MONEY

So as I write below the final days' cash outlays for April, I have a few thoughts. First, I had no idea others would be following my lead in this journey. When I began this Issue of the Month I was just trying to monitor my own cash loss every day/month. Then I find out that several of you out there took the task to heart and did it too. I even heard from my sister yesterday screaming about her monthly total and how it's so high and spent on "nothing." My monthly total is high as well and what I hope to glean from this information is ways to scale it back, realizing my excesses that don't need to be, and thinking through new ways of approaching my budgets. I will continue to do this daily activity, on my own, so I can continue with my own information-gathering-- especially as I only have a month left in this current job. I hope that you all will take with you the thought and knowledge that there's always more to learn about ourselves-- even when we think we know ourselves pretty well-- and that our society is based upon the constant use of $MONEY$.

WHERE DOES ALL MY MONEY GO? (continued and final total)
April 29th cash outlay:
News $0.25
Coffee $1.00
Groceries: $3.07
Laundry: $8.00
Dinner: $10.00
Total: $43.32

April 30th cash outlay:
News $0.25
Coffee $1.00
Total: $1.25

APRIL TOTAL: $1,284.67

Now, granted I had a large expense this month with my tailoring (not a normal monthly expense), but realistically there usually is some out-of-the-normal expense all-the-time more times than I'd like to think about and I had a few days where I didn't have to spend money (which is also a rarity), so I'm going to keep it in there to help me gauge my monthly expenses more liberally. Below are also the breakdowns via categories:

Monthly Cash Outlay by category:
News: $11.88
Coffee: $30.25
Other Drinks: $46.30
Lunches: $93.85
Dinners: $114.00
Groceries: $203.53
Movies (Rental and Attendance): $52.50
Health Care: $160.00
Transportation: $119.00
Clothes/Hair: $389.00 (tailoring in here; without tailoring costs: $41.00)
Laundry: $21.50
Miscellaneous: $32.53
Again, APRIL TOTAL: $1,284.67
Whew.