September Budget Performance
The first complete month of the new budget is over. It's time to see how we did!
Before you take a look, you may notice that there is a line item missing compared to the The $50k a Year Budget article. I've taken out House maintenance amortisation, as that reserves funds for the big $20k expenses that come along once every few years, but maybe not at all in any given year. Including this just skews the budget way too much and makes it look like we're succeeding, even when perhaps we're not.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Category | Monthly Budget | Sept | Sept Variance |
2 | Car insurance | 54.17 | 54.17 | |
3 | Child Care | 563.33 | 525 | 38.33 |
4 | Clothes and Grooming | 41.67 | 12.98 | 28.69 |
5 | Contents Insurance | 50 | 50 | |
6 | Electricity bill | 200 | 347.83 | -147.83 |
7 | Entertainment (cinema, etc) | 83.33 | 15 | 68.33 |
8 | Gifts and Donations | 41.67 | 78.99 | -37.32 |
9 | Groceries, cleaning products | 866.67 | 800.26 | 66.41 |
10 | Holidays and Events | 208.33 | 905.98 | -697.65 |
12 | House nik-naks | 66.67 | 66.67 | |
13 | House Rates | 125 | 125 | |
14 | Internet bill | 93 | 90 | 3 |
15 | Learning and business | 37.5 | 20.57 | 16.93 |
16 | Medical | 83.33 | 955.74 | -872.41 |
17 | Misc | 208.33 | 208.33 | |
18 | Mobile Bill | 80 | 80.77 | -0.77 |
19 | Nappies | 50 | 21.9 | 28.1 |
20 | Take aways, eating out, drinks with friends | 108.33 | 44.4 | 63.93 |
21 | Vehicle and transport (petrol, repair, wof) | 166.67 | 80.6 | 86.07 |
22 | Contingency | 396.13 | 396.13 | |
23 | Grand Total | 3524.13 | 3980.02 | -455.89 |
It's $450 down for the month, but let's dig into those figures in a bit more detail.
Electricity Spike
Did we just have a really electric heavy month? Leave the lights on? Put the heaters on full blast?
No.
We were late paying July's electricty bill and early paying August's, so we ended up with two landing in the same calendar month.
This kind of thing will balance out over the year, so I'm not too worried here.
Searching for a New Home
Our family is currently in the process of looking for somewhere new to live, so we're on the road quite a bit this year. It's been ongoing, and the process will continue until we find a location and a house.
We're thinking of Tauranga right now. It's a beautiful city, perfectly located for access to family and easy weekend get-aways. Everyone we've met on our visits has been lovely and supportive. It is an area with a high cost of living, and may not be the wisest financial choice, but it's still a very exciting time.
Carting two children along while we check it out however, with flights, renting cars, staying in AirBnb and eating, soon adds up. This expense is going to continue to exceed our budget, and I'll need to see if our contingency can handle the strain at the end of twelve months.
Dogs…
Our amazing buddy is sadly nearing the end of her life, and her vet bills are starting to mount. As an older rescue dog, no insurance company would touch us with a ten-foot pole when we got her four years ago. We knew we'd get to this point, but I hoped it would be a few more years down the track. Her cancer seems to come on very quickly.
As much as we're trying to be frugal, we love her dearly. She's an integral part of our family, and as she preceeded our two children, we're especially close to her. As long as we can genuinelly help her, then we'll probably continue to pay the vet fees.
We know we've got a several thousand dollar surgery coming up, probably before Christmas.
…And Teeth
The other big medical expense turned out to be a broken tooth, leading to more dental work. We're $500 down on the initial work, and believe we may be facing several thousand to complete all the issues. It's something we have kicked down the road long enough, and finally need to address.
In any of the last four years, $1000 on medical would have covered us comfortably for any two of those years. This year however, we've spent the annual budget less than six weeks in, and we know it's going to rise. $10k would have been closer the mark I think.
So, What Did We Learn?
The summary from these last two episodes is that we need to budget more for our medical expenses. I figured because health care was mainly free in New Zealand, we could keep this down, but poor health seems to have a way of making you pay.
I'll have a think about what the right number is when we come to rebudget at the end of the year, but I suspect it'll be closer to $4000.
To Wrap It Up
With the exception of the highlighted items, it's been a fairly routine month. Down on some things and up on others, most of which I expect to even out over time.
It's worth mentioning two very specific costs which we don't face right now - House Rates and Contents Insurance. House Rates are a local tax paid by home owners, and as we're renting, we're spared this. It's worth noting that in our target area House Rates are over twice this figure, so will still probably balance out over the year.
Contents Insurance we probably should have now, though I can't think of any time in my life when I've ever actually claimed on it. We don't have very many high-cost possessions - the most expensive item we own by a considerable margin is the laptop I'm typing this on. Still, as our kids get older and more capable of doing serious damage, Contents Insurance is something we'll pick up in the new house.