I did have some time to make some new spreadsheets to make tracking our expenses for this year easier on me. We also have begun moving to using a single credit account so it will take me less time each month to comb through our expenditures. Once Costco switches from AMX, we'll only have one actually credit card/rewards card and just our debit accounts and the various savings accounts we use at Capital One 360, so I'll cancel our other remaining card... the one I never got around to changing my name on, lol.
It also looks like we'll be getting back into saving in our Roth IRA again! We ran the numbers and since we were really good with chucking money at our mortgage in 2015, if we send an extra $307 a month to the mortgage over the next 4 ish years, we will have our estimated $150,000 down payment ready so we can move when little dude is 5! This means we can get back in the habit of saving part of our "extra" paychecks, profit share money and any tax returns towards maxing out a Roth IRA and/or bumping up my husbands Roth 401k at work.
2016 Basic Budget
Spending:
- Mortgage: $792.01 (includes property taxes) +$307.89
- HOA: $325.00
- Tithe/Church Giving: $626.00
- Groceries/Household Items: $339.28
- Pocket Money: $35.00 each (includes Netflix)
- Cell Phones: $75.00
- Daycare: $800.00 (4 days a week / $200)
- Baby: $113.00
- Gasoline/Auto: $250.00
- Eating Out: $100.00
- Discretionary: $100
Savings:
- Replenish Savings: $100 (Doctors Visits, Roxy, Vacations)
- Insurance Savings: $155 (2 Cars, earthquake and homeowners)
- Auto Repairs: $100
- Car Registration Savings: $25 (2 car reg fees and Smog checks)
- Birthday and Gifts Savings: $50.00
- Christmas Savings: $50.00
- Clothing Replacement: $50.00
He's grateful for my budgeting skills and for our monthly budget meetings, but he's feeling pinched, so in an effort to stay a united front, I'm not going to allocate the extra $69.95 we have coming in each month. I have a funny feeling it will go towards purchasing some WANTS. The overtime we're going to funnel into beefing up our car repair fund and then some to the Roth and some to the mortgage most likely depending how much it is and what we want to focus on that month.
Funny! Your Hubs feels pinched. Welcome to being young with children. They are expensive buggers. I remember when my two where little, we ate a lot of cheap food to stretch are dollars. No vacations, no movies, no going out to dinner. Lots of hand-me-downs. I had girls but my older sister had boys so my kids dressed like boys. We were focused on surviving and raising good kids and that was it. Looking back it was hard living, but it taught us so much about what our real priorities are.
ReplyDeleteStick to your budgeting guns. It will get easier as you make more money and your little one gets older.
I'm going to be honest; I don't blame your DH one bit. Living with every single dollar budgeted gets old. Live a little. Spending every month with every dollar budgeted, when you don't have to, is soul sucking, especially when you have young kids. Life is too short to not enjoy a bit here and there. Go see that movie or have an impromptu dinner out.
ReplyDeleteYa, I wish things weren't as tight as they are, but we are Dave Ramsey fans and like the idea that every dollar generally has a plan so we try to stick to it.
DeleteWe do each get pocket money each month to spend on whatever and we have our eating out money for date nights and a certain amount for discretionary items or things. We also keep a slush fund (his profit share check) to cover larger wants/needs that pop up throughout the year.