Budget Categories

[cjsmith]

I started "tracking where every penny goes" in early 2004. (I put that in quotes because there are times I've screwed up; I am currently missing a little over $200. But in the grand scheme of things I'm really not doing all that badly.)

I'm still reworking my categories for expenses. The more accurately they reflect my motivation for buying a thing, the better will be my ability to make budget decisions.

I just created a new category: Social Life. The bottle of wine I bring to a friend's party is not under Groceries:Wine, because I'm not buying it in order to have wine to drink. The pizza I order for the friends watching a movie at my house is not under Dining Out:Dinner, because I never order two large pizzas for dinner. These things are expenditures I make for their value in my social life. When I look at the budget later, instead of saying "Yikes, no more $45 meals", I'll probably say "ah yes, those items there are worth it".

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

OHHHHH yes. :-) You should have heard us howling at the supposedly tense moment in "Stealth". I think they were trying convey that the Probably Good Guys couldn't contact the Possibly Rogue Plane, and so Maybe People Would Die, but they said something SO wrong that we all erupted into hoots of laughter.

I think that's the only thing worth doing with most movies, frankly, so I'm just as glad that the only movies I ever watch are aviation movies seen with heckling pilot audiences!

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I had a feeling. :) And that's okay, while I do like watching movies, I tend to value knowledge and socialization more. So I probably wouldn't mind having the gaps pointed out all that much. ;)