Just did the budgeting for August. I use Quicken software, which allows me to allocate spending into categories. Since I am somewhat of an organization freak (I will sort the candy jar in my parent's house by color and candy type!) I create sub-categories so I know exactly what I've been buying. So here are the top five spending categories, in descending order:

clothing: handbags
groceries: myself
groceries: parents
automobile: gas
household: supplies

It irks me that handbags cost as much as they do, and are not exactly a necessity as, say, groceries. What is even more crazy is that I made about three grocery trips each week, and spent $30-50 each visit, BUT this still ended up to be less than the handbags I bought. UGH!

At least I have confidence I can control and even curb my handbag spending. It would be a lot harder to cut the costs of groceries, especially since I have to buy specific items (from the Asian market) for my parents.