Gas Bill

I logged in to check my email this morning, and found the monthly email from our gas company saying that our bill is now available (most of our bills & utilities have online accounts/e-pay, so we use that to cut down on paper waste and to save on postage). Our summer gas bill runs around $50/mo, with the absolute lowest being around $35 if we're really cutting back on showers & laundry.

July's gas bill: $16.86

At first I thought that perhaps they had estimated our usage for the month and managed to screw something up (we've had several problems with both the electric and gas companies doing that in the past, and then we end up with a bill that is $100-200 more than usual when the actual vs. estimated readings catch up). Turns out that they had estimated our bill last month, and they must have over-estimated our usage - so I'm thrilled.

It's only $35 saved, but after yesterday's realization that we're somehow $850 behind for the month, every little bit helps!

Sloppy Spending

I sat down with the intent of totaling up everything that we've spent money on this month.

The mortgage, car and student loan payments are fixed amounts and are easy to budget for. Utilities fluctuate a lot by season, but it's also fairly easy to predict. Groceries and gas are even more variable, but I've always just taken the viewpoint that whatever it is, it is. If I go to Walmart and the grocery bill is *gulp* $250, oh well. And if I only spend $30 on groceries for another week, excellent. It sort of balances out in the long-term anyways.

Same with automotive gas - it doesn't matter whether it's $1.50/gal or $4.25/gal, I still need to drive to work everyday. I don't have the option of public transit (there isn't any), and I can't bike or walk that far. So last summer, when gas prices were at an all-time high, we were spending close to $500/mo on gas. We tried to cut back on groceries, and we stopped leisure drives, but mostly we reallocated the money that was supposed to go to credit cards, and used it to cover the increased cost of fuel.

I looked through the joint checking online account log, finding very few charges. We also have separate (individual) checking accounts, so I looked through my account transactions. Then I looked through my husband's checking account. Found more charges, but definitely not everything - I could only find $47.90 worth of grocery bills since June 1st, and I know I've spent more than that. Likewise with gas.

We also each have a few rewards credit cards, and we tend to use them (and then pay it off) for month-to-month expenses, just to capture the extra rewards points back. I looked through the statements for each of our accounts, and found more charges.

So far the totals are at a bit over $200 in automotive gas, $75 in groceries, and almost $100 in lunches out... since June 1st! The first two don't worry me (gas was about what I thought it would be, groceries were slightly less than I expected), but I hadn't realized how much we've wasted on eating lunch at restaurants while at work.