Up and down

With DD off to college our monthly grocery bill has really gone down. Even more than I expected. I budget all our food/pet food/cleaning/household supplies/misc in one lump sum. I usually shop at Walmart (or Target) and am able to get all the stuff in the same trip on the same receipt, so it's easier for me just to budget it all together. I also include any take out/eating out in this monthly amount. Based on what we typically spent BC (before college), I budgeted $550 each payperiod - paid twice a month.

When she left for college I basically kept my budget the same but lowered my grocery/misc category by $100 a month and started giving DD $100 a month.  So my bi-monthly amount has been $500. But, happily I have noticed that we aren't even spending the $500! Typically we seem to be in the $350 to $400 range!  This last pay period it was $438, but that included all the pets food purchase and I won't have to buy that again for 6 weeks.  I'm happy for the reduction in expenses, especially now that I have to pay $162 a month for DH's Crestor medicine. Gain some - lose some.  Isn't that the way it always seems to go?

I received a surprise check in the mail for $36.  Apparently there was a class action lawsuit against Sprint. We used to have Sprint as our carrier, when DH was in business, so this was our share of the lawsuit money. But, it was made out to his company name (which has his name within the company name) and there is no company or checking account with that name anymore. I wasn't sure how I would deposit it, but I just deposited it into my savings with my bank app on my phone and figured I'd see what happens. So far it hasn't been denied.  I got into work yesterday and there was a check for this same deal - for over $2000!  I'd rather have that check, LOL.

Our electricity bill was $20 lower this month than this month last year. At first I thought it was probably due to a combination of DD being gone and a milder winter. But, in looking at our bill closer, I have come to the conclusion this is not the case. Plus, I think our winter was pretty mild last year, as well. We get 2 separate bills. The house is on one and the garage/shop is on another. The garage bill is almost exactly the same as last year. $1 higher, actually. So, if  my house bill was down due to higher outside temps it would stand to reason my shop bill would also be down.  So, I'm chalking the $20 savings up to DD being away!

Friday is payday and 2 non-interest charging accounts will be paid in full! wooohooo!  My Paypal Credit (formerly Bill Me Later) will be paid off as well as Lowe's. When DH was building the beautiful cedar arbors for me, he needed a table saw and I put it on a 6 months no interest promotion. Between these 2 payments gone I will now have $275 extra in my monthly budget. I am doing the happy dance about this.

Still no performance review at work yet.  Soon I hope and most likely any increase will be retroactive to the first of the year. Honestly my reviews typically take like 10 minutes, so just do it! LOL.  We are also starting the year out like gangbusters and are so far exceeding our YTD sales goals. If we can keep that up through June, we will get the first half of our bonus then. Last year we hadn't made our mid year goal by June, so no bonus. But, by year end we pulled it out, so we got the whole year's bonus at once.