I’ve gotten through a full year trying to stick by my Bookish Life Budget. There was a lot of rearranging, there was a lot of missed events, but I was able to stay within budget and had a little bit left over. At first I was just thinking, “Yay, I saved some money”. But after the beginning happenings of this year, I think my best bet would be to roll the leftover from 2016 over to 2017. You know, I may have already made a big dip into the book budget, and maybe already spent on a con. Between the crazy overspending, and not having a firm number for 2017, may be part of the reason we have this budget so late. Besides life making blogging a really tough thing right now.
So, let’s look at what we had last year:
| Category | Amount | Spent this Month | Remaining Balance | Year End Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B&N Membership Renewal | $25.00 | $0.00 | $25.00 | $25.00 |
| Readers & ‘Ritas 2015 Event Ticket | $180.37 | $0.00 | $180.37 | $0.00 |
| Buns & Roses | $45.00 | $0.00 | $45.00 | $0.00 |
| Boas & Tiaras | $52.24 | $0.00 | $52.24 | 0.00 |
| Audible Subscription | $298.08 | $0.00 | $298.08 | $298.08 |
| Books (Ebooks, paperbacks & hardcovers) | $400.00 | $0.00 | $400.00 | $283.87 |
| Total: | $1000.69 | $0.00 | $1000.69 | 606.95 |
| 2016 Savings: | $393.74 | |||
Let’s do a little rounding and we’ll even that out to $400.00. I’m pretty happy with that. Gonna need it. š
The book hauls for this year were pretty plentiful so I can’t say there was much of a book restriction. Not only did I grab some new authors, new series, and new genres, I was able to fill up my collection of books. It may have seemed a bit off that I would buy books I had already read, etc., but my shelves are a combination of TBR and books I loved over the years and wanted hard copies. In 2017, I may have to do some rearranging because I don’t think I’m going to be able to control the shelf-filling. We’ll see.
I hope you all had a great year in 2016 and were happy with your habits. I felt like my budget and haul played a big factor in watching what I bought. Probably why this month has been so bad, no budget in place yet!
On to 2017 and see if I can mix the budget up a bit this year!
