South County Girl: May Budget

We will be using SCB's unemployment check to finally finish our emergency fund this month. On a bare bones budget, we will have 6 months of expenses saved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be soooo nice to no longer be throwing money into here!!!!!!!

So what's next?

Saving up what we can in our car/auto fund.Why? Because that's the next thing that can throw us off our plan.

"Wanda" (the '91 ford escort) is on its last leg and is SCB's wheels. Depending on when she blows, we might purchase my mom's old truck from her for $2k because she just bought a Camry... Yes, somehow reason entered the picture and she just couldn't fork over money for a Lexus or a BMW... and she decided to keep the truck. As long as Wanda will physically run, we can trade her for $1,000 in the states "retire old vehicles" program. If Wanda continues to keep trucking along and will pass CA SMOG standards next year, we will keep her until she doesn't--- but it will be nice to have $1,000 set aside for Car Repairs and regular maintenance since "Stitch" (my 2004 Camry) is no longer under that pretty warranty anymore. So that's the next step... Save up money for car repairs and replacements down the line.

I also should be expecting 11 hours of overtime on my next paycheck so we are planning to use that money to cover any expenses for mothers day, new running shoes, and an EZ up for SCB's first day selling at the farmers market. We still have our tax return slush fund sitting at $2,600 to go towards the last of the dental expenses that we really need to take care of... and then to start funneling towards our annual goals.

We will also get to do a bit of giving this month! We will be participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life next month, but we are fundraising for it this month. We have been saving our change in a jar and its up to $21.17 so I'm doing a luminaria in memory of my dad and one of the sister missionaries good friends who passed away while she was on her mission. We also cashed in my credit card rewards and got a check for $100 back so we plan to add that to our donations and also do some fundraising at the event itself :)

Here's our Tentative Basic May 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 (Any Extra Money to Car EF Fund)
Groceries: $250.00
Insurance (2 Autos, earthquake, homeowners) $143.00
Utility Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet): $230.00
Roth IRA $220.00

Our goal is to seriously rein in our spending and start looking at what we are doing with our money and where our values are in the decisions we make. In June we might start tithing to my husband's church.