Summer 2016 Budget

Since we’ve had a busy summer, and I wanted to keep you all updated on how our budget actually went over the last three months, I thought I’d do a summer edition of our budget rather than breaking it down month by month in three individual posts. Keep in mind that since I am lumping these together, these amounts will be higher than with our typical monthly budgets. This time, I’m also showing you where our annual savings goes throughout the year. I’ve mentioned before that the summer is when most of these expenses hit, so don’t be alarmed.

Income

Salary: $12,225.49
Lowe’s Rebate {home repairs}: $85.00
Total: $12,310.49

Expenses

Mortgage: $1,500
We paid $500 each month.

Cell Phone: $134.17
For some unknown reason, my cell phone provider had disconnected my phone service for the second time in the last 4 months. When I inquired about it, they said that it shouldn’t have happened once, let alone twice, and that they were updating the service in my area. They sent out a new SIM card hoping that it would resolve the problem. I also have three more months at a reduced rate.

Home Phone / Internet: $226.96
The majority of our bill is for internet service. One of my goals for for remainder of the year is to look into other internet providers for us, to see if we can get this bill any lower.

Credit Card 1: $318.61
The payments on this are reoccurring bills whose payments are made online, but we don’t feel safe enough leaving our bank information in their account records.

Credit Card 2: $1,600
This is our current snowball, and the payments will pick back up through September.

Student Loans: $450

Electric: $397.23
Our electric bill for August was quite high because we had the air conditioner running throughout most of July with the consistently over 90° and high humidity weather we experienced.

Insurance: $740.31
Our standard monthly payment, over three months.

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

Newspaper Subscription: $40.35
Three months of our weekend newspaper subscription.

Annual Savings Account: $1,600
Every week I put money aside into this account, and on months with an extra paycheck, I put even more into this account. To read more on how much we try to put aside and what we use it for, you can check out this post. This time though, I thought I’d do something different. Since I do put into this account each week, and I also spend from it to throughout the year, I thoguht I’d show you what we used from it over the summer, and with each budget update from here on out. See further below for a full breakdown.

Gifting Savings: $520
I also added to this savings account each week. It helps us stay on budget each month, and still ahve funds available for when birthdays and holidays come up.

Debt Savings: $0
There was no additional savings put aside for our debt snowball throughout the summer.

Groceries: $2,139.36
Yes, I agree, this is an outrageous number. But keeping in mind this over the course of three months, and I’ve had three growing kids at home that haven’t been able to keep food in their pantry at all. But it’s still an outrageous amount, I know. And since I don’t have the receipts in front of me and am using my check book register instead, I cannot be sure that every single dollar of this was spent on groceries. I know for a fact it wasn’t because I did buy a few cases of jars at a local grocery store. Now that school has started and we’re not on the go as much, except for after school activities, I will be able to keep a better eye on what is in the house and how fast it’s going.

Household & Personal: $122.08
Three months worth of laundry detergent, contact solution, toothpaste, and so on.

Gas: $358.45
During months where I’m not driving an awful lot, like when school is in full swing and we’re just going through the usual schedule, I spend around $70 a month on fuel. With soccer practice, games and piano lessons however, I’ll be driving a lot more, and probably spending double that.

Lawn: $19.08
Our only expense for our lawn is gas for our lawn mower.

Pet: $35.84
Since our rabbit is outdoors for the summer, she doesn’t go through as many pellets and hay as she does when she’s indoors in the winter.

Eating Out: $136.11
Over the summer, we celebrated a few different times. Some of our eating out budget went towards picnic’s in the park, while others went towards redeeming “bucket filler” certificates to Subway that Monkey brought home from school.

School: $195.73
This covers backpacks, lunch boxes, thermoses, folders and notebooks for the two boys.

Soccer: $565.42
This includes registration, uniforms, cleats, shin guards, extra socks and practice balls for all three kids, as well as parking for Monkey’s individual lessons throughout June & July.

Home repairs: $740
This summer, we restored our deck. When we bought our house, the deck was pretty well worn, and it wasn’t getting any better. Hubs washed it, replaced some boards, sanded, primed and painted it. The result is a deck that’s no longer falling apart, and that doesn’t leave splinters in our feet when we walk across it barefoot.

Getaway with Hubs: $432.34
For our weekend away, Hubs and I spent three days in Hershey, PA. To keep things on the simpler side, we stayed at the campground rather than a hotel, and we both thought that it would be a place the kids would really enjoy staying next time we head to that portion of the state. We drove down the day before the concert, spent the first day setting up and getting some food for the weekend. The next day we spent the day at the park, and the evening at the concert. The last day we packed up, spent some time at the outlets, and then drove home. The entire trip was paid for with cash.

Hair: $30
The boys and Hubs got their hair cut once each this summer. Lady Bug and I go once every 12 to 18 months, while the boys go every 2 to 4 months.

Miscellaneous/Fun: $307.05
These are usually two separate categories, but for the purposes of this mass budget, I’ve lumped them together. This category includes seeing a few dollar movies, going to see Finding Dory in the theaters, books and workbooks for the kids, report card celebrations, etc.

Annual Savings

These are the expenses we paid for from this account throughout the summer, and do not come from the usual monthly budget, aside from what I put aside each week. Since some of my bills and expenses are quarterly, annually, etc., this account allows us to be able to have the money set aside for these expenses without stretching out standard monthly budget. Summer time is when the majority of these expenses hit between annual bills, our eye exams and prescriptions, taxes and going to our local you pick farm.

Local You Pick: $336
This is a one time expense for the summer, and we preserve all of this for using throughout the rest of the year.

Annual Eye Exams & Prescriptions: $696.20
This year, I’m really excited to say that we have vision insurance. We were able to get eye exams for all 5 of us, contacts for Hubs and I, and a new pair of glasses {frames and lenses} for this price! Last year, we spent nearly double that on just three of us.

Clothing: $524.90
We were able to get a really good deal on clothing for the whole family throughout the summer. Some of it was desperately deeded as the kids grew, some of it I needed as I haven’t bought clothes for myself in a while. Some of the clothing we got this summer and was put aside for school clothes, that way when the time came to take them for their back-to-school shopping, we didn’t have a great big expense at the end of summer.

Medical: $21.60
We had a MedExpress visit for LadyBug at the beginning of June. She had a tick lodged in her leg, and after several unsuccessful attempts on my part to get it out, I smothered it in balm and went to the center. It took the physician several attempts to remove the tick too, so I didn’t feel so bad about my tick removing skills.

AAA: $145
I posted earlier this year about how this expense may not be the most frugal, but it is something that we do get use out of.

Trash: $34
Our trash is picked up every other week, and we’re billed quarterly based on the number of bags we have throughout the quarter. We very rarely will go through more than one 33 gallon bag a week, making two bags of trash that we have picked up every two weeks.

Car Expenses: $52.99

Propane: $166.92
This is another bill that we get quarterly. Every 13 weeks, we have propane delivered to supply our stove and water heater. This bill usually runs around $200, but since it was so hot earlier in the summer, we did a lot of grilling rather than cooking.

Taxes: $693.46
These are taxes that we owe the school district each year. Since we were able to have a significant down payment on our house, one that knocked out PMI, we were able to choose whether or not we wanted to escrow our taxes. We chose not to, and we pay the reduced rate on our taxes in March and August. The combined price is just over $1,000 per year.