Category Archives: Month in Review

February in Review

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Not sure how I feel about this entire month!  I am exhausted and excited. We are counting days till Disney. We need to stay the course and keep working toward our goals!

Groceries- Budget = $975.  Goal Met!  We spent $739.93 on groceries including our subscribe and save from Amazon and a trip to Costco.  An even bigger deal is that when we combine both January and February, we are at $959 for the year which is less than one month!  I know that we will have some spending in March due to our trip preparation, but I am going to focus on controlling what I can and celebrating the small wins!

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $445.41 this month!  I am excited that we were able to contain this cost. We are heading into baseball season, and I know this will increase our gas. But again, I am choosing to celebrate the small wins!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  This is post number 12 not at goal but not horrible either. Especially considering that I have been at work all month!

Exercise- Does tripping and falling count for the month.. Nope then the answer is NONE.

Expenses:  Matt required surgery this month for skin cancer and a second surgery is scheduled for March.  He does not have insurance. Very expensive but again I am going to focus on the small wins and we covered it!

January in Review

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January is always a slow slow month for us! In recent years it has also been a expensive month.  I started the year working on the pantry challenge. I have been mostly success with this and I want to continue to use up alot of the items we have. I will be buying items we are totally out of so but I plan to continue with limited meat and vegetable purchases until at least the end of February. Swimming has been the main event of the month!   I am glad these five weeks are behind us!

Groceries- Budget = $975.  Goal Met!  We spent $218 including stocking up on Diet Cokes and our Amazon subscription order!  I would like to keep the spending under $250 for February as well but I know I have a Costco trip so is this even realistic? A bright spot is that we have not needed to buy eggs this month. We are currently getting 2 eggs per day. This has been just enough and I look forward to more and excess in the coming months!

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  This does include any traveling as well. This month we are under budget just barely at $539.55. We did some extra weekly driving for swim meets.

Blogging- 15 post per month. GOAL MET!  This is post number 15 and I am not cheating and back dating either!

Exercise- Does tripping and falling count for the month.. Nope then the answer is NONE.

Expenses: This month did contain a few unplanned for expenses. First was the washer. Our 14 year old washer died and we ended up replacing with a new washer for $800.  I am hopefully that it will help decrease the energy we are using. Another big expense was we decided to put metal on the outside of the Beetle building. Most of the expense came from money that was designated for the Beetle but another $117 was needed. Finally a HUGE expense this month was our electric bill. This is officially the highest amount we have ever paid $345.  This include the extreme cold at Christmas along with the camper.

Overall not a bad month but hopefully we have gotten some spending under control!

 

December in Review

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Just a heads up, I will be posting both this blog and a year in review today to stay on track!

Groceries– budget amount is $700 Not Met! $1141.34 is an accurate number that includes food or both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This far exceed my goal but at least I know where my money is going.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month, Met! $350.95 We did see gas price continue to decrease in the month of December.  Unfortunately, we will have a tax increase starting January 1st.

Cash Envelope system- Goal Met!  Our checking account is currently being used to pay bills.  We are using cash for everything else except gas!  I don’t think I need to continue this goal as we have become accustomed to it but it has been a journey!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  Managed to include 11 this month even with a 4 day trip to Disney, the flu and lots of activities.

Exercise days-   The 21 miles at Disney should cover me for the month. Actually think I am going to change this from days to miles.

No Spend Days-No idea!

November in Review

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November was a calm sort of month.  We all enjoyed several days of vacation visiting with Haley and David and of course lots and lots of food! We are seeing the effects of inflation especially with the cost of food, both eating out and at the grocery store.  Overall a good month which allowed me to think and start to strategize for the next year.

Groceries– budget amount is $700  Not Met! $1021.06 is an accurate number that includes a drink stock up. I would like to significantly reduce the cost of our groceries this month with the goal of $100 however I will be averaging out grocery spending for the year and increasing the budget to include that amount.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $522.34  We did see gas price start to decrease at the end of November. I am going to have to look at the average and adjust the budget accordingly!

Cash Envelope system- Goal Met!  Our checking account is currently being used to pay bills.  We are using cash for everything else except gas!  Definitely an eye opener!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  Managed to include 13 this month!

Exercise days-   yea no but a shot at the end of November should help with Disney walking!

No Spend Days-No idea! I am wondering if I should eliminate this as long as we are using cash?

October In Review

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Busy busy, stress and more busy are the words that I would use for the month of October. I am slowly catching up at work so hopefully by the end of November that stress will be back at a minimum.  November is the first month in a long time that has no traveling planned in it and I want to get my budget and spending under control.

Groceries– budget amount is $700  Not Met! $1175 is an accurate number that includes a drink stock up. I am also going to say that this is the first month that I have seen a significant increase in prices.  We are continuing to eat from our pantry and freezers, and I am very hopeful that will reduce the amount that is needed to be spent at the grocery store

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $709.74 was spent . Yikes if this continues I am going to have to rethink this budget

Cash Envelope system- We have done much better this month and I am beginning to see where money is going.

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 11 so not horribly bad for the month. I was able to hold steady with a slight increase maybe in this month.

Exercise days-   yea no

No Spend Days-No idea!

I am starting November with some better ideas as what we need to do and how we are planning to spend the next two months.

September in Review

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We started September off with a bang… a quick 4 day trip to Florida that included time with Haley and her family and the Disney “Not So Scary Party.”  We also spent a long weekend camping at the beach after doing our first campus visit with Lily!  And the best new… I am staring to feel like myself!

Groceries– budget amount is $700 Met! $273.23 which included a $165 Amazon order! This is a huge positive as it included some extra items for camping!! Hoping to stay the course and get our average down the rest of the month.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $ 330 was spent which does not count our Florida trip or gas for the beach camping. . Just going to leave this there

Cash Envelope system- Nope not this month… I am going to get back on track with this!

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 11 so not horribly bad for the month.

Exercise days-  Day at Disney, day at UNC-W and my watch tells me I am meeting my exercise goal every day at work so that should count!

No Spend Days-No idea!

August in Review

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August is a very slow moving month around here. Not that we don’t have alot going on but it was 5 long weeks of anticipation for all the fun scheduled in September!

Groceries– budget amount is $200 NOT Met! $974.87 I did not include Amazon so I am going to realistically say we spent $1050 this month. Groceries are continuing to rise. My goal is to spend bare minimum the rest of the year, whatever that may look like.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $ 587. Uggh no explanation or ways to really reduce this.

Cash Envelope system- This worked well for us!

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 17f or the month. I am going to guess that this is the first time EVER to post this often. Probably not going to happen again but hey once is good!

Exercise days- 2 days…….. I just want to feel well!

No Spend Days-Did not keep count again!

JULY In Review

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July was a different month to say the least.  Kendall and Lily spent a week in Orlando Florida at a national youth conference, followed by a week at the beach for all of us. Next up was outpatient surgery for me followed by two weeks of recovery.   Our spending was definitely different, and I was not able to develop a new budget, but I still have a little over 3 weeks before returning to work full time!  August is much more laid back and relaxing!

Groceries– budget amount is $200 NOT Met! $318.24 before the cow.  We spend a today of $31.81.44 including 659# of beef. I am continuing to think around $700 a month with any excess to be placed in savings. We did use savings to purchase the meat so for the remainder of the year we will try to replace any of that we can.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $ 548.74. Prices have started to decrease, and this did include gas for the generator that we ran for 6 hours when we lost power.

Cash Envelope system- I was doing excellent until the last week. Now it is back to cash for us!

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 14 for the month. I have been much better at posting on a regular basis. Just need to squeeze in one additional post. I am really excited to keep this so close again this month! Especially given the fact that I did not post on vacation

Exercise days- NONE

No Spend Days- ummmmm what ? I honestly have not been keeping track of this. I am giving myself a pass on both Exercise and No spend days due to my surgery this month,

August should be a much slower month with plenty of time for relaxing!

June in Review

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One of the biggest headlines that I am reading this month is that inflation is out of control. Most grocery items have increased in price between 15 and 25 percent since January.  The cost of gas has hit an all-time high but is slowly starting to decrease.  I am not at all shocked by the numbers this month.  I have spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the budget and planning but at this point I am going to wait until August to set the official budget for the remainder of the year. For the month of June and July, I am planning to offset any additional uncovered expenses with funds that are currently in our short-term savings.  This should allow us to enjoy our annual beach trip and also get a better idea of what we are currently spending in order to develop a realistic budget. My car is currently in the shop and also needs a set of tires this month. So we have lots of small expenses to pay out.

Groceries– budget amount is $200 until June.  Not Met! $1231.74 before the deposit on the cow which is an additional $300.  I did have a significant food expense for the weekend of Haley’s wedding and I also have already purchased food for the beach.   If I take the amount divide that by 5 people and 3 meals a day we are spending around $3.00 a meal per person which is still significantly less than I could purchase a meal any where for.  This is definitely a hard category to budget for.  I will continue to watch and average to determine where it ends up.  My thoughts prior to this month were $700 a month but I am not sure how realistic that is at this point.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $759.80 gas.   It is currently sitting around $4.34 a gallon.  I will like have to double this budget in August depending on the cost of gas which means I will also need to reduce spending in other categories to make this work. I do not want to continue to use money from short term savings every month.

Cash Envelope system- We are back to use a majority cash system.  I am hopeful that this will work even better in the Summer. This always works well for us!

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 14 for the month. I have been much better at posting on a regular basis. Just need to squeeze in one additional post.

Exercise days- 2.

No Spend Days- ummmmm what ? I honestly have not been keeping track of this. One question I have is do I count days I spend from a budget category or only unplanned or over spending?

June was an interesting month.  I am actually not surprised at all with the spending but really feel like we need to get a handle on where we can reduce our spending and where is it just going to have to increase the planned amount.

Month in Review

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Groceries– budget amount is $200 until June.  Not Met! $1000 This is the second month in a row that we have been way over budget for groceries. I was able to stock up on 2 Liter Diet Cokes.  We also committed to purchasing a whole cow in August.    My plans for the next couple of months are to keep my stock up at its current level with everything but meat. I would like to also restock the freezer with some meals that will be good for grab and go once we hit September again. In light of the significant increase in food prices, I am returning the grocery budget to $700 a month. I will see what happens and how I decided to pay for the cow in August.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $760 gas.  We have also seen a significant increase in the price of gas. It is currently sitting around $4.25 a gallon.  I am going to increase the budget to $500 for now but that may not be enough if gas prices continue to rise or don’t go back down.

Cash Envelope system- We are back to use a majority cash system.  I am hopeful that this will work even better in the Summer.

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 13 for the month. I have been much better at posting on a regular basis. So hopefully, i t will continue this summer.

Exercise days-  Although my knee is feeling much better. I am at almost a month with no pain so that is at least a 2 week improvement over the relief I got from the first shot.  I have not started exercising again. Hopefully I can get to the pool soon!

No Spend Days- ummmmm what ? Yeap another expensive month.

May was super busy as expected. We have received our last check from Matt’s inheritance, so I am hopefully to get a permanent budget in place and look forward to finally getting some repairs we have talked about for the last year completed on the house.