March Re-Cap and April Budget

With such a busy month, its no wonder I'm just getting to our monthly re-cap post. With the Utah fees for the expungement, the LA Marathon, and the beginnings of birthday shopping, we went over budget all over the place.

We ended up paying for the overages with our left over tax return money, which has now shrunk down to $70.56. The remainder of this will be going to SCB's car's annual service check up next month so we can mark that off our to-do list.

What we have spent this month

He dropped the milk cap and it
went across the floor... it was a
little too early on a Sunday for
him to handle apparently.

Groceries:  $267.47

Car Registration: $108.00

Car Repairs: $20.00

Gasoline: $166.78

Health Insurance: $178.00

Prescriptions: $20.00

Housing: $1,119.70

Giving: $305.00

Birthdays: $101.61

Electricity: $45.12

Cell Phones: $137.97

Internet: $24.48

Eating Out: $83.46

Clothes: SCG- $15.00

Easter: $13.47

State of Utah CBI: $56.00

Certified Mail Fee: $6.31

Expungement Fees/copies: $180.50

I can't wait until we can drop SCB's smartphone. It makes me a bit queesy how much money we spend on cell phones each month and how its almost 3 times as much as we pay for electricity! We have decided once our contract is up we will cancel his line and he will go to a burner phone... we may keep mine a bit longer and try out the burner phone for a bit and keep my line off contract for a few months to see if we want to loose mine too.

Thankfully next month i'll have a good 13 hours of overtime coming in from teaching a 3 day lifeguard course so after getting some new running shoes since mine are shot from my half marathon, we will be putting the rest away in savings and/or to our next money goal. We went over budget in groceries, gas, and eating out largely because of the marathon and driving up to LA. We also re-stocked up on a bunch of house hold supplies like deodorant, shampoo/conditioner, pain killers, etc.

I did manage to not touch my holiday pay (195.93) that came in on one of my paychecks because I transferred that into savings the nano second it hit the account so technically we broke even this month because the amount I pulled from our tax return was almost equal to the overtime-- But we will need to be revising our annual goals a little... but i'll talk about that in a few minutes. 

What we spent money on in 2013:

• Church Giving: $1,240 (part of 2012 is in here too)

• Groceries/Household Supplies: $673.13

• Car:

• Gasoline: $406.96

• Car Registration: $189

• Car Repairs: $20.00

• Date Night/ Eating Out: $194.47

• Cell Phones: $415.90

• Internet: $94.76

• Electricity: $130.01

• House: 

• HOA: $787.50

• Mortgage: $2,571.48

• Clothes:

• SCG: $43.27

• SCB: $9.07

• Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions

• Heath Insurance Premiums: $356.00

• Prescriptions: $20.00

• Holidays:

• Valentines Day: $8.50

• Easter: $13.47

• Other:

• Expungement Fees: $292.81

• Tax preparation Fees: $56.98

• Computer Parts: $297.32

April Budget:

My employer signed off on a benefit increase in our monthly cafeteria cash allowance since the amount had not be revised up in some time and our health insurance premiums had increase by over 60% during that same period...

This means that i'll be getting an extra $150 before taxes a month added to my paycheck...

Which is very welcome relief since we have had our salaries frozen for the past 3 + years. With the cost of gasoline still above $4.00 a gallon and with just the over all cost of living still going up, its a nice welcome addition to my paycheck.

We have decided to take the extra money and put a but more towards groceries to give us an even $50 a week, set aside the full $50 we want to each month for birthdays, holidays, and presents so we don't have to worry so much when SCB's birthday, my birthday, and mother's day all hit at the same time, and the rest is going to help with the increase in the cost of gas. Here's our new budget:


$1424.00 paycheck one

• Giving $142.00 
• Mortgage (P&I, Property taxes, MIP): $857.20 
• Fast Offering: $10.00 
• Groceries & Food: $250.00 
• Prescriptions & Doctors visits: $50.00 
• Date Night/discretionary $64.80 
• Birthday savings: $50.00 

$1424.00 paycheck two 

• Giving: $142.00 
• HOA: $262.50 
• Insurance (2 Autos, earthquake, homeowners) $129.00 
• Utility Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet): $230.00 
• Gasoline/Auto: $198.50 
• Christmas: $50.00 
• Kaiser: $178.00 
• Roth IRA: $234.00 

We will also be having SCB take Wanda in for her annual check up at the car shop to see whats going on with her and to make sure she is running well since hopefully SCB will be able to start applying for jobs next month since all the paperwork is finally in!

It's weird to think we are a quarter of the way through the year already... I honestly don't know how time is flying so fast!

Annual Goal Changes

We have decided to cancel our summer vacation this year because it looks like our entire family will be coming to us in August because SCB and I will be getting sealed in the temple. So instead of saving $500 for a trip out to Utah, we will be saving $500 for our sealing and family time down here. We will most likely be treating all our family to dinner for making the journey out here and we will need to buy proper temple clothes and other things in preparation for our sealing. I'm also sure the family will want to go a few things while they are out here so that seems to be the plan for now. We will head out to Utah in the winter to see family and friends out there anyway, so this seems like a better plan :)

I am also planning on sending SCB to the dentist next month for a cleaning and check up so we can figure out what the balance would be to get the rest of his dental work done.

Remaining Financial Goals

1. Make one extra Mortgage payment this year:  ($162.66 / $650.64) 25%
2. Put at least 15% of our income into retirement: 11.64% thus far 
1. Deferred Comp: $30.00
2. Roth IRA: $702.24 / $5,000.00
3. Pension: $458.26
3. Save $100 to fix a few things on Wanda "our 22 year old clunker"
4. Save $500 for Sealing and Family coming to town.
5. Save $1,500.00?????? for dental work for SCB
6. Save $1,000.00 for future car repairs and the start of a car replacement fund.
7. Save $300 for a winter trip out to Utah to visit family.
8. After that, throw everything we have at our mortgage to try and get it under $93,600.00 so we can refinance and loose the MIP payments we currently pay. 

Remaining Fun Annual Goals Updates

If its in bold, i'm either working on it, or finished with it!

1. Find something new to crochet-- sweater, pattern, anything
2. DONE!!!!! Sew something from scratch or re purpose something I was going to toss out into something I'd wear. You'll have to wait to see the post on this!
3. Cook or try to cook 6 new things or recipes
1. Salmon! (I learned how to cook it in the oven)!
4. Read / Enjoy 6 new books
1. Sabriel by Garth Nix (audio book)
2. Lirael by Garth Nix (audio book)
3. Abhorsen by Garth Nix (audio book)
4. Nothing to Loose by lee Child (audio book)
5. DONE!!!!! Loose weight (or just get the scale to 148 lbs and stay there or under)
1. at 148 clothed on my work scale at the end of the month! 
2. Now i'm going to see if I can get down to 145 lbs on my work scale.
6. Change my last credit card to my married name
7. Grow a garden with my neighbor
1. For any early birthday present, SCB let me get a tomato plant, 3 strawberry plants, and 4 bell pepper plants! My neighbor will be getting some more plants since my balcony gets the sunshine and we will share in our happy little bounty.
8. DONE!!!!! Complete a half marathon in 3 hours and 30 minuets or less. DONE
1. 2 hours, 41 minutes!