HOW ARE WE HALFWAY THROUGH JANUARY??
The zero-based budget worked well for December, and now that my husband has left his full-time job (for the time being), I’ve found this budget has been super helpful in me keeping my sanity.
Don’t get me wrong. It makes me crazy to not be shoveling money into investments, but this adjustment is an important one and a good lesson in patience and planning.
Income this month will be two of my full-time job paychecks, my husband’s last full-time job paycheck, two of husband’s part-time job paycheck, the handy stimulus payment, me paying back a Christmas gift I charged to the wrong account, and I’m counting the Flex Spending Account money I’ll be using on some dental surgery. I’m also supposed to get a bonus in my next paycheck, but won’t know my take-home amount until about Tuesday.
I didn’t think I qualified for the stimulus payment, but THANK GOODNESS I did. We pay car insurance up front in January each year, so that will be our biggest expense. Our electric company for some reason is super late in billing for December, so I imagine that will compound this month.
We’re burning our grocery budget faster than planned, but hubby is home full-time now. He used to eat up to two meals a day at work. On the plus side, our restaurant spending is minimal. There’s one charge of about $24 that hasn’t posted yet.
Some unexpected stuff that came up includes a Norton Antivirus renewal and a car wash under “Automotive.”
All in all, doing really well. It gives me a sense of security knowing where [almost] every dollar is going. I’m hoping to be able to full fund the emergency fund to our target within the next month or two and turn my attention to the Roth IRA.
I’ll check back in to wrap up the month too!
-K