Weekly Spend - February (week 2)

I fell behind in weekly spend reports for February so this is a bit of a catch-up.  Given our splurge on photography for Little Miss' birthday and the Costco shop - we're already over budget for the month.  Here's a look:

Let's go through this month so far -

Both vehicles needed fuel this month, plus a trip to the city has gas hire than normal this month.

Groceries are high due to the stock up at Costco.

This week was our splurge eat-out week.  We hit up the buffet at the local Indian Restaurant as well as a few too many stops at Tim Hortons and Dairy Queen.  I think we'll rain this in for the rest of the month.

Entertainment includes Disney Plus, Netflix, and a trip to the Hot Springs a few hours away.

Pets spend is three bags of dog food which will last for the next three to four months or so.

Clothes were for Jordan who just went back to work.  He needed some jeans, t-shirts etc.  His work is hard on his clothes.

Kids Stuff was largely explained in yesterday's Costco shop post.  It also includes about $1,400 from a photography session for Little Miss' first birthday.  Gifts include those pictures and a few picture frames.

Vehicle and Home Maintenance were also explored in yesterday's Costco post.  There is also around $55 spent at the local hardware store for a few items around the house.

January Wrap Up

January 2020 has passed already! 

Let's look at how we did.  Let's start with week five.  We had to fuel up the vehicle this week.  We were really good about avoiding eating out - and I think only bought a six-pack at some point.

Home Maintenance was just a few more odds-and-ends for Jordan as he was finishing up our to-do list before he heads back to work tomorrow after his paternity leave comes to an end.

Here is our summary for the entire month.  I'm largely happy with this.  I think I need to look at how we budget - because I budget monthly we are paid and manage most expenses weekly - so January had a fifth week but I didn't change the budget which isn't really reasonable.

Our total spend on groceries is the stand out item here - $1,365.  It's more than we spent on any one month last year.  It's also the least we spent on eating out all last year.

Combined, on average, we spent $1,261 (881 + 380) on groceries and eating out in 2019. The only other change that I can attribute some of this too is Daycare.  We're now packing lunches for the kids every week - which means buying (and making) a lot more snack foods for them. 

I've really enjoyed keeping an eye on our spend on a weekly basis so I'm going to continue through the month of February.  We'll see what we can do about that groceries bill.

Weekly Spend - January (week 4)

Okay!  Week four down - and we've landed a bit high.

Groceries had a spike because we did some extra groceries to have around 15 people over for Baby Girl's first birthday.

Little Man needed some special cream for his hands so medical was higher (usually it's zero).

Kids Stuff was 1/4 payment of a photography session that we booked last minute for Baby Girl's birthday.  I'll finish paying for this in the first week of February so the balance will show then.

Vehicle Maintenance was a surprise new battery for one of our vehicles.  The car hadn't been run for a couple of months and the battery burst in the cold streak that we had.  So that's annoying.

Looking at the total spend to date we are at 98% of the budget and still have the rest of the last week of the month to get through. So we most certainly will be over. 

Weekly Spend - January (week 3)

Okay - here we go - week three!

Before even doing my summaries I know that I'm closer to being on track than we were last month.  Reason being?  I was able to manage credit card payments (100% of the balance), without drawing from our Line of Credit! 

Woohoo!

For the first time in three weeks, we fueled the Escape. We did a big grocery shop (case lot sale), stocking up on essentials.  We went to the bakery twice and the liquor store once.  We did one stop at the dollar store and spent $20 on kid's art and craft stuff.

Here's the combined 1-3 weeks summary -- >>


You can see we have $550 left to spend in the budget.   We do have baby girl's birthday at the end of the month so hopefully, we can stay on track.

Weekly Spend - January (week 2)

Another week over, another spending summary review.  This week we spent about $200 on groceries - $70 less than last week.  We did not eat out!! Woo!  Jordan actually asked once, and I think (in part) because of doing these posts I didn't want to.  Our kitchen was a bit of a mess because Jordan was standing/staining the countertops so instead, we grabbed our dinner groceries and cooked in my mom's kitchen instead.  A win!

Oh! What's that $7 from?  That is something from 7-Eleven.  I assume a lottery ticket and a coffee.

Kids Stuff! $120 in kids stuff?  Okay - this is about $95 in diapers (two boxes from Costco), two 360 sippy cups for baby girl for daycare and a new water bottle for Little Man for daycare.

Finally, we have about $265 in Home Maintenance. This is $55 in paint - with the kids back at daycare, Jordan is getting some small jobs around the house finished before he goes back to work.  Starting upstairs he got our closet doors painted, and the doors in the hallway painted that were somehow two different off-white colors.  $175 was at Rona for painting supplies, drop cloth etc. etc. Next up was a $15 cable/electric detector thing that Jordan tells me will save us a $150 call-out fee from an electrician and finally a set of glassware containers for about $20 - with the kids back in daycare and all this meal planning we're doing - we needed a few more to store leftovers.

 <  <  < This is a summary of both weeks.  Mostly so I could see the remaining amount to spend and % spent of the budget. 

On the surface we're doing well because we're two weeks in and spent just under half of the budget...buuuut January has nearly five full weeks in it.

So...we'll see how we do.

Have a great week!

Weekly Spend - January (week 1)

Well, we made it through the first week of January - we've already spent nearly $1,800.  Goodness.  Of course nearly $1,500 of that was on cat insurance for one of our vehicles.  So leaving that aside, Here's a breakdown.

I know we went to the grocery store a few times already - and it looks like a bit much.  The extra spend this week is from extra daycare snacks for the kids who start going tomorrow, extra veg for a family dinner on Sunday (my mom and grandmother), and for an unexpected diaper blowout.  While we were at the store, Little Miss needed a change and we realized that neither of us packed the diaper bag...so we also had to buy not-on-sale diapers :(

The eating out was one trip to DairyQueen - Jordan tried a new Lamb recipe for ribs and it wasn't quite what either of us was expecting.  Everyone was still hungry after dinner - so we rant out for a quick bite.

Entertainment this week was our DisneyPlus and a phone game.

2019 Spending Summary

This is the breakdown of our monthly spending in each category we track.  The first summary, called Day to Day is the spending we do when we're just out and about.  Other Spending includes larger annual or monthly expenses like maintenance, insurance etc.

We've started meal planning just in the last two months so I'm looking forward to seeing how that impacts our average. Our clothes/shoes/hair spend is pretty significant - a big chunk of this was because of me.  Going back to work, having a baby, changing body - all required that I update my wardrobe a bit.  I think this will settle down into 2020.

Costco typically includes some big household items like toilet paper, paper towel, garbage bags etc.  It also includes some grocery items like flour, sugar, maple syrup, lunch snacks and it includes kids clothes - love their PJs.  Home maintenance and renovation will go way down in 2020 but I suspect vehicle maintenance will go up.

We're expecting to have to get the clutch looked at for the Kia and the Escape need the rear suspension looked at.  Both vehicles need new windshields.  We're both eager to replace one of the vehicles soon - but this won't happen until our debts paid off (outside of the mortgage).  We would also like to wait until there are more electric vehicle options on the market.

Monthly Spend (February, 2019)

February was a great spend month - groceries were really under control.  All of the freezer/meal planning that I did back in Nov/Dec really paid off.  I had prepped dozens of meals for when we brought our daughter home from the hospital.  The freezer is nearly empty now though, so I'm going to need to plan a big grocery shop/meal plan again.

Does anyone have any favorite make-at-home freezer meals?  Some of our favorites were shepherd's pie & pulled pork.

Outside of food spending - everything else was pretty in line.  We did go out of town twice - which is why there is some spending on 'vacation'. 

"Baby" needs to be updated to "Kids" - this is clothes, shoes, hair etc. etc.  anything specific for them.

How did you do on your February goals?

Monthly Spend (January 2019)

Here is the full monthly spend for January...

The budget for what I refer to as our day-to-day expenses is $400/week - I was trying to get this down to $300/week for the month of January but pretty much failed at that.  There are five weeks in January though, and so our average came in at $398 - so not perfect, but I'm happy that we didn't go over the normal budget.

The items not highlighted in grey have budgets of their own - we save monthly for things like vehicle/home maintenance, baby stuff, insurance, the renovation etc. 

So it looks like a lot  - but really we're pretty much on target. 

Weekly Spend - January (week 2)

Two weeks into January and I wanted to post my first spend report of 2019.  I think it'll be easier to stay on top of it if I do every week or two instead of just once a month - at least at first until I'm back in the swing of things.

Not including the Car Insurance renewal for one of our vehicles we spent $772 in the first two weeks. 

Not too shabby - and would have been on target except that for months of Jan/Feb I reduced our weekly spend budget to $300 from $350 - so we overspent by $150 if I ignore the reimbursable line (which have already been reimbursed).

Another nearly $50 is in banking - this is highly unusual for us - somehow in my effort to get one of our credit cards paid to $0 I missed the window to avoid interest on another.  Oops!!  It's very annoying.  It's been years and years since I paid any interested on a credit card.  Not going to beat myself up though, just going to move on and get it taken care of.

The personal care item was a pedicure - a treat for myself before Little Miss arrives - so no regrets there.

November Spend Report

We went to Alberta twice in November, but split the gas, so that's why eating out is quite a bit higher than normal.  Gas, groceries, and the rest are all pretty average - though we'll do an annual review in January sometime.

Gifts represents that for about 12 people, plus each other.  I feel pretty good about that.  In years past, we've spend thousandS not one thousand and change.  Next year, I'm sure it will be even tighter - depending on how my job hunt goes.

You might notice a new category here - Costco.  In the past, I've tried to split a Costco shop in groceries, home maintenance, clothes, etc. but it's never been very precise.  So, instead, I'm going to track what we spend overall at the place!

August Spend Report

This one is a bit of a doozy!  I paid most of the bills for the house this month, we had deposits in June and then a reprieve in July - but this is the big hit.

Gas and eating out were higher then normal because we had a couple of trips to the city to shop for things for the house - lighting, clothing wardrobes = that sort of thing.

Alcohol was a bit higher too - I attribute this to home renovation beer.

Entertainment is more than I would like to spend on lottery tickets and slurpees, but it's one of Jordan's few indulgences these days (okay, except for renovation beer).  That also includes our Shomi and Netflix subscriptions.

Home Maintenance is our renovation expenses this month.

Legal is the updating of our wills etc. for BC.

Baby is a few gifts for Little Man's upcoming birthday as well as a few other odds and ends.

June Spend Report

We were out for a family vacation when the beginning of July rolled around, and I missed posting my June spend update.  I thought I would post it now.

Here it is!

Everything is pretty much standard with the exception of Medical and Home Maintenance.

Medical included a couple of hotel rooms and food for my specialist appointments in Alberta  that led to my foot surgery for my plantar fasciitis.

Home Maintenance...well that's a lot of spending for the renovation that's underway.  Some of the big items in there include:

- a $2,500 deposit on new appliances
- a $3,000 deposit on new flooring
- a $1,600 ikea bill for my bathroom vanity, faucets, storage unit etc.
- a $330 bill from Lowes for my kitchen sink

and more!  It just adds up!

May Spend Report

Here's the May spending report.  Groceries was high, in part because of a Costco shopping run to stock the camper Pantry and top up some things here.

Entertainment and gifts was higher partly because Jordan's family was in town for a visit so we had some extra expenses.

Home Maintenance is in large part the fencing stuff for our dog run.

Medical was from the appointments out of province.  This includes meals, gas etc., and hotels for the trips.  We'll be tracking this and submitting medical expenses on next years taxes.

April Spend Report

 Here we go...another month has gone by.

We spent about $150 or so more than we normally do on groceries.   We had a cold run through the house - first Jordan, then me and Little Man, and then my mom. It hit my mom harder than us, so I think we made it to the store a few more times then she did. We also ate out some this month...oops.

A couple of times were out of town and a couple of times were in town.  The big win here though, is that none of the eating out was on breakfast sandwiches,  etc. They were meals shared with family and friends.

Six months postpartum, I was desperate for clothes that weren't tights so we bought some clothes this month.  Just a couple pars of jeans and a dress for me.  Jordan got a sweater for work, and we got a cute outfit for Little Man.

The big budget line this month though, is under Home Maintenance.  This was the bill from our recent home inspection - which was well worth the money.

Monthly Spend Report

In all the years that I've been tracking our spending, this month has been our lowest spend.  Incredible!

I've included our March spend, and the average for 2016 so far.

You can see that not only did we spend nothing in eating out we spent very little comparably in gas as well.

We spent pretty much the same on groceries as we usually do.  I think a change for this past month though was that we were watching for sales as much as possible.

The vehicle maintenance cost was from repairing our front bumper of the Escape which I had mentioned a few weeks or so ago about needed to do.

February Spend Update

Another month gone...I feel like considering we drove to Alberta five times, we made some real progress here.

We spent about $230 more in gas this past month, but $161 less in groceries and $175 less in eating out.  We didn't quite hit the target of cutting our eating out in half, but I think we made solid inroads.

Alcohol went up a touch because Jordan bought a bottle of rum from Costco that will last a couple of months, so up this month but should be down next.

I bought new shoes this month so I can wear my orthotics indoors and Jordan got a new haircut.

Next is the insurance for the Escape that I mentioned a few weeks ago.  The Annual Expense was my HRIA membership to maintain my CHRP designation.

Then there were just some odds and ends for the house,  Little Man, and some reimbursed trips to the physiotherapist.

This month we were just $200 over budget, so, so close!  We'll get there in March.

January Eating Out

Okay.

Here it is.

In January we ate out 21 times.  Yup, 21 times.  We spent just about $540 in restaurants and fast food joints.  Yuck.

I felt like, it might help to do this left often, if I put the details out there, rather than just skipping over it in our monthly spend report posts.

We ate out three times when we were in Alberta - those I'm happy with.  The Tim Horton's run was also on a trip into Alberta.

 We picked up the tab for us and my mom at the Chinese Food place, and one of the Family Restaurant trips was just me and my mom.  The Greek Restaurant was me, Jordan and picking up the tab for my uncle who was helping us evaluate a home that needed a lot of renovations.

The McDonalds and A&W are mostly Jordan grading lunch and/or a breakfast sandwich (I think).  The couple of times when it was closer to $20 - he grabbed something for me too because I hadn't had a chance to feed myself with Little Man always napping on my lap.

So, I'm not going to say that we're never going to eat out - that's just not realistic.  For the month of February especially, we have several more trips to Alberta to get our stuffed packed and while we cook as much as we can, we're inevitably going to eat out some, and feed whoever helps us.

BUT...I think we have some progress to make in Jordan's lunch/breakfast trips and in the family restaurants for sure.

I don't know what a reasonable goal is - perhaps cutting the total spending in half because we went over budget in the day-to-day spending by about $250.  I know some people go the extreme all-or-nothing route, but I don't think that will work for us.

Maybe if Jordan picks up lunch/breakfast once a week, and we buy dinner out no more than twice a month?  What do you guys think?

January Spend Report

Here we go, January's spend summary.

The categories highlighted in pink, are all in the day-to-day spending category that we budget $425/week for.  So for January we were over budget by about $244.

We did go to Alberta twice if I'm remembering correctly, and it's hard not to eat out some when we do that, but we did make most meals at the house even though just about everything is packed.

Gas is pretty reasonable considering all the driving - but of course, gas in Alberta is pretty cheap right now (not where we are in BC though - it's about a 30 cent difference).

Entertainment includes our Netflix subscription, a few lettery tickets (Jordan), and what I'm assuming are a few slurpies and other quick-grab snacks at 7-11 from Jordan.

We had a few vehicle items in January, including renewing the insurance for the Kia which we paid for in a lump sum.  Home Maintenance included a $90 trip to Home Depot (can't remember what that was for, so I'm guessing Jordan went there), a $50 trip to the source (Jordan got a dongle for the TV to watch Shomi), and $35 at Walmart.

Reimbursable's  include all my trips to physio this past month, and a few odds and ends for Little Man.

It's really the last month where we can go over budget an we still have my income to cover it.  We're now just on EI, and need to get closer to not over spending.  Which us luck for February....where we have four trips to Alberta planned.

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.