budgeting on no budget

I just returned from a glorious trip to Austin and I'll be blogging about it over the next week.  But now I want to talk about that nasty B-word.  Budget.

Just saying the word makes me vomit a little in my mouth.  I hate budgeting. I want to spend lots of money very irresponsibly and have no repercussions from it. Basically, I want to be a Kardashian.
(Yes, I'm written about this before.  Khloe is my fav. Get over it.)

Looks like we feel the same way about budgets.  I got your back, sista. {via}

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Here's what brought on this budget frenzy.

Last week I got my last paycheck from my teaching job. 

LAST. PAYCHECK.

Let that sink in.

As of now, I have no income but I clearly still have expenses. I've been budgeting myself on mint.com since January 2010 and I love it. It was the first thing that actually kept my accountable. Not always on or under budget mind you, but accountable. I had been teaching for a year and a half at that point when I realized I had no savings (not even a little) and that was absurd.  Not to mention embarrassing.  So I put on my big girl panties, joined mint.com, and starting budgeting & saving.

true dat {via}

Fast forward 3 years and I've hit 2 of my 3 current goals: 

save $1500 for our wedding

save $7000 for nursing school

saving $10k for living expenses

I started these goals last fall when we got engaged and I realize that this nursing school dream was going to become a reality.  My last goal was to save $10k for living expenses while in school - with my last paycheck I reached $9100.  Not bad. And I've got a few payouts coming my way from Amazon/Ebay that will be put straight in there.

Listen, I get it - budgeting SUCKS.  Capital D, sucks the big one.  But I have to face the facts - this 27 year old is an adult and it's time to act like one.  So with 10 months to go (September-May, which is when I take my nursing boards and hope to be employed again), my goal is to spend less that $900/month on living expenses.  Here's where that moolah will go:

                                                  $230.00      car payment

                                                  $87.33        car insurance

                                                  $200.00      gas

                                                  $80.00        TxTag (toll roads)

                                                  $300.00      food

                                                  TOTAL $897.33

Assuming I can actually keep to that budget, I'll be just find during school.  The area I'm most concerned about is food. I LIKE eating good food.  And I LIKE eating healthy food, which we all know is expensive. I feel better when I eat healthy and that is worth the cost to me.  I will have to put in extra effort to eat healthy at home because it is too damn costly to eat every meal out AND nothing makes me more upset that buying food just to watch it spoil.

I also babysit on the side once a week and that money will be put into checking as well.  Even though nursing school is a large time commitment, I truly enjoy the family I sit for and the extra money makes it so I don't feel guilty if I treat myself to Starbucks or a pedicure once in a while.

Do any of you budget successfully? Any tips for me?

xoxo,
Cait