My Breakdown of Monthly Spending

In an effort to be more accountable with my spending habits, I sat down this morning to calculate where all my money is going.  I use my debit card or online banking for nearly everything, so finding the amounts I spent over the past month was a cinch.  For each transaction, I wrote down the amount spent and assigned it a generic classification (car, gifts, groceries, etc.)  Then, I totaled up everything and made a handy dandy pie chart, allowing you and I to visualize how I'm breaking those Benjamins. 

Click to enlarge.

A Sample of My Monthly Spending

While the pie chart is all well and good, without a narrative it's sorta hard to get the complete pictures.  So here it goes:

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  This exercise failed to include my other half's income. We have a nice system worked out where he pays certain bills and I pay certain bills.  For example, he covers utilities and I got his back on healthcare.  Additionally, Chris' company comps him for our internet service and home phone.
  
  
  
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  This was a bad savings month for me.  I usually tuck away 18% - 20% of my take home pay into a rainy day fund.  But something got in the way of that recently.  See that royal blue wedge on the bottom with the 8?  Yep, I went a little shopaholic this month on clothes.  On the bright side, I'm now equipped with copious amounts of cold-weather threads for the upcoming months. 
  
  
  
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  You can tell that the bulk of my funds go towards education (translation: five-figure student loan), my share of the rent and the luxury of car ownership, including a monthly car payment, car insurance, gas and repairs.  I was surprised to see that Tom Cruiser was eating up so much of my monthly budget.  I will be stoked when I get that bad boy paid off in the next year or so.
  
  
  
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  Every month, Chris and I each contribute a set amount of money to our travel kitty, which is denoted here on the pie chart by the lighter orange sliver.  Doing this allows us to book and prepay for travel and keeps us from scrambling for funds at the last minute.  Right now, we officially have two vacations paid for ahead of time! 
  
  
  
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  About 7% of my take home pay was devoted to health and well-being, with 2% paid to my gym membership and the other 5% for health insurance, a doctor's visit and medicine.  On a month when I'm not sick, that number goes down by about half. 
  
  
  
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  Gift buying accounted for 2% of my budget.  I sent my mom flowers for her birthday and got my niece and nephew some books when we were at Borders.  Being that I don't buy gifts for Christmas (more on that later), this number hovers at about 1% - 2% throughout the year, mostly for birthdays.
  
  
  
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  The mustard yellow chunk of that there pie chart indicates my love of dining out and downloading iTunes.  My eat-at-home budget is represented by the dark green with the 8.  I'm always curious how other people manage their food budgets, especially those who aren't into cooking.
  
  
  
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  The beauty category should just read "haircut" because I haven't done much damage in the looks department.  I'm well-stocked on cosmetics, hair supplies, smell goods and the like. 
  
  
  
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  The phone expenditures = iPhone with unlimited data.
  
  
  
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  Household is a catch-all that refers to everything from toilet paper and cleaning supplies to cat litter and new bed sheets.  I spent an average amount in this sampling.
  
  
  

So, that's my breakdown of monthly spending.  Have you ever done anything like this before?  Do you have any budgeting secrets to share?  Am I just weird for liking pie charts?  Do any of my spending habits seem especially bizarre?  Should I sell my car and take a bus?  Discuss.