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July & August Budgets

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Considering the large expenses we had in the month of July, we still managed to do pretty well in most areas of our budget (the primary overage was in “miscellaneous” for the expenses associated with a root canal and car maintenance).

Here is July’s Budget and Actual Spending:

PlaceFunds Budgeted July Actual Spending
Rent1055 1055
Electricity150 261
Water75 63
Natural gas25 15
Sprint (2 lines)115 115
Cable/Internet85 92
Car Insurance90 90
Health Insurance350 350
Trash35 35
Gym70 70
Debt1697 1939
Miscellaneous250 2076
Groceries400 370
Baby Purchases1000 937
Gasoline100 90
Saving for Irregular Expenses390 440
Total 58877998 

There are three areas where we went excessively over budget:

  1. Electricity. It’s incredibly hot, so there’s not a lot I can say here. Our bill this month was actually a little lower because we’ve been having monsoons so the temperature has dropped a little (think…high 90s and low 100s instead of 110s+). We’re trying to be mindful of electricity but there’s not a lot we can do to cut much more in this area. I may need to simply increase our summer budget a bit.
  2. Debt Payments. This is actually a good area to spend more in because it means we’re paying more toward our debt! You can see more about our debt in my August debt update post here.
  3. Miscellaneous. Only $250/month is budgeted for “miscellaneous” and it is actually divided into four categories. $20 toward entertainment (we only spent $2), $75 toward eating out (we spent $144, but the overage was actually mostly due to our trip to Utah at the beginning of the month; offset a little because we came in under-budget with groceries since we weren’t here for a week and, therefore, saved on grocery shopping). $30 toward personal maintenance (I spent $0), and $125 toward “other” (we spent $1930). We would have been way under-budget in this category if it weren’t for the root canal and car maintenance. As pricey as these were, they could have been worse. $1600 was from the root canal (which I originally thought would be closer to $2000), and the car maintenance was $500, but I used $250 from my “car maintenance” savings (in my Capital One 360 account), so only $250 came from July’s income. If you’re keeping up with the math, that means only $80 was otherwise spent in this category so had these expenses not occurred, we would have done pretty well this month.

One other area I want to draw attention to is the Savings for Irregular Expenses category. Our monthly savings include:

Savings Place Amount
Semi-Annual Expenses 45
Car maintenance, repairs, and savings for new vehicle100
Dental & Vision 125
Travel to visit family 25
3-6 Month Emergency Savings 25
Dog/Vet Care 10
Girls’ Birthday 10
2014 Roth IRA 100
Total:440

I added to the car maintenance/repair/savings category (increased it from $50 to $100). That’s why the total is now at $440, rather than $390. I’ve had a few comments suggesting we could just save a single flat amount that could be used for any emergency expenses that come up. Rather than “grouping” I tend to prefer the “splitting” method. Of course, if there were an emergency car situation, I wouldn’t hesitate to dip into the girls’ birthday funds (as an example), rather than taking out any new loans. But I like having the money saved separately. Just a personal preference.

Now onto income….

In the month of July we earned $10,420 (after taxes).

Income – Expenses = $10,420-$7998 = $2422 surplus funds.

I took this money, plus the money I had set aside from the month of June ($3200), which gave me a total of $5622. To this, I added $2700 from my checking account buffer (I reduced the buffer since living on last month’s income is, in itself, a buffer).

This provided us with a total of $8322 for the month of August. We are now officially living on last month’s income! Wahoo!!!

So I have budgeted our full month of August. There are still some unknowns (utility bills that haven’t come in yet, precise childcare costs for the month, etc.), but I tried to err on the side of caution. If we have extra money at the end of the month we will put it toward more debt payments.

Here’s August’s Budget:

PlaceGeneral Budget August Budget
Rent1055 1055
Electricity150 251
Water75 65
Natural gas25 17
Sprint (2 lines)115115
Cable/Internet95 100
Car Insurance104104
Health Insurance350350 
Trash35 35
Gym70 0
Debt16972609
Miscellaneous250 300
Groceries400 400
Baby Purchases1100 2000
Gasoline100 100
Saving for Irregular Expenses440 440
Total Budgeted5991 8136

Any of the bolded numbers are numbers that are exact (for bills already received). I tried to over-estimate on everything else. I’m hoping that childcare will actually be considerably lower than $2,000, but we still owe for two weeks of care from the old place (= $500) and we’re starting at the new place, plus having to pay initiation fees, etc. So although it will still be quite pricey, I’m hoping it will be closer to $1500ish but (again) I wanted to be cautious.

Random aside, our car insurance is going up (boo!!). We haven’t had any tickets or anything so I called to find out why its risen so much (from $90 up to $104!!) and the rep said that all Arizona rates had gone up. What the crap? Seems like everyone is raising their rates these days! (grumble, grumble)

The debt payments are for all minimums with the exception of the car payment (which is over $1500, when the minimum payment is only $411). Exciting stuff! Also note that I’ve removed budgeted funds from the gym line item. When I joined I had paid for first and last month up front so I’m anticipating that this month will be covered from my initial payment when I joined. I’ll still have access for one more month, just no payment associated with it.

So this has taken awhile and I’ve got to get some work done so I need to run!

Hope you have a terrific Tuesday! Thanks for all the helpful comments over the past week!

 


14 Comments

  • Reply Angie |

    Do quotes around on your auto insurance. I do mine every 6 months and have definitely reaped some savings. I actually just requoted mine only 4 months in and saved over $100/6months. Most people don’t realize you can cancel car insurance anytime and get a refund prorated by the day. So if you can find anything cheaper you can start it up immediately.

  • Reply AS |

    Have you considered subtotals on your budgets:
    1. Normal Budget Items
    2. Debt Budget Items
    3. Unusual Expenses

    The reason is your 2-week payoff of the childcare is unusual but your monthly charge should be in normal, so you know your normal outlay. Also with such a big difference between “general budget” and “August budget” it isn’t immediately obvious that is because of debt repayment or other reasons.

    • Reply Ashley |

      You’re right that this is not immediately clear and can definitely present confusion. I don’t think I’m going to take the time to edit it this month, but I’ll figure out a better way to present it for next month. Thanks for the feedback!

  • Reply Angella |

    I don’t have much to say about the budget, but specifically towards you Ashley. You’re doing amazing! You’ve really stepped it up on this blog, and I come here just for your posts! I love your enthusiasm, and reader interaction. And I commend you for sticking with your gut instinct when it came to childcare, I agree 100% – worth every penny if it’s GOOD care. We were in the same boat for awhile.

    I also like having savings separated into categories. I found when I had one lump savings account, that I’d hesitant to withdraw from it. Yet when the account is specifically earmarked for a particular expense (cars, birthdays, etc), it made sense to touch the funds.

  • Reply TENN |

    Did you budget extra gas money for travel to and from the Child Care facility or do you plan to work at or near the JCC on the days that the girls attend?

    Also, have you considered allocating additional funds to the dental category or would you use your emergency fund? It sounds like you have some potentially large bills here. (I forget, was your husband going to try to get an evaluation to see what needs to be done and when?)

    • Reply Ashley |

      Blah…I’ve kind of pushed dental issues to the back-burner for now. I’m planning to go to a different dentist for a new check-up (i’ll have my recent x-rays sent over) because I want a second opinion on a couple things the dentist said, plus I need to have my checked tooth checked out. Maybe I’m being naive but I’m hoping that the dentist says the tooth can simply be watched, so I’ll only be out the cost of an exam.
      Husband certainly needs more work done. Really not sure how we’ll approach that yet. He’d done a dentists’ floors and I was hoping they could work out a trade (dental care in exchange for flooring work), but that didn’t pan out.
      Regarding gasoline – I’m playing the “wait and see” approach. I do plan to spend time working at the JCC so that could help with the gas, but I do anticipate it will go up at least a little. I want to go for a few weeks before being able to gauge how much it will go up.

  • Reply TPol |

    Ashley I think you are doing great and I also like the way you write very much. You have a good grip on your budget and I admire that.

    • Reply Ashley |

      It’s mostly childcare, but it also includes purchases that are baby-specific (e.g., car seats, clothes, etc.)

  • Reply AT |

    So did you kill the license fee and are now snowballing the car? I thought the license fee was the first priority.

    • Reply AT |

      Nevermind, I re-read your post on the new strategy. Hope it sticks. Switching game plans again won’t give victories to celebrate as quickly and you are earning another victory.

So, what do you think ?