Evolving Personal Finance » month in review

December 2017 Budget Report

December 2017 Budget Report

Our December was dominated by our Christmas/New Year’s vacation to southern California. We took two weeks off! We stayed with Kyle’s parents, and it was amazing to have more adults around to help take care of DPR. Kyle and I were able to go out on our own a couple times and even have free hours at home when she was playing with her grandparents. I can appreciate even more the value of having family … Read entire article »

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October and November 2017 Budget Report

October and November 2017 Budget Report

The big event of the last two months was our trip to Virginia for my sister’s wedding. We were gone for ten days at the end of October. It was quite a spendy occasion between the travel and the attire, but well worth it of course. Absolutely nothing went wrong at the wedding! I plan to write a whole post on my expenses as a bridesmaid (this was the first time I’ve been in a … Read entire article »

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September 2017 Budget Report

September 2017 Budget Report

This month’s spending update is all about our daughter!   In September, I discovered the awesomeness of the community centers in our county. Not only are they providing me with a free gym, but they have excellent facilities for toddlers like DPR. Pretty much anytime she’s awake Monday through Saturday there is a room full of toys for her to play with within a 15-minute drive, plus occasionally they turn the basketball gyms into toddler spaces. DPR … Read entire article »

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August 2017 Budget Report

August 2017 Budget Report

My big budgetary consideration in August has been which gym to join. We’ve never paid for a gym membership before so it’s a big deal to us! My PCP “prescribed” me to start lifting heavy weights, which for us right now means a gym membership (working out at home is no longer sufficient!). At first, I thought I would work out in the mornings/evenings when Kyle can be home with DPR, but those are my most … Read entire article »

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July 2017 Budget Report

July 2017 Budget Report

Holy smokes, we overspent our budget this month! Luckily, we weren’t scheduled to contribute a whole lot to our targeted savings accounts this month, or the damage would have been a lot worse.   1) Our monthly rent increased by $100 and we also decided to go month-to-month to the tune of an extra $50/month. Kyle’s job is slated to move locations in October-ish because they’ve outgrown their current space, but they don’t know yet where to. … Read entire article »

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June 2017 Budget Report

June 2017 Budget Report

June struck me as a very simple month for us, financially. Nearly all of our variable spending was on groceries. We only bought gas once. We didn’t eat out at all. We only bought four items from Amazon, which is pretty low these days! We were fairly busy around town attending birthday parties and going to the zoo, but didn’t have to spend major bucks to do so. Over the last six weeks, we finally … Read entire article »

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May 2017 Budget Report

May 2017 Budget Report

If April was defined by our travels, May was defined by our houseguests. Several members of my family came to visit us on two occasions, which really seemed to take over our month. It was wonderful to have them around, though, and they had a ton of fun with DPR. We did end up overspending on groceries because we provided just about all the meals for our guests. We mostly hung out in our apartment … Read entire article »

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April 2017 Budget Report

April 2017 Budget Report

April was a very busy month for us! I gave six talks this month on two trips, one day trip and one multi-day trip to the East Coast. We also traveled to California on two subsequent weekends. Thankfully DPR took all that upheaval pretty well, though it wiped me out.   We filed our tax return on April 15 after preparing it using tax software. We owed a small amount of money to the IRS and gave … Read entire article »

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March 2017 Budget Report

March 2017 Budget Report

This was a pretty bad month for us in terms of large, unexpected expenses popping up that didn’t fit into our targeted savings accounts. Our ‘Miscellaneous’ spending category was completely overwhelmed. We also incredibly overspent one of our variable expense categories. Even our targeted savings accounts didn’t fare well; one of them is now negative! But thankfully we have our buffer funds to help us smooth this out. The one success we had was a … Read entire article »

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February 2017 Budget Report

February 2017 Budget Report

Our February was very quiet spending-wise. We had a nice victory in coming in under budget for groceries, which has been a struggle for a couple years now. We’re not really going out at all these days, but we did invite friends over to our place and go over to some friends’ houses this month. The costs for those gatherings are just rolled into our grocery spending for the month. We’re planning a couple trips … Read entire article »

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