January Budget Review — Our First Complete Budget Month

Posted on | February 8, 2008 |

January marked my fourth whole month of using the YNAB software* and but only my first month of recording all of our household expenses.  In previous months I’ve tracked all of my expenditures, but only some of The Husband’s.  On the income side, I tracked our salaries and any supplemental income I brought in (ie. survey income) but none of our dividend or interest income and none of The Husband’s other misc income (ie. Disabled Vet, pension, or Social Security).

I’m really quite excited to be taking our budgeting to the next level and including every single bit of income and all expenses — his and mine.  Because I’m responsible for the vast majority of our monthly spending (and what I didn’t spend personally I at least knew about — our mortgage, car payment, tuition payments, etc), our new “whole picture” budget reflects only slightly higher monthly expenses.  On the other hand, our income was woefully under-represented in my previous months’ budgets — I’m glad to finally see the reality of our income v. expenses.

The expenses outlined below are categorized just as they are in my YNAB budget. The first number is the amount spent in that category in January. The second number is the difference (+ more) or (- less) between January’s number and December’s.

I only had to add two new categories to our budget now that I’m tracking The Husband’s expenses — his Cash and Misc Expenses. The data I get from The Husband come in the form of copies of all five of his bankbook registers. The Husband doesn’t want to be bothered with turning in each individual receipt — and I have no trouble respecting that. He’s busy, he knows we spend less than we make, and he never makes silly or frivolous or even large purchases. His expenses cover things like meals, groceries for the office or occassionally for something at home, dry cleaning, gas, and the occassional gift for my birthday, our anniversary, or Valentine’s Day. He also buys office supplies, etc. but all of those go onto his expense report and he periodically issues himself a reimbursement check.

In January, we spent a total of $6,843.10 (that’s $731.50 more than in December — if you’re comparing this month’s budget overview to December’s posted overview, these numbers might not vibe due to minor changes and corrections made since posting December’s review post).

Here’s the breakdown:

Auto Expenses — $1,212.27 (-331.13)

• Gas — $305.62
• Loan — $904.15
• Other — $2.50

Charity — $60.00 (-305.00)

• Offerings — $60.00

Food — $690.60 (-114.67)

• Groceries — $593.55
• Eating Out — $97.05

Gifts — $26.39 (-743.15)

• my family — $10.72
• other — $15.67

Household — $489.70 (+359.53)

• Consumables — $167.78
• Durables — $286.89
• other — $14.98
• Postage, Shipping, Supplies — $20.05

Housing — $1,650.74 (+10.64)

• Improvements — $10.64 
• Mortgage — $1,640.10

The Son — $73.24 (-11.86)

• Allowance — $6.00
• Clothing — $67.24

Kids — $366.92 (+318.26)

• Books & Materials — $61.92
• Equipment & Rentals — $35.00
• Lessons & Activity Fees — $270.00

The Daughter — $134.39 (-11.96)

• Allowance — $24.00
• Clothing — $62.89
• School Lunches — $47.50

Medical/Health — $863.85 (+594.64)

• Alternative Care — $355.00 
• Co-pays & Deductibles — $240.00
• Prescriptions & Meds — $81.67
• Vitamins/Supplements — $187.18

Personal — $589.15 (+532.32)

• Books & Music — $24.27
• The Husband’s cash — $200.00
• The Husband’s misc expenses — $222.26
• Other — $118.11
• Toiletries — $24.51

Recreation — $403.78 (+356.50)

• Entertainment — $145.28
• Vacation — $258.50

Utilities — $359.16 (+154.53)

• Cable & Internet — $60.59
• Phone — $210.21
• Water — $88.36

Well, that’s it for January.   I’ll be back next month for another budget review 

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