The past week has been characterized by depressing realizations.
Depressing realization #1: I have failed Budgeting 101.
B and I have a monthly budget that we are apparently unable to follow. This evening, we ran the expenses for last month and discovered that our "Household" budget ran over by--I'm cringing--300 percent. The Household budget allows for smaller-scale home purchases, such as decorational items, paint, and any number of other random expenses. At this rate of spending, I will never be able to buy real lamps for our living room or art to hang on our naked walls. I'm not sure how we managed this budgeting overachievement, but buying sticks for a vase in our living room was partially to blame. We should have known better and plucked them from my parents' yard.
Also in the Bad News Budgeters category is our Dining Out budget, which ran over by (when compared to Household, an admirable) 100 percent. However, comparing worse to worser and thinking that you came out ahead is like praising yourself for managing to make it through the day without pouring the contents of a cement truck into your attic--small praise indeed.
Depressing realization #2: Ice cream has calories.
I knew that ice cream has calories. But I didn't know that it has as many calories as it actually does. On a whim, I took a look at the nutritional information on my Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Next time I have a similar whim, I will be sure to ignore it until it passes.
My pint of ice cream has 4 servings of 250 calories each. Now 250 calories is a lot. But when you consider that I usually eat half of the pint in each sitting, the situation is even more dire. I am eating five hundred calories worth of ice cream less than an hour before bed--several times per week! No wonder my jeans have been a bit on the tight side. I guess I can't blame the dryer anymore. Le sigh.
In conclusion.
It's time to stop indulging whims like it's going out of style. It's time to buckle down and follow the rules that we set up! From here on out, I am on budgeting and ice cream probation.
1 comment:
May I say that I'm impressed that you have an actual budget? I mean, a budget with spreadsheets and numbers and facts? A budget not all in your head or scribbled on napkins? The first step toward sticking to a budget is making one, so you're doing pretty well, I think. I'm too scared to analyze my numbers like that. I think I'd end up in tears. :) Anyway, when you get depressed about blowing the budget, remember that you have at least one friend who is inspired by the fact that you even have a budget! Love your blog.
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