Category Archives: Expenses

Expenses, Lifestyle

Dark Cloud Cover

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Seriously, sometimes when it rains it does indeed pour.

Last month we had some unexpected expenses.  I spent a little more on a new laptop for my wife than I really needed to.  However, the extra cost is worth the mental relief of not having to be her IT support.  I also need to make sure she has the resources she needs to continue her work for the next several years.

We also had car maintenance and ended up buying a new set of tires.  This month, it seems to be my truck’s turn.  Luckily, this one is paid off and I rarely drive it more than 10-15 miles per week.  The engine light came on and luckily it was only a couple of faulty sensors.  However, with that and the regular oil change and tire rotation, I’m looking at another $1000 expense.  At this point, I’m still willing to put around that much per year into maintenance since I know I’ll get another 5-10 good years out of it.  It serves it’s meager purpose.

Finally, there’s the touchy subject of pet healthcare.  My wife is an avid dog lover.  Her first is a 14yr old and was here before I was.  I married into this so to speak.  Unfortunately, she has cataracts and is mostly blind.  This is starting to require a lot of help getting her around the house and yard.  My wife discovered that there is corrective surgery and is passionate about pursuing it.  This is estimated to cost around $4200.  According to my cash flow sheet, we’ve already spent $4063 on pets care so far this year.

This is an incredibly touchy subject.  My wife loves the dog and would do anything for her.  She has her own savings and is willing to use her money to pay for it.  I do count that savings as part of our family net worth, so I feel this is a setback to my goals for the year.  However, she has promised to use her part-time income to pay back the saving.   While I wouldn’t make the same decision, I completely understand why she is willing to do so.

Mr. Money Mustache had a somewhat poignant post about this topic right as all of this came up here: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/09/07/great-news-dog-ownership-is-optional/

While I did marry into this situation, it’s definitely something that most folks don’t think about when jumping into pet ownership.  Something to consider.

-cb3

 

Expenses, Goals

August 2015 Progress

Well, August hit like a freight train.  There were a couple of whammies this month in the form of my wife’s car needing new tires and her laptop dying.  We also had our anniversary dinner where we splurged a little and I had a work trip to Vegas and spent a bit extra on a dinner with friends.  Needless to say, our expenses were elevated.

Luckily, and I do realize how fortunate I am, we got a bonus from work that, combined with proceeds from an ESPP sale, made up for the extra spending.  If I hadn’t know that the bonus was coming in, I probably would have been a lot more conservative this month.  Even though we’re focused on cutting back, it’s hard to not spend the extra.

Here’s how we did.

Goals:

  • Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 10%.
    1. At the end of August, overall debt reduction is 7.71%.  Still on track.
  • Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 10% of salary.
    1. Combined saving in investment accounts is 10.55% of income.  This includes 401k, IRA, ESPP.
  • Eliminate any monthly interest payments due to credit cards.
    1. We maintained $0 in credit card interest in Aug. for a five month streak.

Total expenses for August were $14924 which was the second highest compared to Feb, but the difference being in Feb we made a $6200 payment against outstanding credit card debt.

Also, with the bonus we were still net positive by $2300 for the month.  That money got divided between debt and investments.

We’re going to really buckle down and try to have a couple of calm months before we hit any holiday spending.  I’m confident since I’m still on track for my goals, but it would be great if we could accomplish a little extra!

 

Cheers!

-cb3

 

Expenses, Goals

July 2015 Progress

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July was a very interesting month for the family finance.  We had one planned extra expense in the form of a vacation and one unplanned expense in the form of veterinary surgery.  First I’ll give a quick goal update and overview and then talk about how we planned for the vacation expenses.

Goals:

  • Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 10%.
    1. At the end of July, overall debt reduction is 7.15%.  Still on track.
  • Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 10% of salary.
    1. Combined saving in investment accounts is 10.36% of income.  This includes 401k, IRA, ESPP.
  • Eliminate any monthly interest payments due to credit cards.
    1. We maintained $0 in credit card interest in July for a four month streak.

Total expenses for July were $8305 which was $36 lower than June making it our lowest expense month of 2015.  I had to double check this with the vacation and vet bills, but we really buckled down and almost eliminated dining out (except for during our travel, which I’m breaking out into travel expenses).

The trip was a combined work/vacation to California.  I had to go out for an onsite session so my airfare and hotel for the week was covered.  The family’s flights were mostly paid with Skymiles so their airfare was around $600 total and was paid in June.  We extended the stay for four nights past the work engagement which gave me a three day weekend with the family.  We got to see Muir Woods, Half Moon Bay and top of Mt. Tamalpais.  Total personal expenses for the family were around $1100.  Not too bad.

The unexpected vet bill was around $450.  We have an older pure bred small dog that just turned 14, so I guess unexpected is not really accurate, but we didn’t have it budgeted.

All in all, it’s remarkable that we still hit the low mark for expenses on the year.  We’re also not paying childcare expenses during the summer since both kids are home, so that does help balance things out.

We also just got an ESSP purchase on July 31 which will help clear some more of the long term debt.  I’ll write that up in another post.

Cheers!

-cb3

 

Expenses, Goals, Lifestyle

The Great Grocery Cycle

One of our biggest challenges is controlling food cost.  I believe that this is an area we can improve.  The struggle is around consistent meal planning an trips to the grocery store.  It’s easy to neglect because there is a convenient alternative available (dining out).  This is likely a common occurrence amongst our peers (though I’m not sure everyone considers it a problem).

We budget $800 per month for groceries and household supplies.  I also budget $240 per month for dining out.  That’s around one restaurant trip per week for our family of four (sit down type as we rarely do fast food).  So far this year, we should have spent $4800 on groceries and $1440 on restaurants.  Instead, we’re currently at $5300 on groceries and $4200 on restaurants!

One would think that if we neglected grocery runs and dined out instead that we would see groceries come in under budget.  What happens though, is that by not having a weekly meal plan we end up doing on demand grocery runs to pick up things for the next day or two.  This leads to inefficiency and a propensity to buy impulse items.

We definitely dine out much more than we should given our budget.  It’s very easy to fall into the trap of convenience when we’re both tired from the day and unprepared for dinner time.  It’s even easier when we know we can afford it.  The problem is that we’re throwing away money that we could be investing in our financial freedom and getting closer to our canoe dock lifestyle.

New 2015 Goal:  Cut the dining out expenses in half.  $2100 or less.

Here we go!

-cb3