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 to California in April; we’ve been researching our flights and need to pull the trigger!

We have some big financial changes that have been pending for some time that we really need to take action on!

1. Buy (term) life insurance
2. Prepare and file our tax return
3. Open a 529 for DPR

Income and Percentage-Based Budgeting

Our budget is based on Kyle’s take-home pay, which is his gross pay less tax withholding and our portion of our health insurance premium. Then, we donate 10% of our gross income to our church and contribute 18% to our retirement accounts. The remainder of the money funds our regular expenses and our targeted savings accounts.

Regular Fixed Expenses

Rent $1495

Water/Sewer/Garbage $130

Internet $74.45

Student Loan Minimum Payment $99.67

Netflix $10.74

Cloud Backup $5.99

Regular Variable Expenses

Power $0 ($60 budgeted): Off month!

Groceries $584.52 ($600 budgeted): This is such a victory! Not only did we pay for all our groceries this month without exceeding our budget, we also paid our yearly Costco membership fee ($100). That was partially offset by some refunds and rewards from Costco. I’m not sure how we managed to spend (comparatively) so little this month. We did try out a new retailer, a restaurant supply store, that has better prices than Costco on many items, but we only visited once and didn’t buy a whole lot. I hope we can keep up whatever it is that we’re doing right!

Restaurants $26.60 ($100 budgeted): This month was all Kyle. He bought a drink at happy hour one day and lunch out twice while he had jury duty.

Gas/Parking/Public Transit $52.70 ($60 budgeted): We spent $32 parking at DPR’s physical therapy appointments and the rest of the spending was one gas fill-up.

Phones $64.04 ($65 budgeted): Two smartphones with large data plans! Kyle uses Cricket Wireless and I use Republic Wireless.

Miscellaneous $53.25 ($20.98 budgeted): We renewed a personal domain and converted some electronic money into quarters for laundry.

Bottom Line

We spent $2,596.96 of $2,721.82 available. Since we have some budget leftovers, they are being allocated as:

• $31.92 to our checking account buffer to make up for last month’s deficit
• $92.95 to our Baby targeted savings account to refill after last month’s purchases

Targeted Savings

Cars

Starting Balance $719.44

Saved $79.44

Spent $319.85: Six months of car insurance.

Travel

Starting Balance $1,487.50

Saved $437.50

Spent $0.00

Gifts

Starting Balance $195.00

Saved $95.00

Spent $0.00

Appearance

Starting Balance $386.45

Saved $30.00

Spent $0

Electronics

Starting Balance $885.46

Saved $42.86

Spent -$25.99: We received a refund after returning one of the power cords we bought last month.

Baby

Starting Balance $120.15

Saved $0.00+92.95

Spent $0

Insurance

Starting Balance $150.00

Saved $108.33

Spent $0.00

What’s on your financial to do list?