Bust Our Budget-May 2013 Budget Update #5: Summer Expenses
It’s time to bust our budget for the month of May and it’s a big bust this month with all of the summer expenses coming our way. We don’t really like spending money if we don’t have to but when it’s going to improve the overall look and value of our home and taking care of our pet it’s a no-brainer for us. I’m certainly not going to complain about the way this past month has turned out as it was expected to happen at one point or another. We had the money saved in our projected expenses to cover everything that needed to get covered.
All those times when I said it’s important to budget and have projected expenses came to light this past week when our dog needed to visit the dog doctor. If you read the post I wrote about the costs involved with euthanasia you will see what we did for our pet and the costs. On a good note the results came back good but the veterinarian wants to chop off his dangly bits or whatever you choose to call them. I stare at my boy and think, bloody hell mate you have no idea what storm is coming your way and I just feel sorry for the poor old boy.
I think it’s because I never want to have to feel his pain, ever. The vet said because he is not neutered that is what is fuelling the back-end problem. Hopefully once his bits are removed the swelling will come down further with a round of steroids and rest will be all he needs. After last weeks surgery he recovered remarkably well so fingers crossed he doesn’t come out wanting to find new owners.
It was not hard to make the final call for him but since he was going under they will clean and remove a couple of his teeth as well. I figured I might as well get him sorted out since he is on his last years and let him go out feeling as good as can be. It’s hard when our pets put up with pain and don’t even let us know they are suffering until it gets so bad that they can’t hack it any longer. For this, we will pay a total just under $2,000.
If you think you want a pet, make sure you do the math and can afford one. People who put pets down just because they don’t have the cash to help them shouldn’t bother owning a pet. It’s not fair to the pet. It’s not a case of one is entitled to own a pet it’s a case of the pet has feelings too and is not a toy.
The Landscaping
I have to admit that moving boulders by hand this past couple of weeks was a bit harder than expected but I did it. I wouldn’t suggest it unless you are confident in your strength and ability to move the rocks with wood and an extra-large pry bar like I did. I don’t think I underestimated moving the stones by hand but I didn’t realize how tired I would be after doing it. Sometimes we look at the stones and say, ah no big deal but once you get out there you realize those suckers are heavy. A little hard work doesn’t hurt the body.. it builds strength!
Overall it looks like landscaping will cost us when all is said and done just under $3000 for a job that likely would have cost us thousands of dollars more if we had a landscaping company come in to do it for us. This includes the driveway sealing, all flowers, planter baskets, soil, plants, sod, mulch, rocks (lots of rocks, big ones too!), all the steps, path stones, sealants, gravel, brackets, delivery etc…. the list is longer than that. I might do a post breakdown of it all.
How We Budget Our Monthly Expenses
I often have fans ask me how to budget money and what we do in order to save so much money but the reply is that it’s not about the money it’s about the process involved. Budgeting and saving money is like a marriage of many variables but stay together with a dedication to learn, grow and work together towards budget goals. Budget failure only occurs when you give up on the budget which should not happen as long as you give 100% into making sure you reach your goals through thick and thin. We don’t always have good months but we suck it up and move on.
Sometimes fans email and ask me if setting up a budget in Canada is any different living in other countries and to be honest I’m going to say, probably not. If I still lived in the UK I could use this exact budget to meet all of my needs. Below are links to the budgeting series which I wrote while designing our spreadsheet.
I’m not a financial planner/advisor so I can’t tell you how you should budget but I can show you how we budget. I’m just a regular guy just like everyone else, some might call me a budget nerd. I love seeing money grow and where it has gone. Please take the time to read through the budgeting series and I hope you take something away from the information.
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 1– Gathering All the information
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 2– Categories
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 3– Tracking Receipts
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 4- Note-taking
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 5– 5S Organization
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 6– Who Does What and When?
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 7– Balancing Our Budget
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 8– Knowing our Coupon Savings
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 9– Reading Our Bills
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 10– Projected Expenses
We also make use of all the Free Money Saving Tool Lists that I have on the blog for everyone to download for free and use. These lists contribute to the success of our budget because they keep us organized and up to date on what’s happening in our home. I hope you too get a chance to look at the lists and print off what will help you in your home.
Screenshot Of Our Canadian Budget Binder Spreadsheet
Changes to The Budget This Month
You may notice that our weekly mortgage payments have gone up to $303.79. We decided since we can’t pre-pay any more than the $37,000 we already paid this month we might as well up the payments since we are allowed to but only to a max of $303.79.
I’m still waiting on a final figure for our home and car insurance since bringing out the El Camino…. OK it’s not an El Camino and I’m not Brad Pitt but it’s my pimped up ride that I take very good care of. It’s not actually an El Camino, just an El Trucko.
Our grocery budget was low this month as we spent way too much in April on food so we tried to catch up. We still went over but we will carry forward that amount until we can get back on track. I’m hoping it’s the last time we do that again.
Our Rogers bill should stay steady now at $153.55 each month until next year around April when I have to see what new Rogers promotions are available although they have been good to us.
You will also see we paid the ridiculous price of $134.92 to have our 2-year-old A/C inspected as part of the deal with our provider for 10 years parts and 10 years warranty. I’m not complaining though because if something does break at least everything is covered top to bottom. Peace of mind is worth the money here for us.
Other than that our miscellaneous is high due to blog costs in part and the other just bits and bobs that we needed. Since blogging is not free when you go self-hosted you have to pay a hosting fee. As you all know my blog is getting redesigned and that also will cost me out-of-pocket as I have $0 coming in from the blog at the moment. I’m hoping we can grow as a team to help bring in some income to off-set the costs involved with the site.
May Household Budget Percentages
Our savings of 36.36% includes savings and investments. I’ve also went ahead and added in our projected expenses this month at 16.68% which brings the total May 2013 Household Budget percentages to 100%.
May Budget Expenses Breakdown
This is simple breakdown of our expenses and one that has helped us to understand every inch of where our money comes and goes. Many of you said you like the budget recap as it’s easier to relate to your own situation or it’s realistic in numbers so thanks for your emails and feedback. I appreciate that you enjoy this budget update each month but I do hope you view it as an educational tool rather than comparing your situation as we are all unique. Spending less we earn and budgeting our money is the simplest way to get to where we are today, and how we did it.
- Chequing– This is where all the bills get paid from.
- Emergency Savings Account– This is a high interest savings account.
- Regular Savings Account– This a savings account that holds our projected expenses money.
- Monthly Budget Total: $4373.44
- Monthly Net Income Total: $8253.39
- Total Coupons Used (includes points redeemed, big box store coupons, not just grocery coupons:=$13.00
- Projected Expenses: These are expenses we know we will pay for throughout year and save monthly for = $1189.18
- Total Expenses Actually Paid Out: $6374.86
- Total Expenses Actually Paid Out Calculated is $8253.39 (total net monthly income) –$689.35 (total monthly savings)–Projected expenses $1189.18 = $6374.86
- Actual Cash Savings Going Into Emergency Savings Funds: $689.35
- Calculated is $8253.39(total monthly net income) – $6374.86(actual expenses paid out for the month)–$1189.18 (projected expenses) = $689.35
What are Projected Expenses?
PE= A Projected Expense is money which is automatically saved each month ready for when the bill comes in or for when you need it as in the example below. We go over our projected expenses at the beginning of the year to set up our yearly budget and adjust as we go along if a new projected expense arises and needs to be added to the budget.
This has happened on many occasions but it’s bound to happen as we can’t predict everything we have to pay for over the course of the year. The important part for us is that we are saving for the expense and we no longer have to stress about taking money from our savings to pay for them. To learn more about projected expenses read Step 10 in my budgeting series.
When we spend the money in a projected expense category we move that money to our chequing account so it’s ready to get paid when the bill comes in. We pay projected expenses continually even when bills come due as it’s revolving so as one bill gets paid the money continues to come in from the other categories all year-long. So the $1189.19 gets paid into the projected expense account every month no matter what. Then we pull what we spent to pay the bills that were projected expenses. It seems to be easier to track that way for us but you can do what works for you.
Projected Expense Example:
Clothing we budget $50 per month. If we spend $30 on clothes for the month that means we need to pull $30 from the projected expenses account to pay for this expense or we move only $20 to projected expenses for the month and leave the $30 in your chequing account. It’s up to you how you do it as I mentioned above.
It sounds difficult but it’s not once you get used to it. It becomes a lifestyle change for your finances but the most important part is, the money is available and saved=no stress. This means we should have $600.00 per year for clothing to spend. We have to track that expense as we spend it manually but hopefully in the future I can incorporate that into our spreadsheet so it tallies the numbers up as we go along so we know exactly what we’ve spent, like an ongoing total.
Budget For May 2013
Money that we budgeted to spend minus the savings as that gets added once we see what is left for the month. If it is highlighted in blue that means it’s a projected expense.
Actual Budget Expenses for May 2013
May 2013 Goals
- Pre-Pay another 20% off the mortgage– Done paid $37,000
- Pay the mortgage in full after we pre-pay but will see how this all comes together- FAIL waiting for paper work
- Order a personal finance book from the library and actually start reading it- PASS bought one at a garage sale called The Rules Of Wealth.
- Reach 5120 Facebook Followers- PASS Our CBB team currently stands at 5579 Likes
- Reach 1600 Twitter Followers- PASS CBB currently has …… 1646 Followers
- Reach 975 Blog Subscribers- PASS Yes! CBB currently has 1054 Subscribers to the blog.
- Work out the final touches on the new blog design with my designer- PASS Yep.. he’s working on the finishing touches now!! Should be looking at a new blog in June, so stay tuned for that.
- Start Planting our seedlings- PASS All garden seedlings are planted and ready to rock and roll
- Guest Post for an awesome personal finance blog (if you want me, email me): FAIL
- Finish sanding/Protecting and sealing the deck- PASS this was done early in May so I’m happy I got that out-of-the-way
- Get the indoor plants out- PASS all plants are outside
- Seal the drive- FAIL I bought the product now I just need to finish the landscaping. I’ll be sealing any cracks this week though.
- Re-caulk Garage Window- FAIL will get to it next month
- Design plans for landscaping- PASS Almost half way done the landscaping project.. YES!
- Put our summer furniture outside- PASS lookin good!!! Now we need summer weather so we can BBQ and drink more beer!!
- Roll the back lawn- FAIL no time for this yet
- Clean up the back gardens- Half PASS Working on it slowly although it looks pretty darn good, although I’m biased. Does it count if the neighbour says she likes it?
June 2013 Goals
- Guest Post for an awesome personal finance blog (if you want me, email me)
- Have a couple of awesome bloggers guest post on Canadian Budget Binder ( if you are interested read my guest post guidelines then email me with your blog post pitch)
- Read 3 chapters in my Rules of Wealth Personal Finance Book
- Sort out the paperwork to pay off the mortgage (fingers crossed)
- Finish the landscaping out front
- Seal the driveway
- Seal and protect the new steps
- Re-caulk garage window
- Swap the garage lights around
- Install spot lights out front
- Reach 5700 Facebook LIKES
- Reach 1700 Twitter Followers
- Reach 1075 Blog Subscribers (this may fail once I move my site as I may lose my wordpress subscribers unless they re-subscribe at the new site)
- Start splitting plants in the back garden
- Fix the fence post (did you read about my fence post?)
- Roll The Back Lawn with my free lawn roller I found on the side of the road with a FREE sign! I love free stuff!
- Fix the deck lights
- Find our dog a full-time job to earn extra money to pay for his vet bills 😉
Our Year To Date Percentages 2013
Budget Updates 2013
In case you missed our budget updates from the start of the year I will list them all in each month’s post now so you have easy access to them all.
Well we certainly did bust our budget for May but we are happy that we aren’t stressing about where the money is coming from. How did you make out for May and what improvements would you make to our budget if you could? Drop by next month to see how we made out with our budget update and if you are not yet a subscriber to the blog I encourage you to join the CBB team.
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Ack, I left a comment but WP wouldn’t log me in. Anyway, we have spent a ton on landscaping, and it’s sad to see the money go but worth it for our investment. Sorry to hear about your dog!
I think so as it adds curb appeal and really makes the house look well cared for. I really do enjoy gardening so I’m looking forward to the end result.
To be honest, I get really scared when I think about summer budget. No matter how hard I try I can never plan things beforehand and it even happened to me once, that I had to look for some cash stores. I am hoping I won’t need to this ever again as May is a pretty expensive month for me as well. Thanx god it is over and I still have some money put aside. But compared to you…I am still doing so many things the way I should not. You definitely have some more projects.
I hope your dog is doing better!
I agree with you 100%. If you are Gona have a pet think of it like a kid.The same expenses come with them. Food,medical & LOVE. If you can’t meet their needs pass. Let someone who can adopt them. Glad your dogs doing better. I feel for him too,but it will give him a longer life. We can’t stand to see our 4 legged babies suffer. We are good pet parents. 🙂
That’s just it people think that they are disposable or we will deal with it if a problem arises. That’s not the best way to handle it especially when costs get into the thousands.
How long did this post take you to put together??? Impressed by the detail you go into and all the various sections.
I hope your dog is feeling better after it’s all said and done. We have a 20+ year old cat (yes, my 23-year old wife has had her since she was 2 or 3 years old!) and we are bringing her in for a checkup. She has been to the vet only ONCE in the past 10+ years. She seems to be doing alright but want to make sure she isn’t in pain. She is so brittle it’s hard to tell…mainly I’m concerned her joints are going bad and it hurts for her to get around, though it’s just really tough because they can’t tell you how they are feeling. We want to get a dog but stories like yours make me pause. I want to be able to provide them with the proper care.
We are doing some light landscaping. Trying to do as many “on the cheap” fixes as possible. We won a $400 Ryobi Lawn Mower that I would have loved but…I bought a Toro two weeks ago that works great. We’ll bring it in to Home Depot and take the store credit. That’ll let us buy stuff to finish our fence, build our garden, and start redoing the landscaping in the front of our house.
I don’t make it to your site nearly enough, need to make it a more regular visit!
That’s awesome that you won a lawn mower… I never win anything. The post doesn’t take too long but most of my posts I spend hours on to be honest. I’m a perfectionist who seems to always make mistakes lol. The budget update for the most part is cut and paste and the charts are generated from the budget I designed for us. The write up is simply what happened over the course of the month.
Hey you can guest post for me anytime CBB! I know the pup was a huge chunk of change, but I agree, I would have paid just about anything for Pepe as well, and actually have in the past. I also couldn’t agree more than when you take on a pet, it’s not a cute toy. It costs money, time, and work. Of course what you get back is tenfold. Good luck with all your goals in June. And write me a post. 🙂
Thanks I know I have set lots of goals for June but that’s what I need to do to motivate myself. I’ll get my butt guest posting as soon as I can. I’m moving the site any time now he’s working on the back end and coding now. We can talk about a guest post and I think you should do the same…. maybe one of those motivational type posts you are so good at with your personal experiences… Cheers Tonya!
I’m so sorry to hear about your dog, but glad he’s doing better. If you find someone who hires furry critters, let me know. My dog could certainly earn her keep a bit better as well! We aren’t doing any major projects this summer, but would love to put in a screen porch next year or the next. It will be expensive, but we would use and enjoy the heck out of it. Right now, our back porch is too hot to enjoy in the afternoons, but if we had a roof, it would be pleasant most of the year.
I think if you will use it and you have the money to put in a quality porch then go for it. I don’t waste money on cheap stuff as it just doesn’t last and no sense having to do it over again down the road. That’s why we are taking our time renovating so we put in decent quality materials.
I’m glad your dog got a good prognosis from the vet, but ummm….sorry that he has to go surgery. 🙂 Our cat is neutered and he didn’t retaliate afterwards. Looks like you had another great month and accomplished a lot with your landscaping. It’s looking really good! Have a great week, Mr. CBB.
Thanks Shannon, I’m sure he will be fine as long as they send him home with some of those fancy biscuits. lol.
Glad to hear the pooch is feeling better, but I am having a hard time believing you didn’t get him fixed as a puppy!!!!!! House rules here, the critters get fixed as a condition of living with us!!!
Sounds like the landscaping is coming along nicely…can’t wait for pictures!!! Our raised beds in the back need work but it can be difficult getting in there being as we are at the bottom on the hill so it takes a long time for the ground to dry. With the weather lately we have some standing water by the edge of the deck so you would step into water stepping onto the lawn. The plants are doing well as are the weeds after the rain. Nice looking rocks… I am NOT showing that picture to hubby…. Ever!!! He does not need the encouragement to pick up any more rocks.. He has picked up some over the years as he drives around. Yours look bigger than any he has brought home but our vehicle could only hold so much. We have had rocks here that were placed where they were because that is where they landed……there is a big sucker on the way to London he has been known to covet. I refuse to stop… I suspect it bears a resemblance to the ice berg that sunk the Titanic, most of it is out of sight….
No I did not get him fixed as he is a breeding dog and full bred so I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with him. The rocks were bloody heavy to move but the bobcat was also very expensive to rent. I could have got placement of the rocks but that fee was also not worth it for me. I had the time so I used that time to move them myself. I don’t recommend it unless someone has the strength and smarts to move them behind them as it can get a little tricky.
OK I’ll buy that as a pure bred you might hold off on the neutering.Except for the siamese, our kitties were moggies and the dog was anyone’s guess. I’m well aware of how heavy those rocks can be!!! I got snookered into helping hubby get his rocks from back roads and such!!!! It’s a wonder the car’s suspension held up with some of his precious babies!!!! He was quite the rock hound in his day!!! We did get a couple of nice ones back on the road behind the cement plant….ssshhhhhh!!!!! Lol!!
Shhhh ok I won’t say anything at all….. 🙂
We hate spending the money this time of year, but it always happens and we have the money saved up for it so that makes it a bit easier. We have a few bigger projects that we want to get done, but that’s going to take some longer periods of saving so we can make sure we get quality for what we pay for.
You bet mate, that’s the name of the game. We waited 4 years so we could spend decent money on our yard and buy quality materials. Never been in a rush if the walls aren’t crumbling or if it’s just aesthetic.