Pt. 1: Couponing

Part of the “Living Large on Hobo Change” series. Clipping coupons is traditionally associated with middle-aged women, but anyone can realize massive savings through obsessive couponing, brand disloyalty, and a minor hit to dignity. That last one is a personal thing; I have no problem living cheap, but I always feel awkward handing over a fistful of coupons. On the plus side, several nice old ladies have commended me on my frugality. All we need is a Great Depression and some war rationing for the younger ladies to be impressed by my wily couponing ways.

Spending Habits Since Blog Inception

First Post: July 17th
Current Date: July 28th

Living Expenses

Housing: $605/month. My own (big) room. All utilities included. Washer/dryer. Bathroom and refrigerator shared with one other person. Bathroom cleaned by maid every couple weeks.

Transportation: 2000 Honda Civic, paid off. 63,000 miles. New tires, new brakes. Over $3000 in maintenance performed in last six months. Runs like new.

Food: I need to find a job where co-workers don’t make fun of me for bringing a sack lunch. Probably $200-$300/mo despite rarely eating out. Prime territory for cost-cutting.

Cell Phone: $53-54/mo

Clothes: Nordstrom Rack and Buffalo Exchange. Any other suggestions?

Toys: Let’s look at the things I want: big screen TV, TiVo, Xbox 360, new computer, fancy digital camera, and every other gadget in existence. The common theme is time-sink electronics that depreciate like crazy. TiVo is the most dangerous – I don’t need to spend all weekend catching up on the TV I missed during the week. I can live without.

Vice: 16 days since last cigarette, longer since last drink. A couple months without blazing. My goal of working 14 hours a day should help keep me away from temptation. I could spend $15-20 a day on booze, get too lazy to make food and spend $20-25 on a pizza, all while smoking $4 worth of cigarettes… then wake up the next morning and burn $10 smoking away a hangover. $0 fits my budget better.

Vacations: I can take a six to twelve hour vacation that feels like a week whenever I want, I just need to find a good hook.