March Money

So many of you, my fellow blogging friends, live quite happily on a strict budget and make "living on less" a game or a challenge. It's comforting to know that there are so many people, besides me, who are whackos live this challenge daily in order to reach important goals. For many of us that goal is TRAVEL. 

Sometimes I am questioned by people for walking to places that they drive to. I explain that I have a budget line for gas and to make it work then I have to walk to a lot of places. "But you have the money" is a response I sometimes get and yes, I do have the money but I'd rather walk and put more of my money into my travel account. This isn't about being "poor" and making do. It's about making choices and prioritizing those choices. The day will come when my priorities will change (hopefully not soon) and I will save for something else.

I have learned many "savings hacks" from all of you, along with some great recipes, and I appreciate that we freely share our frugal ways.
U da bess!

My monthly budget has a "misc." budget line which is quite generous and covers lots of things: clothing, books, music on iTunes, going out for dinner, playing volleyball ($2.00 a week!), going to movies, things for the home, art supplies, gifts, charitable givings, general mad money and so on. Some months there are more of those things than my misc budget can handle so I'll move something to the next month, (like renewing my passport). This month I had to pay out $220 for truck maintenance and instead of moving money from savings I decided to try covering it from my misc. budget.

So things are a wee bit tight right now as I'm trying to leave my savings alone. Thankfully both pension amounts will be in my account by Friday - I just need to make it to Friday on the $165 I have left in my chequing account. Shouldn't be too difficult. I only need to buy a few groceries. All the bills are paid. I should even have money left to purchase a few more British pounds :)