DD’s Monthly Expenses – April 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
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.
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)
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.
@ 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.
Nice. I would glady exchange mortgage payments with you. I am also curious to know what the household misc category is composed of?
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.