Woof.  This month was spendy.  I loosened my resolve and spent on a bunch of categories that I've been super strict on so far this year.  Ended up putting some money back on a credit card and it's time to rein it in.  I alos need to rein in my diet, I've been on a tear for the past week or so.  I think I needed a break from all of my strict guidelines for everything, what with processing all of the (known and potential) changes at work.  School starts tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be too busy to let my anxiety manifest in bad ways lol.

Spending:

Category: May Spend/YTD Spend - commentary

Alcohol: $63.90/$94.22 - as expected, I bought some bubbly for Mother's Day, and picked up a few other bottles for myself

Car/Gas: $30.08/$239.78 - I got gas at some point this month, and still have half a tank left.  I'm driving about 30 minutes away tomorrow, and then have a doctor's appointment in late June, so not sure if that'll mean one or two fill-ups in June, but it is what it is.

Clothing: $22.15/$151.67 - can't remember what this was, but it was something definitely on top of a gift card/rewards.  I'm getting a little too loose with this, but overall still not bad at all for the year.

Dining/Entertainment: $192.87/$398.62 - UGH.  See above, lol.  This isn't good for my finances or my diet!!!!!!

Education: $21.75/$207.38 - this is the rental fee for the book for one of my summer courses.

Gifts: $151.32/$367.87 - this month was all Mother's Day.....in fact, I think all of these gifts so far have been for my mom haha.  Honestly, I buy for so few people these days.  I'll buy something for my sister's birthday, and then probably nothing until Christmas unless anyone new comes into my life before then (but I'm not really looking for that just yet, and last time I checked, they don't generally show up at the door spontaneously lol).

Grocery/Household/Toiletries: $613.14/$2355.86 - whhheeeeewf.  This one is big this month.  I did have to replace some housewares - a new hamper, a new set of skillets, a new salt & pepper grinder.  That added up.  Once I remembered those, I felt slightly better about the total for the month.  Then I also realized there are more than a few pet expenses mixed in there that I didn't feel like splitting the receipt out for.  Definitely going to try to rein this back in for June.

Medical - $127.07/$219.13 - this was 3 co-pays for doc appts (bi-weekly therapy, and a copay from a doc appt in March that they billed me for in April, but I didn't pay til this month).  Plus I got a 90 day supply of prescriptions.  

Miscellaneous - $0/$232.45 - woo!  A zero spend category!  LOL

Office Supplies - $0/$87.92 - woo x2!!!!

Personal Care - $0/$194 - woooooo x3!!!!  Haha.  There should be some spending in this category in June.  I'm due for a pedicure, and I need to activate a Groupon I purchased using some gift cards for a laser hair removal package - when you activate these vouchers, you have to pay sales tax directly to the vendor, as well as leave a tip at each appointment.  It's minimal, but still needs to be planned for.

Pet - $210.38/$429.25 - I had to purchase yet another littler box and another litter box enclosure, because one of the cats is a giant monster.  Swapping boxes wastes a lot of litter, but I wasn't about to pour dirty litter into the new box.  This new system seems to be working, so fingers crossed it's just food and litter from here on out.  They need to go to the vet in June, but my mother will cover those appts this year.

Subscriptions: $17.94/$204.40 - I got suckered into subscribing to another cooking magazine I really like, and of course my monthly iCloud storage.

Travel: $0/$37.91 - not expecting to add anything else to this category for at least a few months.  Between finances and school and work, I don't have the resources, tangible or intangible, to go anywhere.  I do have a flight credit from a trip cancelled in April 2020 that I may use in August, but I would just be going to Chicago to visit some friends.  I'd have dining and Uber expenses, but that's about it.

Total: $1450.60/$5220.46 - yikes.  That's $400+ higher than any other month this year.  There were definitely a few larger one off expenses, but that's gotta get nipped in the bud.  

Month over Month Summary:

Overall, debt is up this month, thanks to the addition of the new student loan balance (plus a small increase in credit card debt), and savings are slightly down.  Nothing too crazy, and I am ok with it.  These numbers do not reflect an updated mortgage balance, nor do they reflect the contributions to 401k/payments to 401k loans from last Friday's paycheck.  There hasn't been a ton of progress since 5/1, in fact I guess it looks like a little bit of a backslide, but nothing insurmountable or honestly unexpected.    But since 1/1, debt is down significantly, and savings are up significantly.  In June, I am not expecting huge swings in debt, but will continue chipping away at it.  I do expect a large lump sum being added to savings sometime in June, which will help the balance sheet a bit.