Let's Talk Money

Hello all - today has been a day to get things done. We did not leave the campsite at all today - Dan worked outside - weed eating around the camper and getting the yard cleaned up - hopefully it will help with the mosquitoes but I don't guarantee it. He also got the door hung back up today - we (I did help by holding the flashlight again) reinforced the rail that holds the door and HOPEFULLY we won't have the problem any more.

What did I do, you ask? Well, first I balanced the bank statements - then I paid the credit card bill - then I figured out the money situation - what it cost us to get here and what it will cost us to live - of course, some things I won't be able to finalize until we get our mail from Florida - I know that we will have some final bills to pay - you know things like the final light bill and final water bill. The only reoccurring bills we will have are: Verizon Wireless (cell phone and air card), the storage facility in Florida (I paid for 6 months before we left, so I don't have to worry about that for awhile), and the Credit Card (fuel and misc. charges). So, after this month's final bills from Florida are paid, we should be in good shape.

Now, I promised that I would be honest about what it costs us to live -so today I got all the figures for fuel, campground fees, meals out, and misc. expenses for the trip out - this is the breakdown:
Fuel: $985.23
Campground Fees: $210.87
Groceries: $ 97.85
Misc Exp. $120.77

Total $1,414.72

Even with the fuel charges we are still well within our budget and we won't have a fuel bill that steep for the next 2 months (July and August). Of course, when we start our trip back toward Florida the fuel expenses will go up again, but this just proves that we should be able to live quite well on my projected budget.

Dan and I are keeping a very close tab on the money we spend - we have a fuel log in the truck and I keep all receipts and write them down in the "little black book" - I don't want to have any surprises. I hope to start building the saving account this month - our little emergency fund. We have had more misc. expenses since we got here - we have eaten out four times (Pond's Lodge for dinner, Angler's Lodge for breakfast, Lunch in West Yellowstone when we did laundry, and Lunch at Old Faithful Lodge yesterday) for a total of a little over $100.00. Dan did buy his new hat yesterday ($128.75), and we bought a couple of books while in West Yellowstone (around $30.00) - now some of these expenses we have paid cash for (the Dinner's and books) we did charge his hat. We have also bought some groceries - mostly things like eggs, milk, bread, and lunch meat - that's been about $75.00- all that has been paid for. So far, since we have been here (I know it's only a week) we have only charged fuel once and Dan's hat. So far, so good.

Now, when the mail from Florida arrives (probably Monday, since this weekend is a holiday) I will let you know what the budget looks like from that standpoint. I do want to say cooking breakfast and dinner, and packing our lunch when we work or eating left overs here is not always fun, but I do enjoy knowing that we are living well within our means. We will look at being able to eat out maybe once a week and even taking a few overnight trips and staying in hotels (we just have to make sure we can take the pups). I'll keep you posted on the way things go. If you have any questions about any of this stuff - just let me know. I'll try and answer them for you.

Maybe tomorrow will be a more exciting day then today -but occasionally you just have to do the paperwork. Oh well - such is life.