Personal Finance: Sometimes It’s a Mess
Budgeting has always been my Achilles heel, I’m much better at tracking spending than I am at sitting down every month and allocating money towards different categories. For month to month stuff, that ends up fine, but for bigger purchases like my husband’s phone data (through Mint, who we love, and yes, that’s a referral code) car registration, and scheduled (or unscheduled) maintenance, not as fine. I’m trying to be better at budgeting for this, but it’s not working all that great. Which means that we’ll have to change our tactics some.
Originally, we were trying to live entirely off my husband’s income (monthly take home is around $1,600), but we’d inevitably dip into my earmarked paycheck. When I was making closer to $1,200/paycheck, that wasn’t bad. But once we added a 15% “paycut” that $950 wasn’t as dip-in-able. So clearly, something had to change.
Right now, we’re doing better at stretching husband’s dollar, but honestly, that’s stressful, and I miss having a surplus in our checking account. I spent the last few days crunching numbers.
Here are the bills we pay each month:
| Bill | Amount | Due Date |
| Utilities | 80 | 1 |
| Rent | 1168 | 1 |
| PGE | 50 | 1 |
| Rent Insurance | 10 | 1 |
| Student Loans | 1000 | 16 |
| Phone 1 | 30 | 17 |
| Phone 2 | 25 | 11 |
| Compassion Child | 38 | 20 |
| Car Insurance | 100 | 28 |
| Charitable Giving | 282 | 16 |
| Total | 2783 | NA |
Previously, my husband was paying the smaller bills (utilities, PGE, renter’s insurance, our phones, car insurance, and charitable giving), and I was paying the larger bills (rent and student loans). Clearly, this strategy will no longer work because 1,900-2,168=-268. And I can’t magically make that money appear in my W-2.
Between the two of us, we get paid once a week. He generally gets paid the 6th and the 22nd. I get paid the 1st and the 15th. If we split the bills into four lump sums, I can take one from each paycheck and add it to our “bills” account. Meaning that we have anywhere from $150/200 to spend during a week (let’s call it $175 and split the difference. That’s $700/month on “flexible spending”, so groceries, gas, entertainment, doggo, those types of things). At first, I thought this was plenty of money. But then I combed through our expenses dating back to our first full month married (hello, May 2018). And here’s what our flexible spending actually looked like:
| Month | Amount |
| May | 887 |
| June | 1006 |
| July | 1163 |
| August | 1151 |
| September | 978 |
| October | 839 |
| November | 795 |
| December | 878 |
| January | 656 |
| February | 776 |
Out of the ten past months, only ONE of them will fit the $700/mo category. Gulps. I am glad to see that by September, we’d found ourselves completely out of the $1,000 range, so there’s been a downward trend, just not downward enough. Clearly, we’ve got some cutting down to do. Since we moved in December (thus making some of our other purchases, like that time I got a horse, obsolete), I looked back at just those three months.
| Category | December | January | February |
| Gas | 292 | 176 | 179 |
| Groceries | 208 | 234 | 194 |
| Restaurants | 89 | 48 | 89 |
| General Merchandise | 72 | 91 | 93 |
| Laundry | 45 | 20 | 20 |
| Clothing | 44 | 35 | 143 |
| Gifts | 95 | 8 | 0 |
| Service Charges | 8 | 38 | 0 |
| Personal Care | 35 | 0 | 0 |
| Crafts | 0 | 6 | 46 |
| Entertainment | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| ATM Fee | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 888 | 656 | 776 |
There are several areas that will definitely help us make our 700/mo mark.
General Merchandise
Some of the purchases, I can tell you what I bought, like the December $6 I spent at TJ Maxx was for the French Press that is sitting at my office desk, and the $41 from Target was cleaning supplies, an ironing board, and some other household things. But I have no idea what the $23 Walmart purchases were.
In January, I did a slightly better job tracking down where the money was going. I spent $12 at target for lightbulbs, and $67 at Walmart for soup ingredients, a pot I needed, and materials for my apron. But I still have a $7 Target purchase and a $3 TJ Maxx purchase unaccounted for (I think the TJ Maxx purchase MIGHT have been a pair of leggings, but don’t quote me on that).
February, I finally got my act together. The $5 Amazon purchase was essentially tax for a breadbox, flour containers, and some books that I bought with a gift card that we’d been saving from our wedding. The $17 Walmart purchase was new frames because my old ones broke during a coffee date with a friend. I’m due for new glasses soon anyway, but I can’t go without them, so new frames it was. And the $70, we bought food storage containers, some large baking dishes, and a tea kettle that we’ve wanted for forever.
We’re pretty much done buying stuff for the kitchen, hallelujah. Although I do eventually want to get more reusable ziplock bags and another bread pan for bread month. The two bags we have come in handy, and a bigger supply would definitely be a plus. I definitely think that tracking these expenses more closely will let us see exactly where we can cut down.
Service Charges
Another area that I’m looking to see a drop off in is service charges. January we had an old investment check bounce (totally our fault, we should have them reissue the check) and our bank slapped on a fee. But the $8 service charge from December was a “weird, we’re not really sure what happened” event, where my card was attached to my mom’s Amazon and some digital service, was purchased. She paid us back by buying us our reusable ziplock bags which I love! But unlinking that card from that account definitely stopped weird charges from showing up.
Clothing
Arguably, the only other spot to cut costs is in the money we’ve spent on clothing in the last three months. Some of this has been necessary purchases. I needed winter work clothes and new work boots (HR changed our dress code and tennis shoes were deemed inappropriate). So $60 later, I have two pairs of boots. A brown pair and a black pair. I also spent almost $100 on a pair of good Brook’s running shoes since I’m trying (read, would be, if my knee weren’t acting up) to train for a half marathon. And we’re also walking more because of our lovely pooch.
Unfortunately, this also means that my size 5 jeans that I’ve had since college are getting baggy and not work appropriate, so once they wear out, I’ll need to drop some money at a consignment store for new pairs. Same goes for my husband and his jeans. Dang getting in shape. He’s also in need of good running shoes. So we have a few key purchases coming up, but I’ve found my “work wardrobe” Read beanie, sweater, scarf, jeans, and boots in the winter and a dress with flats (that need to be purchased) in the summer and won’t need to be spending much more money on it. Other than that, though. We’re both doing good on clothes. And these expenses we can cut down.
A note on the running shoes. Those were funded through my side hustle, and not our W-2 incomes, which means that February would be closer to $676 if we didn’t include that particular purchase.
Final Thoughts
Overall, slimming our budget down shouldn’t be too impossible, but I am a little nervous about it, haha. Anytime we do something drastic, I’m afraid we’re going to overdraw, or not make our savings goals, or something else tragic and terrible. This, of course, has never happened, and even if it did, we have an emergency fund to back us up.
The transition might be a little funky, and I’m not sure if there’s a way to smooth it out. I’m hoping to be able to stretch husband’s dollar to his next paycheck, so we can put my entire paycheck in savings, and then start from there. Thus giving us an “excess” in our bills category.
I’m also considering CC hacking to travel cheaper when we go see my family and do other things, because, you know, why else would we have an adventure fund if we’re not traveling? Plus, the credit card would mean we only have one bill to pay at the end of the month. Instead of a bunch of autopay bills throughout the month stressing me out. I’ll let you know how that goes, haha.
… [Trackback]
[…] Here you can find 94379 additional Info on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Information to that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More Info here on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] There you will find 93318 more Information on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More Info here to that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More Info here to that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Information on that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
… [Trackback]
[…] Here you can find 77638 more Info to that Topic: moriahchace.com/couple-money/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
relaxing winter jazz
jazz piano
japanese type Beat
background music
relaxing music
music for studying
fall jazz music
relaxing sleep music
jazz piano instrumental
… [Trackback]
[…] Info on that Topic: ourtable4two.com/2019/03/18/personal-finance-sometimes-its-a-mess/ […]
[…] I’ve done a deep dive into how I manage my own finances. And how I run our household. I’ve talked about it briefly, but never in depth. However, But I discovered a system that works, and I’m here to explain it to […]
Considering zero day is months ahead of schedule (is it already here?), looks like you got that budget figured out!
How’s the travel hacking going?
We mostly have the budget figured out. A bunch of goals changed and so now I feel like we’re only treading water again. A post on that soon.
As for travel hacking, ha. Still a newb. But I’ll get there!
I love budgeting. I spend inordinate amounts of time fiddling with the budget spreadsheet and trying to figure out where we can cut costs. It’s hard – at this point, there’s not much wiggle room. One thing I do to slightly reduce expenses is use Swagbucks to get giftcards. For example, if I can get a $25 Amazon card, we can order a buttload (ha!) of toilet paper for free.
Keep us posted on how the budget adjustment goes! 🙂
OMG! That pun. Haha. I need to try swagbucks for things like that. Also, I need to be more strategic about grocery shopping and buy more things on sale. That would help, too. We’ll see how it goes. ^_^
man, that student loan and rent nut look tough for somebody just starting out. it takes awhile to build your set-up the way you want it as i recall. we always built some slop into the budget for minor unexpected expenses too small for the emergency fund. dogs can get expensive, but worth it in my estimation. good luck.
Yeah, and that rent is considered cheap in our area. Grr. Thankfully the minimum for student loan payments is only $268, we’re just really over paying because I want the freedom that comes with no debt. Hopefully it doesn’t take us too long to set up the budget the way I want it to, what we’re doing now isn’t sustainable. Haha. We’re hoping to switch over to on my husband’s paycheck that hits the bank this week.
no debt will change your life. in 2009 i was still sitting on 30k in student loans at age 40. you’re ahead of the game i believe.
Thanks! 😀 We’re excited to be debt free, even if it is still three years off.
You’re doing great.
I may have something that will make the tracking of your spending easier. Pop over to my blog and type “intentional” into the search bar at the top. That’ll take you to the post I did a while ago about my spending chart. I’m a couple of years in and it works like dream. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas about how to tweak things for you.
Keep going! It’s worth it.
I’ll have to look into it! Thanks for the resource.
Remember a budget is a plan, not a mandate. You are on top of the game keeping track but don’t beat yourself up if something happens or you spend for something you hadn’t planned for.
Thanks, and we’re working on being more on top of yearly expenses. It’s a growing process, that’s for sure. But we’re definitely not as bad off as we could be, that’s for sure. 😀
Breathe, remember you two are just starting out, and remember you’re doing incredible. I know it’s easy to compare yourself online especially in this personal finance space, but know that most of us would love to have been so on top of things at your age ❤️
<3 Thanks for your kind words. Truly needed right now. I’ve noticed that anytime we re-do the budget or money I freak out and stress until the change is made, and then it’s better. I’m in the awful “WHAT AM I DOING?” phase of this process. But it will get better soon! And if we can’t make the money stretch I don’t need to be putting ~$1300 towards student loans.
Yeah you are putting a SERIOUS amount to those loans!