30 day budget recap

Let's take a sample of what I spent in the last 30 days, June 23-July 23, 2011.

I thought I was being frugal overall; let's see how I stack up.

Expenses
Jun-27 EuRest Food $2.80
Jun-28 Fairmont Jazz Food $34.12
Jun-28 Van Cam $112
Jun-28 Canada Post $10.81
Jul-04 Thai Away Home Food $11.75
Jul-04 Canada Safeway Food $4.88
Jul-06 Mastercard $233.84
Jul-08 Kaboom Box Food $10.00
Jul-08 Vietnamese Food $3.62
Jul-13 Cafe Ami Food $2.80
Jul-15 Sandbar Food $26.00
Jul-18 Cafeteria Food $8.61
Jul-18 Shoppers Drug Mart Food $4.66

TOTAL OUT $465.89

TOTAL FOOD $109.24



Income
Jun-29 Paypal $29.50
Jun-30 Payroll $231.07
Jun-30 Interest $0.02
Jul-05 Tax $149.62
Jul-15 Payroll $231.06
Jul-13 Trans $75.00

TOTAL INCOME $716.27
NET INCOME $250.38

My unavoidable big-ticket expenses: Flight, fixing camera (ok, this was avoidable)

Fine, only $109 spent on food. I'll take that for now. But if I want to reduce this food expense to ZERO for next year it's going to take another extra kick of discipline.

I splurged twice this month on food: once at the Fairmont Hotel buying drinks at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and another time at Sandbar, an upscale place on Granville Island.

I ate full meals out four times:
1. Thai food
2. Supermarket takeaway
3. Cart food (oyster po boy!)
4. Upscale Granville Island place.

The rest of my big-ticket expenses:
1. $100 to fixing my camera
2. $233 to buying a plane ticket to Boston, cell phone bill, etc.


What I plan on changing this next month:

1. I plan on NOT eating out at all. The goal is to reduce my expenditures to absolute ZERO, or realistically within $100 max. This does not include any advance planning for the NYC trip in September.

Expected Income:
$460 stipend
$225 travel bursary

Expected Expenses:
$100 books
$30 phone bill


And just as a reminder:
Bank account: $76.19
Total debt: around $35000.00 and will definitely be $10,000 more after this year.