We completed our first month on 1 fixed income and ended up only $47.05 short! This is tremendous, because we gave up about 60% of our fixed income when DH left his job to start up his own company. We cut down on our savings, cut out some unnecessary expenses and basically just watched things a little more closely, but at the same time, didn't really feel like we were sacrificing that much. So we're happy about that. We have a few big hits coming up in February which will make it a little worse, but as long as we're within about $500 or so, we can cover that with hubby's earnings.

Here are some highlights:
Groceries - came in at $493.53 when the budget is $500.
Gas for the car - $169.58 with a $200 budget. This was betweem $400 and $500 last summer when we were driving every day and gas prices were through the roof.
We were definitely helped out by some refunds, rebates and other credits that came in as well.

Over the next few days I'll project February and see where the rough patches will be. We spent some money yesterday for guests we had over for dinner. I'm breaking out the stuff that was for dinner into the "Entertainment" category so I don't blow my grocery budget day 1.

I have a few more receipts to enter into my flexible spending account. I finally got my crown taken care of last week. While I was there, he saw that another filling cracked, taking 1/2 the tooth with it, so I'll need a crown (no root canal) on that tooth. I set up an appointment in a few weeks.

I also have one more rebate to fill out.

That's about it. Other than that we'ree just hanging out at home getting ready for the SuperBowl.