August 2016 Bookish Life Budget
| Category | Amount | Spent this Month | Remaining Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| B&N Membership Renewal | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Readers & ‘Ritas 2016 Event Ticket | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Buns & Roses | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Boas & Tiaras | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Audible Subscription | $124.20 | $24.84 | $99.36 |
| Books (Ebooks, audiobooks, paperbacks & hardcovers) | $159.96 | $5.26 | $154.70 |
| Total: | $644.90 | $30.10 | $614.80 |
As you may be able to see, I dropped the last of the cons off my budget. I mentioned last month that I had taken in a foster from a bad situation that really needed some attention and time. She was adopted. (YAY!) Now I have another of the girls from the same situation who is kind of a tough cookie. Working with the dogs is taking a lot of personal time.
Then there is school starting. I’m glad I didn’t include text books in my book budget. Damn, I can’t believe the cost of those things. My son’s school is selling access codes to the specific text books they are using. They have made it insanely difficult to just go out and get used copies. I didn’t even have the choice to rent them. Also, I have started taking classes at the college. Luckily I do not “need” to buy textbooks, despite the “recommendations”. This one is a three part and should take me a full semester to complete. My employer thinks these particular classes should help with work, so he took the cost of them. That was more than fine with me!
So, I did it. I gave in and used some of my credit to get myself a Kindle. I chose the Paperwhite. When I looked at them at Best Buy, the Paperwhite was the lightest, and that was my goal. The price made a big difference as well. What really ticked me off was that it was on sale for $20 off for the longest time. Until I finally jumped in to buy it. By then the sale was off. That is what procrastination gets you folks! I did get a really cute case. This is my conundrum though. The case does make a difference in weight. Not a whole lot, but enough that I’ve considered not using it. It does seem like a pain to keep taking the case off between when I take it out with me and when I am reading. Even with the case, it is still lighter than my Fire so there is that.
I had another pretty good book haul this month, with ARCs and credits mostly. I did end up buying Big Vamp On Campus instead of using a credit. It seemed like such a waste of credit to use on an audio that was $5.26. Audible also had one of its 2 for 1 sales, and I found a couple I didn’t have so snatched them up. The Master by Kresley Cole has me wondering off my regular PNR & UF track, but I read the first one and was kind of curious to see how this series continues.
August was an up and down weather month for us here in Texas. It was hot, but then we got a nice cool down and some rain. This has really helped us from having to run the sprinkler system. This is a bonus because for some reason I screw up the settings every single year. We tried to set it this year and it was worse than any other year. I tried YouTube and even the manual, but it just didn’t want to work. Good thing we didn’t really need it. Plus the dogs have a thing with peeing on wet grass. Saved me some messes!
I really struggled with blogging in August. It was quite a slump. I am now really behind in reviews of a lot of books. We recently did a post on this in Tell Me Something Tuesday, and I’m trying to grab onto some of those ideas I had. I have found some new blogs that I really like. Hasn’t really helped with the flow of ideas in my brain though. I’m trying to take it slowly and just do what I want when I want. I thought for awhile I forgot how to write a review! I’m still kind of critical of what I am writing, but at least I’m writing.
So that was August for me. Below are the goodies I hauled. Let me know what fun stuff you got and how your August treated you!
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