Tentative Budget - Am I missing anything? Are facepunches required?

[Cass]

After seven years of living the luxurious life of a med student supported by loans and the Bank of Mom, I have my first real job - and my first real budget. I was really hoping to be able to save 50 % of my net wages, but at 42 %, my inner wussypants took over and started whining that I cannot possibly cut any more without sacrificing quality of life.

Income: €3.900 / month, Net income: 2.380 / month
Debt: €10.000, interest-free for 5 years
Assets: ~ €9.000

rent                 400
groceries          150
gas (work)      160
gas (private)     40
car repairs    60
car insurance    43
car tax            10
cats                    100
entertainment    100
gifts                      50
disability insurance: 10
cell phone          30
internet              30
vacation            112
clothes              25
archery               10
ice skating            9
work lunch       48

total expenses monthly: 1380
savings monthly:           1000 (42 % of net)
yearly expenses:        16560

Extra income, not featured in the budget due to unpredictability: About € 30 / month from selling ebooks, about € 10 / month from birthday/Christmas gifts.

The cell phone bill will drop to € 20 as soon as my contract expires, which won't be for a couple more months. Internet bill will drop to either 15 or 7 in October. I'll probably cancel the disability insurance, but those savings will probably more than cancel out when I get liability insurance.

The car seems like the obvious savings win, but unfortunately, the hospital closer to my house pays € 100 less than the one I spend an extra € 100 driving to every month. (I'll hopefully switch over in October, both to save on driving time and to save wear and tear on the car.) If I wanted to move close enough to be able to get rid of the car altogether, I'd also have to move out of my boyfriend's house, so my rent would double even if I moved into a vastly crappier place. :(

Work lunch: Sigh. We all eat in the cafeteria together, and it's seen as kind of weird and antisocial to not participate in the ritual of jointly consuming crappy overpriced food. I try to mitigate the damage by eating only a salad three times a week, and once I'm more established in the team, I'm going to bring my own lunch and eat in my office once or twice a week.

This is the first time I've ever made a budget. Am I overlooking anything? Any major face punches required?

[gecko10x]

Right now I will not respond regarding what may be missing.

The first thing that comes to my mind is why, oh WHY, do you think you need 100/mo for cats? Do you have like 15?

Also, the entertainment and gift budgets seem quite high on that income. But most of the other stuff is quite low, so I won't facepunch too much on that one.

[Crash87]

Groceries are pretty solid, but could be lower. http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/ might give you some cheaper meal ideas.

I don't own any pets so I have no idea what they cost.

Other than than that you're doing a great job! 42% is impressive!

[gecko10x]

42% IS impressive. Far better than I.

Where are your utilities? Are they included in the 400 rent?
What about eating out? Is that coming out of your entertainment fund?
You may want to consider separating out your xmas budget from your other gift budget. Also, you may want to consider a car replacement fund.

[Cass]

Utilities are included in the rent for now, although that might get re-negotiated at some point. Groceries is still very tentative. It used to be 80 / month for just me, but now that I've moved in with my boyfriend, he's insisting on us eating real food instead of, say, spaghetti with butter five times a week. (It's probably healthier that way.) I'm hoping we can save a little more there, but afraid the bill might actually turn out even higher. I haven't been living here a full month, so I don't know yet. If my brother-in-law the hunter and my boyfriend's mom the compulsive food hoarder keep filling our freezer with meat at the same rate they have so far, I might also be able to strike the food budget and open a soup kitchen.

I only have two cats, but they're old and need some very expensive meds. We won't get any other cats once they're dead, but I'm not having them killed so I can buy myself unneeded luxuries (even if the luxury in question is early retirement), so for now, giant crazy cat bill it is. :(

I was hoping the car repairs fund could double as a car replacement fund if no major repairs come up. This might be overly optimistic, but my car's only two years old and might be good for quite a few more years, knock on wood.

Eating out is coming out of my entertainment fund. I'm hoping I won't need to use up the full € 100 every month, but that might be overly optimistic, too.

[Alex in Virginia]

Just a couple of thoughts.

Work Lunch: can't you bring lunch from home and still join your workmates at the cafeteria?  Just buy a tea or something like that at the cafeteria if the management gets its panties in a knot about you bringing in food?

Cats: been there, done that.  Totally understand.  Enjoy your kitties while you can.  The cost will drop off soon enough. :(

Once that happens, and with the other reductions you see coming (and with the lunch thing sorted out), it looks like you'll be able to save an additional 200 per month.  Brings you to 1200/mo.  Congrats! You'll be at your targeted 50% savings.

Alex in Virginia

[Faraday]

Is a bicycle do-able for the commute so you can chip away at that gas budget?