June 24th

I found a new challenge for me for the next several months — budgeting. I think I am pretty good with money but in recent months I’ve noticed that even though I don’t have any special or unexpected expenses, by the end of the month I have less money than I would expect. For two months this year — January and February — I kept a detailed excel chart of all my spending against my income. That was a pain in the ass, to keep all the receipts or make notes of smaller cash transactions. I also buy stuff for my mom and aunt, sometimes they pay me back in cash, sometimes by bank transfer, sometimes they give me money in advance for some shopping. It wasn’t easy to keep a track of all that, but at the end of the month, I could easily see all my spending against what I budgeted for my monthly, weekly, and all other random expenses. That worked pretty well — I was spending within what I planned and I could save a little as well.

I want to do it again, especially with my vacations coming up and other summer trips planned within the next couple of months. I want to know exactly where my money is going, where all that small expenses go (cough — cigarettes — cough). I don’t want to become crazy with savings, I like to spend money but just now I looked at my bank statement from last month (which I didn’t do in the last several months — I know, I should have…) and I’ve noticed that my bank added a 9pln fee for all ATM cash withdrawal. I went and checked emails that I received from my bank and they actually informed me about it in April. It doesn’t seem like a lot but last month that added to 63pln (which is four and half a pack of cigarettes) and I don’t want to pay anything to my bank for the privilege of having my money — especially with interest rates being ZERO for the last couple of years. I will receive my salary on Monday the 28th, so over the weekend I will prepare an updated excel file for my budget and again I will track all my expenses and will try to come to good conclusions without being stingy and cheap.