What we spent in 2018

Yes, we fell off the blog-o-sphere... again...

but I did track all of our spending for 2018 and that is always the goal. When I was first compared the numbers between 2017 and 2018, I was a little concerned when we more than doubled our discretionary spending for the year...

BUT, because I kept track, I couldn't really argue with how we spent our money, and I think there were a lot our purchases we held off for a while and decided to bite the bullet so to speak.

We explored the great outdoors, journeyed to preschool, moved office buildings for work, and experienced the world with a three year old!


But here we go. What we spent money on in 2018!

Giving: 

• Church: $10,679.00 
• (Tithe plus fast offerings)
• American Cancer Society $210.00

Groceries: $4,271.83 (up $134.13 from 2017)

• Monthly average $355.99
• Sometimes included house products, other times it didn't. Some months we spent more, other months less, but this is where we ended up!

Eating Out / Family activities: $1,497.44 (up $64.16 from 2017)

• Mostly consisted of eating out, but something going to the movies, or a family outing went into this category. 

Gasoline / Toll Fees / Car Washes: $2,665.79 (down $425.93 from 2017)

• Gas for Escort: $1,593.86
• Gas for Camry: $1,546.55 (but my work reimbursed me $599.75) $946.80

• This year I actually tracked how much my work reimbursed me for driving for work, and applied that $$$$$ back towards automotive savings each month. We didn't do this in 2017.
• Tolls, Car washes, etc: $133.45

Car Maintenance / Insurance / Registration:

• Camry: $3,502.31 (up $2,043.18 from 2017)
• Evap ESV Valve, headlights, carbon canister, vapor control valve, oil change; Oil Filter, spark plugs, fuel system check, rear catalytic converter (plus swap on front catalytic converter), (2) radiator hoses, coolant, (2) tires, (2) power steering return hoses
• Ford Escort: $1,327.98 (down $874.88 from 2017) 
• Headlights, fluid stuff, bulbs; alternator, oil change
• Car Insurance: $1,694.25
• Car Registration Camry: $133.00 
• Car Registration Escort: ??? (we might have forgotten to list the registration in the spending report. )

Little Dude: $1,081.17 (everything but clothes, doctors, and daycare! booya)

•  $ 15.00 haircut
•  $ 30.12 poop helpers 
•  $ 151.43  pull ups 
•  $ 25.00 Miralax 
•  $ 5.92 baby soap 
•  $ 90.24 New Big Boy Mattress 
•  $ 63.37  Paw Patrol Bedding
•  $ 15.00 Bed liner 
•  $ 1.99 Paw Patrol 
•  $ 4.00 lunchables 
•  $ 23.00 dvd 
•  $ 24.11  Dad weekend
•  $ 15.94 Headphones 
•  $ 19.98 Coloring stuff 
•  $ 36.00 legos 
•  $ 12.34  Bow and Arrow & Crossbow
•  $ 2.14 flash cards 
•  $ 5.15 seeds 
•  $ 12.87 binki toy 
•  $ 62.00 games 
•  $ 133.15  Birthday 
•  $ 23.00 dvds 
•  $ 5.00 pictures 
•  $ 33.40 School pictures 
•  $ 75.00 teacher gifts 
•  $ 20.00 Easter Eli 
•  $ 176.02  Christmas 

Daycare: $10,417.00 (He's a "5-day" friend)

Clothing: If it wasn't for a "gift" like mother's day or me shopping with my fun money and we bought clothes, it's listed here. In 2017, we didn't itemize Little Dudes spending by category, but we know we spent less with the cousin clothing swap. Little dude had two older male cousins, and another younger male cousin. This year we did a clothing swap. He gets the clothes from his older cousins, and we have been giving his younger things in exchange. It's worked out great this year. We only had to buys some basics and bottoms mostly, but its also a way for us to pass along Eli's wardrobe to another.   

I'm also hoping to go on a little clothes buying halt for myself in 2019. But we'll see how that goes.

• Me: $644.63 (up $161.74 from 2017)
• This was mostly basics.
• Hubs: $1,187.67 (up $640.60 from 2017)
• He bought an $800 suit... and it looks yummy on him!
• Little Dude: $144.27
• $101 in clothes
• $43.27 in shoes
• We only bought Pj's and odds and ends this year from some thrift stores to help round out when seasons didn't match the sizes.

Doctors / Dental / Medical: $2,286.49 (down $300.88 from 2017)

• Co-pays, dental work, OTC, Prescriptions, etc. 

Pup: $366.48 (down $362.86 from 2017)

Internet: $767.88 (down $12.55 from 2017)

Cell phones: $529.84 (down $73.03 from 2017)

• $35 car holder
• $122.97 Phone & case
• $106.50 Cables, SD card reader, Case, and shield protectors
• $265.37 trac-phone minute/data cards (two phones)
• so $22 a month for two phones when you remove the odds and ends.

Fun Money: $956.00 (about $40 a month, each)

Audible: $179.40

Netflix: $213.11

Electricity: $912.31 (down $33.92 from 2017)
Vacations / Travel: $1,661.45 (up $1,020.60 from 2017)

• $548.65 Utah Summer Trip 
• 133.22 gas| 170.38 food | 245.07 Costco pills, hike gear and Walmart
• $910.64 Oregon Family Wedding
• 182.36 Rental Car; 130 plane; 145.47 - State park fees, entertainment, keepsakes; $54.59 food; 39.60 gas, $284.70 hotel, $73.92 airport parking
• $202.16 Work plane trip - TB Reimburse

Gifts: $2,246.54 (up $586.69 from 2017) 

• The increase was mostly Christmas. I was acting Supervisor at work for 7 weeks (gal from the office was out on extended leave) and we had extra $$$$ coming in. We hosted hub's parents for a week and we lumped a lot of extra holiday treats and shopping in this section. 
• We shopped for larger families this year in our swap a B-I-L tradition.
• We also had to replace a lot of items for the holidays due to the rodent issue we didn't blog about... but let's just say two rats moved into our outdoor shed and got into everything but our tree and ornaments.

Housing:

• HOA: $4,305.00
• Mortage: $9,169.00
• Insurance and Prop Tax: $4,030.67
• Renovation: $12,474.64
• Paint, closets, front door, interior doors, New shower/tub

REI/Outdoors: $2,385.20

We spent so much money at REI and on hiking gear that I tracked it separately.. 

 $ 528.82 REI hammock, clothes 

 $ 114.84 REI - Sleeping Bag 

 $ 384.07 Hiking Shoes/Pants 

 $ 54.47          Hiking Pants - Me

 $91.35          Hiking

 $ 327.37 REI - Backpacks and Bladders 

 $ 83.81          REI light and hammock 

 $ 45.87          REI???? 

 $ 27.65          REI - Top/Compass 

 $ 48.37          REI adventure pass

 $ (59.08) REI 

 $ 315.52 REI (Pants, shirts) 

 $ 144.76 REI (Pants, shirts) 

 $ (105.52)  REI

 $ 129.24 REI (Replacement boots, shirt for hubs, butt pads 

 $ 59.93          Water Filter/ Hiking 

 $ 125.95 REI (New pack after return, rain jacket, blatter hose covers,  

 $ 67.78          Hub's no soda 3 month reward (cook set)

Discretionary: $3,724.38

This is everything else we spent money on for all of 2018.

 $ 237.70  Movies, OC Fair, Entertainment downloads 

 $ 22.66 Walmart- 3 measuring cups, ethernet cable 

 $ 3.38 Craft Supplies 

 $ 18.48  Hard Drive storage case

 $ 111.98  Turbo Tax 

 $ 82.00 Haircuts 

 $ 7.63 Walmart (Sink Plugs, Card) 

 $ 31.51 Walmart (Woolite, truffles, 2 dish scrubbers, 2 spatulas,   

 $ 21.54 Casters for Kitchen Shelves 

 $ 12.15  canning bands/lids

 $ 60.00 lipsense 

 $ 10.80 Running Hip Pack 

 $ 8.51  Workout Gloves

 $ 9.22 2lb Walking Weights 

 $ 6.44  Shampoo

 $ 23.12 Cups 

 $ 33.82 Batteries 

 $ 50.54  box fan, storage bins

 $ 62.84 watch, CD, and magnetic clips 

 $ 18.80 Soap - Keith 

 $ 46.86 Soap - Me 

 $ 16.88 Sunglass clip ons 

 $ 88.51 House supplies 

32.31 swim suit 

29.99 Bulk Hot Sauce

 $ 19.13 Pool and Swim Stuff 

 $ 14.50 costco 

 $ 34.33 Aldi 

 $ 361.98  Portable AC Unit 

 $ 16.50 Cast Iorn Skillet 

 $ 5.17 Handle for skillet 

 $ 16.16 Shoe Goo; sunglasses 

 $ 43.89  make up brushes, microwave bulb,spatula with thermometer, pill case

 $ 16.16 Kohls halloween shirts 

 $ 35.41 Trashcan, hygiene items, plant 

 $ 38.47 Woolite, Walmart pantry, and Eli sick foods 

 $ 51.97   rat repellers, baking soda, hard drive case 

 $ 29.15  Home depot- Rat bait stuff

 $ 21.93 expanding foam 

 $ 39.37  Frying pan and target

 $ 18.60  Glow sticks - halloween

 $ 28.96 Target? 

 $32.31 Shower curtain and house supplies 

 $ 32.30 Sweat Pants, 2 pillows xmas, 2 sets of pillow cases 

 $ 4.93 (2) wooden spoons 

 $ 28.19 Propel 

 $ 5.86  White board + deoderant

 $ 88.61 Christmas Replacement Decorations 

 $ 11.67 Car Seat Travel Cover 

 $ 50.00 roku 

 $ 22.00  tupperware

 $ 11.71 Tool 

 $22.85 Dry cleaning 

 $ 54.64 Cameras 

 $ 19.86 Mints, alarm 

 $ 11.25 expoxi 

 $ 32.55  Fridge handle

 $ 35.00  zip locks

 $ 19.98 Fitbit bands 

 $ 58.99  Keyboard (for Work)

 $ 30.00 CPU Mount (For Work) 

 $ 73.86 Amazon - Computer Mouse, keyboard, foot and hand lotion 

 $ 141.63  printer/ink cartridges 

 $ 34.85 laminator / lamination pouches 

 $ 38.98 Headphones and purse clip 

 $ 16.31 MousePad 

$586.61  plants and gardening (including cacti)

$420.09  Walmart and Amazon odds and ends