Frugal in the Fruitlands

Since this blog is moving more in the frugality and personal finance direction, I thought it was only fair to my (few) readers to make it clear where I am coming from in terms of personal finance and frugality.

The secret: I’m no frugal ninja, yet. My husband and I probably own more house than we can afford, and we still have to work around that. Voluntary simplicity and financial independence are goals of mine, but they are still distant goals.

So here’s the start of the Dirty Facts about Lise’s Finances Series. I’m not doing this to impress anyone or make anyone resent me. I’m doing this, in part, because money is taboo, but also because I want people to know that I still, often, “give myself very good advice, but very seldom follow it.”

I plan to spread this out over a few posts, but here’s the beginning: my husband’s and my income and expenses for the past seven- and three-month periods.

The Bad News is, I am consistently outspending my income, if only by a little. I am managing to stay afloat, nonetheless. We do have some credit card debt - less than $2000 - but more about that later.

The Good News is, my expenses over the last three months - where I’ve started to put a more consistent effort into frugality - are greatly decreased.

Here’s the basic breakdown:

Monthly income, after tax and 401(k) (both my husband and me): $5,995

In later posts I’ll discuss a little bit more my analysis of each category, as well as my planned budget, and my plans for staying within that budget.

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