october's budget recap

Lucy, you've got some 'splainin to do!

I hope has everyone had a great October!  Can you believe that tomorrow is November?  Yippee!  This is my favorite time of year and I'm going to eliminate (or table for now...) several things from my project to-do list for the next month so that I can get outside (with my camera) and take advantage of this beautiful time of year!   I have several scrapbooking, painting and sewing projects that I'd hoped to complete, but I think I would rather wait and get those done in the winter months when I want to be inside.  So...I'll take a look at my to-dos and think about what I really want to accomplish in November and then write more about that in another post.

For today, the one thing I wanted to get done is to wrap up our October finances .  Why?  Because I desperately want and NEED to go shopping for some new clothes and shoes and I need to see how much money I can spend!  Nothing like a little motivation.  I want to make sure I'm armed with the right amount of money when I head out!  AND - I also need to take inventory of my closet.  I'm quite certain that I have enough sweatshirts and not enough church clothes!


Looking at our 2011 budget, I can't believe there are only 2 months left.  Folks, this is the FIRST time ever that I've tracked our money for more than 4 months straight.  I've diligently written down everywhere our money has gone for the last 10 months and I'm quite proud of myself.   We've gone over in some areas and are under in others.  This will all help me in planning our 2012 budget.  Groceries continue to be a source of overspending.    The tree removal took a hit to savings but I expect to make it up in the next 2 months and reach our 4th quarter goal of saving $6,000. 


So - here's how we did.

	Budget	Actual
Birthday gifts (not including the boys)	25	53.95
Guitar	25	0
Subscriptions	25	21.15
Dry Cleaning	30	18.9
Boy Scouts	75	-40
School lunches	50	50
Boys Commissions (Potential…)	80	35.5
Restaurants	100	235.93
Sha Blow Money	100	131.16
Entmt/Rec	100	93.72
Date Night	100	25
Haircare	100	132
School expenses	100	38.7
Pay for grades…at the most…	125	55
Christmas gifts	200	177
Gasoline	350	214.54
Clothing	500	860.04
Boys Birthdays - parties & gifts	500	516.12
Utilities	800	825.71
Groceries, household & toiletries	1200	1434.63
	4585	4879.05

So, here's my 'splainnin!

Groceries:  No good excuse...it shouldn't be this high.
Scouts:  We got a refund from our trip that we weren't able to go on back at Labor Day!
Restaurants:  Add this to the groceries and we spent A LOT of money on food this month!
Date Night:  We actually had 2 dates this month!  One was a lunch date and we used a gift certificate we'd received last year.  Our total bill for lunch was $15.  Our second date was with Mr. Steady's boss and another couple from work.   When the check came Mr. Steady's boss "treated" all of us and so we only had to pay $10 to my son for "babysitting"!!   Both were wonderful dates with some great food and company!
Boys Birthdays:  This included my youngest son's party, gifts for both of my son's birthdays (#1 son's B-Day is in 2 weeks), cake for the party, a cake for the family, cookies for his class and cupcakes for the football team (all but the cupcakes were homemade).   Lots of celebrating going on!   My budget was $500 for the boys together, and I'll end up going over a bit.  My oldest is going to have 3 friends come sleep over and we'll just order pizza or make burgers. 
Christmas Gifts:  I got a slight start to my shopping and planning.  I stocked up on gift wrap and ribbons and ordered a bunch of flavored popcorn from my son's Scouts fundraiser that will be given as gifts to the school bus driver, crossing guards, mailman, trash men, and recycling men.  I normally give $$ to the mail/trash/recycling men, but am giving food this year instead.
Clothes:  The boys got stocked up with winter PJ's, jeans, sweatshirts and my oldest needed new shoes.  I got a much needed new pair of tennis shoes.  And my husband needed new work clothes. 

I think that's it for October!   How did you do?  Just two more months for finish out the year and reach our overall goals!  We can do this!!!!

Will sit down later today and knock out November's budget!  I don't anticipate it being a spendy month!

october budget & goals

We had a great day celebrating my son's 10th birthday yesterday!  We've been working on transitioning him to an allergy-free diet and his birthday was his last day of any "cheats" before going 100% allergy-free today!  Yesterday he woke up to M&M Pancakes and Chocolate Chip Waffles for breakfast.  He got Chick-fil-A and a cupcake for lunch!  After school let out we went bowling as a family (my husband left work early!), which was tons of fun! And then we ate Mexican food and birthday cake last night!  He was exhausted yesterday and asked to go to bed at 8:30.  I'm anxious to see how he feels in the next couple of days after eating so much yeast and sugar.

Today though, unless I make a mistake on label reading, he'll be 100% free from yeast, moldy foods, refined sugar, pork and beef until Thanksgiving.  It's amazing how much food Citric Acid (another no-no) is in!  Pretty much I'll be cooking everything from scratch as there are only a few things I've found (Luna bars, Rice Cakes/Crackers, and some chips) that are okay foods for him.

Anyway - today's post is about the October budget and goals.  I realize we're almost 1/2 way into the month, BUT...better late than never, right?!?

Goals first...

FINANCIAL
Use cash  for everyday purchases

HEALTH
Lose 2 pounds and get to 141#
Drink more water...a goal of 64 ounces each day
Exercise each day in some capacity

PERSONAL
Log 6 hours (from 10/13-10/31) of Rosetta Stone Italian lessons
Finish 2010 scrapbook
Make drop cloth pillows for fall
Take picture of son in last year's Scout uniform
Read 2 books
Make frame to display old recipes
Make lodging arrangements for Italy and Washington D.C. trips


HOUSE
Make bed daily
Only start laundry that can be finished, folded, hung up and put away before bedtime
Clean the house thoroughly twice between now & the end of the month
Clean door frames and doors upstairs and in the basement
Lay bricks around fire pit area

and for the budget...

	Budget
Lucy dog food	0
gifts during year	25
Guitar	25
Subscriptions	25
Dry Cleaning	30
Boy Scouts	75
School lunches	50
Boys Chores (Potential…)	80
Restaurants (incld fast food/pizza)	100
My Blow Money	100
Entmt/Rec	100
Date Night	100
haircare	100
School expenses	100
Pay for grades…at the most…	125
Christmas gifts	200
gasoline ($350/month)	350
Clothing	500
Boys Birthdays - parties & gifts	500
utilities	800
Groceries, household & toiletries	1200

How about you?  Have you made your October goals/budget!  Am I the only one who's just now doing it on the 13th?!?  How are you doing with your goals for the month?

recap for september budget

We've had an unusual past 4 weeks!  It's already October 8th and I'm just now wrapping up September's books and working on the October budget.   Between my dog's knee surgery, our septic tank backing up and my son's surgery + allergies, we had several unexpected expenses in September.  BUT...luckily, we had a strong start to the month which counterbalanced our out-of-whack end of month spending! 

At the beginning of September I posted our budget for the month.  Here is how we did:

	Budget	Spent
Utilities	800	952.77
Groceries and household items	900	1194.7
Gasoline	350	130.52
Clothing	200	55
Restaurants (incld fast food/pizza)	100	118.1
Insurance	136.5	136.46
My Blow Money	100	74.84
Entmt/Rec	175	48.27
Gifts	25	70.07
Guitar lessons	100	75
Date Night	75	57.74
Haircare	100	203
Golf	75	0
Boys Commissions (Potential…)	80	43.75
Subscriptions	25	98.33
School lunches	50	0
School expenses	200	209.58
Dry Cleaning	30	8.72
Boy Scouts	147	48
Vet Bill - surgery	2300	2285
House Maintenance	0	815.31

Notes:
Gasoline - I'm certain that we spent more than this.  When Mr. Steady fills up the cars he forgets to give me the receipts.  My guess would be that we need to add $150 to this number.
Gifts - Went way over because we had 2 parties the boys were invited to this month that I hadn't expected.
Entertainment/Rec - Way under because we decided as a family not to go to a golf tournament and instead put the $ towards a different activity.
Groceries - I never got my cash for the month.  Paying with a debit card will never keep my on budget.
Subscriptions - Norton software had to get renewed this month.  Forgot about it when making the budget!
Clothes - Getting rolled over to October.  It never cooled off enough for me to buy the boys new jeans.
Haircare - I get color put on my hair every 4 weeks and this happened to be a month where I needed to go twice.  Another thing I overlooked when making the budget!
Maintenance - The septic tank needed pumping and I bought a new vacuum cleaner to help control the dog hair that my son's allergic to.

Overall, I'm happy with the numbers we had for September.  We managed to save some money and are still on track of our savings goal for the end of the year.  I've updated my sidebar to reflect it.  I need to sit down and make our budget for what remains of October, and I'll let you know tomorrow how I did on my non-financial September goals!

THANK YOU for all of our comments about my son's allergies.  I just replied to everyone in that Comments Section of the post.

mid-month update

I can't believe it's already the middle of September!  This is one month I wish would slow down!!!  I've been plugging away at the goals I set for myself this month and have been pretty good staying at within my budget.

Since my son was sick Labor Day weekend we didn't go on his scout trip and that saved us some money.  Also, we had planned on going as a family to the Tour Championship that is at the end of September and it sounds like the boys would rather spend the "entertainment" money on something different.  So, that will give us some wiggle room as well.  Here is how we're doing so far.  {This post is more for my sake than yours, as it's forcing me to take a look at how we're doing!  :)  }  The first # is the budgeted amount and the 2nd is where we are as of today!

	Budget	a/o 9-15
Utilities	800	869.21
Groceries and household items	900	630.08
Gasoline	350	130.52
Clothing	200	0
Restaurants (incld fast food/pizza)	100	58.51
Insurance	136.5	136.5
My Blow Money	100	5
Entmt/Rec	175	20.28
Gifts	25	35
Guitar lessons	100	25
Date Night	75	0
Haircare	100	98
Golf	75	0
Boys Commissions (Potential…)	80	27.5
Subscriptions	25	77.18
School lunches	50	0
School expenses	200	57
Dry Cleaning	30	8.72
Boy Scouts	147	0
Vet Bill - surgery	2300	2284.72

We are over by $10 in Gifts because the Room Mom for my son's class is collecting $10 from each family ahead of time for the teacher's Christmas and End of Year gifts.  (I love that it's paid and I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the year!)   Subscriptions is way over!  It was time to renew my Norton software on my computer -- I thought I had another month before it was time to do this!   My grocery spending is a little higher than it ought to be.  But I still have $370 left for 2 weeks...that should be more than enough!

Thank you for the comments from my post on Tuesday.  I'm not sure if you see my replies when I reply in the Comment section or not, so I thought I'd reply this way:                

Sharon - I usually keep my apples from turning brown by sprinkling them with Fresh Fruit.  These apples were on sale though pre-sliced (and "pretreated") so I didn't have to do anything to them!

Carla & Canadian Saver -- yes!  It's a huge time saver in the mornings!  One less thing to worry about.

And in reply to the "Italy" post:

Canadian Saver -- We are flying on Delta and had to pay the taxes and fees at $79.20 per ticket. Not too bad for 2 first class tix to Italy! :) And yes! I can't wait to move onto the FUN planning!

sft-- last time we went to Italy I was about 20 pounds lighter. I don't want to lose 20lbs, but would love to be much smaller and try to look as great in pictures as I did 10 years ago! 

                              

hello september!

I am thrilled to be able to say GOODBYE to August.  It is one of my least favorite months.

It's hot.

It's long.

The kids start back to school (boo homework!).

There are no holidays.

But...on the bright side -- it's September now!!!  Fall is my absolute favorite season and it's the one season (except for Christmas) where I decorate my house accordingly.  Each year I tend to put out the pumpkins earlier and earlier.  You know how you go into Hobby Lobby or Michael's in July and they have their Christmas decorations/crafts displayed?  Sometimes I feel like my house is like that for the fall season.  I just get so excited!

And I may be dating myself, but do you remember growing up and getting the Back to School issue of Seventeen magazine!  Oh...it was the best!  My sister and I were always so envious of the people who lived up north and actually got to start school wearing the cute clothes that were in that issue.  Living in Texas, we didn't get to wear anything like that until November!

But - that's not what my post is supposed to be about today.  I'm just so dang happy that it's no longer August!

I challenged myself to spend waaaayyyy less money in August.  And you know what?!?  I did!  August was our 2nd lowest month for expenditures for the year.  (January was our lowest!)   I'm excited that we stayed on track and are moving in the right direction for ending the year where we want to be.

So, we're entering the last part of 2011 and I have a budget made up for our September-December expenses.  For 2011 we have a $$ number we want to reach for our savings account balance.  We are $4758 away from reaching that goal.  Luckily, for the rest of the year we don't have many unusual expenses coming our way, so we should be able to reach that number!  Also, I have about a $1500 cushion built into the budget over the next 4 months that I pray we won't have to use and can apply that to our savings and end up above our goal!!!

I need to sit down and write out my non-financial goals for the month!  I really want to be more disciplined this month with my eating, exercising, housework/chores and how I'm spending my free time!  Will share my goals with you as soon as I've thought them through!

As far as finances for the month are concerned, I don't think I've ever shared the details of our budget before and I'm a bit uncomfortable doing it (it's so revealing!!), but here it is for September!

Utilities	800
Groceries and household items	900
Gasoline	350
Clothing	200
Restaurants (incld fast food/pizza)	100
Insurance	136.5
My Blow Money	100
Entmt/Rec	175
Gifts	25
Guitar lessons	100
Date Night	75
Haircare	100
Golf	75
Boys Commissions (Potential…)	80
Subscriptions	25
School lunches	50
School expenses	200
Dry Cleaning	30
Boy Scouts	147
Vet Bill - surgery	2300

So what about you?  Are you as thrilled as I am that August is now a memory?  What are your goals for September?

$1675 can be spent fast!

For reasons that are unknown to both my husband and me, we have less money deposited into our checking account from his paychecks than what is needed to run the household (we have a portion deposited into savings and the balance goes to savings).  Even with our bare bones budget, I have a shortage in the checking account of at least $1,000 after the $ is deposited into checking.  I'm not sure why it's set up like this.  I'm sure it was a really good idea of mine one night.  But because of this shortage, I'm constantly asking my husband to transfer money over from savings.   He grumbles when I do it.

This past month the grumbling was more than usual...mainly because we had a very expensive summer and he wanted to keep the $$ in savings.  (Although, I keep telling him it isn't budgeted for savings and that I don't have enough in the checking account to meet the bare-bones!)  So - to make him happy I told him ALL I needed was $1675 to get me through the month.  The big bills were paid and $1675 would/should be more than enough for our everyday expenses.

Hmmmmm....$1675 is a lot of money, right?!  And it's a lot of money that can be spent quickly!  In the last NINE DAYS, here is where a large portion of this money has gone:

$290.74 groceries
$108 gasoline/oil change
$15 out to eat
$12 dry cleaners
$13.50 school expenses
$67 football expenses (pictures, name on jersey, snacks for party)
$25 guitar lesson
$19 commissions paid to boys
$184 x-rays for our dog
$5.50 parking and tolls at doctor's appt
$38  gifts (2 birthday and 1 Christmas)
$26 basketball
$11.47 golf
$390.65 AMEX balance
$24 entertainment  (date night)
$18 haircut for oldest son

The American Express balance was a surprise and the x-ray for my dog was paid by my husband which means it came directly from our savings account.  So, I'm not sure if I should even count it towards the $1675.  To err on the side of conservative, I'll keep it in.

So - I'm left with $460.13.

I KNOW that these expenses are FIXED and still need to be paid:
$270 basketball registration
$112 Scout trip to Charleston

What's left and FLEXIBLE is:
birthday gift for my mother-in-law
groceries
gasoline
guitar lessons
commissions

I have right at $500 in checking and $119 cash.  More than my balance (probably because the dog fees were paid directly from the savings account), but I'm aiming to keep it at the $460 number.

I think maybe I should practice saying NO more often...

fiscal fast - last day

Today is Day #7 for my Fiscal Fast and I know that I'll spend money today on some groceries and gas.

Yesterday, I spent a little bit of money.  I was almost out of gas and put $10 in it to get me through today.  I also ran into the drug store to get a bottle of wine, Diet Coke and gum.  I realized that I only had $8 in my wallet and REALLY didn't want to use my debit card for the purchase.  Especially since none of the items were necessities.  Well - maybe the wine was!?!  Anyway - I happened to find a wine on sale for $3.33.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, soooooooooo I bought it!  And you know what?!?  It wasn't too bad!  I bought that a Diet Coke (that's what I drink in the mornings instead of coffee) and a pack of gum for my youngest.  It was $6.59!  I was proud of myself for making my $8 work and not using my debit card in order to get a better bottle of wine.  I know that I should've just said NO to the entire stop and foregone my wine last night and Diet Coke this morning, but I didn't....

So here is my break-down for the week so far:

Day 1: $73
Day 2: $48
Day 3: $87
Day 4: $0
Day 5: $62
Day 6: $16
Day 7:  tbd

And for my larger amount that I'm budgeting for the remainder of the month?  I began with $1678.  A couple of unexpected school expenses have come up and I will need to pre-pay this month for a Scout trip that my son is taking next month.  I'm determined to make this amount work and not dip into savings.  After my Fast ends I'll go into more details on where the money is being spent, but for now it looks like I'll have about $300 to use towards groceries and gasoline for the next 13 days.  Unfortunately, I will have to use about $80 of that today to fill up Mr. Steady's truck.    But - I can make this work!

Also, I've been working on my 4Q11 and 2012 budgets.  Anyone else out there who is already thinking about to 2012 and how you are going to use your money to work for you?