Roadrunner Financials - June 2009

It took me a while to get things set up and 'fill in the blanks' for our spending the last couple of months. I never used to track spending on a daily basis. But I think it can be a powerful tool.

So here it is: June's numbers for our first full month as Full-timers.

I was pretty happy with it all coming in $74.28 under budget.
We drove quite a lot and were still under budget on the diesel fuel. from Fairfax VA we made stops in Maynardville TN, Fort Worth (Benbrook Lake) TX, Oklahoma City and Pontiac IL.

The biggest areas we need to work on is in the food budget: e.g. eating out. That will gobble up the budget in a hurry.
Laundry worked out well because we were able to use Joan's and Sue's washers and dryers.

VISA charges were primarily for cash advances and ATM fees. As full-timers we now charge everything we can on our American Express and / or VISA card so we can track things better. Before F/T status we would charge household items and gas primarily.

Misc charges were way over budget. I had to buy another camera because my Canon locked up. This time I went with a low end Fuji with 10.0 megapixels from Best Buy. I added an extended warranty in case this one has a problem down the line.

It took me a while to get the spreadsheet set up but I think it has potential. We are interested in living below budget and putting some $$ away for a trip down the road (Hawaii?). I will be tweaking this some more I am sure. I also will be adding a few more notes to my entries so I can remember better what these dollars went toward.

That's it for today's edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles. Happy Civic Holiday Canada!