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 members around when raising young children. We only get that benefit sporadically, but like this trip usually when we do it’s pretty intensive.

DPR bundled up in Seattle vs. enjoying the CA sunshine

One of the fun activities I did in my free time over the break was budget planning for 2018! I completed a total reset of our targeted savings system when the New Year rolled over, reallocating savings we had in place and setting new savings rates/goals. I also did some preliminary calculations for what our federal tax burden will be in 2018. It might take a few months to properly adjust our withholdings but we should see a nice increase in Kyle’s take-home pay as we expect to pay a few thousand dollars less in tax in 2018 than 2017. Kyle also is in the midst of negotiating a raise so that will be great as well.

Regular Fixed Expenses

Rent $1645

Water/Sewer/Garbage $130

Internet $74.45

Student Loan Minimum Payment $101.99

Co-Op Preschool $92

Netflix $10.74

Cloud Backup $5.99

Regular Variable Expenses

Power $0 ($80 budgeted):

Groceries $582.00 ($600 budgeted): I would be impressed that we were under budget for the third month in a row, except that we were out of town for nearly two weeks. Thankfully, we have a freezer full of meat to start January off with.

Restaurants $53.84 ($50 budgeted): We ate out TOGETHER twice – once grabbing pizza with friends and once for breakfast with relatives.

Gas/Parking/Public Transit $61.81 ($60 budgeted): All gas!

Phones $87.32 ($88 budgeted): This is our new recurring bill for two phones, one from Republic Wireless and one from Google Fi (with a financed phone).

Miscellaneous ($402.25 budgeted): $0

Bottom Line

We spent $2,844.63 of $3,340.42 available. The excess cash was diverted into our Targeted Savings Accounts reset.

Targeted Savings

We contributed $456.40 and spent $702.74 in total.

Cars

Starting Balance $702.63

Saved $74.58

Spent $0

Travel

Starting Balance $780.86

Saved $0

Spent $0

Gifts

Starting Balance $598.08

Saved $50

Spent $498.96 on Christmas gifts, baby gifts, a wedding gift, and a meal for another family

Appearance

Starting Balance $268.28

Saved $0

Spent $0

Electronics

Starting Balance $1,330

Saved $0

Spent $28.09

• $9.90 on a power strip
• $4.99 on power cords
• 20 on a phone case

Baby

Starting Balance $310.40

Saved $201.90

Spent $174.99

• $13.90 on clothes and shoes for DPR
• $30 co-pay
• $50 babysitting
• $5 dessert at an auction at DPR’s preschool
• $39.38 crib mattress

Insurance

Starting Balance $1,108.30

Saved $108.33

Spent $0

How was your holiday break? What do your taxes look like in 2018?