I'm in good shape with my "working" budget. I have a few areas where I want to continue to cut back. They are as follows:
- Reduce our cleaning service to 1x/month, saving $125/month.
- Reduce our monthly childcare costs to $1,000/month, saving $100/month.
- Reduce our toiletries budget (temporarily) to $0. I have almost $100 in plenti points, which should cover us for 6 months. That's my goal, at least. ;-) That will save $10/month
- Reduce our entertainment budget to $20/month, saving us $5/month. Yes, the lavish entertainers that we clearly are!
This reduces our monthly budget by $240/month. Not a lot, but something to push us in the right direction. I also plan to acknowledge that our grocery budget is just not working at $550/month, and I'm going to set it at $625/month.
Net/net, that should bring down our monthly budget by $165. I'm also working to cut back on our yearly budget categories (these are irregular expenses, such as travel, boys activities, etc).
What about you? How are you doing with your 2017 budget planning? A big changes ahead for you & your family?
BIG changes here, yet again, but I can't talk about them really. This is making 2017 budget planning near to impossible at the moment. ugh. I may have to be happy with a 6 month budget for now.
ReplyDeleteOooh, can't wait! Hope it's all good news on your front. I hear you on the planning - that's why I'm just getting comfortable with two separate budgets. Otherwise, I'll flounder & accomplish nothing.
DeleteI am budgeting on a larger salary, primarily because we are giving ourselves a raise this year of about 10%. If you make too much money without paying it out in the company it is taxed so we might as well make more money personally. We also no longer have any child support (although youngest still acting as if she is 12 lol) so the extra moneys will be funneled into 3 spots, travel, medical which includes dental and visioncare and retirement monies as we have taken a hit in the stock market so need to plump things up a bit there. Plus we have shifted the way we invest to almost 100% dividend producing funds both inside and outside our retirement fund so we will have some extra money there but I never count on that in our budget.
ReplyDeleteYay for a raise! Sounds super smart, given the tax implications. I need to adjust my strategy for investments. I have almost no dividend producing funds, and with my planned shift in employment, I need to consider alternatives for the funds I do have.
DeleteI think most things will remain the same but we may have big dental or vision costs next year, depending on who gets evaluated for what, so I've already increased our FSA allocation to the maximum allowed. I'm also working on reducing as many fixed expenses as possible, but that's an ongoing fight.
ReplyDeleteI've been building our dividend investment portfolio, but I'm reevaluating whether I should keep building that the way that I have, targeting income. I haven't quite made the decision yet!
That's a good reminder - I should look at our health care spending, as M will need to add me + the kids to his insurance once I leave my job.
DeleteI hear you on the investment portfolio - wrestling with similar questions!
I love your planning. I would love to get my toiletries budget to $.00. However I have no plenti points. How long did it take you to build the points up to have 6 months worth?
ReplyDeleteI got lucky & used gift card purchases to generate Plenti points. For example, $50 of Subway gift cards generating $8 in plenti points, etc. I bought around $350 worth of gift cards to get the points. I've just been buying gift cards at Rite Aid for the past month or so, as they've had the special offers.
DeleteThis is definitely not a sustainable plan for me, but I also always have a few extras on hand (lotion, face wash, toothpaste, etc). I'm hoping I can do it for 6 months!
I just love reading your planning posts! It helps me so much to look at long term vs. short term. Always have done budgets but really get some great inspiration from you! Not doing too hot on the 2017 budgets though yet. I haven't even finished January because I don't know what my salary will be until my end of year review and that could make a big difference on how I budget! But seriously love the start of a new year. Everything feels like a fresh start even if it's a continuation of the previous year!
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