Inspired by The Oatmeal, and clearly nowhere as awesome as his comics,
I present to you:
I loathe budgeting for the year, because I don’t see a dentist or get a haircut every month.
But nevertheless, here it is as approximated.
Mostly, I will try to stay under $1000 each month.
I will not shop.
I will not shop.
I will not shop.
Okay, I will TRY not to shop. 🙂
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P.S. For those of you wondering, Donations is also a category, but I don’t really blog about it.
And it’s not included in the $20,000 expenditures. It’s a permanent, given extra.
The reason being that I hate the guilt trip mentality of “look at what I gave this year, and what did YOU give?” or the “why didn’t you give MORE?” talk.
It’s the one category I keep just for me.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I'm so jealous of your rent. Mine is £1650 a month split between two of us = £825 for me = nearly $1,300. And that's before bills!
Good luck with your travels. 🙂
Well I don’t live in London, of course. And I am in a small studio (the living space size of a hotel room.. haha!)
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for posting your budget. I currently spend $1720 a month on rent because yes I'm silly and thought I could live it up in luxury for a while. I've done this for 5 months now but TODAY I have just posted an ad for flatmates. I won't reduce my rent to $333.33 per month but at least my rental bill should come down to just approx $600 per month which means $1120 can go straight into the bank account for savings! Even better would be in that one month of saving I could afford a nice little tropical getaway. But I won't!! I need to jump back on the budgeting wagon and get serious about improving my net worth. I guess I was just living it up for a while! But that while has been long enough
My life is such that I may not be able to reduce my rent down THAT low.
I was planning on moving to Toronto but now plans might change, and I may not be able to stick under $20,000 if I have to go elsewhere :\ lol!!
Still, rent is the biggest expense, and if you can keep it down super low, it helps free up cash for everything else
$333.33 in rent. I should move to Canada. Thanks for sharing your budget. I haven't been to Europe in years… and every year I say "we should go to Spain or France or Italy"… but I never actually budget the $5,000. I think I may do some tweaking of my existing budget.
To be fair, it’s what I pay in rent. BF pays the other half, so it’s really $600~ dollars
And we were thinking of moving back to Toronto for $500/month ($250 each) but now my plans may change… again.
Wow- food must be very cheap where you live if you can get a week's worth of grocery items for that amount!
I couldn't do the no buying clothes all year! A month at a time is really all I have the willpower to do.
I thought about doing a month. But that wasn't a challenge for me. I didn't shop last month…
I was wondering about the entertainment amount too!
What do you do for fun? I think that's what a lot of us are wondering. Like on the weekends, or when BF isn't working?
Are you a hermit? lol. 😉
You know what, this is a great idea for a post 🙂 I am a bit of a hermit, that’s true…!
Very cool visual! Wish I was that creative! You should visit Kyoto,Japan and Beijing, China! Look forward to hearing about your travels.
I went to Japan when I was younger but I'd love to visit it again!
Our Asia Tour will be Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, Singapore
I wanted to go to Cambodia or Vietnam but we aren't sure about the timing of how long we can stay away.
So we just picked our #1s.
Glad I found your site! Really cool "vision board" you've created. I don't think I've ever seen a budget in pictures:-). I think your goals are attainable and I'm cheering for you. As the saying goes, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."
It's my new "thing". I may do more of them!
good luck with your budget! I've been working really hard on mine! And because of you this year I did something I never had before! Actually keep my money in my savings and NOT touch it! Yep pretty damn proud I must say! Thanks!
Aww.. thank you. 🙂
That's inspiring to hear that I've helped indirectly 😀
I LOVE IT! 🙂
Good luck with the no shopping thing 🙂 I wish that I had your willpower!
It’s more of a challenge than willpower, really! Don’t give me so much credit. 🙂
I’m already tempted by online things. The worst will be when I am with my sister.
If anyone thinks I’m awful on Twitter.. she is the QUEEN of Enabling. I might just head her off at the pass by telling her we’re spending the weekend organizing her apartment and closet. 😛
I always love the way you jazz up your blogs with pics, graphics and arrangments. You have a lot of style. Happy 2010 to you.
.-= jolie´s last blog ..My poorest financial choice this year =-.
Thanks! 🙂 Have a great 2010.
$25 month on entertainment? That seems like a very small amount. I take it that includes movies, theatre, special events, coffee/drinks with friends? What would you usually spend the $25 on? I'm curious because my entertainment budget is kinda out of control!
I er.. don’t go out to the movies, theater or special events. Montreal usually has a lot of free things to go to, and our entertainment tends to be more low key.
Especially in the winter. It’s horribly cold outside..
As for coffee/drinks with friends, I don’t have many here in Montreal unless they visit from Toronto. And that’s under my “eating out” category anyway 🙂
The entertainment budget is simply for playing billiards, bowling, mini golfing, movies (haven’t been in a theater for 2 years), and actual “entertainment”. I am still pondering if I should count entertainment from when I travel — like paying for tourist attractions in this category, or leaving it in the Travel category.
At any rate, I don’t have much weight on Entertainment — I’m not a party & events kind of person, and I took the figure as an estimate from what I did spend last year, which was .. around $300. 🙂
I like the wardrobe emergency. Would something like a dog ate my scarf? Fall into this category?
Happy New Year!
Oh gosh yes! I suppose so. Except I’d need to get a dog, and I have 10 other scarves he could chew on and eat before I run out.
Or if I lost my mittens, perhaps. 🙂
Or I JUST HAD TO HAVE that leather jacket!!.. Just kidding.
I just like to leave it open to interpretation because I just don’t know what could be considered an emergency. Breaking a heel at an wedding event or something, perhaps?
Happy 2010!!
OMG! Good luck, girlfriend. I sure would need it. Hell, I think I busted your budget just today buying stupid crap at Target.
Oh, a wardrobe emergency is called a BRIDESMAID DRESS. It's also called wardrobe deadweight, but you have no choice.
Speaking of weddings, that gift budget is TIGHT!
Well, good luck!
See, that’s the great thing about being in Canada I guess. We don’t have a Target here!!!!!!
If we did, I’d have a Category named: “Target Shopping” 🙂
OH! That’s a good emergency. Bridesmaid dress.
The gift budget is at $500 because I estimated it from what I spent last year, which was $500~…
We are also flying to Europe, and that factors into how much we give them, after paying for hotels and such. I give at least $50/head, but since this is BF’s side of the family, he pays for the gift not me.
Really cool visual, I bet it took a while to put together. Only $25 / month for entertainment? I set mine at $100. A question regarding your travel budget: Does that include spending / entertainment while you are there or just the ride and boarding?
Just a couple of hours 🙂 I think I might do this every month for fun.
Yeah, Sarah asked this! $25/month because I took the number from last year. I don’t really go to the movies, and eating out or coffee with friends is under “Eating Out”… potato patata, really.
My travel budget includes everything. Hotel, flight, transportation while I’m there, food, sightseeing and entertainment 🙂
I think we are going to be fine with $3000 for 2 weeks in Europe (BF pays the other 50% by the way).. and if we go to Asia, we estimated it at $5000 each for a tour of 4-5 countries or so, all inclusive.
I need someone to split my $900/month rent…then I'd be matching you stride-for-stride… 😀 Well, ok, a little more, but close enough I'm sure. I do think this year will be an expensive one – could it be more expensive than this past year which included furniture shopping/etc. for a new place? I have a few things on my want list, and there's only so much hording a saver can do right? Time to live a little and enjoy. I've been eyeing the Henckels Professional S knife package for way too long. Go quality.
I think I need to use your other email account…. 🙂
Yeah, there really is only so much hoarding you can do!!!
I think when it starts to become painful or making you stressed because you WANT to (and can afford to) spend the money, but can’t, it’s when it’s too tight of a budget.
Right now, this is all pretty new to me, so it feels all right, and more of a challenge (which is the way I faced my earlier debt) rather than an ultimatum as a way to get out of debt.
It’s kind of cool to think I can really make it under $1000, and still have $300 left over for incidentals on occasion. Sometimes less, because of having to see the dentist in a month, or buying pills.. but other than that, it’s pretty cool to think that I CAN make it.
I feel like I’m reliving my college ramen years, except I never (stupidly) lived so cheaply in college. 🙂
Very interesting. Thanks so much for sharing this. I've never attempted to project an annual budget, only to spend as little as possible and still enjoy a decent quality of life. At the end of the year when I look at where it went, I find that travel is my biggest expense, followed by property tax on my house and very close after that, the gas bill to heat the house. We, having travelled to the US and Australia last year, plan to stay in Europe this year which is cheaper for us. Poor Bill will probably feel deprived, but I'm really looking forward to it! We have 3 Jan set aside for doing some planning… I'll look forward to hearing all about your doings in Europe!
Ditto!
I am not a fan of doing annual budgets, just because a lot of things happen spontaneously with us. Like deciding to go to Boston and then Chicago was on a whim because we were both free at the time and there was a great deal.
But I think the overall goal of $20,000 works if I can spend around $1000 a month on living expenses, and save $5000 – $8000 for traveling/other.
My biggest items are always rent and food.
i love your BUDGET its fabulous for sure!!! 🙂
Thanks!
I hate budgeting by the year, like I said.. but this is an overall goal I’ll aim for, for next year.
That's a really nifty way to set things out! Looks great, makes sense, and makes budgeting a whole lot funner!
I think I might start doing that more often 🙂 I had a lot of fun in Photoshop with it.
Cool graphics. Great 2010 plan. I gotta ask though… What constitutes as a Wardrobe Emergency?
*imagines clothes spontaneously combusting*
😉