Money, money, money, money... money! December 2019 edition
December 2019: OMSI
Way back in December 2018 I shared my first budget post, laying out where our money goes each month. While a lot in life has changed since then, our finances have remained steady. They’re on autopilot. In terms of finances, this month was pretty ordinary, we went a little over in a few categories and were under in others, so it all balanced out. As I mentioned last month, we’re focused on rebuilding savings right now so extra student loan payments are on hold for the time being.
This will be my last budget post (at least for a while)! They take a decent amount of time to put together and I’d rather dedicate that time to other things! I will certainly be continuing to update our budget behind the scenes though. This involves a weekly date with our spreadsheet, generally on Saturdays, to update our expenses for the week. It usually takes me about 15 to 30 minutes depending on how much spending we’ve done. And then once a month I have a longer date with our spreadsheet and set up the next month’s budget as well as move money around for savings/summer salary. That process takes about an hour and I like to do it a few days before the end of the month. I know I could automate all that stuff with a fancy app, but I like getting my hands onto the numbers on a regular basis and really understanding what’s going on.
Anyway, here’s our December 2019 budget. Thanks for reading and happy budgeting!
Previous budget posts can be found here: December 2018 (first post with background information), January 2019, February 2019, March 2019, April 2019, May 2019, June 2019, July 2019, August 2019, and September 2019, October 2019, November 2019.
December 2019 budget
Housing
Budgeted: 43.41% (44% in 2018)
Spent: 45.25%
over budget: 1.84% ⇒ Pulled from travel
What’s included? Mortgage payment, property taxes, home insurance, home warranty, and any home improvement costs.
December notes: In December, one of the heating elements in our oven broke so we had to order a part to fix it. We also decided to move forward on a few simple housing projects this month which put us a little over budget.
Groceries
Budgeted: 19.54% (20% in 2018)
Spent: 16.73%
Leftover: 2.81% ⇒ used to cover extra from dining out and gifts
What’s included? Food, non-food cooking stuff, toiletries, cat supplies, cleaning supplies, paper products, pharmacy… anything you can buy at the grocery store.
Utilities
Budgeted: 7.46% (8% in 2018)
Spent: 6.26%
Leftover: 1.20% ⇒ Emergency savings
What’s included? Electric, gas, water, and trash.
Travel related expenses
Budgeted: 8.47% (8% in 2018)
Spent: 3.52%
Savings for yearly bills: 1.60%
Leftover: 3.35% ⇒ Used to cover extra in clothing and housing and the rest was put into savings
What’s included? Car insurance, gas, car registration (billed every 2 years), AAA (billed once a year), savings for a car maintenance fund, and a general travel fund for family visits and smaller local trips.
December notes: We spent just the basics this month (like gas for the car), nothing extra towards actual travel.
Phone/internet
Budgeted: 3.29% (4% in 2018)
Spent: 2.80%
Leftover: 0.49% ⇒ Emergency savings
What’s included? Phone bills, phone insurance, internet
Health
Budgeted: 1.09% (2% in 2018)
Spent: 0.76%
Leftover: 0.33% ⇒ Emergency savings
What’s included? Doctor’s bills (we also have an FSA but keep this additional fund to give us a little more padding just in case).
Miscellaneous
Budgeted: 2.88% (2% in 2018)
Spent: 3.67%
Savings for yearly bills: 0.22%
Over budget: 1.01% ⇒ Pulled from preschool savings fund
What’s included? A random assortment of things… jewelry insurance (billed once a year), a once a year haircut for me, Netflix, Prime membership (billed once a year), website hosting (billed once a year), and just a general miscellaneous category. For the things that are billed once a year, I just divide them by 12 and include it as a line on our budget each month, putting it into savings each month, letting it earn a tiny bit of interest. In early spring 2019 I added Ellie’s co-op preschool.
December notes: We are always going to be slightly over in this category because part of our preschool costs are pulled from savings each month. We also had a few things we paid for that will be reimbursed but that hasn’t happened yet, so they are also contributing to this additional amount.
Dining out/entertainment
Budgeted: 1.09% (1% in 2018)
Spent: 2.87%
Over budget: 1.79% ⇒ Pulled from groceries
What’s included? Dining out/take out, museums, kid stuff (e.g., a class at the rec center for Ellie).
December notes: We did a decent amount of dining out this month. Just weren’t feeling home cooked meals.
Gifts
Budgeted: 0.54% (1% in 2018)
spent: 1.26%
Over budget: 0.71% ⇒ Pulled from groceries
What’s included? Gifts, mainly for Ellie, sometimes for the occasional wedding or new baby. Mike and I don’t buy each other gifts (aside from the occasional food item during holidays/birthdays). We’ve got a gift moratorium going on for family/friends birthdays. Anything left over in this category gets put into our savings until we need it.
December notes: A few small Christmas gifts for Ellie, along with a cash contribution for her preschool teacher’s gift.
Clothing
Budgeted: 0.54% (1%)
Spent: 0.72%
Over budget: 0.18% ⇒ Pulled from travel
What’s included? Clothes (pretty self explanatory)
December notes: The underwire on my everyday bra started poking me… which I’m pretty sure is a sign that I need a new one! So that’s what I bought this month.
Retirement
Budgeted: 1.30% (0% in 2018)
moved to savings: 1.30%
What’s included: Monthly contributions to a Roth IRA
Student loans
Budgeted: 9.22% (10% in 2018)
Spent: 9.22%
Leftovers from above categories: Pausing until we build our savings back up
What’s included: Mike’s student loan payments and my student loan payments. The % budgeted/spent reflects our bottom line payment (e.g., our minimum payment amounts, plus a little extra on Mike’s so interest doesn’t accrue).
December notes: Our loan progress for the year is huge! Taking ~20K from savings that was leftover from the sale of our condo in Ohio and putting it towards Mike’s loans was difficult to do and also worth it given the amount of traction we’ve been able to make on his loans. We’ve got one more high interest loan to go (for Mike) that’s just under 6K, which I think we can definitely have done by the end of 2020… leaving my PSLF loans. I will certainly keep you updated with our progress on the student loan front!
December 2019 student loan progress
