Snowflaking: March Update

This month was great for snowflakes:

• $4.01 (February budget surplus)
• $2.00 (money owed by a coworker)
• $10.00 (ING referral bonus)
• $245.00 (work I did on the side for a friend's startup business)
• $4.00 (grocery money from roommate)
• $130 (2007 MA tax refund)
• $11 (2006 MA tax refund)
• $30 (gift from Nana)
• $10 (roll of quarters)
• $15.64 (expense check)
• $10.00 (Revolution Money Exchange referral bonus)
• $59.36 (my own Keep the Change program)
  

Total = $531.01

The good thing is that that's a big chunk of extra cash for the month! The bad thing is that I went over budget in several areas this month, so I wasn't able to properly use all that money for snowflaking. I also didn't snowflake immediately upon receiving this money, which was a mistake - and this is something that I know moving forward. Snowflakes must be applied immediately or else they melt into bar tabs, chinese takeout, etc. Because this was all done in lump fashion, i.e. I just had the extra cash sit in my checking account until the end of the month to get allocated, I'm not sure exactly how much of this was saved and how much wasted. About less than half I think, looking at my budget deficit areas for the month.

So a mixed bag. Important lesson learned in how to snowflake effectively. Use those flakes right away! Don't let them sit around and disappear.