New blog layout: Same crappy writing. I spent all weekend messing around with my blog, and have ended up with a new layout, along with lots of new features, thanks everyone for your patience through my inexperienced meddling. We’re back up and running and are back to a regular posting schedule, hurrah!

April Money Sucks

Before I get into the final details, I’m just gonna say right now: April was expensive. Here’s what sucked my money away this April:

• Winter tires removed. ($80)
• Eyecare ($90) – Insurance has been maxed.
• Pharmacy ($10)
• Running ($54) – had to get a water belt for my training.
• Hair ($40) – First haircut in six months!
• Clothing ($65) – I have one pair of shorts, and summer is approaching.
• Wedding Shower ($30)

As you can see, that’s a bit over my alloted $200 “play money” for every month. Which means we won’t be seeing any exquisite net worth gains this month. On to the fun stuff:

Total Debt: $-29,827.00 (-2.1%)

After the spectacular changes last month, going back to my regular 2% a month reduction in debt seems so…tame. This month I paid around $775 towards my debt, reducing my overall debt by about $650, damn you, interest! I’ve got big plans for May though, I’ve been scheming up ways to increase my debt repayment amounts, and this month I’ll finally be able to put these plans into play. Also, may I kindly bring your attention to the fact that my debt has rolled over from 30k to 29k! Woohoo! On April 30th my student loans rolled over from the 20k mark to the 19k mark, and in a few days my car loan is going to roll over from 10k to 9k. I love seeing small goal progress!

Networth: $-14,083.00 (-5%)

Things are looking up in the net worth arena! I’m aggressively saving for my wedding, as well as a dog, which means I’m packing away a lot of my pay cheque every week. I’m not really looking forward to the massive losses that are going to be sustained once that money starts heading out of my bank account, but for now I’m just going to be happy that I’m almost worth -$13,000! That’s still a long way away from being “in the black” but at least I’m inching in the right direction.

Budgets

Last month I did a seperate net worth and budget breakdown post, but since I’m only at 367 words right now, I figure I can fit a few budget highlights into this post:

The Good News

• Groceries: Our budget  was $490, of which we only spent $422, and that’s even after I realized that we were so under budget and I started spending more frivolously. Reason: My sister moved and gifted us with half the contents of her freezer, thanks for the free food, sis! Following my monthly tradition of squeezing my budgets, I’m now going to reduce this budget to $480 for may. Eventually I’d like to get to $450/month for the two of us and the kitty.
• Entertainment: Our entertainment budget is $200, of which we spent $193. Go us!

The Bad News

• Fees: I got hit with $35 in fees this month. Reason: Both my fiancée’s and my ING debit cards were compromised, forcing me to use my high fee/seldom used Scotia bank card. And I paid for it.
• Gas & Fuel: The budget was $160, I spent $176, missed my mark by a bit. Not really sure why (no extravagant travels this month.)
• Everything Else: This is my personal misc. budget or as I like to call it, my “don’t go insane budget”.  I allot $200 a month to deal with everything that doesn’t belong to the above budgets, as well as clothing and personal fun. I spent $279 this month. Instead of being sad about it, I’m just going to make doubly sure I stay within budget this month.

Looking forward at May I’m going to try and siphon more cash towards debt repayment to see if I can speed my debt reduction progress up a bit, I would love to force another debt roll over on my student loans but that may not be possible because I’m taking a trip to Halifax at the end of the month, which I know is going to eat up a lot of my disposable cash. Getting my student loans to roll over to the 18k range is pretty tempting though…

How was your April? Did you make a lot of progress on your goals? I want to know!