So it’s official, now that I have my new license, my 2nd promotion (well really, just a pay raise) was processed and my paycheck now reflects a $10k increase, woo hoo! Once taxes come out it really not as much money as you’d think (or as I’d like), but I’m grateful for the increase and glad to have a little more money in the budget. Only problem? I haven’t really been following a set budget for at least a year.
Why haven’t I been budgeting? Truthfully, it was a lot easier to budget (emotionally) when I was working on big goals. At first, my goal was paying off my student debt. Once I paid off the debt my goal was saving a down-payment. Since we moved into the condo 2 years ago, I haven’t been as strict with my spending.
I let myself buy little things (and bigger things like our trip to Mexico) and I don’t really stress out about where the money comes from (which budget category) or how much I spend (within reason) as long as I have money at the end of the month to put into my savings account. I was previously trying to save about $1000 per month out of my paycheck.
While this has been a relatively effective method of “budgeting” for me, more money should equal more savings and I know that this pay raise is probably is the perfect time to reassess my savings goal and the ways I’m spending my money.
When I first started budgeting years ago I was shocked by how much money I was spending each month on stuff I didn’t need (housewares, take-out and convenience foods, getting my hair done etc.). So, without further ado, here’s what I’ve come up with:
I was hungry when I made the budget, so I’m calling it the “doughnut” budget. Here’s what it includes:
- Mortgage: $725 is what Eric and I decided would be my portion of the mortgage. I save this $725 for him and he pays our mortgage in full out of his paycheck. It’s a strange system, but it works for us.
- Cell Phone: $130. But by the end of the month I’m going to decrease this at least $20 (hopefully more) when I cut a couple of lines off the family plan. I’m still trying to decide if I want to switch to another provider from Verizon.
- Groceries etc: $625. As I mentioned above, I don’t bother to separate my spending into specific categories. Instead, I just give myself roughly $125 a week for groceries and miscellany. This includes everything I buy that’s not included in any of the specific categories listed. If I need dog food, if I go out for beers with friends, I need new shoes etc.
- Storage: $140. Remember the post I wrote about how $130 saved my relationship? well now $140 saves my relationship because the storage rent went up! Ugg. If I could get rid of any expense, this one would be the first to go. If/when we buy a home in the burbs, I definitely will be thrilled to have a basement or attic space to put all of our “stuff” in.
- Condo Fee: $275. Nothing much to say about this one.
- Savings: $1,350. This number may change a little bit month to month (hopefully up), but this is the minimum I’d like to save, unless I have a big expense during that month that I need to pay for. If something else comes up (remember our furnace debacle this past winter?) I’d hopefully be able to pay for the expense out of this monthly amount, instead of dipping into the emergency fund.
- Dog Walking: $300. $60 a week for 5 weeks. Yes it’s a lot of money, but it’s not something that negotiable in our household. We both work long hours and it’s not fair to have the boo at home all day “holding it”. We chose to adopt a dog so we’ve chosen to have this expense in our/my budget.