So here's where we're at with our Jan budget so far:
Income:
Hubby's Job (after tax): $5271 / $5271
Hubby's Hobby Income: $492 / $592 (revised up from $520)
My PT-WFH Job: $265 / $617 (revised up from $385)
Last Month's Extra (held for EF): $593 / $593
Total Monthly Income: $7073 (revised up from $6769)
Expenses:
Non-Fixed Expenses
Groceries: $609 / $861
Gasoline: $249 / $230 (over budget)
Misc: $261 / $700
Entertainment: $163 / $250
Gifts: $52 / $50 (close enough!)
Emergency Fund: $990 / $990
Also, our water bill was higher than expected:
Fixed Expenses:
City Utilities (water/sewer,etc): $97.90 / $81.90
Most of the other utility/service bills will come in the second half of the month. At this point I am projecting a difference in income vs expenses of at least:
Difference (to be applied towards credit cards): $225
So far within budget on the new grocery budget! Though just barely. I have two trips left this month and to not go over, they both need to be $125 or under. Luckily that is about how much I'm expecting them to be so hopefully that will work.
I think I need to start making a list of recipes that are healthy and cheap. Food is kind of a splurge for us, not because we buy lots of snacks, but because we buy lots of fresh produce and fish and extra lean meats and whole grain items that just seem to cost a little more. Plus, I do a lot of cooking. Eating a highly nutritious, diverse and balanced diet is very important to me and my long term health goals. Which is one of the reasons this budget area has been so hard for me. You can't just not get more food when you see your funds are running low like you can for other budget categories.
But I think a list of low cost recipes would be an easy way to reduce costs when I see that I'm starting to get too close for comfort to my budget limit. In the long run, maybe I'll even get enough of these low cost recipes that I love that I can move my budget down to the low cost level! (
The miscellaneous category is still doing great as well. I think what I have it at is probably too high right now but I'm still figuring it out. Some of that category used to be lumped in with food, and Xmas made a mess of things too. We just haven't been doing this long enough yet to know what's reasonable there. Also, my feet are starting to hurt when I run which I think is due to the fact that my running shoes are well past the point of needing replacement. That's probably going to cost at least $80 for a decent pair and I need to do it before I end up injuring myself. And then there's the meat thermometer I caught on fire in the broiler this week. Don't ask. But it needs replacing as well.
Gas was higher because I did end up having to take my daughter back to college at the end of her break, and because we let her use our vehicle for driving to work while she was here. I think I have a pretty good idea of what that budget should be now, so next month I will adjust for that.
And finally the utility bill...apparently we have a toilet that is running water constantly. (At least I've been tracking closely enough to realize something was wrong!) After almost getting completely ripped off by one plumber earlier this week, (he was going to charge me quite a bit more than an entire new toilet would cost!), I have another much more reasonable person coming today to fix it. Hopefully that won't cut in to our bottom line too much because other than our emergency fund, we don't have a budget for home repairs yet.
We are less than a month away now from finding out what hubby's raise/bonus will be, as well as finalizing our taxes for our big expected return. I am on pins and needles, with spreadsheets just waiting for that data to come in! Sad, huh?
Also, as you can see, my home business has finally picked up again! I think my slump is finally over and hopefully we can count on more steady cash flow for the next few months.
January 19th, 2013 at 06:57 pm 1358621878
January 19th, 2013 at 07:08 pm 1358622519
January 20th, 2013 at 12:00 am 1358640044
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muSBRudVJKg
January 20th, 2013 at 02:08 am 1358647694