01 Nov 2012 5 Comments

October 2012 Spending Plan Results

It has been a quiet week around here, hey? :) Hopefully I will get things back on schedule for November!

The following is my combined expected and actual household expenses for the month of October.

 

Fixed Expenses Expected Actual
Cable/TV          40            27
Phone          60             -
Rent     1,150      1,150
Gas        150          206
Utilities            -             -
Total Fixed    1,400      1,384
 
Variable Expenses
Groceries        295          203
Dining out        260          110
Household          20            11
Donations            0            12
Clothing          40             -
Presents

     100

            64
Entertainment          50            33
Personal          20            12
Working out/health        120          387
Work Expense            -      1,920
Unaccounted             -
Total Variable        905      2,752
Total Expenses     2.305      4,136
 
Savings for Expenses
Insurance Payment       120       120
Car Maintenance           0           0
Dentist/haircut/Dr         50         50
Vacation           0       (17)
Education         60         60
Total Savings       230       213

 

 

Notes:

-          Groceries were good this month since I have been participating in Mr. CBB’s Grocery game, and have been meal planning and shopping with grocery lists. Who knew, right? :) Let’s see if I can hit $200 this month as I am starting to run low on stuff in both our freezer and pantry. As a result of participating in the game, I also won for the month of October as well! Crazy, right? Thanks again Mr. CBB!

-          We made changes to my phone plan. As a result, the changes were not reflected fast enough for their billing cycle, which means we will be hit with 2 phone bills next month.

-          That work expense number sucks, doesn’t it? :P It was a busy month with business trips for The Boy, so once those expenses come in, the final tally takes us under our target for the month, which should be great. The next 2 months will be key though, as there will be more spending than normal.

-          Starting to get our savings up again, but we will be hit again when we pick up rims for the winter tires and the tenant insurance comes up for renewal next month.

This is the expected November spending plan.

Fixed Expenses
Cable/TV          30
Phone          60
Rent     1,150
Gas        150
Utilities            -
Total Fixed    1,390
 
Variable Expenses
Groceries        220
Dining out        175
Household          20
Donations            0
Clothing         100
Presents

      200
Entertainment          50
Personal          20
Working out/health        120
Work Expense            -
Unaccounted
Total Variable        905
Total Expenses     2.295
 
Savings for Expenses
Insurance Payment       120
Car Maintenance           0
Dentist/haircut/Dr           0
Vacation           0
Education         10
Total Savings       130

 

Notes:

-          Utilities are included in the rent as long as we keep our usage under $95 a month. So far so good! We also got in touch with our landlord, and I think we should be good for another 6 months or so.

-          Internet service as well as his phone is a benefit provided by boy’s work, so it isn’t included in the expenses.

-          It might be better to aim for $2.2K than the elusive $2K target. :) Let’s see how this month pans out.

-          My current share of the expected expenses is about 40%.

Thanks for reading!

by Vicky in Spending Plan updates