Well I seem to be running out of everything and thus not helping my tight budget. I have to live in a very tight budget all of remaining July. BF birthday is in August and I will be traveling, and I have a little surprise planned for him.
Yesterday I had to buy some necessary toileteries as I am out of toothpaste, hand soap, TP, face wash, face lotion etc. My drugstore had a buy one get the other 50% off for Oil of Olay products, so that's what I got for face wash and face cream with SPF 20. Not their fancy spancy new stuff called regenerist and difinity and what not - just the regular stuff. The face wash is pretty nice. It's a cream wash with micro beads. Can't beat that for 50% off. I also ran yesterday. It was pretty hard, but I did it for 3 miles continuosly. The first mile is a killer, but after that it starts to get easier for me. My next goal is to be able to run 4.5 miles continuously. I won't push myself too hard though. I have been bringing in my own lunch for a few continuous days! Yey me. I have been exercising and eating pretty healthy, but still do not seem to loose any weight! I had planned to loose 5 pounds in July. It's already the 15th! I also need to get new running shoes soon. Maybe next month. On other news, this particular pair of sandals I was craving for for a few months was on sale online. I was debating on whether to get it or not, and today it's sold out. All the better for me I suppose. See, waiting a day or two and not buying on impulse does really save you money one way or the other. Either you decide to not get it, or it gets sold out!

An Indian take out last night did me in. After my run, I really did not feel like cooking, or eating the same things I had. I had about $16 left until the 15th in my grocery budget. But my take out was $13. It made leftovers though and I will be having the remaining for dinner tonight. Still, I have no more money to spend on grocery until the 15th. Technically I do, but I want to see how will I manage without any grocery shopping until the 15th. I still have tofu, courgette, slices of red capsicum, milk, one egg, mushroom and plenty of dry supplies like rice and lentils. I still also have some Amy's frozen Indian dinners. So I should be okay. Even if I broke down and had to buy something, it will be things like ingredient items such as onions and tomatoes that I can buy one of each at the veggie stand. **Note to self: I should definitely buy some fruits. I will just have to float over $5 from some other category and buy these items.

In other notes, I ran yesterday at a pretty good pace and I am proud of it. But I do wish that I could keep that competitive side of me in check. I ran in a group and I was the 1st one to finish with the 2nd person tagging 2 seconds behind me, but I didn't really have to push myself to be the first one. As I was running, I was even telling myself "self, slow down, you do not need to win", but hearing the thumping of the feet strikes close behind me made me go faster. Hmmm.. does that say something about my personality??? I wish I could apply that in some other areas of my life instead where I could use a little bit of competitiveness.. Time for a self evaluation!

The weekend did not start out nice. First of all, it rained all day long in my city. I was supposed to leave that night to go see BF, but my flight was delayed by 6 hours which would have meant that I fly out after mid night. So we decided that I would go home instead and take the morning flight out. So I went home, and had to buy myself dinner and breakfast the next morning since I had nothing at home.

I had a good night's sleep and left the next morning, and had myself a very good weekend. But now that I am back, I need to focus on keeping within budget and enhancing my personal finance. We have certain plans for the future and it's very crucial to stay the course for us to achieve them.

Speaking of personal finance, I picked up money magazine at the airport. I read a few articles that suggests that I need to revisit my 401K allocations. There are certain things that I am not clear about, perhaps I will write about it here and someone can clear it up for me.

PS: I still managed to run 30 mins on the weekend each day while travelling!

So yesterday I went running and I felt much better over all. Then I made myself some ricotta pasta,showered and packed since I am leaving to see BF tonight. I have a very tight budget this month. I am planning to not go over $100 in grocery and $20 in lunch take outs. I only have around $7 left over for my lunches. If I go over, then I will have to use my grocery money for my lunches as well. I am allotting $120 in general foods item.
So, here is my budget for flexible expenses:

Grocery: $100
Lunch: $20 ($6.48 remaining)
Household: $20 ($9.15 remaining)
Personal Care: $25 (I plucked my own eyebrows instead of getting it done at a salon to save money)
Misc: $50