DD’s Monthly Expenses – April 2009

Posted by Debt Destroyer on May 5, 2009

For those of you who are just joining us, I keep a record of my family’s expenses. Here is the tally for April:

$830.00 – Mortgage
$664.10 – Health Insurance
$646.00 – Auto Insurance
$639.00 – Daycare
$339.33 – Groceries
$237.75 – Tennis
$200.00 – Student Loan
$154.34 – Gas
$148.00 – Umbrella Insurance Policy
$145.45 – Electricity
$134.20 – Household Misc.
$130.40 – Dinning Out
$105.95 – Turbo Tax
$97.69 – Easter Presents
$80.00 – Medical
$78.00 – Donations
$76.11 – Phone/Internet
$65.19 – Utilities (water, sewer, garbage)
$41.34 – Park & Rec Classes
$40.00 – Gift
$35.80 – Children Museum
$14.00 – Haircut
$1.89 – Video Rental

For a grand total of…$4904.54!

Or in other words, $600+ more than last month.

Biggest Budget Busters:

$794.00 – Insurance (Auto & Umbrella) - This is an annual cost. I could budget it every month, but I don’t. It’s usually not so bad because I use my tax refund to help pay it. But this year we had to pay in, so double ouch!
$237.75 – Tennis - $180 of this is a new racket for my wife. It was a surprise gift for her (I told her that it’s her Mother’s Day & Anniversary presents combined). She is really coming along with her enthusiasm for the game, so I figured it was time to get her a real racket. One that she should be able to use for 10-20 years.
$154.34 – Gas, $130.40 – Dinning Out, $97.69 – Easter Presents, $40.00 – Gift, $35.80 – Children Museum - I’m grouping all of these together, because these totals are a result of our Easter trip. The only one of these that I regret is the amount we spent on presents. We wanted to get our daughter a bike (she has a winter B-Day), so we did. But then we felt like we had to get our son something too. So we ended up going a little overboard (plus we forgot to pack the Easter baskets, so we had to get that stuff too). And of course, Little Miss DD is scared of her bike. :)

Biggest Budget Breakthroughs:

$339.33 – Groceries – Another record low in this category. Being gone for 5 days helped a bit. But I have to admit that the real reason we are gaining ground here is that Mrs. DD is planning the meals and is doing a bang up job of making sure we use what we already have.
$145.45 – Electricity – I received a couple of comments last month saying I paid a lot for electricity. I wasn’t too worried because I knew something they didn’t… Spring finally arrived! The bills should be much lower now that it’s not so darn cold anymore.
$134.20 – Household Misc. – I can hardly believe this number. I think I must have lost some receipts, because our misc figures haven’t been this low in a long time.

Overall, it’s not that bad. I hope to be under $4,000 in May. And if we’d take out the Insurance, we would’ve come close in April.

Until next time,

-DD

» Filed Under Spending

Trackbacks/Pings

Carnival of Money Stories - Inaugural Edition on May 11th, 2009 6:48 am
The Happy Rock's Monthly Budget Expenses Revealed | The Happy Rock on May 15th, 2009 9:01 am
DD’s Monthly Expenses - May 2009 | The Happy Rock on June 3rd, 2009 12:05 am
The Catch All Budgeting Category, What Is In Miscellaneous? | The Happy Rock on June 22nd, 2009 7:20 am

Comments

10 Responses to “DD’s Monthly Expenses – April 2009”

The Happy Rock (336 comments.) on May 6th, 2009 12:00 am

DD – I have a question that isn’t quite transparent from the monthly updates. Where is the ‘overspending’ coming from? Cash savings or debt?

I would also suggest adding a $66 a month auto insurance item to your monthly spending and throw it a savings account so you can avoid the one time pain next year.
brainy (11 comments.) on May 6th, 2009 12:36 pm

One word… “Ouch.”

Really though, the insurance alone is what killed you and that’s an annual type of thing so it’s not all bad…

Still… ouch!

;0)
Dara (1 comments.) on May 8th, 2009 3:53 pm

Wow, that is a cheap video rental! Blockbuster here is $4.50 per movie.

Without the annual payments, I don’t think this budget is extreme at all.
Debt Destroyer on May 9th, 2009 7:44 pm

@ The Happy Rock – Savings, what is that?

We’ve given my wife a raise plus I work a little bit (will work more in summer), but I did take a out a student loan. So there will be that debt someday.

I think part of the problem with my posts is that I use the word budget in my analysis, when in fact there is no budget. All I’m doing is tracking expenses.

@ brainy & Dara – I agree that w/o the insurance expenses April wouldn’t have been too bad. I’m really hoping to get under 4K in the warmer months, but I’m not sure if I can get there or not.
Single Guy Money (2 comments.) on May 11th, 2009 2:58 pm

Nice. I would glady exchange mortgage payments with you. I am also curious to know what the household misc category is composed of?
Debt Destroyer on May 12th, 2009 10:52 pm

The household misc category is made up of misc items.

It’s stuff like: toilet paper, bug spray, diapers, toothpaste, batteries, postage stamps, small appliances, paper towels, wasp & hornet killer…and anything else that I’m too lazy to separate out.