August Budget Report Card
In order to be more transparent, I would like to post a monthly report card for my personal finances. If you saw the post last Friday, you know that I will be talking about finance on Fridays so this is a bonus finance post this week. I hope that you will take joy in watching my debt paid increase and my debt owed decrease over the next couple of years. The report card will show a bit of my budget and debt payments each month. Let’s jump right into the August budget report card.
Groceries
We have a grocery budget of $280 per month. This stays the same each month. We do not change it even if there is a five week month. This breaks down to $50-$70 per week depending on how many weeks are in the month. The August Budget allowed us to spend $70 each week. During this month, my husband had his third brain surgery and we didn’t need to buy groceries during that week so we came in under budget. We spent a total of $230.86 on groceries this month. We have $49.14 left, and I will hang on to this money in my wallet in case we go over budget in the next few months.
Debt Payment
My goal for each month is to pay down at least $300 worth of debt. Minimum payments are included in this figure. I would love to pay more per month, but at this time this is what we can comfortably afford. Our total for this month was $441.18. Anytime we receive any extra money, it goes directly towards our snowball. Our minimum payments were $206.56 so we were able to pay $234.62 extra towards our snowball. This was a great month for debt payments.
Miscellaneous
This month we had a pretty big unexpected purchase to make. A new bed frame. We spent around $100 on this purchase. I was a bit sad that we had to buy the frame this month. On one hand, the money could have been used towards debt. On the other hand, I am so happy that we had the money in our sinking fund to pay cash.
Another thing that happened this month is that we went over our restaurant budget. I am disappointed, but we had extra gas money because Mr. Kay Saga is not able to drive after his recent surgery so we used that to cover the overage. We will pay more attention to this category in September.
The Grade
Overall, I think this month was just alright as far as our finances were concerned. We had one big unexpected expense, but it didn’t completely break our budget. We also went over in one category, but at least it was only one category. It could have been worse. I will give my August budget a grade of B.
Goals
Next month, the goal is to stay on budget within all categories. I do not want to “borrow” money from another category to cover overspending next month. I also want to do better about planning for holidays and things that do not happen each month. So I plan to use a calendar while creating the budget.
Now that I have set my goals for September, I have to work to accomplish them. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am human and just because the month wasn’t perfect, I still made progress. I will be so happy when I do not have to worry about paying down debt any longer. Until then, I just have to remember to take it one day and one penny at a time.
