Budgeting for Fashion: The annual report

It's that time of year again, the time when Moonqueen writes herself up a new budget so she knows what she can afford to spend on thrift store clothes and liquid crack (eyeliner). Thanks to my built-in-1910-but-made-energy-efficient home (newer windows, mostly insulated walls, insulated under 1st floor, insulated attic floor, high efficiency furnace - thanks to previous owners) and my obsessive energy saving/recycling habits, I am living fairly cheaply. I thought it would be good to post this and give people an idea of how much being green can actually save you, as well as some ideas as to how I'm trying to plan ahead for expenses. To get some idea, my home is about 1350+, with a good size living room, medium dining room, large kitchen, 1 full bath, utility/laundry room, storage room (not heated - back porch built over by previous owners) and a tiiiiiiny third bedroom I use as my office downstairs. There is an open loft used as a second tv room, large master bedroom, and medium sized second bedroom upstairs (only part of my house is two stories).

***For anyone not familiar with the term, budget billing is where the utility company estimates your monthly cost by taking your 6 month or annual cost and dividing it up into equal payments - it is the BEST. If they overestimate it is credited to you, if they underestimate you may owe them a little (rare).

My general expenses for the house are as follows:

electric: $60 a month budget billing
heat: $74 a month budget billing
water & sewer: $100 for every three months (I put 1/3 of this a month into my savings)
trash & recycling (user fee): $36 every three months (I put $12 a month into my savings for this - having the smallest can saves me $80 to $150 a year versus the larger sizes - recycling everything that can be helps make this possible)
house payment (mortgage, homeowner's insurance, PMI, and taxes): $438 a month (plus $30 extra towards principal - this will pay my loan off 5 or 6 years faster); I live in the city of Buffalo and my taxes are VERY low to encourage people to move there. Once I get the STAR program this will further decrease.
internet: $38
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Monthly bill: $685.34 (versus estimated double for urban homeowners with no energy updates/energy saving strategies and up to triple this for most of the suburban homeowners I know who also don't pay attention to energy saving techniques - I'm talking same size house, obviously a bigger house = even more utilities and a higher house payment; part of smart buying is considering how much space you REALLY need, and what's economical to heat, clean, and furnish, versus what the bank says you can afford).
 
My car, a still mostly-free-of-rust 1994 Pontiac Bonneville, gets a sad 17-20 mpg versus the 25-30mpg when I first got it in November of 2005. Older cars run poorly on 10% ethanol gas (the norm at 99% of gas stations now) and I live so close to work my car does not warm up before it is shut off (my farmer but also mechanic father claims this has multiple effects on the system which reduce mpg). I'm hoping a good overhaul of the filters, a new oxygen sensor (which can reduce mpg by 15% if bad) and a tire balance will help with some of this, but I doubt I'll see more than a mile or two a gallon increase. I haven't given much thought to a new car as I currently live 5 miles from work within 2 miles of my gym, 6 grocery stores, a Target, good priced gas station and several dozen mom and pop stores & restaurants. It cost a whopping $1900 and came from down south so the body is in great shape. I've never had a car payment so I don't mind it nickel and diming me on repairs (lord knows I've changed many things). I am hoping by the time I need a new car I have a few grand saved up to buy a used compact, although I love huge boat GM cars. I may even suck it up and take the bus a few months to save cash when the time comes, but mass transit is AWFUL in Buffalo, so we will see. I estimate my expenses for it as follows:

$60 a month gas
$78 a month insurance (I have full everything on this too, even though it's old, because I can pay insurance much cheaper than I can make major repairs to the car)
$85 in maintenance/repairs a month (this is hard to gauge - I can go six months with no repairs, then need $300 worth of work done out of the blue - I guesstimate about $1000 a year, which sounds high until you consider what a $300 a month car payment will run annually; it's easier to set some aside every month in anticipation)
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Monthly bill: $223 (versus estimated $400 to make payments and insurance on a new/leased car with better mpg)

Other expenses:

Student loan: $280 a month (DEAR SWEET LORD!! I can't BELIEVE how much this is and the sad thing is I am on a special plan to lower it or it would be $440 - that's right, more than my house payment). One of my biggest goals for this year is to pay more on principal for this. My interest rate is only 6.8% but as student loans can consolidate interest (thus charging you interest on interest) it seems a never-ending task to pay it down.

Cell phone:$61 a month with discount from my job, versus $75 without discount and $100 *gag* with a data plan - I tried having a Cricket phone ($45 a month) but I found it got poor to no reception in most of the places I've lived in Buffalo.

Groceries: I spend $100 to $150 a month. This is also hard to gauge as I don't go regularly. I tend to do one large shopping trip every month to month and a half then occasionally do a run on my way home for emergencies or milk. This versus $225 a month (food stamps estimation of what one person receives with no children).

Cats: $24 a month in food (I have to buy food to prevent UTI's or my male cat is constantly sick) and $7 a month in litter.

Home Depot bill: $100 - I'm paying off my washer in 6 months before interest is due, so this is a temporary bill.
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Monthly Bill: $522

Total Monthly Bills: 1550.34 (with paying $20 extra on my student loan)
Monthly income after taxes, health insurance and 401k - $2314

This, theoretically, should leave me with a surplus of $763.66 for entertainment and savings.

Now of course, this does not include non-monthly expenses - xmas & birthday presents, doctor and medication co-pays, and the occasional travel outside of my area (boosting gas for my car prices significantly).

I HAVE to form a stricter mind set about saving and stick to my guns about putting money in my savings account every month (for actual savings and to use towards my non-montly bills). I used to be absurdly stingy, but the more you make the more you spend and I've definitely gotten lax.