Every year, I look at our spend from the year before, evaluate what might be changing, and try to adjust our budget categories to better reflect planned spend for the future year.
2024 is going to be a year of big changes, with Sam going off to college. A few changes as a result of this:
- We still stop saving in his 529 account
- We will pay for his 2024 college expenses from his 529 account
- We'd like to save the remainder of his college expenses (for the full four years) in 2024, if possible. This will allow us to focus on Nick's college expenses in 2025+.
- Sam will have fewer expenses (minus college), such as club soccer, other sports, college prep fees, etc.
As a result, we'll be lowering our category for the boys spending. 2024 will be the first year we pull from the 529, so we are expecting that to cover all of Sam's college expenses for the year.
Travel:
- We are tentatively planning for another large international trip, to see M's family, if at all possible. We will also treat this as Sam's graduation trip, and add on a few days somewhere with just the four of us, if we can swing it.
- We will be heading to Whistler in February, for our last family "ski week" trip. We will take Nick somewhere in 2025, if it works out, but ski week often conflicts with soccer playoffs, and as a senior, he will not be likely to have the time off.
- We expect to have several college tour costs, as well as the trips back & forth for Sam.
- M & I would like to do at least one trip together, with potentially a long weekend as well.
- I'm taking my mom & sister to Napa for a half marathon in March. I'm using hotel points to cover about 1/2 of the stay.
Most of our remaining categories are expected to remain the same (this is only the spend side of the equation - our savings goals are separate), although I would like to do better with our clothing spend in 2024. The teens needed quite a few new things, but there was also some extraneous stuff, with our trip to Dubai, and my trip to France. We can cut this back in 2024.
What about you? How are you thinking about your budget categories for 2024?
I'm thinking I need to pay off a few things and hopefully get that done in the first half of 2024 rather than extended it all year long. Will continue to tighten the belt as we did this year though.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great to pay a few things off & create extra flex in your budget!
DeleteI have definitely been thinking deeply about our expenses and budget for the new year. I'm sure it will take me a little while to figure it out, but somethings have got to change around our home. Like you, some of our expenses will stop when our son graduates in May. But, with furthering his education, it may just be that we have different expenses. Anyway, I have been enjoying your reflection posts on your income and expenses. You are certainly goals!
ReplyDeleteIt's a fun phase, but feels really hard to predict, with the teens heading to college. At this point, our budget feels like a semi educated guess!
DeleteThe trip to see M’s family again is so wonderful! I am excited for your children and their college adventures! I won’t miss the payments for university living expenses but it is kind of bittersweet. I enjoyed the trips to visit my kids at their universities. As far as travel, I will be flying across country to see my child and her family. I will also probably do a two hours drive to the beach sometime this year after I get off work bc it is so much closer to the beach than where I live. I plan to travel to the national forests in the northern part of my state and visit my cousins in that area. I may drive to New Orleans. My travel budget is about the same as usual.
ReplyDeleteCindy in the South
I'm excited to see where everyone ends up. Sam also got into a college that's about 90 minutes from here, and one of his top choices, so we'll see where we net out after all is said & done.
DeleteSounds like you have great plans for the year!
You have planned for everything. I had to raise a few of our budget lines for this year (2024) but as inflation seems to be still around it isn't any wonder.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
We're trying hard to contain some of our budget items, but yes, the cost of some things is crazy right now!
DeleteMy 2024 budget is almost done. I need to tweak it a little bit here and there. Inflation is crazy in this country. Forecasting requires a crystal ball nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you - it's so hard to predict!
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