Planned Spending

Okay, so yesterday we looked at our day to day spending to see if that was in alignment.  Today I thought we would look at our planned spending.  

On average we spent about $1,770 each month that we had planned for (or had intended to plan for).  Again, I went through the categories generally last week, and I don't mean to re-hash it, the idea here is just to see what we need to be doing to be ready for 2016.  Remember, this isn't spent every month - we might have months of spending nothing and then need to replace a windshield for example.  The idea is that we're saving each month so that when something does come up, we've got the cash ready.

So, the reality is that we just cannot spend like this in 2016.

My employer paid top up is almost done, and we only have EI for the rest of the year.  I have no idea what I'll be doing for work come 2017 so we need to be modest.

I think though, we can start with what we have currently saved and match that up against what we would need if we DID spend like we did in 2016 and see what the gaps are.

We already know that we're not intending to spend the money that we still have in the baby fund, and that there's no foreseeable reason to spend like that in 2016 - Little Man only needs on crib after all.  We're 100% here anyways, so we don't need to worry about money for him.

Vacation and Christmas/Gifts has just been depleted.  Christmas this year was about $2,500, there would have been a big chunk in July and then the rest spread out throughout the year.  So - we won't be able to be as generous with each other or with our friends/family this year...well, generous in terms of cash spent, we can still be generous with our time and our love of course.  

I think that Emergency/Vehicle should be saved for - we're just about there anyways, and with two vehicles, this is pretty accurate year over year in terms of the cash availability we need to have.

Maintenance is the other biggy.  There's already enough for my annual professional designation membership and some for clothes but nothing for the physical maintenance of our home....good thing we're selling it lol.  I often draw from this account for big pantry stock-up Costco runs.  So, we might need to re-think how we do those, or doing them at all.

Are there any big cuts that you're making to your budget for 2016?

I haven't done a 2016 budget post outside of updating the Current Budget tab at the top because we're so in flux that I'm doing lump sum savings rather than automatic, but I think this post really helps cement what we have money for and what we don't.