I'm getting kicked in the pants...

Thursday, March 13, 2008

...by this lunch challenge. Yesterday was my second day this week that I didn't/forgot to bring a lunch.

The going away party for K was last night, and as such, I went in for a 10-6 shift yesterday instead of my regular 7:30 - 3:30, that way I just headed straight to the party. Besides, it was soooooo nice to sleep in. Problem was, I was enjoying sleeping in too much and left the house without and lunch or breakfast. Siiigh.

I have a jar of mandarins and some jell-o at work, but it wasn't enough to tide me over. Sigh.

In other bad news, I have now gone through my whole food budget this month. Last month I budgeted $300 for food, and this month I dropped it down to $200. So, I'm going to try my hardest not to buy any more food - it shouldn't be impossible since my folks buy most of the groceries for my house. Whoops.

I have also been thinking about using the 'envelope system' as a budget when I go to London. I think that an all-cash budget will work out best for me while I'm there, since I don't know how many fees I'm going to be paying should I want to pay via debit, credit etc. However, I don't like the idea of carrying actual 'envelopes' around - so I'm going to keep my eyes open for some smaller, change purses or billfolds - if I could get three or four different colors, I could grab whichever ones I need when I went out. I like the idea of depositing my paycheque and pulling out the cash, taking out the money for rent/utilities and then splitting it all into little coin purses and off I go! That way I wouldn't have to take any more money out for the month, and I can minimize the fees.

I've been watching a lot of "Till Debt do us Part" on Slice here at work ( I don't get Slice at home - I have what I like to call "Advanced Peasent Vision...") and they always use jars to put money in for their expenses. I like that idea as well (especially when I get carried away thinking I could find vintage antique jars at a market or something...), but I'm not sure I should be staking all my money in open jars in a bedroom in a shared house... Not sure about the security of all that. The jars are nice if you are splitting your expenses with a spouse or something, but mine will be all to myself.

Do any of you use the envelope budgeting system? How do you go about it??

2 comments:

Bouncing Back said...

I never had much luck with the envelope system, I know folks who swear by it, but I just could never get the hang of it. I just check my spending progress weekly on a spreadsheet and I seem to have better luck with that.

Canadian Saver said...

Good point about the money envelopes/jars when you are sharing a house with someone... It may not be the safest.

I'm sure you'll figure it all out once you get there :-)

p.s. I love that show too!!