May 2009

anthonyimages

Last month we got hit with a big bill that prevented us from adding anything to our savings account and this month it still feels like the unexpected keeps on coming.

We had more little expenses that added up fast with car registration, hospital bills (from having a healthy baby girl), we spent $200 on an emergency breast pump (don’t ask), not to mention starting our mini renovation and the list goes on and on. We normally budget $100 for miscellaneous expenses and this month all those little things added up to $1300! OUCH! Since we moved to California a year ago, I am still amazed at how expensive the cost of living is here. Even with moderate usage, our utility bills alone can get as high as $500 in the summer. We also have a pool for the first time and had no idea how expensive it would be to maintain.

I know some people are able to pay cash for a home (Money Saving Mom is a great example of this) and I always hear people on Dave’s show that are debt free including the house- I wonder if this is possible in a super high cost of living area like CA?

The good news is we paid cash for everything and we had fully expected this month to be a financial challenge and we were prepared. I am amazed at how much we were able to add to savings even with the extra expenses.

So we are now 66% of the way to our goal of 6 months of expenses in savings. I am extremely anxious to finish this so we can start tackling the last student loan. Once that is finished we will be totally debt free except the house.

To get ourselves back on track after a lot of spending in May, we have declared June no spend month. We have done no spend months in the past as a way to start fresh and refocus on our goals and it has always been effective for us. So for June we intend to eliminate all extra spending entirely. We will have our regular monthly bills, gas and grocery budget and the only “extra” will be a haircut for my husband.

If you are curious about doing your own No Spend month -check out Amy’s No Spend Challenge. I will keep you posted weekly with our progress- we have a lot of graduations, birthdays etc.. coming up so it should be interesting to see if we can stay on track.

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SalilWadhavkar

This month we went over our $140 budget again. I have not been much of an example the last 2 months but honestly I am not that upset about it.

We were officially over $71.71 however I had $27.95 in rebates which I add back into the budget
making us $43.95 over. This month, I included a lot of extras in the grocery budget- postage, (2) printer ink refills, expensive carpet cleaner, diapers for the new baby, 3 large cans of formula and 2 jugs of ready to feed formula. This is quite a bit for $43.95! We also had a few medications and supplies I needed after the baby was born which are included in the $43 amount.

I fully expected to need to increase the budget in the event that we had to supplement with formula as it is a big drain on the budget. So overall I am happy with how the month turned out. We still have a very full pantry and I am hoping we have enough diapers for both little ladies to make it through June.

I am going to continue with $140/month or $35/wk into June and see what happens. I expect to spend about $15/week on formula now so I want to see how far I can stretch our dollars. Plus we have been eating a lot more convenience foods in the last few weeks of my pregnancy so I want to add a lot more fresh produce back in. We will likely need to increase the budget to $50/week but I will see how things go and make the decision in July.

While our financial goals and budget are extremely important to me, we also try to be flexible as life happens. I am happy to adjust our spending according to our family’s needs and a healthy pregnancy was the most important thing in May. It was also important to me to be very prepared for baby- with lots of wipes, diapers etc.. and I am pleased I got some incredible deals this month (here, here, & here).

How did your month go? I’d love to hear what your budget is and how you are progressing with your goals!

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