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.
- 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 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?
