Ouch...so much for frugality.

[IPAfan]

I had a big wake up call this week as I went through my accounts and tallied up all the money I've spent the last month on business lunches, restaurants, food, and booze. $650 over the past month down the drain from MY ACCOUNT and DW is the one who does the food shopping for the household.

This is extremely disturbing, especially considering that $650 would have been 6 months worth of food budget only 2-3 years ago.

I started a law practice in December of 2009, and things are definitely picking up. However, my natural frugality has let me down. I need to start a budget, and become much more careful with my extra money.

My goal for next month is to keep my spending food/entertainment spending below $150, and reinvest the other $500 into advertising.

Now if only I could cut back on the $500+ a month on gas, and $350+ on cellphone I'd be all good. (Sadly both of these are majority business expenses. Phone is getting out of hand, and not really sure there's anything I can do about gas.)

[Nazgul Girl]

Glad your law practice is picking up, Beerfan.

[swamp]

You gotta spend money to make money. Was the $650 just pissed away, or were they real business cultivating meetings?

And what's with the $350 cell? I have about 1000 minutes a month (which I never use), a full data plan, 200 texts a month for about $60.

[Deleted]

Do you run monthly financials for the business? It could help you see trends, compare budget to actual, etc.

[IPAfan]

swamp,

The $650 wasn't all business lunches, it was just a combination of expenses on lunches, restaurants(for family too), extra groceries, etc. Probably about $300 was spent on "business lunches." The thing about these lunches is that they are with other attorneys where we do discuss business. However, they don't really contribute to the bottom line as the lunches are mostly with competition rather than potential clients. I've definitely found that I have to spend money to make money, but in my practice I'd be better off spending the $650 a month on advertising.

The cell phone is driving me up the wall. The $350 number includes cell service, text, data package, internet, and phone. The kicker is that I used 3,600 minutes on my cell last month. I've been using the cell phone as my business line, and I'm on the phone constantly between current clients, potential clients, district attorneys, DMV, etc. I am looking for some alternatives including a different plan or carrier. I'm also looking at some way to get an attorney answering service to handle some of my incoming calls. I do a lot of 30 minute to 1 hour free phone consultations on my cell, and these really eat into the minutes.

Monthly Financials? Yes, but I don't get as complete of a picture as I should. I've been primarily looking at: (Revenue) - (office rent, advertising expense, phone service, legal publications.) I need to get some sort of software to keep track of where I'm spending my money.

Again, the only reason my spending got this bad is because it's been a great year. I've still managed to pay off $12,000 in debt, and save about $5,000 on top of living it up a little (I've got a wife and 3 kids at home too and live in a moderately HCOLA so our personal expenses are pretty high.) Still, I am behind on many goals and need to be persevering in my financial discipline. For instance, we need more $$ for an EF, $$ for a DP on a house, a medical insurance policy for myself and my wife, newer car for the wife, etc. Definitely not the time to be overspending on luxury.

[Deleted]

You need a new cell phone plan! You can get unlimited everything (text, talk and data) from Sprint for $99/month, and monthly unlimited from Boost Mobile is only $50/month.

[Deleted]

Apr 18, 2011 9:56:57 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

You need a new cell phone plan! You can get unlimited everything (text, talk and data) from Sprint for $99/month, and monthly unlimited from Boost Mobile is only $50/month.

yeah but Sprint is awful.

[Deleted]

Apr 18, 2011 9:59:55 GMT -5 @moneyjenny82 said:

Apr 18, 2011 9:56:57 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

You need a new cell phone plan! You can get unlimited everything (text, talk and data) from Sprint for $99/month, and monthly unlimited from Boost Mobile is only $50/month.

yeah but Sprint is awful.

Guess it depends where you're at. We get great service here and I've never had any trouble when traveling with it either. For some reason my parents live in a dead zone though and it barely works there...then again, neither does Verizon.

[IPAfan]

I'm actually already looking into the unlimited plan at Sprint, but reception is a big issue. I've heard that Sprint has nonexistent reception in one of the Courthouses where I spend a lot of my time.