February Financial Wrap Up

Rather than posting every last nitty gritty category, I thought I would try out a hopefully more visually compelling/easily digestible version of our February financial wrap up. :-)

Here goes! (The first number listed is the budgeted amount, followed by actual spend).

Categories where we were on track, or under budget for our monthly spending:

• Groceries!!! Finally. :-) I increased our budget for the month, knowing that we would be entertaining family one weekend. We were right at goal, for the first time ever! Budget $650/spent $648
• Boys lessons. I predicted that we would spend $0, and we did.
• Gas. $400/335.
• Utilities. $875/555
• Personal. $50/30
• Boys. $50/5
• Primary mortgage. $4850/$4669. I think my budget number is off - need to adjust this for March.
• Insurance. $320/320.
• Vacation mortgage. $2600/$2600.
• Boys birthdays. $400/337.

Categories where we were over:

• Dining out. We came very close, & I'm pretty pleased, given that it was my birthday, Valentine's Day, my son's birthday, & we had company in town over a weekend. $400/$421.
• Boys clothes. Already described, but needed to replace two winter coats. $0/76.
• Clothes for me. $0/37 (minusing the $100 of gift money I received).
• Gifts. $0/$191. I was reimbursed for some of this, but lost track. Maybe $100?
• Travel. We have a yearly fund, but I didn't anticipate paying for anything this month. We bought tickets for our trip to San Diego in May. $0/735.
• Childcare. We cancelled a vacation due to a work conflict, and ended up having to enroll the boys in a winter break camp. $1675/1915.
• Health. $0/120. Registered for a couple of runs.
• House. $25/136. We were out of a bunch of stuff for the house (laundry soap, etc).
• Car. $25/860. This was the category where we were the most off track. Mostly unexpected expenses for my car.
• Liquor. $0/60. Bought extra beer & wine for the family gathering we had.
• College fund. $0/326. Half of this was funded via birthday gifts.
• Cleaning. $400/560. Switched to a new cleaning service, & did a one-time deep clean.
• Skiing. $320/327.

Total spend for the month = $14,615.

Total income for the month = $13,225*. (*Note that I put 15% of my net salary into an investment account that returns a fixed quarterly amount, and save that for the bigger expenses like travel, etc. Since I only get the money quarterly, I count in the month received.)

Sources of income:

• $20 - sold a pair of kids ski boots my youngest grew out of.
• $100 - birthday money for me. I went shopping & bought a few sweaters & a dress.
• $170 - birthday money for my oldest. Used to fund college account.
• $1645 - FSA (preschool/after care reimbursement).
• $11,268 - standard monthly paychecks
• $22 - Ebates

My goal for March is to be under $13,000! Assuming we have no major car expenses, or other random expenses, I think we might be able to pull it off. Fingers crossed.

How did you do with you budget in February?