Time To Readjust

So for the past six months I’ve been over budget on my discretionary spending.  Which for me is Gasoline, Groceries, Clothing/Shoes, Fast Food, and General Merchandise.  So far here are my results for January:   

	Budget	Actual	Difference
Gasoline	175	111.2	$63.80
Groceries	250	325.66	-$75.66
Fast Food	70	127.67	-$57.67
Clothing/Shoes	0	19.61	-$19.61
General Merchandise	200	401.52	-$201.52

The only thing I came under budget on was Gasoline, tsk, tsk.  I usually don’t go over budget on groceries but I think I was trying to replace clothes shopping with grocery shopping.  One of the many features of Yodlee is that it calculates the average amount spent on every category.  A feature I did not use when I originally created my budget.  So I compared my usual budget with my averages (see table below). I'm right on the mark for groceries, gasoline, and clothing.  However, Fast Food and General Merchandise are vastly under budgeted.  On average, I spent almost twice as much money on food and general merchandise than I budget for.

	Budget	Average	Difference
Gasoline	175	$ 174.64	$    0.36
Groceries	250	$ 250.45	$   (0.45)
Fast Food	70	$ 149.81	$  (79.81)
Clothing/Shoes	133	$ 112.87	$   20.13
General Merchandise	200	$ 364.40	$(164.40)

So what is a sister to do?  Keep on striving to meet the apparently unrealistic budget or readjust?  I think I am going to readjust.  Budgeting is good but it's unrealistic if you don't know your personal spending habits.                                                                    

How will this increase affect my debt payoff plan?  Not favorably.  Increasing clothing and general merchandise to at least meet my averages calls for an extra $234. 

Where is that $234 going to come from?   My extra debt payments.  Thus I'm going to have to away $200 from the HELOC.  Ouch… That'll leave me with a big deficit.  I wish I could say I would pay at least half of any extra money I get towards the HELOC but honestly, I've been considering aggressively attacking my retirement instead of the HELOC since the interest rate on the HELOC has dropped so much in the past few months (plus the interest is tax deductible).  Therefore, money wise, I should be directing all extra money towards my retirement.                                                 

Now, am I being irresponsible by not trying harder to meet by budget?  Probably, but the point of a good budget and a realistic debt pay off plan is to challenge yourself and be realistic.  Besides, even with cutting back the amount that I’m pay towards the HELOC, I'll still be able to pay off at least $15,000 in debt by the end of the year by starting/increasing my Roth contributions (more on this at a later date).  So that coupled with the low interest rate on the HELOC eliminates most of the guilt of readjusting my debt plan. 

Now I'll have NO excuse to go over my budget for February.  None!  If I’m over budget on those discretionary items next month I invite any readers/lurkers to leave me dirty comments!

FYI: changing HELOC goal from $5,000 to $3,400.  I do feel bad about changing this, but hopefully this will be the last time.  Man, I feel guilty!

Here is my new budget:

	New Budget	Average
Gasoline	175	$ 174.64
Groceries	250	$ 250.45
Fast Food	133	$ 149.81
Clothing/Shoes	133	$ 112.87
General Merchandise	350	$ 364.40