January was a pretty good month for my money, if you ask me. Ever since I started budgeting with PearBudget, I believe this is the first time my expenses came in under budget for EVERY category! Amazing!

To keep this from getting boring, I’m only going to review the areas in which I was under budget:

Utilities: $34.23 / $100  – Even though I had to turn on the heater, the final price was so low because they gave us a credit on everyone’s accounts! Otherwise it would’ve been $60. Which still isn’t terrible considering the cold snap we had.

Groceries: $191.64 / $200  – I was SO CLOSE to going over, but I made do with what I had at home. So proud of myself! It was higher than usual due to the Costco trip I made to stock up on stuff.

Gas: $107.07 / $200 – Awesome, once again. Now that I don’t have to commute I’ll definitely be needing less gas. I’m not sure how much less, so I’m budgeting $150 a month for now to be on the safe side. I’ll revisit that again at the end of next month.

Household: $25.82 / $45 – Used this money for a coaxial cable to hook up the internet, and some cleaning stuff at Walmart.

Clothing: $10.68 / $40* – SO proud of myself! That was only for fashion tape (double sided tape) for my dance show and bobby pins.

Entertainment: $79.62 / $100 – This included my overspending from December, as well as a few cheap meals out (fast food), and a contribution to the baby shower. Again, I’m so proud of myself! Really, it’s the eating out that always gets me, and I’ve been having amazingly few cravings. It’s great.

Internet: $29.02 / $50.00 – I managed to score $20/month with Comcast, and this first “month” actually included an extra half month I hadn’t been billed for yet. From here on out I’m reducing the budget to $25, until my deal runs out in 6 months.

So, to summarize I was able to save $300 from my “Short Term Savings” line item, $47.02 from my “Set Savings” (which is a remnant from when I contributed my ST savings to my parents), and $141.15 from being under budget!!!

Grand total: $488.17

I’m SO thrilled with that number. Particularly because of the fact that that brings my emergency fund to a total of $10,000!! (Any additional money still went to the Efund, but is actually earmarked towards Lasik, and isn’t included in the $10k figure.) Kind of bittersweet….since it won’t stay in the E-fund very long now that I actually have to use it.

*I decided to set apart this money to fund my Weight Loss Rewards. That’ll serve as further encouragement for me to NOT spend money on random crap so I can have more to put towards some really awesome rewards….I can’t wait to use it!