Rabbit, rabbit folks! It’s the first of the month, which means it’s budget breakdown time. These rabbits are high-fiving in celebration of my successful January budgeting. Ladies and gentlemen, I done good.

So as you remember from my post at the beginning of the month, I set a monthly goal for myself, which I’m very proud to say that I met. My credit card stayed firmly in its holster all month, and my debit card got the workout. Woo hoo! It was a zero interest January. And for the record, in all of my shopping excursions I did not purchase any lip gloss, black shirts, or purses. I’m virtually a new woman!

As for my progress in January, here are the details.

I’m over in the following categories:

Auto/Transportation – 9% over (I’m calling this a wash)
Cash/ATM – 105% over (Eegad – you know it’s bad when your percentages hit triple digits!)
Gym – 120% over (this is for my gym membership and my favorite Barre3 classes. I’m going to need to figure out how to prioritize this next month –  I really can’t go on with both memberships.)
Personal Care  – 174% over (Someone should buy stock in CVS. They’re having a good month too, obvi.)
Shopping – 178% over (Perhaps the eBay splurge was a bad idea…)

I was even or I only used part of the budget (i.e. I saved) in the following categories:

Bills/Utilities (includes rent, gym, etc) – 41% used
Business/Office – 48% used
Entertainment – 32% used
Food/Drink – 79% used
Dry Cleaning – 51% used
Gifts – 0% used (January was a selfish month, I guess.)
Groceries – 88% used (This is an ALL OUT miracle.)

Despite some aggressive spending in the shopping department, I was able to save on some of my other big monthly expenditures – namely groceries, food and drink, and bills. My savings, thankfully, outweighed my spending, which meant that I was able to save 60% more than my target savings amount for the month! Yessssss.

Moving on to my February goals. February is typically my “no booze” month (well technically it’s no booze between my two favorite February holidays – the Superbowl and the Oscars. It’s a solid 3.5 weeks. It counts.). I’m doing that again this year, with one minor hiccup. I’m headed to California on Presidents day for a bachelorette party. I refuse to be the no booze girl at the wine tasting, especially since I LOVE wine. So I will do no booze from Superbowl to the Oscars with the exception of Presidents Day weekend.  I think that’s good enough. Don’t you?

Did any one else stick to their January financial goals? Let me know! We can get together and look down our noses at all of the gratuitous spenders we know.