with even forgetting a category... didn't have anything for house maintenance. Yeah really, I guess we were like, hey, it's like new house LOL. The day I realized it wasn't in the budget was when I picked up furnace filters and had no where to input the amount and we both wondered why we didn't have that in the budget and walked around looking to see what else we forgot.
We did nothing but the normal things of being frugal this month, I have used the dryer when I was down on Crohns or the temp was horribly cold or the rain/snow wouldn't let me use the clothes line on the kitchen porch. Hubby asked if I wanted a clothes line in the UNHEATED basement... Nope, already asked the Amish lady that lived here how that would go and she strongly suggested another drying rack.
We came in under budget due to some being cheaper (aka electric was down) and some not happening at all. My $550/month budget for groceries was $187.24.
The taxes I thought we would owe... I was a little high so we have that amount completely.
I used last year's gardens budget to buy fresh seeds and the items to make soil blocks, weed barrier etc. I still have enough left to pay for the cattle feed panels (16 ft by 50 inches tall) to use for "trellis" and metal stakes to hold it up.More soil for the grow bags, worth saving both our backs.
AND with coming under budget, I am now going to talk to Hubby about cutting it again ON purpose and ways to bring in a bit more cash flow that isn't pulling from the retirement which lost over 2% last month. My savings earns more than that.
5 days ago
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I LOVE coming in under budget. I usually do in several areas, but then end up sticking that extra into a different category that was a "want" and not a need.
ReplyDelete$550 a month for groceries seems really high. Especially as you are so thrifty. Do you really spend that much each month or were you just stocking up?
Some was stock up like fruit in season I put in the freezer some was spices I can't grow and eating out. Eating out was/is in the grocery budget. At one time our budget was $900 a month, Hubby felt he deserved to have what ever he wanted until he couldn't afford it and 2 of our kids and a friend was putting food on our table. Changed things for the better.
ReplyDeleteI think the cold weather has been good for our budget other than the heating bills. When I did the budget on Feb 1 I found that most budget categories were just bloated with extra funds. I had half of my $250 grocery budget left and we have wanted for nothing. Our eat out money is a cash budget of $175 monthly and we usually only spent half of that. The leftover gets tucked away for a vacation. We are due to take our 4% from he 401K for the next year's use before March but I am wondering if we should just ride it out and fund March from the extra that we have and hope the stock market recovers more by April. This is our first year for taxes on disability and we had no idea that only $6K of disability is taxed so we had way too much taken out but a nice refund is also okay.
ReplyDeleteI get it. I stick the eating out funds in a category called "entertainment." That also includes movies and tickets to anything to which we might go. But mostly it's eating out.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, the very first thing to go in hard times. We live and we learn.
We don't go to movies or even rent movies. I would have to say our entertainment is visiting family and friends... cost is gas and maybe pot luck until we are meeting Son2 and friends at Hong Kong every 6-8 wks. That's the half way point for all of us.
ReplyDelete