Well it has been just over a year since I posted here for the first time. Given that, I thought it might be timly to post my spending from over the past year since finding MMM. Things have changed a bit, we sold our old house last spring which freed up cash and I’ve started saving more.
That said, my spending is still SHOCKING! There is cash leaving our accounts that I can’t account for because it is my husband making cash withdrawals (100$ here, 200$ there) that I know nothing about.
My husband is not a spendthrift in that he doesn’t make big purchases without a joint decision to do so, but he seems to always want to be dropping 1000$ here, 500$ there, as well, as I said he deals in cash often so that there is not trail in terms of where the money goes. He knows I keep up on our spending and that I’m always on this blog, but when I propose that he reads some of the ideas on the forum, he says he doesn’t need to because I do. He’s got the job that he hates, but he is not particularly energized at the idea of retiring in 10 years. He can’t even be bothered to go activate his RRSP account. That, and he’s pretty lackluster about following a budget. Not that I’m faultless, I’ve got $2000 racked up for my personal spending and the Costco tally, while it includes lots of food stuff, also has household stuff not accounted for in shopping.
My plan at this point is to go over our year’s worth of spending and then to do a monthly report to review until we can get on the same page and start cruising a little more smoothly.
Anyway, in the spirit of shaming myself in this blog, here are my crappy spending habits – this is total spending from January 1 to October 31, 2014:
Income: $125,357
Salary & Side Gig: 89210$ (After tax)
House Sale Cash back: 36,147 (this was dumped into our account, some was used to pay off parents loan, invest and put towards new house improvements)
Savings: $38,023
Mortgage Extra Payment: $10,745
RRSP: $23,608
Emergency Fund: $3,670
Spending: $87334
Mortgage: $15,760
House Insurance: $1,156
Property tax: $1565
Groceries: $5911
Alcohol: $2596
(this includes boxed wine, Ubrew wine, husbands beer – he no longer Ubrews)
Car (2 cars, 15km commute each way, drive separately)
Gas $3252
Servicing $501
Insurance $1,929
Motorbike Insurance $221
(husband just sold it)
Daycare/Summer camp $2701
Entertainment $175
(Netflix, movie, weekend excursions)
Bank Fees $257
(includes visa fees of $170/yr, overdraft protection, atm charges, account fees)
Coffee Shops $23
Utilities $947
(includes firewood, garbage, septic etc)
Husbands Cell $145
Hydro $1220
(this will be lower in the coming year since we installed a woodstove this fall)
Health $480
(whatever isn’t covered by our work benefits)
Internet & Landline $1,328
Kids $1385
(school fees, clothes, shoes, bday presents – I buy a couple of larger sizes when things are on sale)
Lawn & Garden $2384
(big this year because we built raised beds, and a greenhouse – will be MUCH smaller next year)
Life Insurance $995
Old House Expenses $2530
(no longer an issue given that we sold)
Parental Loan payout $6980
Restaurants $1356
(this included about $500 on our 2 week vacation since the others in the group paid for
groceries)
Pets $960
(2 dogs, a cat and chickens – older dog just died so saves on future food and medication)
Moving $223
Sports $1294
(my husband is a jujitsu fanatic, so this includes his & the kids lessons….does NOT include his
seminars which I don’t know about price wise)
Vacation $2748
(every other year)
Misc $644
(finally did a Will…)
XMAS & bdays…so far $403
Me $2000
(includes my bi-annual haircut, Shopping & I bought a bike this year with the intent to start
biking to work….)
Husband $2226
(includes UFC tv, Jujitsu gear, books, work shoes)
Home Improvement $12642
Costco $4774
Cash & ATM $3623
The worst of the lot are the last 2...the Costco (which is on top of the groceries), and the unnaccounted for ATM withdrawals....crazy!