Redoing this year's budget. Setting next year's budget

 

Hubby came in from mowing and decided to take a break in the chair.He wasn't thrilled with Charlotte crawling up but he went to sleep before he got her back off him. 

Hubby decided he was filing this week for his Social Security. He has all his papers together and asked I verify that so he didn't get started on it and then have to stop and go find something. He is filing on line, no person to person contact allowed. Will have to send his birth certificate.

He went through his business books as he knows he has a limit on net earnings from his business. Said he needed to make sure the bills were paid before he bought things like new tires. If he had waited 1 wk he wouldn't have had to borrow money from the house acct to pay his truck payment. He has paid the house acct back. He got 20% off the tires by writing a check and not using his business credit card.He could have waited the week or month for fact until he got the money up for it. Lesson learned... on the good new side.... he is not only breaking even for the year, he has earned a profit of $500 a month on average... that's not a lot of profit (HA HA) but for the first year to even break even is a celebration and definitely not near the $18000 a yr limit of earned income for SS.

I came back with I was taking the truck payment off the house budget completely so if he doesn't make what he needs it has to come from his personal acct. He's done well about not using that acct much since he retired so he could keep it open. His SS will go in that acct.

Since J had asked I bring a budget in to decide on withdraws off Daddy's IRA , we pulled up this year's budget and did 2021's budget...I asked what our goal was ...Hubby said OUT OF DEBT... no loans, no mortgage... OKAY 2021 budget was not going to help that at all as it looked like it was the life of Riley. I went line by line. A few we disagreed on but as I said , if it is too tight we can always change it and pull more monthly from either IRA... He was thinking of paying off the mortgage in 10 yrs ... I set the budget ...the rest of this year, 2021 (and hopefully until end of 2026) to PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE and the loans.

He asked how... simple, we pulled $110,000 minus 26% taxes for this passed year. Paid off little things and bought most the supplies for the projects (rest of gravel,front porch, windows and siding is the only thing NOT bought). We aren't going to get some of the projects done this year so they can go to next year while we save for the next projects. IN 2021 we will only pull $76,500 minus 26% taxes (we pay school taxes). That saved $33,500 up front 

What did I cut? 

I can't change the mortgage payment or the health ins payment (which might change depending on Hubby's old employer)and out of pocket BUT I can lower how much is going towards the out of pocket. Hubby never maxs that part so I cut what he don't use off our budget. I usually max out.BUT I just had my colonscope($17000) , Gyn and mammogram those bills won't be coming through for awhile. 

I can change over the counter costs so that was cut in half by using generic only.

Electric bill: budget is $125/month... it hit $166 highest it's been since we moved here. July was hotter than normal with over 12- 90 degree days. Even was listed on the bill. ALSO we have fans running and 2 dehydrators. Hubby is bad about not turning off fans when he leaves the room or turning the AC to lower. HE won't be doing that now. I do not run the dehydrators during the day to try to keep the heat out of the house. I baked a meatloaf and some bread in the oven the other night instead of the airfryer and ran us out of the kitchen and dining room. Lesson learned. Bread has to be done early morning and the rest in the airfryer OUTSIDE on porch as it raises the temp in the room by 10 degrees it's self. Laptops have been left plugged in also.My duh moment.

Water softener. We only use half of the average 2 person household. I collect water from showers and rinse water from hand wash dishes for watering potted plants or the herb beds. The water for the gardens do not go through the water softener.

Our trash collector is the lowest in the area. 

Our internet gives us a land line for free and is the ONLY service in this are but is only $80 compared to my kids that are spending over $100 for just internet. Son quit Spectrum due to being over $100 after two years.

I already got our house and car ins lowered

We use MS 365 programs (Hubby uses it for business and I for budget etc) We tried Open office but had problems with it working with other business programs he is required to use.

Our cell phones are straight talk. Hubby changed from Net 10 to get a better and more up to date phone. and lowered his bill by $5 /month.

We have Amazon prime... this might go away. At this point it saves more than it costs. I also have Kindle and it definitely saves as I don't buy books and our library doesn't always get the books AKA cook books  I want to read.

Bday  Christmas/Graduation fund.... 55 people... we cut it in half. Depending of costs I might be making Christmas gifts for some.

Dogs.... sigh..Wilbur had racked up the money in this area so far, I've postponed Rascal being checked for his ACL (he is not limping right now or holding his foot up) until we get the money from Dad's Ira. I don't see us paying for surgery(over $8000) and he is NOT in any pain even when he is holding it up. I do see a joint med being needed and Wilbur was on it and then came back off and needs to go back on it but our vet said to wait until Rascal was checked and see what the ortho vet suggested and just put both on it. Still I cut that budget. Instead of snapping the treats(actually dental stuff they need but if I call them treats they take them without issues) in 3rds I am snapping them in 4ths with an okay from the vet. That cut that budget by 1/4th and I always search for the cheapest before buying. 

Fuel... this is for tractor, lawn mowers, both generators, Red (dog truck) and Jeep Cut 3rd. Will use the gas generator with diesel as back up as gas is cheaper than diesel. That will leave the diesel for the tractor to mow and shovel snow. Hubby has a 500 gallon tank and is looking to see if it would be cheaper to fill it instead of running to town for diesel.

Savings remains the same.

Non food at zero for the rest of the year, $25 for next year. I will buy to replace what is used that way I will stay stocked up. The limit is set... 

groceries $65 for the rest of this year ($50 for stocking flour and sugar needed $15 for milk and maybe something we both decide on) Budget for next year $125 a month. I cut junk food... chips, (we will get tortilla chips from Menards using the rebate we got back) Peanut, cashews, M&Ms(Hubby mixes for trail mix) and candy bars(both of us). Soda pop (me me me... withdraw already as I stopped end of July to see if it was soda pop causing the high cholesterol as it's not what I eat, if this don't change it then it's family trait)Ice cream... I came make semifreddo instead as I do not have an ice cream maker. I cut dairy... cottage cheese, yogurt and assorted cheeses. This will be limited to occasionally instead of all the time.

 Fresh veggies and fruit will be in season meaning from late Nov to late April there is none since the hoop house went to the pond. I talked to M and asked how she got through the winter without the fresh... She said once a month to 6 wks she gets ice burg lettuce, carrots ,celery ,bananas, cream cheese and cool whip....if she is hosting church during that time she will also get cream of mushroom soup,mackerel and jello. She said she usually has winter squash until end of Dec. So she is just buying Jan thru April. We might add fresh mushrooms or bell peppers in that. She stores apples from fall until they start getting soft then she makes them into applesauce. Pears are the same. It puts a little bit of fresh on the table during the long winter... her words.

Garden is zero 2020 and 2021 is $20 for preen and feed as I am stocked with miracle grow.

House maintenance zero 2020 (have all needed) $25/month . If I buy 1 filter a month I can keep to that amount instead of buying a year's supply at a time. OR I can put it in an envelope and hold it. I've done that before.

Vehicle maintenance ... cut in half ...work truck and the 3 trailers are taken care of through the business(HURRAH) Tractor, riding lawn mower, push mower, weed whacker, Red (dog truck) and Jeep come from the house budget.  Hubby can do some of it himself. We have mechanic that allows payments and doesn't hold your car until it's paid off. A Mennonite gave him a name of someone that works on mowers, that person gave him the name that works on weed whackers. They were 1/4th the cost of the place we had been taking them .Still have to take the tractor into a dealer but when it's in there they go over everything and they call to give an estimate before they start work in case you can't afford to get it all done. 

AARP... $2... not many places get us a discount around here but the couple times we had to rent a car it has saved enough to pay for 3-4 yrs membership.

School taxes...we pay quarterly.These are paid in full for this year. I paid them early. Next year they will go up but I was already given the estimate of that now.

SO the goal is to be out of debt in 10 yrs... I will add goal 2 to be as close to possible of living on SS ONLY and only pulling medical from Hubby's IRA in the same time frame.

I pulled up a calculator for paying off the mortgage. I found if we put our part of our SS and part of Daddy's IRA on the mortgage we could have it paid off in 7 yrs not 28.... Saving over $150,000 in interest.... I also can take any tax returns to pay off the loans on the life ins. I already arranged payments on both that at least covers the interest on the loans.

Propane will be pulled as a lump sum instead of a monthly leaving the money in to draw better interest. Also air barrier and insulation boards will be installed this fall to help keep the heat in and that should lower the propane needed next year. This year instead of needing a tank full that we had to buy off the contract we had 1 1/2 tanks left on the contract. I would like to see this get down to using 3 tanks a year instead of 4 1/2 to 5.

We have an umbrella ins on the farm. Our agent rolled it over to the same as the other insurance when I had ins redone. I added it to the mortgage amt as that is were the rest of it is. 

I really struggle with change... but here  it goes anyways.