March 2017 Budget Debt Update

Our March budget, while it didn’t go as I hoped, had hung in there for the rocky month we had. I had goals for saving back up our budget overage from February’s budget, as well as paying down a bit on debt. While our income is still lower for the time being, the kids were still sick, so most of our budget went to food to keep them somewhat fed, fuel to various appointments, and more in OTC medicine than I can remember spending in a year. I mean, honestly, when did cough syrup become over $15 for a bottle?!

I knew March wasn’t going to be a total wash since we did have an extra paycheck, and while I normally put that paycheck into our annual savings account, this year with our FSA, I’m not since the bulk of our medical expenses are already saved for. This month, the bulk of our extra pay went to making up for our Feburary budget overage.

All that being said… how did we do for the month? We ended up paying off $1,426.64 in debt this month, and $4,961.28 in debt so far for the year. With a quarter of the year gone, we’re very close to a quarter of the way through my $23,000 goal for the year! While I didn’t make the $1,500 goal for the month, it was close. So close, that when I added back in the amount I spent to fix Bookworm’s trumpet, it would have put us over the $1,500 mark.

Credit Card 2:   $746.64
Student Loans:  $180
Mortgage:  $500

March was pretty exciting. While we may not have made significant headway with our snowball this month, we did pass the $70k mark on debt paid since we started getting serious about getting out of debt in 2014. Excited yet?! Cause I sure am!

So to break it down even further, here’s how our March budget went:

Income

Salary: $4,413.01
This month had an extra paycheck, so rather than our usual 4 weekly pays, we had a 5th paycheck to work with.

Monthly Expenses

Mortgage**: $500

Cell Phone: $47.42

Home Phone / Internet: $75.23
The majority of our bill is for internet service. After some research, there are no other service providers for our specific location. I could pay for dish internet, and while the speeds would theoretically increase, the connectivity is more unreliable than what we currently have.

Credit Card 1: $89.05
The payments on this are reoccurring bills whose payments are made online that we don’t feel safe enough leaving our bank information in their account records.

Credit Card 2**: $746.64
This month’s debt payment was smaller because I needed to resave our checking account buffer.

Student Loans**: $180

Electric: $101.95

Insurance: $244.42
Our insurance payment includes our car, house, and life insurance policies.

Piano Lessons: $0
Bookworm’s piano lessons are a generous gift from my mother-in-law.

Newspaper Subscription: $13.45
Our monthly, weekend only subscription.

Additional Expenses

Groceries: $747.77
Our bill was a little more this month. I’ll explain more about this in our monthly meal plan post.

Fuel: $104.85
Our fuel bill did go down a bit this month since I didn’t need to fill up for an entire week. Coincidentally, it’s the week the kids were out of school sick. My sanity suffered at the cost of our fuel bill. 😉

OTC Medications: $36.40
OTC medicines aren’t something we have a sinking fund for. I usually pay for them out of our household fund because we never get more than some advil here and cough drops there. But this month I started to use an entirely separate category since . Part of me wonders if I should

Bookworm: $116.07
This month Bookworm needed a few different items for his trumpet. First was a mute, which I balked at the cost of {$41.87}. And second {$74.20} was repairs. During the fall, he took out the screw that holds his lyre, placed it in his trumpet case, and forgot to put it back in. I guess I should be happy he stuck it in his case, because with his track record, he would have lost it all together. Six months later of daily use, it finally rolled into the bell of the trumpet and got stuck. So stuck that the trumpet itself make a sound. So it needed to be repaired and cleaned. And since I didn’t renew the extended warranty last month, I had to pay for it out of pocket. Oh well…

Date Night: $36.16
Hubs and I took a night to go see Logan and have dinner without the kids. It was nice!

Household: $82.46
I spent a lot on household items this month. As with groceries, I wasn’t really focused on getting the best deal on some things, it was just get it and get home. This month we bought some more toilet paper, dishwasher detergent, Moana on DVD to tame the sick beasts, and the most expensive item, a new mop and bucket. I’ve had a microfiber o-mop for the longest time, and while it works on our hardwood floors, it’s frustrating to get our kitchen tile clean with it. So I went back to old reliable… an actual mop and an actual bucket.

Hair: $10
For Hubs’ hair cut.

Eat Out: $52.45
This is a lot for eating out. Some of it was planned, like lunch out after our dentist appointments. Others, like picking up take-out after a long day of doctor’s appointments and driving in the car, were not.

Generator: $15.09
March brought a Nor’Easter our way that dumped over 2 feet of snow where we are, and left the kids out of school for 3 days straight. Hubs bought some gasoline for the generator and chainsaw in case the power went out and we needed to use them.

Savings

Each month I put an allotted amount of money into our savings accounts to pay for expenses that vary throughout the year. Here, you’ll find a break down of what we put away in the account throughout the month, as well as any expenses through the month that came from that account. Keep in mind that what we put into the account each week is not a representation of the account balance.

Checking Buffer: $500
After going over budget in February, and dipping into our checking account buffer, replenishing that buffer was top priority for our savings this month.

Annual Savings Account: $450
Every week I put money aside into this account to cover certain expenses we don’t have every month. Some months we don’t use anything that I put aside, other months we use a lot. To read more on how much we try to put aside and what we use it for, you can check out this post.

Prescriptions: $31.69
With the sick this month, I had to buy some more antibiotics for Monkey, Albuterol for Lady Bug, and Pulmicort for both.

Clothing: $98.42
At the beginning of the month, I had received a 30% off coupon from Kohl’s, and decided to go check out their clearance selection to see if I could find Lady Bug anything for Kindergarten coming in the fall. To make it even sweeter, they had a $10 off $40 on kids clothes too. I’m glad I decided to stop because I found a LOT of clothes for her on clearance. More than I had found last month! She won’t need much more for Kindergarten beyond shoes and school supplies. I also found a LOT of shirts for Monkey, also on clearance. I even found myself and Bookworm some things too, including some nice hooded sweaters. While it seems like I spent a lot, it works out to be $4 per item, and I saved $452.70. I also have quite a bit of Kohl’s cash and Yes2You Rewards that I can use later.

Trash: $40
We pay for our trash bill every 3 months. It varies based on the number of bags we set out for pick up over that time frame.

Gifting Savings: $360
I also add money to our gifting account each week. It helps us to stay on budget each month and still have funds available for when birthdays and holidays come up.