The last couple months have been a whirlwind of life just happening. I think it has been a reminder that having contingencies built in can be very helpful. Needless to say both months have been over-budget which many will think is a common occurrence. I would agree with that opinion as well. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it again; Our budget is just guide to our expenses and helps with future planning. We do not force ourselves to live within the monthly budget but we do use it to guide where and how we spend our income. I will post our March and April budget below and then explain a little about each month.
March Review
We overspent in two categories in March, Pets and Clothing. It’s with a heavy heart that I share our dog Precious passed away. We hired a service to come to the house to assist us. The service is called https://www.lapoflove.com that provides euthanasia and cremation services. The entire process from the initial call to the post follow up was amazing. After 15 years of being our little chihuahua guard dog she passed over in peace. We also overspent on clothing. I can’t really tell you what we bought though. I think I got some new hiking pants and some wool socks. Maybe it was just healing retail therapy.
April Review
April was a disaster, period. I waited over a year to get my Covid vaccine to just get Covid a week after I got my first vaccine shot. I obliviously know you don’t get Covid from the vaccine but that song Ironic crossed my mind, “Win the lottery and die the next day.” Needless to say most of April was spent recovering. We spent more money having groceries delivered while we were in quarantine. We spent a lot on healthcare in April but I don’t think it was related to Covid. We are trying to get all major health concerns addressed before we retire at the end of the year. The increase this month was related to a couple doctor visits for upcoming surgeries for Jeff.
We spent more on fitness this month because we decided that weight training is important to us and during the pandemic that was on hold. We decided to convert our third bedroom into a weight room and bought a weight set. It’s only been a few weeks but we love having easy access to weights at our house. I find that the convenience of this helps us work out more. Plus the warmer weather has us exercising more in general.
We also made a huge change in April relating to our transportation. We had an old maroon Volvo station wagon named Ruby. Well, Ruby was totaled by a construction truck a few years ago. Ever since then we’d been on a search for her replacement and in April an opportunity presented itself for us to buy her replacement. We quickly realized we didn’t need three vehicles and with me working from home even before the pandemic we decided to sell my vehicle. The point here is that we overspent on auto repairs getting the new Ruby looked over and tuned up. On the upside the sold my vehicle for $18,000 then spent $4,300 buying/repairing Ruby and we invested the difference. We are thinking of this as a win win, We get a new Ruby and more money in our investment account.
We have gone through our budget faster than expected. Maybe we can tighten up some over the next few months. Do you keep a monthly budget? If so are you better at sticking to it than we are?
AHA FIRE 