Thursday, April 20, 2017

February 2017 Budget: What I Spent

February was a difficult month. For one, we got halfway through and hit our budget of $1800. Oops. So then we scrambled around trying not to spend money for the last two weeks. Learning process.


Bills ($525)

Our bills for this month are:
  1. YMCA ($75) 
  2. Audible ($25) 
  3. Cell phones, mine and husbands ($25) 
  4. Electric bill ($200)
  5. Internet ($60)
  6. License plate renewal ($150)
We pay our water bill every two months, so we don't have to pay it in February. We renewed one of our vehicles plates for a few years. Yay, adulting!

Eating Out ($258)

We ate out too much. On the first weekend we ate out three times! We are only supposed to eat out once a week. Oops! This month we ate out eight times...double the amount we budget for.

Grocery ($733)

We signed up for a CSA at our local farmers market this month. We did the same last year and I loved it! Our CSA is from Great Day Gardens! I'm so excited. The CSA is $375 but we broke it up into four payments over the next four months, so this month was only $100. The CSA does not start until May, but I can't wait to get some fresh veggies! Great Day Garden veggies are amazing.

Reuben ($105)


I took Reuben and myself out on a date to Zoe's Kitchen. We also went to Amazement Square, a children's museum that is in downtown Lynchburg. He had a ton of fun! The above picture is from Amazement Square, he's on a boat going down a river! All the going and running and seeing wore me out, through, and we only stayed two hours. Next time I'll stay longer-- for $9 a day, it's an expensive museum. 

The biggest purchase I made for Reuben this month was some Usborne books for his ever-growing home library. I hope he likes them!   

Personal Money ($457)

Carolynn ($294)
I bought two skins of yarn for a tutorial I am working on for my Youtube channel. I also tried out some new makeup from SeneGence. I liked the lipsense I bought, but I did not like the face wash. It had fragrance in it and broke me out! I switched to a different facewash routine now--and I love it! I was using arbonne, then I tried this SeneGence, but now I am using a bar soap, witch hazel, and rosehip oil--and it is working wonderfully. I also bought a toddler wrap for Reuben. I've been baby wearing a lot as we are going out quite frequently! I can't wait to receive it. It's rainbowed, of course! I spent only $80 on babysitting this month.

Brian ($163)
I didn't pack daddy's lunch that much this month, so he ate out a lot. He also went on a wonderful birthday dinner with some coworkers to his favorite place, Buffalo Wild Wings. He bought snacks, and a gaming mouse for his computer. He also bought some things for working on the house that I included into his budget.

Tithe ($200)

We tithed.

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That brings our total spent in January to $2281, more than $400 over our budget of 1800. However, my husband received $100 gift from his mom, and I received $121 payment from YouTube, as well as $40 from two other relatives, making our total $2020 for the month of February. Since this is $20 over budget, it comes out of our saved money. We'd saved $82 last month, and now have saved $62. This saving money thing is hard! Hope to do better next month...

The 2017 budget series:

January : February : March : April : May : June : July
August : September : October : November : December