Week in Review (Mar 11 - Mar 17)

Tuesday - Got up early to run my mile to try to wake up. SUPER tired. After work, I tried another new butt and thigh tabata video. This was pretty tough, and LONG. First Fitness Blender video I've done with both Kelly and Daniel and they are adorable. Also did lean, toned arms. A did her last "training run" before her big trail race!

Wednesday - I actually went to run club!! I tried the new New Balance Fresh Foam. Kind of an ugly shoe, but pretty comfortable. Had a nice and easy run with Heather, who is finally back from her latest injury.

Thursday - Legs a bit sore after the brutal video I did on Tuesday, but knocked out 3.5 miles on the treadmill, and then tried a new upper body tabata video. Holy billions of reps!!! There wasn't any individual moves that were hard, just the sheer number of them.

Friday - 1 mile in the basement inferno before work.
Saturday - A billion solo miles at the High Line Canal Fat Ass. You can read about it HERE.

After a super quick shower, A and I drove to Denver to meet up with Jessa and friends for her birthday lunch. I had a TON of food as I was starving after my run that morning. We spent about 4 hours downtown and headed home because it was getting dark and cold.

A found a "Beauty and the Beast" ballroom in the Brown Palace, where Jessa had a room for the night

Sunday - Up fairly early for A's first trail race! The Mountain Goat Kid's Trail Series' first race of the season was at Bear Creek State Park, home of the Bear Chase race I've done the last three years. We got there about 45 minutes early, with enough time for pictures, bib decorating and a bathroom stop (for me). My legs were DEAD after my run yesterday, but I ran most of it BEHIND A and took a ton of pictures. The trail was muddier than expected and about half of the way through the 2 mile run, A lost her shoe in the mud, which was a bit upsetting to her. She rocked the end of it (in an effort to beat ME) and said she wants to run the next race in the series.

The afternoon was spent eating cookies, watching tv, and roasting some vegetables. While A was doing her homework, I did the toned, lean arms video and walked a mile on the treadmill. Anyone else watch the Walking Dead? This episode was one of the craziest and most intense EVER. I'm still a little traumatized by it.
Monday - 5k on the treadmill. Legs too tired for anything else.

Weekly Miles Run - 50.2 (8.61 treadmill, 41.59 outside)
Weekly Cross Training - 1 mile walk
Minutes of Strength  - 154 (Not bad since I missed BodyPump this week)

Weekly Gain - 1.2 pounds

• Maybe my heart just isn't in the #NotEatingAllTheThings Round 2? Last time, this all seemed so easy, and I had losses every week until I hit my goal. I'm at my same post-holiday weight, and while the number doesn't bother me, the jiggle does a bit.
• Related: I am not eating my best most days, and I can FEEL it. Like yesterday (Monday), one of the attorneys brought in a giant plate of German Chocolate and caramel brownies. I ate like 5 of them over the course of the day. WHY? One would have been fine. But they were there, so I ate them. Stupid.
• I am REALLY enjoying roasting vegetables. I made a TON of them on Sunday and they should last me all week. they reheat really well!

Everything Else 

• I didn't do a financial update last month, but I'm plugging away at the budget.
• I have about 10% of my emergency fund in the bank (not where I would like to be, but I have honestly spent the last 3 years with NOTHING put away, so this is a start).
• I FINALLY rolled over my IRA from my job that I got laid off from in 2010. Yeah, I know... took me 3.5 years. It was even easier than I imagined. I only was getting statements once a year, so I didn't realize the amount of money I had there.
• Including today, there are only NINE more days until we move and my boss's "partial retirement" is official. I have located a covered garage fairly close, and while it is about $15 more a month, the raise I got helps with that. I am not looking forward to the additional commute. Will be interesting to see how a one mile move further into the city will take.
• NOTHING ELSE.

January Review

This was the most interesting month yet, as I was out of town for part of the month (the first 6 days I was in Texas and I was also in SoCal for three days) AND, I got ZERO money from the ex this month, so everything is based on 100% my income.

Household Bills (Mortgage & Electricity) - $800.76 (My half)
Car (Loan & Insurance) - $786.67 (2 car payments this month because of due dates, plus car insurance went up)
Netflix - $8.27
Credit Card Payments - $216.74
Savings, Investments - $110.00 (this is up!!)
Insurance (Life, A's Health) - $129.40
Dad (Money I owe him and cell phone) - $150.00
Gym Membership & Childcare - $42.71 (this went up too)
Race Registration - $92.00 (I registered for 2 races, a 1/2 for... NEXT January, and the Bear Chase 50k)
Groceries - $210.39 (A bit higher this month, I bought more produce and stockpiled some frozen foods)
Beer (Store & Bar) - $18.00 (WHAT. Well, I didn't have the money for it. Lowest amount since I've tracked, by FAR)
Dining Out - $66.53 (I think 100% of this is from when I was out of town)
Parking - $114.75
Gas - $34.66 (Having ZERO money means I go ZERO places, which apparently means gas lasts FOREVER)
Other - $110.38 (Non-grocery items, seeing Hunger Games with my niece, roller skating, a DVD, and filing my taxes)

According to this particular month, I have discovered I can get by without the (much needed) help from my ex, but JUST BARELY. I will be paying off my credit cards with my tax refund, which will help a bit. Other than that, I do not see anywhere else I can make budget cuts. I refuse to give up my weekly froyo unless I for real have ZERO dollars to pay for it. Not QUITE there yet.

Tracking is a bit... fun. I think I'll do it another month, just to see.

December Dollars

As promised, I continued to track all my finances through the month of December, since it was going to be a more "typical" month of spending.

Household Bills (Mortgage, Electricity & Water) - $856.70 (My half)

Car (Loan, Insurance) - $434.50

Netflix - $8.27

Credit Card Payments - $160.00

Savings, Investments - $85.00

Insurance (Life, A's Health) - $129.40

Dad (Money I owe him and cell phone) - $150.00

Gym Membership & Childcare - $41.90 (My half)

Race Registration - $240.00 (Only one, NYC marathon!)

Groceries - $173.00

Beer (Store & Bar) - $108.31(about $50 higher than normal between excessive delay at the airport and beer I bought for Christmas dinner)

Dining Out - $105.44

Parking - $112.00

Gas - $80.36

Gifts - $16.96

Other (Roller Skating, non-food items) - $51.74

I didn't get as much money from my ex this month (he recently quit his job), so I wasn't able to chip away at the credit cards as much as I would like. This is definitely a better example of where my money actually goes. Other than registering for the NYC marathon and the beer this month, there really isn't anywhere I can/will cut. We didn't do any extra-curricular spending this month and I had no one but a work friend to buy Christmas presents for, which saved a lot of money.

It really is eye-opening to see where money goes. Thinking I might risk going from cash to debit, although I'm not super reliable about writing everything down. Due to reduced income and high outflow, I don't keep a ton of money in my checking account and I don't have overdraft. Tips on keeping track of money? I still use a paper register...

Not sure if I will continue tracking going into 2014, as it seems I've got things as under control as it can be...

A Look Back at November

This isn't about running, so feel free to skip if that's what you are hoping to see!

On my drive out to Moab, I was following a Twitter conversation about the decrease in food stamp allowances and there was a family that was outraged, saying that there was NO WAY a family of four could survive on a budget of $800 a month. I FIND THAT INSANE. Mainly because that's pretty much my take home pay every two weeks. Since it was the first day of the month, I decided for the first time EVER, to track all my spending.

For many people, it is probably not that complicated. You probably have a credit card and it would take about two seconds to track this. I'm already on a very tight budget and mostly use cash. So, where did my money go all month??? November is an especially interesting month to track since it's A's birthday month and when the holiday shopping season starts. (I had substantial "extra" income from my ex husband this month - he paid child support (!!) AND sent extra money for A's birthday AND money for me to buy plane tickets to go to/from Texas to pick up A).

Here you go:

Household Bills (Mortgage, Electricity) - $782.31 (My half)
Car (Loan, Insurance, NEW TIRES) - $684.50
Netflix - $8.27
Credit Card Payments - $295.08
Savings, Investments - $80.00
Insurance (Life, A's Health) - $129.40
Dad (I owe my dad money STILL from when I was unemployed, and he pays our family cell phone plan so that's included) - $100.00
Gym Membership & Childcare - $41.90 (My half - L and I are on a "family" plan)
Race Registration - 60.39
Groceries - $167.29
Beer (Both at the store & bar) - $43.12
Dining Out - $119.39
Parking - $115.00
Gas - $74.67
Haircut - $18.00
"Stuff" (This includes holiday shopping - which is DONE, A's birthday gifts and FOUR pairs of running shoes I got super cheap on clearance on Black Friday) - $478.10
A's Birthday Party - $146.66
Debit Card Purchases  (Most of this is airfare - me and A for TX and a flight for Tink) - $566.83

I cut up my credit cards about 2 months ago, so these were all CASH/DEBIT purchases - not one penny of that was charged.

Obviously I had some decent expenses that this month that I would not otherwise be having (Mainly the "stuff" category, airfare and new tires). I had a "bonus" third paycheck this month and a lot of money from my ex I don't normally see. With all that said, my normal take home is about 1/2 of what my spending for November was.

HOLY SHIT

So fascinating to see where my money goes. I literally tracked EVERY SINGLE OUTGOING CENT. I plan on tracking for one more month since this was by NO means a "normal" month for me and I don't make nearly that much money, I just had substantial help from the ex-husband this month.

I realize putting this all out there is going to invite criticism, so I'm ready for it!

Thanks to Lisa, I am reading The Total Money Makeover, and while it does not contain any information I don't already know, it is a good refresher and a good reminder that money (or lack thereof) is a HUGE cause of anxiety and stress in our daily lives. Going cash only a few months ago was a HUGE change for me. For many years, I was "buy now, pay later" - which worked ok THEN because I had the income to pay it back... The loss of income from J moving out, the giant pay cut I took after losing my job of almost 7 years in 2010 has caught up with me. I accumulated some credit card debt over the summer - not even on anything ridiculous, just not wanting to skip things like going out to dinner, going out to lunch and running local races. The loss of income did NOT immediately register in my brain that I would HAVE to make cuts to what I was spending my money on.

The biggest change is going to be the big decline in racing, ESPECIALLY "runcations." The only traveling I will likely be doing after Tink will by the NYC marathon, for which I have GUARANTEED ENTRY!!

Are you on a budget? Tips? Suggestions?