Friday was payday, and it was uneventful.  For some reason, my spreadsheet "checkbook" register is showing $39 less than my online banking.....I can't see anything missing, but there are too many pending transactions and it's annoying me.  I'll give it a day or two then go back in and look.

The increase to my net pay after adjusting my withholdings does not seem to be enough to meet the ongoing shortfall....but this was an anomaly check.  I received a $50 gift card for a project I worked on and it was taxable, so that was factored in to this check.  Shouldn't be very different, but I'll still wait til next check to adjust and decide if I need to make more changes or if I can get by on this.  I did decide to sell some dumbbells that I acquired in 2020 that should bring in some cash, so that should help.  Right now the going price for the ones I am definitely willing to sell is around $825 conservatively (at $2.50 a pound).  I am not planning on using these anytime soon....weight training makes me too hungry and I eat more than the calories I need to intake in order to lose weight.  So I am going to hold off on starting to left weights until after I hit my goal weight and can increase to maintenance calories.  At that point, I'm hoping that I'll feel comfrotable going to a gym and I won't need as extensive of a weight collection at home.  Eventually I'd like ot move to a larger home and will build a gym but the supply chain issues surrounding weights will have hopefully been cleared up by then.  Right now, they're not being used and can help plug some of the leaks, so out they'll go.  

In the meantime, I sold off/cashed out the assets in my Coinbase and Robinhood accounts.  I realized that while I'd like to keep some stuff on the side invested and potentially growing, if I need money to pay bills now, then I had to prioritize that.  Coinbase has already been transferred to my checking, and Robinhood should arrive in a few days.  It honestly had nothing to do with the $GME controversy although the timing aligns lol.

After all of my bills from this pay period are posted (some are autopay and don't come out right away), I am left with a surplus, woo!  I'm either going to move it to savings, or keep it in checking as a buffer.  I don't foresee much spending in the next few weeks, as I pre-bought a lot of groceries that count against January spending.  There will be some grocery spending (fresh produce etc), but nothing major.  

The final tally for January spending (anything that isn't a bill) is $706.83.  Way higher than I hoped for!  Of that, almost $400 was groceries/household/toiletries.  It's artifically high though, and should not be indicative of what I spend on groceries in a month.  I had to replace some protein powder earlier in January, that's $30 right there....and I also got a FreshDirect offer (that's a NYC based grocery delivery service).  $50 off each of my first 2 orders of $99 or more.  So basically $200 worth of groceries for $100.  They are a little pricier, but it seemed like it was worth it to stock up on non-perishables.  I placed my first order this weekend (included in Jan spending), and will place my second (offer expires 2/17) next weekend.  I went to the grocery store on Friday and again yesterday, and spent a total of $80, but those trips were basically pre-buying February groceries.  So I am hoping that I can keep groceries to $250 or so for Feb.  Otherwise, I spent $32 on prescriptions (90 day supply), and $291 on variables (sparking wine for New Year's Day brunch, parking meters/gas, a gift for my cousin when her cat passed, some office supplies, my annual Prime subscription, and some miscellaneous items.  Happy to see that I only spent $15 total on my takeout/entertainment category.)  Looking forward to having a few months of this spending data to really hone in on what I should be ballparking every month. 

I also decided to take a look at where my baseline debt/savings numbers progressed to.  Small changes but in the right direction.  

Glad to see that debt went down and savings went up, even with cashing out the Coinbase and Robinhood accounts.  This doesn't include the 401k contributions and loan payments from Friday's paycheck, those take a few days to reflect.  So the progress is even a little more than shown here, but I wanted to keep it clean and set the update on the 1st of every month.