Jordan's banking information was changed a pay period earlier than we thought (for July 31, 2010 instead of August 13, 2010). After a bit of finaggeling (is that even a word) we've managed to get the accounts sorted out. He'll get his first $100 allowance on Friday and the joint account will pay off his Visa - then we'll both be credit card debt free when we go into August.
Hizzah.
We still haven't received our joint credit card yet, but we called Mastercard today and they said we should have it in the mail by Friday. If we don't, I told Jordan we can use my credit card as our 'joint' card until it comes.
The one thing I'm really looking forward to is being able to actually track all of our spending now. But I'm not sure how it will all break down. I'm thinking groceries, eating out, clothing....'entertainment' - but maybe we should break entertainment down. Maybe eating out counts as entertainment - I'm not really sure..
I'm wondering, if you track your spending how do you categorize it?
My tracking spreadsheet has the following categories in rows, one column for each month:
ReplyDeleteCondoFees
PropertyTax
HouseInsurance
DirectEnergy(heat)
Enmax (elec & water)
Shaw (internet & cable)
Telus (landline)
Car insurance (once per year but I prorate it per month)
Car registration (once per year but I prorate it per month)
Car gas
Car misc (oil changes, etc.)
Groceries (food items only)
Eating out (includes restaurants, fastfood, Slurpees)
Household (TP, detergent)
Personal (shampoo, Tylenol)
Clothing
Newspaper
Entertainment (publiclibrary annual fee, concerts, movies)
Magazines (I consider this entertainment but I spend a lot so I like to break it out to see exactly how much)
Lottery tix (yeah ... I know. I don't drink so this is my vice)
Gifts/charity
Miscellanous (catch-all for everything else)
Eating out usually falls under entertainment for us as we don't do a whole lot of entertainy things.
ReplyDeleteI use the categories my bank assigns in the online system. Entertainment for us is usually pretty low - the odd rental DVD, occasionally a movie out. Dining out on the other hand is a LOT higher :)
ReplyDeleteif you eat out a lot - then I think it is best to keep it a separate category... :)
ReplyDeleteKeeping it separate might be interesting. Just so at the end of the month/year you can really see how much you are spending on dining out.
ReplyDeleteI try to split eating out and entertainment. Sometimes we get lunch at work and I feel that doesn't really count as entertainment. For us it's usually movies, bowling or something with friends!
ReplyDelete