Monthly Spend Report

Here it is again, our monthly spend report.  I'm really enjoying the process of categorizing and tracking all of our spending via our master card.  It makes it easier then writing everything down every day (though we are trying that for any cash expenditures).

I am pretty pleased with the majority of these categories.  As you know, last month we recognized that we were spending a lot of money on Booze & Eating out - this last month we spent wayyyy less in these categories.  There's obviously still some work to do in the eating out category - but this is good work as far as I'm concerned.

The reimbursables this month include Christmas shopping for family and a $1,000 deposit to hold the new Escape.  This will be refunded in a couple of days when the Retire Your Ride approval comes through.

We're still low on grocery's, but as we eat out less this number will go up.

I bought a pile of new work clothes, but this was from birthday money and allowance money that I've been saving up - this was not against our joint expenses.

Education is high because I registered for my first CHRP exam!

Gifts is high (hello Christmas!) but we had savings for the majority of this spending and we're almost done our shopping.  Finally, you all know about our family emergency in November - we had some money stashed but not enough to pay for the whole trip up North.

For a bit more perspective on our spending, I wanted to show you this month to month image.  In 16 categories of spending, we spent less in 11 of them from October to November!

Since we had money saved up for Emergencies, gifts, education and clothes - this is fantastic! The banking was for when we ordered our credit reports online - wasn't sure what category to put that under.

Our Learnings:

• Need a larger emergency fund, STAT - at least $2,500 i think
• Need a bigger Christmas fund for next year
• Need to save for education expenses (I'll have a few more big ones for my CHRP) and Jordan will have textbook expenses next year
• EAT OUT LESS