February Budget

This month we need to smog my car, cash flow a trip to Utah and back, handle valentines day, and still deal with my husband being out of work and trying to meet our goals for 2012.

When we put a close on 2011, we had a few hundred dollars left over and a paycheck we had yet to receive from SCB's last week on the job. We took this money and put it in a slush fund savings account instead of our emergency fund since we knew we would need to pay for our Utah trip and a few un-budgeted expenses in the beginning half of 2012.


I've also been adding all the overtime from my last 2 paychecks to it, along with any extra money we were able to hang on to as January ended. This little slush fund now sits pretty with around $1,200 in it! Woot!


So, we will be using this money to cover some of the abnormal costs we will have this month like:


Our Going to Utah Budget (We are driving out for our friends baby shower)

• Gasoline there, around town, and back: $250.00
• Water storage jugs (to replace all the 2 liter mountain dew bottles under our counter). We aren't sure how much this will cost, so we have marked it HIGH, but we want to get some good containers that will hold enough water for 2 people for 3 days: $100.00
• Pen/Wood turning supplies for SCB since we are going to start an online business for him on Etsy: $50.00
• SCB lunch out with his friend while i'm at the shower: $20.00
• Groceries: $30.00

California Auto Stuff

• Smog: This will hopefully run us $50 or less so $50.00
• Car registration: $118.00

So if all goes to plan, our slush fund should have around $600 in it when all that is said and done. I'll also get the opportunity to add some money back to it with some planned overtime that will happen later in the month. We will use any remaining money to get SCB some new glasses and to finish up the rest of the dental work he needs now that we have that horrible insurance mess behind us. 


THE REST OF THE MONTH BUDGET

Paycheck #1:

• Mortgage (P&I, Property taxes, MIP): $808.18
• HOA: $262.50
• Christmas Fund: $50.00
• Date Night/Spending Money: $64.32
• Prescriptions: $15.00

Paycheck #2:

• Birthday Fund: $50.00
• Prescriptions: $15.00
• Date Night/Spending Money: $55.00
• Gasoline/Car: $237.00
• Groceries: $250.00
• Insurance (2 Autos, earthquake, homeowners) $143.00
• Utility Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet: $230.00
• Roth IRA $220.00

You may have noticed that our budget still doesn't include any "giving" or charitable contributions. Until SCB is able to bring in a paycheck we will be donating our time, talents, and energies instead of our dollars. For one, I'm participating in the LA Marathon again on behalf of Child Share (Click here to donate) and I'm also crocheting some blankets for a cancer ward and an assisted living facility through my husbands church. Add in the fact that I'm also the 2012 chair for Relay for Life for a local city in my area, and a team captain, and you could say there is a lot of volunteering going on in our household.


How we spent our Money Last Month:

• Groceries/House Supplies: $217.62
• Eating Out: $122.57
• Gasoline: $165.03
• Car Repairs: $73.85
• Giving: $123.84
• Prescriptions: $24.00
• Housing: $1,070.68
• Re-occurring Bills (Cell, Electricity, Internet): $205.03
• SCB's Wood Turning: $47.95
• Gifts: $14.57
• Other: $8.19