April was filled with lots of fun! The G-man and I went on a trip (by ourselves!) to the U.S. Virgin Islands. I had a wonderful birthday. We got to visit with lots of great friends and we ended the month with 70 degree weather. It doesn’t get better than that!
Every month I will provide a breakdown of our spending in detail, as well as some analysis of where we kept spending down and where we needed to improve. Our goal each month, is to keep our monthly spending to $3500 or less, which includes $2550 of fixed costs, $200 of savings and $750 of non-fixed expenses.
The Money Breakdown for April, 2013
In total we spent $3991.83 (which includes $2550 in fixed expenses and $200 put away into savings). This includes $1241.83 spent on non-fixed expenses.
Of the $1241.83 spent on non-fixed expenses:
- $383.62 was spent on groceries
- $350.00 was spent on travel expenses (car and dining)
- $168.46 was spent on garden supplies and tools
- $83.00 was spent on gifts and donations
- $79.38 was spent on dining out
- $56.00 was spent on personal care needs
- $49.97 was spent on gas and parking
- $40.00 was spent on diapers
- $22.40 was spent on coffee shops
- $9.00 was spent on a book
If we subtract the gardening supplies and travel expenses (which we budgeted for separately) from our non-fixed spending we spent $723.37, just below our goal of spending $750.00 on our non-fixed expenses every month.
Analysis:
Where we saved:
This month we did a great job keeping our grocery bill down. I managed to stretch out a few seven-day meal plans into nine or ten days between grocery visits using pantry staples like lentils, canned tomatoes, pasta, olives, etc. We also have been using cloth diapers for naps (we used to use cloth during the day and then disposable for naps and bedtime). This means we are only using one disposable a day, which means that the box of diapers from Costco we just bought will last last us several months.
Where we spent:
We had a lot of miscellaneous expenses this month. We ate out a few times, mostly with friends. I went to coffee shops a few times to meet up with friends, or to get some work done. These expenses, plus a few gifts, means we surpassed our “extras” budget. However, since we made up for it with our grocery savings we came out ok.
