The budget, from hereonin

I thought I had it all worked out. I had a fortnight with no overtime worked, and I was going to budget that amount if it was the last thing I ever did.

And then this last pay cycle (including a few hours OT) ended up leaving me with less than in the previous fortnight. WTF?

After much back and forth scrutiny – bearing in mind this was well after midnight, and in fact past 1am to be precise DAMN YOU ALL WHITES! – I think I pinned it down to a tax hike. Why taxes might have increased, I don’t know. I vaguely recall reading about ACC levies increasing, but aren’t they always?

So I’m going to go with the assumption that I’ll be worse off than initially expected, and round down to $1600 to be  conservative.

Week 1

Rent $500
Groceries $130
Bills / Irregulars $110
Remaining $60 – fun money, gas, and anything else that crops up

Week 2

Groceries $130
Bills / Irregulars $110
Remaining $60 – fun money, gas, and anything else that crops up

Once a month I tack on $50 for our cellphones – so that’s every other “Week 2”.

All up, that leaves me alternately at least $450 or $500 to save per fortnight. Ah, simplicity.

So with careful shopping and budgeting, I think we can swing this. Like I say, I want to be saving more (I’l stop short of saying should) but this is how it is, for now. T doesn’t want to go back on unemployment, and I’d rather he didn’t too.