December Budget Review & January Goals

It's the end of the month, and time to see how I did with my goals and budget for the month of December. You can go here to see my goals for the month.

Food Budget: $200
Actually spent : $238.05!! and saved $290.38 for a 55% savings for the month.

Yikes, I was off by a lot, but I do have a few reasons for this. First, I had a girl's night in party at my house. Second, the snow. If you live in the Portland area you know what I'm talking about. When we were able to get out and get food, it was never when I actually had coupons with me. I am going to put my 12/31 grocery purchase toward the January budget since most if it is stock up items for the month. Third, I'm pregnant! There were a few items I had to have that were definitely not on sale.

Eating out: $300
I think we met that one, and may have a few bucks left over. It's harder to track because most places don't give you a receipt for cash purchases.

Household: $200
We met this one too. Most of this went toward Christmas gifts that were not purchased online.

So over all, I feel like we did pretty good. We paid off the credit card on our goal list, paid all mortgages before the 15th, and do have all the money saved to pay off our car. My husband wants to wait a few more weeks to pay off our car. He is waiting on a construction loan to come through, and there is a possibility that he will have to pay 6 months of interest and loan points at closing. This will be around 25k. If he has to do that, we will have to use our savings on that.
I am really bummed about that, but future household income has to come before financial goals. Especially being self-employed in this economy.


January Goals


1. Use credit cards on business expenses only
2. Pay $1000 to Citi Mastercard
3. Put $1000 into savings (this should be easy as I am working 3 extra days this month to make up for the snow and days off around Christmas and New Years)
4. Pay all mortgages by 15th of the month
5. Pay off all Christmas credit card charges



I am putting $220 into my Food envelope, $300 into my Eating Out envelope, and $200 into my Household envelope. I decided to raise my Food category a little as I am pregnant and need to give myself a little wiggle room for food aversions/cravings and the fatigue I am dealing with. Hopefully I can meet these goals!



Erika