Sometimes I get a little nervous about making our personal finances public. A lot has changed since we started sharing our family budget with the world, and in some ways I think we’re less relatable now than we were then. For example, our income this month is more than triple what we made four years ago.
Still, we were able to make headway on paying off our student loans back then even with a much smaller income. We were motivated and determined to get rid of our debt. We were much more faithful at keeping our grocery budget low and having few budget categories. Pretty much if it wasn’t essential we didn’t spend money on it.
And we kept that up for a long time!
I’m glad we kept a record of our progress because it reminds me that we can do hard things. I like to go back every now and then to see how far we’ve come. I’m proud of us for sticking to our guns so long and not giving up on our goal to be debt-free.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or discouraged with your current progress toward your goals, don’t give up! Just take one day at a time. Don’t feel like you have to master everything all at once. Pick one area of your finances that you’re going to improve this month.
Maybe you’ll sell five things that your don’t use or need anymore. Maybe you’ll start the month out with a menu plan. Maybe you’ll diligently save electricity. Maybe you’ll track all of your expenses so you can have a baseline for starting a budget. Maybe you’ll act on the business idea that’s been swirling around your mind for ages.
Next month you can add something else. Little by little you’ll be transformed into a frugal-living, goal-reaching superstar! In four years you’ll be able to look back and see your progress and wonder how you made it happen. I know you can do this!
Now on to the numbers from our books last month:
Income
Our total income for October was $13,721. Since we live on last month’s income, this is money that we’re waiting to spend in November.
Attorney Income (Day Job)– $6,215 Mr. SixFiguresUnder has been working full-time as an attorney for the state of California since the fall of 2015. In October he got his anniversary raise! His actual take-home pay was $5,021 but I add back in the cost of the benefits (insurance, dental, vision, parking, union dues and retirement) that are automatically taken out of his check so that you can see what happens to the money that never makes it home.
Attorney Income (Private Practice)– $895 On top of working full-time, my husband has a part-time private law practice on the side. He started it to help speed up our debt payoff and because he had clients from his days at a small firm that didn’t want to let him go. This income fluctuates greatly from month to month. Between a natural lull and a new baby, he didn’t spend a lot of time on this private work in the past couple of months.
My Income (Blog)– $6,611 The income that I report is the income that I received this month minus all of my blogging expenses. Of this, I set 30% ($1,983) aside for self-employment taxes (which currently covers the estimated quarterly payments for both of our businesses) and the remainder ($4,628) goes into the family budget.
If you’re interested in the details of my blogging income and expenses as well as other blogging tips and resources, you can sign up for my Behind-the-Scenes Blogging emails to get the scoop.
In fact, if you’re interested in starting a blog, Bluehost is having a great deal for my readers who want to start a blog. I even have a tutorial to walk you through the process.
Spending
Each month we budget down to zero using last month’s income. When we started doing this, it literally changed our lives! For more about how living on last month’s income works and how you can get started, check out my free Guide to Getting a Month Ahead Financially.
Our spending in October came from the income we earned in September. Here’s how we spent money in October.
Tithing– $724 We happily pay a 10% tithe on our total income from the previous month (September). You can read more about why we paid tithing, even when we were in debt.
Other Giving– $80 Other charitable donations this month.
Mortgage/Rent– $2,700 We pay about $200 over our actual mortgage. We started doing so when my husband’s paychecks went up $200, but we may change that soon. Stay tuned.
Curious about our mortgage? You can read more about why we got a conventional mortgage instead of FHA or USDA and then why we didn’t wait for a 20% down payment.
Electricity– $183 We are pretty careful about our electricity usage and thankfully September cooled off so we hardly had to use our air conditioning. Keep in mind that our electric bill covers the small rental we have on our property as well.
We have been really motivated by the OhmConnect program which lets you earn extra money for saving power. My kids think it’s super fun to save power now. If you’re in California, Toronto or Texas, you should definitely check it out!
Water– $45 Our water bill comes every other month, so I just set aside approximately half of what I expect the bill to be (or what it is).
Trash– $62 Our bill for trash service comes every other month, so I set aside half of the bill each month. We’re currently paying for curbside pickup, but that’s not the only way to do it. If you’re trying to cut every expense to its bare minimum, here are some ideas to save on trash service. This month we also paid to take an old upright freezer (left in the garage when we bought the home) to the dump. I was really hoping that it would work (as you know I love extra freezer space), but when we finally cleaned it out and plugged it in, it smelled like an electrical fire waiting to happen, so off it went. Just weeks after discovering that the freezer was a no-go, a friend offered us a fridge/freezer that they were getting rid of! I’m excited to plug it in and have more storage for produce and freezer meals!
Internet– $50 After surviving so long without internet, I’m thrilled to be paying an internet bill (and a nice low one too)! It’s been months now, and we’re still oozing with gratitude to have internet access in our very own home. We won’t quickly forget what it’s like to go without it.
Home Phone- $4 Since my husband works at home a day or two each week, we decided to get a home phone for him to use. It’s Ooma, which is internet-based, not a traditional land line. The monthly service is very inexepensive and the set-up (hardware, etc) was under $100 (and my link will get you a $20 Amazon gift card on top of it!).
Republic Wireless Cell Phones– $15 We’ve been using Republic Wireless as our cell phone carrier for over two years now. This covers the cost of service for my phone, including all taxes and fees (we’re on the Republic Refund plan). My husband also has a Republic phone which he uses for his private practice, but that’s a business expense, not a family budget expense. If your cell phone bill is killing you, I definitely recommend that you check them out!
Health Insurance– $408 We have insurance through my husband’s employer. This is the portion of the insurance premium that his employer does not cover. It includes health, dental and vision insurance premiums and comes straight out of his paycheck.
Car Insurance– $140 Our auto insurance at USAA is fabulous! In addition to the wonderful coverage, they also give us dividends at the end of the year, which is always a nice treat. We’re able to get insurance with USAA because my father-in-law was in the service years ago. If you, your parent, or your spouse were in the military, you’re probably eligible for USAA too!
Food– $447 Our grocery budget was high this month as we had company for two weeks.
Gas– $348 We took a family trip along with my parents who were visiting us. That driving just replaced the driving my husband would have done if he had been commuting during those days, so it didn’t impact our gas spending at all. It’s actually lower than last month.
Parking– $155 Working downtown means paying for parking. It comes straight out of my husband’s paycheck, which means it is paid for with pre-tax dollars, a small consolation.
Clothing– $49 I didn’t buy shoes at the beginning of the school year, so I’m a couple of months late. After buying expensive Nikes for our three school-age kids last year and having them barely last three months (huge disappointment, by the way), I decided to just buy Walmart tennis shoes now, which last at least as long at a quarter of the price.
Household– $129 Our household budget this month included a $20 set of four tray tables from the thrift store, printing family pictures for the living room wall, invitations for my oldest son’s baptism, a new can opener, a lice comb (oh the joys of the back-to-school season) and the normal toiletries.
Fun– $84 We went out to eat for my second son’s birthday with my parents while they were in town. We just started going out to eat for birthdays this year. We didn’t go out to eat at all when we were in debt (unless we had a gift card to cover it), so this is a new experience for the kids (which they really enjoy).
Kids– $14 My older son is in Cub Scouts now and needed a handbook. I was able to get the essential uniform pieces at the thrift store, which is great because they cost an arm and a leg if you buy them new!
Home Improvement– $107 We used up the remainder of balance in this category (about $40) plus $107 from this month’s budget. I spent $60 on fabric to recover a glider that I got for free from a friend and to make 6-8 throw pillows for our couches. I wanted to tackle the glider while my mom was in town (she ended up essentially doing it herself). I love it! I should get to the pillows in the coming weeks. We also used a couple of Home Depot gift cards to buy a new ceiling fan for our living room (the current fan is way too small for the room and provides very little air circulation or light). The gift cards covered the majority of the fan purchase.
Animals– $228 We bought cat food for our outdoor cats. We encourage them to catch rodents, but we do give them cat food too. We also bought chicken feed. The majority of the animal expense this month was for supplies for the coop/run. Knowing we would be going out of town in October and November, my husband completely enclosed the chicken run so the chicken coop doesn’t need to be closed by us at night. He also built a watering system that will take care of itself while we’re away.
Tax Prep– $90 Our tax advice and preparation plan allows the cost to be spread over the year.
Supplemental Property Tax– $158 The property tax that is escrowed with our mortgage doesn’t include the increase in taxes that comes from the reassessment at the sale of a property. California property tax law is a peculiar thing and we don’t need to cover all the details, but in short, when a property changes hands, the property tax bill generally goes up. This wasn’t a fun notice to find in the mail. If we set aside this much in each month, we will have enough for the bill when it’s due in December.
Sinking Funds
Now that we’re done funneling every extra cent toward debt, we are using sinking funds in our budgeting. This is money that we set aside each month into certain categories where it builds up until we need it.
Dental– $0 Our goal is to put $30 in a fund for dental expenses, but we didn’t contribute to it this month.
Car Repair– $50 We normally put $150 in for future car repairs, but we skimped this month.
Medical– $54 We contributed $90 to the medical category this month, but $36 of that was used during this month. This covered a couple of office visits and some prescriptions. Right now we have $947 saved in our medical fund. I thought we would have bills from the doctor and hospital for baby’s delivery by now, but they haven’t showed up. Maybe more is covered than we thought (we haven’t had a baby on this insurance before, so we don’t have any experience with it)!
Car Registration & Smog– $0 We skipped this in October. Normally we put $20 in.
Christmas– $8 I had set aside $50 for our Christmas fund, but spent $42 on Christmas gifts. Right now we just have $86 in our Christmas fund.
Life Insurance– $70 If we put aside $70 each month, we will have our premiums set aside when they’re due next month.
Gifts– ($26) While we didn’t contribute to our gifts fund this month, I did spend $26 for my second son’s birthday.
Retirement– $539 With my husband’s state job, this amount comes directly out of his paycheck and into his state retirement fund.
College Savings– $100 We contribute $25 per month per child to 529 accounts. It’s not much, but it’s a start. More on our decision to start saving for college in this post.
Savings Goals
Here’s a quick look at our current savings goals. We’ve taken care of taxes, the cost of getting internet installed, and saving for a new (used) car.
The next goal is to beef up our our emergency fund. We’ve set the goal amount at $25,000, so we still have a long way to go!
During October, we added a mere $200 to our emergency fund, which brings the total up to $9,700. We knew we wouldn’t make much progress here in October since September’s income was lower, but we had hoped to get it over $10,000. Oh well! We’ll save that excitement for next month!
In addition to our financial goals for 2017 and beyond, we’re also saving for some larger items. To make this list, an item must potentially cost $1,000 or more (sometimes much more).
California King bed- Desktop Computer— Last year, as we were saving for our house, our desktop computer died. We were eager to replace it, but more eager to get a house. We don’t have a TV, so the computer has been our screen for watching occasional movies. We’ve been getting by using our laptops, but are looking forward to having our normal set-up back. My husband will buy the components he wants and put it together himself (he’s a computer guy). I’m hoping we’ll find some online Black Friday deals in this area.
- Garage Door— Our garage door needs to be replaced (both door and motor). The estimate is something like $2,400.
- Privacy Hedge— We want to plant some sort of hedge along the roadside of our house. Hopefully we can get something planted in the fall/winter when temperatures are milder.
We have prioritized them and will be saving and spending from our “Home Improvement” category for these purchases.
How About You?
- I’d love to hear about how your budget and/or debt repayment went in October!
- If you have any questions about how we budget, I’m happy to answer them in the comments or in a future post.
Great job with budgeting.Maybe I need to do a better job controlling my own expenses!
Your monthly budgeting is really helpful and it is really helping assess our own expenses. Thanks so much for sharing this. I can’t wait to subscribe your blog to get more posts like this in my inbox.
We continue maintaining two households due to my husband’s graduate school and paying our tuition in cash each term. We are in the home stretch and there were no books to buy this term so YAY!!
I was able to negotiate a deal with my chiropractor so I paid November and December’s bills this week and she will do my weekly appointments in January for free! It pays to talk to a small business owner.
Replaced some money in savings. Not as much as I wanted, but my husband’s jeep got broken into and they took his lab coat and medical bag. Insurance covered the damage to the car, but not the stolen contents. We had to get a new bag (he picked one out at a thrift store) and coat, but I dug the old equipment he used in his master’s program and he is using them until Santa replaces with better.
My husband had to do a rotation in home care and when the rotation as over, they offered him a job doing assessments. He can do them on his own schedule and will be able to fit them around clinicals and classes next term. We were expecting a drop in income because he would have to quit one hospital due to next term’s schedule. Now he can quit one hospital and make MORE money and on a better schedule. God is good!
Stephanie,
Thank you for being so transparent and sharing your monthly expenses with us. It really helps me stay motivated! And I love that you had to buy a lice comb…we have kids in our house too and these types of expenses are just a reality of motherhood. I’m also going to look into OhmConnect…sounds like a neat program.
Kara – Just jumping in here to say that my favourite finance book of all time is The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. Most libraries have a copy. I finally bought my own when I found one volume on a clearance table and another 2 volumes at a thrift store. I gave those to my daughter for her hope chest when my friend selling her copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette (all 3 volumes together)!
Your comment about how much more money you two make now than versus the start of your financial journey a few years ago reminds of something Dave Ramsey says. Essentially, he believes that God will not allow more money into your life until you are handling the money you already have well. I’m not particularly religious, but I think there’s something to that, whether you attribute it to God, the Law of Attraction, whatever floats your boat. But here your family is, lending credence to the general idea. I have found it to be true in our household, as well.
Veering entirely off track here, I am wondering if you read many economic or personal finance books? I read a LOT, but generally fiction. One of my goals this year was to read 12 non-fiction works of my choosing, and I tend to gravitate towards financial topics when I pick up non-fiction. If you, or someone in your blogging circle, have financial read recommendations, I would love to hear them! Maybe a future post down the line? While it’s not up everyone’s alley, I am sure I cannot be the only reader here who is a finance book nerd! I imagine reading is likely far down the list with all you’ve got going on, but I thought I’d throw it out there.
I am paitently waiting for The Frugalwoods book to come out, Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living. If you don’t read their blog, take a look. It’s wonderful! I’m currently reading Live. Save. Spend. Repeat. by Kim Anderson. I also have More Than Just Making It: Hope for the Heart of the Financially Frustrated by Erin Odom, Money Secrets of the Amish: Finding True Abundance in Simplicity, Sharing, and Saving by Lorilee Craker on my bedstand!
It is always interesting to see how your month has played out and watch your progress and decision making.
When I completed my degree 16 years ago I was horrified at how big my student loan debt ended up being. I am still paying it off. When it was first transferred to the tax office they estimated that it would take 71 years to pay it off at the basic rate! Through some ups and downs and major changes the balance has been reduced significantly but still exists. In the scheme of things it is not a major priority but I am chipping away at it and seeing it reduce.
Thanks for the ideas on how to move ahead a little at a time. Priorities seem to be a useful motivation for me. I have successfully paid off one debt this year and saved for a fun event. That is encouraging. So I am employing similar tactics to tackle another debt monster now. I estimate it will take about a year to win through…less if I take drastic action
Great job on your progress Jill! Priorities can be powerful! Keep up the good work!
I love your income report! This time however I was wondering if you left something out, or that I missed something. Your income is over $ 13000 (go you!!). Your expenses and savings are around $ 5000 if I calculate quickly. Since you budget to zero: where did the rest go?
Hi Sjoukje! The thing about our reports is that the income reported in one month does not match the spending in the same month because we “live on last month’s income.” The money we spent during October was earned (and reported as income) in September. The $13,000+ earned in Octover will be spent in November.
I went through to see if I missed anything. Our income for September (which we spent in October, as listed in this post) was $7,952.
The spending and saving in this report is about $7,292. In the sinking fund categories add in the amount set aside, not the net. For example, for medical this month add in $90, as that is the amount we contributed to that category– $36 was used this month and the remaining $54 goes to that fund for the future.
The other $663 was set aside for self empoyment taxes, which I mention each month under the blog income section of the month the money is earned (which might be confusing since it’s not under the spending section, when the rest of the money earned that month is). Rest assured it is there.
I realize that $7,292 + $663 = $7,955, which is $3 more that what we earned in September (the money used to fund our Oct spending), but that’s likely because I round most things up to the dollar when I report our spending. In our actual budget in YNAB, we actually go down to zero, cents and all!
I hope that helps. 🙂 Don’t worry– I’m not hiding money somewhere without telling you all about it! 🙂
How silly of me! I totally forgot it was September’s income.
I didn’t want to suggest you were hiding anything, I just really didn’t get the difference. Can’t believe I didn’t figure it out, I’ve been reading your income reports for at least 3.5 years now 🙂
🙂 No worries!
I experienced the same thing with kids shoes when our kids had issues with Stride Rite shoes last year. One was a pair of Skechers that busted a hole pretty quickly, and the others were Stride Rite and the Velcro just stopped working. We have gone the Walmart way too and have had some issues with them, at least the boys’ shoes (toddler shoes seem to be better made). But I reason that we can just replace them with something inexpensive when they wear out.
You had a great month with your blog income! I think it’s kind of cool that you brought home roughly the same amount as an attorney 🙂 – you’ve put a lot of hard work into it, and it’s great to see it pay off!
That’s my reasoning with Walmart shoes too. 😉
I noticed that about the income too. It was a higher blog month than normal, which is kind of fun!
Do you notice that the Wal-Mart shoes provide the same support/form as Nike and StrideRite? Maybe it’s “fear mongering” by the brand name shoes and I have fallen victim to the marketing, but I worry about the low cost shoes providing lowing quality/support and would have a negative impact on my kid’s development as she grows, especially since she is in shoes all day now at preschool. I don’t wanna pay for foot/back/posture problems down the road!
I still LOVE reading about your monthly budgeting and find it so helpful in assessing our own expenses. Thank you for what you do!
Thank you Susan! I’m glad our reports are still helpful to you!