February Final Budget Numbers

I love Saturdays! So much extra time to get stuff done. :-) Although, I haven't been terribly productive today. It's been a (relatively) relaxing day. M had to drive to our vacation house to finalize the replacement door/roof work. I managed to run just under 7 miles, & I did arms (strength training). I also started on yoga (just for you, & your fabulous encouragement, Jennifer!). The boys distracted me, so I'll have to finish the DVD after they're in bed. :-)

I've finished crunching the February numbers, & it was a very unusual month! We received a large refund on our refinaces, which went straight to rebuilding our emergency fund. Yeah!

Income - just over $14,000
Spent (net) - $6029

Yep, an odd month for sure. Here are how the expenses broke out:

• Groceries. Budget was $500, spent $641. We had house guests for a weekend & a small gathering for S's 7th birthday, which threw us over.
• Dining out. Budget was $100, spent $204. I'm not sure where I came up with that unrealistic goal number, because it was: my birthday, Valentine's Day, & S's birthday.
• Kids lessons. Budget was $0, spent $0. Still using gift cards to pay for karate.
• Gas - Budget was $275, spent $351. I forgot to adjust our gas budget to reflect for skiing. We take our older, gas guzzler when we ski.
• Vacation house utilities - Budget was $200, spent $0. The timing of the billing cycles mean that we paid more in January & will again in March. Also, we cut our cable altogether, so that bill is now eliminated.
• Primary residence utilities - Budget was $275, spent $351. This was due to a whopper of a power bill. Need to turn the heat down by at least one to two degrees.
• Boys clothes - Budget was $25, spent $80. S has grown out of his pants, so we stocked up & bought two winter jackets for next year, at $12/each. Score!
• My clothes - Budget was $100, spent $0. I do need to replace my running shoes, get reflectors, & new running tights. But, I decided to wait until March.
• Gifts - Budget for all of our February events was $100, spent $-12. but we opted to forgo gifts for Valentine's Day & do a lunch out instead. Our dining out budget was higher as a result. Also, we purchased most of S's birthday gifts in December, and the -$12 was a reimbursement for a gift that I picked up for my mom.
• Travel - Budget was $0, spent $0.
• Childcare - budget was $1070, spent $270. This was due to my dependent care flexible spending account payment, which offset the rest of the spend.
• Personal - budget was $70, spent $0. Nobody got a hair cut or anything! we do have some shaggy boys around here. :-) This month, for sure!
• Health - budget was $100, spent $1. I assumed I would register for my next race, but still pinning down a date. The $1 was for a parking fee on one of my long runs.
• House - budget was $100, spent $1690. The majority of this was for 1/2 of the cost of our new door & roof repairs on our vacation house. The rest was stocking up on household items when we were in Oregon last weekend - tax free.
• Car - budget was $100, spent $148. We had to renew our tabs on our other car this month. It never stops!
• Boys - budget was $25, spent $46. We splurged last weekend when we were on vacation, but need to do a better job on this one.
• Liquor - budget was $0, spent $50. We were actually out of wine (gasp!) & had to stock up for the party we threw for S's birthday.
• Main mortgage - budget was $4611, spent $2800. This was a result of payment dates varying due to the refinance.
• Boys college fund - budget was $0, spent $0. I was hoping to divert some extra money to this, but wanted to wait to see how the house repairs would come out.
• Insurance - budget was $316, spent $316. Right on track.
• Cleaning - Budget was $500, spent $380. We're finally cutting back!
• Vacation house mortgage - budget was $2280, spent $2250. The refinance came in a little lower than expected.
• Boys birthday - budget was $175, spent $190. This is awesome, considering that we had to scrap our ski plans the day of the party & come up with a new idea.
• Refinance - budget was $0, received -$3888 back from our closing costs.

Now that the refinance is over, things our settling down. Our youngest turns 6 in March, so we'll have additional birthday party expenses.

How did you do with your February numbers? Are you enjoying your Saturday?

And, one of my favorite pictures - N & S on N's 5th birthday.