The other day I pondered where all my money goes. I am a living example of paycheck to paycheck, even though I could be totally self sufficient and able to make a savings. So anyways, the other day I ran across Intuit’s website and decided to try out their Quicken Online program. It’s free for 30 days, and $2.99 a month there after (cheaper than a mocha!).

It was easy to get it started. Entered my online banking information, and there was all my transactions listed in chronological order. I took the liberty to categorize all my purchases I have made in the past month. Not a surprise, rent was the highest. Very close to rent was gas! I spent almost $500 in gas alone in the past 30 days. That averages out to almost three fill ups per week. 1 for work, 1 to see my girlfriend Sheena, 1 to go snowboarding. That is just insane… I knew i spent a lot on gas, but seeing a pie graph instead of guess-timating sure works wonders.

I need to fix that soon. I obviously can’t cut out work, and there is no way I will cut out seeing Sheena, so I will have to cut back on snowboarding, as sad as that seems, snowboarding should be low on my list of priorities.

Another thing i overspend on is dining out. Most of it is because I am lazy and hungry. Those two characteristics do not mix. I’m not going to lie, I get tons of free meals almost every other day, but I seem to spending a lot on lunch and breakfast, usually fast food. This is something else I can easily fix. I can either start buying more groceries (which by the way was on the low end of my spending pie chart) or buy Ziplock bags and pocket extra free food.

I will try this plan out for a month and report back!

So here I am, years later, all grown up, living my adult life. A lot of thoughts and experiences to share. I’ll give blogging another shot… I hope I can write a little better and really think about what I share with the world and not be overly blunt about everything and hopefully keep some form of quality control.

So this is what I am going to do.. when I am bored.