Potential 2011 Budget

Based on the goals I described in the last post, here our potential 2011 budget.

 

While we budget on a monthly basis for the big picture, the variable expenses get broken down into weekly transfers to align with our pay schedules.

Rent and utilities are based on having two roommates, so we split the bills four ways.  Hopefully we can keep this going for the foreseeable future.

Our insurance rates recently went down a fraction and my horse board stays fairly steady.  $165 in the winter and $90 in the summer.

We haven't been tracking our spending long enough to know if $1,500/month is enough or too much 'planned spending'.  We're going to roll with this for now and continue to track and post our spending patterns.

Here are where the big numbers lie.  The House Fund and the Wedding Fund.  If we can make this work, we'll meet our 2011 goals.

While I just started my pension, I'm not at the maximum for contributions into RRSP's (neither is Jordan) - so we'll just continue along with $100/month for now.  I would like to see this increase in the future.

I'm hoping my readers will take a look at this and let me know if we're forgetting anything or if something doesn't look realistic.

J&J's Goals

I wanted to do a 2010 checkup on the goals that I started out with this year.  I did a search and found that they changed so often, it's no wonder that I feel like I havn't acheived much.  Of course, we did have the huge success of becoming debt free this year - but we didn't realize any of our savings/planned spending goals.  Part of this was the merging of our finances and working to sort out what that would look like.

In 2011, we have two huge life changing events.  Not only are we getting married, we intend on being prepared to buy a house.  While I can appreciate that it is important to have money set aside for all types of different things - these events will happen, so we best plan for them.  The other part of these two goals is that we wan to realize them before/on August 6, 2011.  That means, we have 8 months to get organized.

We currently have just over $6k in our house fund.  I had to move some money around to pay off our credit card bill before the due date, but have some money set aside to pay ourselves back next month.  By the end of December, we will have just over $11,250 set aside.  We anticipate needing, at a bare minimum $20,000 to purchase our first house (I've posted about the details of this before, but if you want them again, just let me know). 

So, goal Number One:  Save $8,750 in 8 months (by August, 2011)

Next is our wedding.  We currently have just under $300 set aside, but we have also already spent almost $6,000 of a project budget of just over $22,000.  By the end of December, we anticipate having set aside about $1,750.  We also anticipate that we will spend some of our planned spending budget (paid via credit card) will be eaten up by wedding expenditures - so we won't have to actually have that much cash sitting aside next summer.  That combined with talking with some family members, we anticipate some monetary gifts that will help us realize this in time

So, goal Number Two: Save $7,500 in 8 months (by August, 2011)

I imagine that we will continue to put money away for both Christmas/gifts as well as vehicle maintenance/emergencies - however this will be about $100/month - without strict goals.  We need the flexibility to be able to achieve our primary vision of a wedding and a home.

Getting Back On Track

Instead of writing another post complaining about how stressed out I am, I'm going to write a post outlining how I'm going to get back on track.  Some of these things I already took care of today, but writing it all out helps me see that I've actually acheived something.

Work

• Submit receipts for work visit to Ontario
• Meet with manager to discuss trip and where I'm at locally

Personal

• Close savings account with CIBC, I don't use it anyway and I want to simplify things
• Change chequing account options with CIBC (move to a lower fee option)
• Get Jordan to change his chequing account options as well
• Visit my great aunt
• Go home and visit my parents for a weekend
• Confirm that Jordan submitted his expense receipts for his new work boots

Budgeting

• Do a goal check up with Jordan, what do we actually want to acheive and is it realistic?
• Plan and post a potential 2011 budget that aligns with those goals
• Do a wedding budget check up with Jordan and post it
• Do a current monthly spending check up with Jordan and post it

Wedding

• Sign and e-mail back venue contract
• Sign and snail mail back photographer contract and deposit
• Find a DJ
• Figure out a plan/list of what needs to happen by when

Chaotic

I'm feeling a little bit all over the place.  I'm back in my  home town and done with travel for now, but there are so many things I need to catch up on - both at work, and with my personal life.  I'm feeling a little out of it with regards to where the money is at - but I did a quick check and I think we're okay budget wise - but I'm no 100% sure.

While I have booked the venue/caterer/photographer - we still technically need to sign and fax back their contracts.  While that seems like a small thing, I just haven't had time to do it yet.  I did manage to submit the receipts for my expenses - which for the two weeks came to a total of $2,215.14.  That will be deposited on my last pay of the month - so we'll have it in time to pay of the next months bill.

I'm hoping to actually write some more thoughtful posts over the next few days...but like I said - things feel just Chaotic.

Guest Post: The Best Way to Save Money Is Not Having It

By Bella Paige

TransferMate

If you can’t trust yourself with your own money, then you have a problem.

Let’s admit it – money is never enough even if we get a salary increase, bonuses, etc. Buying and consuming has become such an incredibly big part of our lives that we don’t really make the difference between a necessity and a shopping obsession anymore.

The problem is, I realized, shopping was swallowing most of my finances but I couldn’t help it as it was kind of a therapy after a long day at school and work. I was working really hard, but I was spending as hard, too.

It was time for a change because I didn't want to be like most of my friends with thousands of dollars in debt at the age of 22. So, I opened a savings account and was trying to put a certain amount there every month. Guess what – after a couple of months, I stopped doing it – negligence took over as I was too busy to go online and transfer money from my checking to my savings account. Another problem was, once the money was in my checking account, I had a hard time putting a certain amount aside because I could always figure out a thing to spend it on.

So, to protect my money, I had to trick myself.

I asked my employer to automatically deposit 10% from my monthly salary into my savings account and directly deposit the rest into my checking account. This way, the 10% was saved before it even came to me. If you don’t have it, you can’t spend it, and thus you can save it, right? It required more effort to go to the bank and withdraw from the savings, as well as go online and do the transaction from savings to checking in order to spend it. I successfully forgot about this 10% which, at the time, equaled $150/month. After a year, you can all figure what my savings grew up to – $1,800.

Honestly, I was proud of myself because I was never able to save that much on my own before. It might not look like an achievement to some, but to me it meant I was smarter than my slackness.

This & That

I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with my little hotel life that I'm developing.  While I really miss Jordan and home - I'm settling in a bit.  Maybe it's a bit late, but better than never.  The bartender in the lounge here knows what I drink (coors lite) and makes small chat, the doorman says hello and goodbye - and I like my five minute walk to work in the morning and my mini coffee maker.

I don't so much like that I lost my phone charger.  I thought that I might have left it behind last week, but after going through twenty something chargers that the hotel has in their lost and found - I realized it was a bit hopeless. I was feeling a bit 'stranded' but after a quick chat with Jordan, I found the courage to venture out.  I found a Walmart, a $15 cab ride from the hotel and was able to find the perfect charger.

It cost about $35 which was a shame -but it actually works as three chargers as one.  I can plug it into a wall, into a car or into a USB port - I didn't have alternative charges before - so this will be great!

Ugh...Due Dates!

So when Jordan and I first got our joint credit card, we set up all of our budgets based on  monthly spending patterns, because a credit card bill is due once a month.  That make sense, right?  Right.  Not Right.  We soon realized that our credit card bill came on the fifth of the month - that caused trouble because my budget spreadsheets were based on exact months...the 1st to the end of the month so we had to adjust everything.

The way my spreadsheet is currently set up, when the monthly bill comes in we plan to pay it off by the end of the month - not necessarily right away.  Well, that doesn't work if the last pay day of the month comes after when the due date for the bill is.

crap... I feel kind of foolish for not thinking of this...though, I'm glad I caught it before we got caught in an interest trap.

Last week I told you why the balance was as high as it was....so this week i'll give you the plan to pay it off:

the highlighted green items have already happened

I'm sure.you can see that I've transfered a large some of money from the house fund to pay off the card before the due date.  We'll get paid two days after the due date, and at that time, we'll transfer the money back to the house fund.  It's going to be quite a bit of fiddling around - but the lesson is learnt!

Be aware of your billing cycles, budgeting cycles, and due dates!