March 2012 Canadian Budget Binder Budget Update

Hi there folks,

I’m back with the March 2012 budget update for Canadian Budget Binder.

You probably already know but we’ve just finished designing the Canadian Budget Binder Budget Spreadsheet and have tested it out this past month. We are continually trying to improve the sheet and so far we are very happy with the outcome. In the upcoming month we will look for a few volunteers to test it out and give us some feedback.

Most of the excitement has come from the “projected expenses” the expenses we have decided to budget in each month and transfer to a separate account until they come due.

Many of my fans agreed that when it comes time to pay one of these projected expenses they had to pull money from their savings or emergency savings to pay the bill as there was not enough money left in the budget.  Some even went as far as to put it on a credit card or use the line of credit as the money just wasn’t in the budget.

It’s the small things we tend to overlook and I really don’t want to be dipping in our savings to pay for them. The Emergency Savings is meant for just that, emergencies. We are thrilled to know we don’t have to scramble to pay the projected expenses any long nor take from our savings.

You will see some number changes in our budget like I mentioned last month I received a raise so I wanted to make adjustments when I had an exact Net Income.

You will also see we went over budget on grocery this month because…..

•  We stock up on summer items as they are on sale as we volunteer with students in the summer so we like to be prepared to keep the food costs low.

Overall we were happy how the month turned out minus the grocery overage which we continually work on with our Monthly Grocery Game Challenge.

You will see our net income was higher this month due

• extra pay in March
• interest from the accounts
• cheques received,
• mail in rebates
• gift cards received

So without any more of my chatter…. let’s get on with it shall we!

Overview – I will post this each month for reference.

We now have 3 accounts

We realized we shouldn’t be saving money for items we know we will have to pay for (projected expenses) in our emergency fund so we separated it. This way we have  a true figure for savings.

1. Chequing– This is where all the money comes and goes
2. Emergency Savings– This is where we keep our spare money for the time being
3. Savings– This is where we put all the money for items we know we will have to pay for at some point in the year ie: Christmas, Income Tax, Vehicle Sticker. That way the money is ready to pay for the bill.

THE BREAKDOWN

Monthly Budget Total: $5742.00

Total Coupons Used: $471.08

Savings Overall: 6% *Note that everything we buy is always on sale or reduced in price and we try to use coupons as well with the product so the savings overall is based on the sale or reduced price. If we were to use the original price this percentage would obviously be much higher.

Needs To Go To Savings For Budgeted Expenses: These are expenses we know we will pay for throughout year and save monthly for = $576.59

Total Expenses Actually Paid Out is: $4577.75

Calculated is $7757.43 (total monthly income) – $3179.68 (total monthly savings) = $4577.75

Actual Cash Savings Going Into Emergency Savings Funds: $2603.09

Calculated is $7757.43 (total monthly income) – $4577.75 (actual expenses paid out for the month) – $576.59 (budgeted expenses) = $2603.09

Total Net Income: $7757.43

Explanation of Numbers in Budget Below:

• First number is :Total Budgeted Cost
• Second Number is: Actual Spent
• Saved in Account for Future-means it will be put in a Savings account to accumulate to pay bill  or future expense when/if due.
• If no remark then the money just stays in chequing account to cover  future overage so we don’t need to pull from emergency savings. 
•  Our Monthly Budget is :$5742.00

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