It’s gonna be May! (Are you tired of hearing that?? Lol!) I’m back today to give a recap of April and fill you in on our May budget! Get all the deets below!
May Budget Update
Jett officially has like, 15 days of school left! After the last couple of weekends, spending them outside and with friends and staying up later, I have to say that I am so excited for summer! We will dive in to May’s budget, but let’s recap April first.
April Recap
April was a miss overall. We overspent big time, but got ready for all things summer around our house! Here is what happened!
- For starters, we went ahead and got a canopy for the back yard, which we really needed! I found it on sale during the Wayfair WayDay promotion, so I got a really good deal on it! So that added in another $450 to the budget to cover the canopy and all the things we used to weight it down. However, we have already gotten our money’s worth out of it because it is AWESOME! It has extended the use of our outdoor space so much already – we have had a couple of fun gatherings under it already! And it has a sunshade that zips closed – which is worth its weight in G O L D. That afternoon sun is killer. (In case you’re wondering, this is the one we bought).
- Another two large expenses were tax related – our tax preparation fees of $275 and our taxes due of $1658. Oh, and my first quarterly tax payment too of $812. Whew. I knew we would have to pay in, but it is always just a hit that I think we could plan better for!
- As for our Emergency Fund – we had to take our taxes out of our emergency fund, so we are back down to under $12K. But we are back on the horse now and are working to fill it up quickly, because I’M TIRED OF BEING ON BABY STEP THREE! There, I said it.
May Budget Plans & Goals
- As you can immediately tell – our list of expenses for May compared to April is much, much shorter! So I’m already happy about that. We pretty much have no extra expenses planned for aside from our regular living expenses this month, so that is a start.
- My goal this month is to STICK TO THE BUDGET. I’ve been really bad about overspending and buying things that aren’t in the budget (as a seven and a spender, I can justify pretty much any purchase!) so I’m setting my sights on sticking to the budget to the penny. Foot back to the pedal, nose back to the grindstone, and gazelle intensity back in place!
- I had mentioned having a garage sale in April, and we kind of had one, but only sold a couple of things because we didn’t really plan for it. We just pulled out a few things the day of and didn’t spend a lot of time or energy advertising it. We did sell a bike and Jett’s Hot Wheel’s jeep, but he put the money from those sales into his money jar. I’d still like to have a garage sale in May so we can put that money in our emergency fund!
Budget Meeting Agenda
This month’s budget meeting was me owning up quite a bit to going off the budget and overspending over the last couple of months. The whole time we were paying off our debt, I really flexed my contentment muscles! They have become weak again, and I’m having a hard time saying no to myself. So Chris and I talked about that and how I’m recommitting myself to the journey this month!
That is pretty much it!
As crazy as this sounds, I love budgeting so much. It gives me so much peace about our money and control over where things are going that I look forward to it every month!
If you’ve never done a budget before read this post before you get started! If you’ve never had a budget meeting, check out this post to help you plan for it. Let me know how your budgets are going in the comments!
