In conjunction with the Living on Less Than $28,000 A Year series, I started sharing periodic Financial Updates about our family’s finances. I don’t always give specific numbers, but I thought it might be helpful for those of you in a similar situation to take a peek at how things go at our house.
Spending
This past month we did great in the grocery department underspending by $80, but unfortunately we overspent in several other categories like clothing ($50 over) and household items ($38 over). I also spent $25 on toilet paper because I found a good sale, but at least we are stocked up for a while!
Thankfully the overages were not much and our income increased enough to cover it, but I would like to do better with the spending in November.
Saving
All of the categories in our Freedom Account (read more here) are funded in the amounts that they should be except for the car maintenance, medical and Christmas categories.
Our Emergency Fund is still very underfunded and I set a goal at the end of September to add $100 to it. The good news is that I was able to save $150. The bad news is that I had to add the money to the car maintenance category rather than to the general Emergency Fund because we have an upcoming repair.
Goals for November
For this month I would like to save the remaining money needed for the car repair and try again to add $100 to the Emergency Fund. We’ll see how it goes.
I will also be on the lookout this month for inexpensive Christmas gifts for our children. It looks like the Christmas budget is going to be super tight this year.
How was October for you? Were you able to stick to your budget? Leave a comment so we can encourage each other. 🙂
Umm… 5 pay MONTH not week! lol! If only!! Haha!!
I just found your blog & am really enjoying it!! 🙂
October wasn’t the best month for us… The kids were sick for a couple weeks which added up, but we did ok overall! This month is a 5 pay week for hubby so in really hoping that I’ll be able to bulk up our EF a bit more!! 🙂
If you have time I’d love for you to pop over to my blog as I think we have a lot in common!
Good luck this month!!
Welcome Carla! I will check out your blog. 🙂
I think I have to revise mine too.
We should have a lot left over(fortunate for us, I know) but we don’t.
I am trying to be too strict and it is back firing I think.
I am going to do a revision. Hopefully November will show some improvement and I won’t be so disappointed in it.
We have found that too. If we are too strict we end up having a spending blow out at some point. Good luck!
we went way over in food this month… but otherwise did well. got christmas pretty much squared away- $16 out of pocket 🙂 so overall happy, but hoping to do better in november! our good news is our car is finally going to be taken care of this month and we’re supposed to close on our house (that we own).
WOW–$16 total for Christmas is awesome!
I thought October would be the “clean out the emergency fund” month with two doggie vet bills. But, thank you LORD, I had been carrying a mistake in my budget for several months and never noticed!, This month I noticed that my budget balanced, but I didn’t “see” some of the $$ in a fund category. Well, after 30 minutes of number crunching I “found” all the $$ I needed for that bill, and more.
Don’t get me wrong. SO glad for that bill to be paid and still have the EF. But, we didn’t do well in the Grocery category. I did a great shopping and meal plan for the first two weeks, then, stress, and other factors weighed in and I did not plan meals. Well, that’s a disaster.
Needless to say everyone: meal planning REALLY DOES WORK! Thanks Kimberlee, Back on Track for November. I hope to be below what I budget for November in the Food & sundry fund. A challenge, but it’s a goal I know I can meet. Thanks to this web site.
I am so glad that I can encourage you Barbara. Menu planning is one of the biggest money savers for us, so I am happy when it works for others too.
I am pleased that I ended up with loose change in my wallet and 100 dollars more in my extra account at the end of October. I’ve had to revise my standards a little in the past few months. So now it’s just about ending up with more at the end of each month than I had the month before. Breaking even through the holidays is my goal for the next couple of months would be okay too.
I’m scared to look at our October finances. I am 36 weeks pregnant and I think our fast food bill might show it. :/ Plus all the expenses that come with preparing for a baby. Wish me luck!
I totally understand Rachel, I HATE cooking when I’m pregnant. Things will get better once you have that wonderful little baby and have a few months to adjust. Enjoy this time! 🙂
I’ve recently started to intentionally track any things paid by credit card. Then at the end of the month, those items we have not yet been billed for are accounted for before we look ahead to the next month. We’ve always managed to pay off our bill at the end of the month because we use credit cards for convenience and not because we can’t afford to pay cash.
We went over budget last month and I’m pretty upset about it. We have enough wiggle room to handle it, but we weren’t able to pay down loans or put anything in savings. I’m beginning to worry about Christmas presents, as we don’t really have any room for extra purchases in the next couple of months. – Leah, leahwise.wordpress.com
Sorry about that Leah. Don’t be discouraged, just start again tomorrow. 🙂
I am just plain broke and do not feel like facing the numbers :(. This fall has been really, really tough. I am looking at making gifts for kids. I was wise enough to buy gifts through out the year so have a few. Medical bills are ruining my budget.
I’m so sorry that things are difficult for you right now, but good for you for purchasing Christmas gifts ahead of time. Hopefully you will feel better soon and you can take a peek at everything without feeling too discouraged.