Thursday, October 1, 2009

B is for a Preppy Budget... hope its not Boring...

Readers,


Because I have shouted it from every mountain top in North America, I am sure you know by now that I was accepted to medical school (hurray!). Although it still doesn't seem real to me, I am a planner by nature so I'm beginning to think out my financial plan for moving to San Francisco and paying for school and living expenses. The reality of medical school is that the average medical student graduates with $200,000 in debt... wow... $200,000! Scary number, right? So the first step in making this process real for me is coming to terms with that, and beginning to put myself on a "student" budget again. I've been out of college and enjoying a comfortable salary for a few years, so going back to the days of Ramen and Grilled cheese for dinner is going to be quite the switch!


Today being the first day of October marks the beginning of my new budget, (also the beginning of breast cancer awareness month... so many great pink products). I don't use a fancy budget spreadsheet, Bank of America online offers a free budget spreadsheet that uses data from my checking account and automatically sorts it for me... so I use that and a plain ol' Excel spreadsheet to track my spending to earning to saving ratio. Part of my budget for this month will be a commitment to not purchasing any new clothing or housewares (that means that I'm saying no to buying fall wreath again this year, maybe next year I'll find one). 
Since I won't be purchasing any new stuff, I'm also going to stop browsing for new stuff. This has me in a full on state of what am I going to blog about paranoia! Until right now I didn't realize how much the content of my blog revolves around buying stuff. I think this is going to be an important personal lesson as well as a financial lesson for me, I really am a more complex person. My life doesn't revolve around stuff (or maybe it does and I'm misleading myself?), either way we'll find out this month. Hopefully, a shopping free month on my blog won't bore you too much, but if it does hang in there, because in November we're going to Mexico on vacation with the preppy family for a week, which will mean new clothes and a new suitcase are needed!
Welcome to all my new followers! I know I've said it before, but every time someone follows my blog it makes me smile! I blog because I enjoy it, and I know its not a popularity contest, but when I started I never would have thought anyone else would want to read my drivel! So here's to a new frontier on the Completely Preppy blog, I hope you all learn and grow and enjoy it along with me!

6 comments:

Twig said...

CONGRATULATIONS on medical school!! More importantly, not giving up on your dreams! I wish I could say that :) I love your blog! Very very fun :)

AVONLadyinSC said...

I had to budget alot when I went to grade school after working full time for a year. It can be rough at times, but it's worth it to do what you want to do.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on medical school! Budgeting is super hard for me so feel free to pass along any helpful tips you have when you start your new budget!

BluberryMuffin said...

My first time reading your blog.. and I love it! :)

Congratulations on your acceptance! and good luck in your future endeavors! :)

Elle said...

Thank you everyone for the congratulations! And thanks blueberry muffin and Twig for becoming new followers!

Jenny @ Practically Perfect... said...

I wish you the absolute best with your budget - you can do it! I'll be re-posting about my budget in November, so we'll have to compare notes then :-)