How’d we do?
Over budget by $1,190*
If you are curious about every dirty detail, you can Download Budget
What happened?
* At first glance it looks like November kicked our ass. Not so. We were over budget because we were able to pay our line of credit down by $1,160. Pondering this, it makes me realize that the real indicator of whether we are living within our means each month is whether our balance on our home equity line of credit is going up or down. Let me take a second to explain my monthly finance routine.
- All utility payments, health insurance, and property/car insurance are paid out of our checking account. Call me old fashioned but I enjoy sitting down on the first of the month with the bills that have arrived and my checkbook and write out checks for internet, heat, water, trash, etc. Josh says I can't singlehandedly- save USPS but damn it, I'll try.
- Everything else that can be paid with a credit card (without incurring additional fees) is put onto our Alaska Airlines Visa. Gotta rack up those miles!!!
- Each payday I go online and pay off the entire credit card balance. Any remaining cash is transferred towards our line of credit. We have a home equity line of credit that has an interest rate of 4.5%. We used this to consolidate student loan debt, credit card debt, and house costs back in 2009. Over the last five years we diligently eliminated about $25,000.
So the true indicator of our finances is the balance of our line of credit. In November, we were able to take the balance down to $8,600. I'm hoping that when we get out tax refund in 2014, we can knock out a big chunk of the remaining balance.
Food costs CONTINUE to be outrageously high. We spent $500 on food, again. I'm not sure how this keeps getting away from me. So this month, I have clipped an envelope to the refrigerator for all of our food receipts. I want to see what the hell is causing this. My assumption is that there are household items that are creeping their way into there.
Fun Money Re-cap
Jamie:
$20 – Donated case of PBR tall-boys for the ZACC Members Event
$20 – Stationary and postcards from Rockin' Rudys
$10 -- Food donation for the ZACC Members Event
$10 – Pair of new jeans (dont' worry, this was built into my 33 items)
$15 -- Oak from Home Resource to build my sweet new work station in my bedroom closet (where all my clothes USED to be!!!)
$25 – Can't remember....
Comments