There’s a BUMP in our budget: July 2014 Budget Update
A BUDGET FOR THREE
I know this is a blog post update I’ve wanted to do for a while but I’ve put it off. There is a bump in our budget, a baby bump! Mrs. CBB and I are expecting our first child soon. YAY!
We are thrilled and excited for the arrival of our baby and are working through everything like any new parents would.
Now is the time we need to get our baby budget in gear to make sure that we are budgeting the appropriate amounts.
Baby bump
With the baby bump news we will be seeing some changes to our life and budget. I can’t really give accurate numbers until baby is here but for now we are keeping it simple and you will see changes in the budget as we move forward.
We’ve added in the RESP for baby so it’s ready to rock and roll. We don’t want to miss any opportunities to put money aside for baby’s education. I’m sure I’ll be yapping about our baby bump and progress in upcoming posts and life updates so keep on reading to see how things are coming along.
In the meantime please note that I might not be blogging as much and you will see a decrease in blog posts from seven to five posts per week until we are on some form of a schedule. I’ve had many personal finance bloggers who are going to help me out while I’m with the wife. They will be guest posting on CBB so please show them some CBB love once their posts go live.
I can’t predict what will happen day by day but please know I’m not going anywhere even if the blog gets quiet. I thank all of my fans who are helping me out now to keep things rolling on FB and to those who check in on me to see how things are going. 🙂
So, I won’t talk your ear off any longer because I’m sure there will be loads of baby posts in the making. A new learning experience and a new perspective on finances and a budget should really be an eye opener for the two of us.
Dividing your time and planning ahead
July has been no different from any other summer month which includes lots of chores around the house mainly consisting of garden related tasks. There is one exception though, getting stuck into the bathroom renovation by ripping out the old and unwanted and starting from scratch to rebuild the new.
The bathroom isn’t a massive project by any means, just time-consuming. This has led me to declining some extra hours at work, but a change is as good as a rest, so they say. With the renovations well underway some money has gone towards supplies although most of the large more expensive items had already been purchased in previous months. Picking up items on sale has spread out the cost of the bathroom renovation over 3 months so far.
I’m waiting for a shower system that is on order that was supposed to cost the grand total of $904 + tax but I bought it for $625 after much searching around. For things like shower valves and mechanical parts I don’t want to cheap out. We’ve currently got builder grade faucets in our house and they are terrible. I don’t want to keep fixing an item, I want it to last.
We had to employ some extra help this month just so I could divide up my time more effectively by concentrating on a more important project by giving up control and letting someone else do some work for us.
If you are a PF blogger and would like to guest post please get in touch with me.
How did having a baby impact your budget?
`Mr.CBB
Where the money went
This month at a glance has been all spend, spend, spend but with an aim to go forwards and not back. Yes, we were way over our budget but we made the decision to take advantage of the available TFSA room left in one of our accounts and invested a chunk in our RRSP’s.
In total, we added in an extra $8,750 in top-ups which was almost our entire earnings for the month so that money came from our savings. Combine in our usual investment payments and we actually invested everything we earned this month. There will probably be more top-ups as the year progresses as we want to start taking advantage of the money that we’ve freed up from mortgage payments.
The extra payments we have paid in to such things as RRSP’s will also have an effect on our finances when we come to file our taxes next year by giving us a larger refund.
Unexpected expenses
Like I mentioned we are expecting a baby or CBB Jr whichever you prefer. We couldn’t be happier and looking forward to the birth of our little bundle of joy. Things will change in our lives like never before but it’s a wonderful change. Although we expect to see costs go up as Jr grows up we did plan to make things easier for ourselves by paying off the mortgage early.
With less to worry about, we can enjoy our forthcoming life together as a family so much more knowing that baby will have a security blanket like no other. Now that we have an extra person to think about we will always have to plan for three and not two.
Free budget
I’m currently offering 2 versions of our budget and the reason behind it is simple. Firstly, read the disclaimer because what you do with it is your own business so if you mess it up you need to sort that out. I have not closed off any cells so you can make all the changes you like to the budget to reflect your lifestyle which is what the fans wanted.
Although I would love to help every single fan with their budget I am unable to do so but I am always willing to answer any emails you send me so don’t be shy.
This was after all meant to be our personal budget and although I would love to customize it for every fan that wants to use it but, I’m afraid I cannot. I’m not selling this budget or hope to make any money from it so enjoy this free budget and I hope that it works for you as much as it does for us.
Canadian Budget Binder Budget Spreadsheet
(Click to see a larger version of the budget spreadsheet or download it for FREE)
You can download the free budget spreadsheets here.
- Budget 1– You can use the pre-existing categories or you can use your own if you wish and you have the option to use projected expenses or not. Please read all notes left around the budget for tips.
- Budget 2-Everything is pre-set so you have to use the pre-defined categories but this budget will generate year-end budget figures where the other one won’t but you must use the categories already in this budget. If you change anything you will mess up the formulas and year-end figures. Please read all notes left around the budget for tips.
I’m always open to feedback but be polite as you don’t want to hurt my feelings 
Get started and don’t procrastinate. Test it out for a month and see how it goes. There is never any harm in trying something new in life.
You either love it or hate it, which is a fact with anything.
What type of budget do you use?
Our budget plan
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. There is no one money manager in our household as we are both responsible for tracking expenses.
It doesn’t matter if you are using a cash only budget or you use your debit and credit cards throughout the month if your budget doesn’t balance then you likely have budget issues you need to review. You need to learn how to be your own money manager because no one else will care about your money more than you ever will.
We don’t always save as much money as we would like every month but most importantly we are not going into debt because we are budgeting our money. In fact we are currently debt-free including the mortgage which means all we pay for is monthly bills and expenses we create or that are fixed expenses such as the hydro and water bill etc.
One of the most important things we did for our personal finances was that we never let the budget deter us from reaching our goals.
Sure we’ve had crap months but we made up for it or we learned from our mistakes just like anyone else would. 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. We didn’t always earn the income we do today but what made do with what we were earning year after year so we didn’t go into debt.
Sometimes fans email and ask me if living on a budget in Canada is any different from living in other countries.
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 our numbers. I’m just a regular guy just like everyone else; some might call me a budget or numbers nerd.
Our budgeting series
Please take the time to read through the budgeting series and I hope you take something away from the information. If you have any questions about what we do with our money tracker ie: The Budget than feel free to email me. I may expand more on the topics as we go along and add some mini-series on how we budget to break it down even further for you.
- 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
Budget changes July
There are also some changes in the categories to take into account the changes that our finances are going through which you will notice today but are subject to change as we go along.
We will no longer have a “Mortgage/Rent” category, instead this will be changed out to “RESP” which is also a clue to our next category change. Now that we have a bump in the budget, it means that CBB Jr will have a dedicated category using the original listing of “Kids” and changing it to “Kids/Baby”.
The Kids/Baby category will contain all things baby related such as nappies/diapers, wipes and anything else poop related as well as toys, clothes and shoes.
As we have known for a while we have collected stuff for our bump ahead of time and have acquired most stuff free of charge. You’d be surprised at how much people want to reclaim space back in their house when their kids grow out of stuff. This is an upcoming blog post so be warned. 🙂
The Kids/Baby category will have a budgeted figure of $200 per month but that’s a shot in the dark figure and will probably change very quickly when we get into the full swing of living with Jr.
Budget percentages July
(Click photo to see a larger version)
Our savings of 100.39% includes savings and investments and the extra payments made into those investments for this month. Our projected expenses this month is at 19.72% which now includes some increases due to overspend explained in the 2013 year in review.
The total July 2014 Household Budget Percentages comes to 155.17%. Which for this month seems like a crazy figure. This figure reflects the money invested taken from savings to compensate for the fact that we spent more than we earned.
Budget percentages month by month
(Click photo to see larger version)
Expenses breakdown
This is simply a breakdown of our expenses which has helped us to understand where all of our money goes. As of May 2014 we are mortgage free so much of our money will be directed at savings, investments and renovations. We still need to sort out how much we are putting into our investments with our advisor but will have that sorted out soon as there is another account we need to start with him.
I appreciate that you enjoy this budget update each month but I do hope you view this as an educational tool rather than comparing your own financial numbers as our situations are all unique.
Just 6 years ago I started working in Canada making a bit over minimum wage and have since moved up the ladder. I’m now working very hard to secure my dream job with a foot in the door. We aren’t all lucky but if you do the best you can at least you can look back and say you gave it a shot.
Sometimes we wish we had more money to budget with but understand that we only have what we earn and if we want more, we need to earn more. Spending less than we earn and budgeting our money has been the easiest way for us to pay down debt and save money.
- Chequing– This is the bank account where all of our debt gets paid from.
- Emergency Savings Account– This is a high-interest savings account.
- Regular Savings Account– This is a savings account that holds our projected expenses.
- Monthly Budget Total: $4137.35
- Monthly Net Income Total: $9520.94
- Total Coupons Used to date: $0.00 (Check out our Ultimate Grocery Guide to see where our grocery money goes)
- Projected Expenses: These are expenses we know we will pay for throughout the year = $1877.35
- Total Expenses Actually Paid Out: $12896.59
- Total Expenses Actually Paid Out: Calculated is $9520.94 (total net monthly income) + ($3375.65 (took from savings) + $1877.35 (projected expenses)) = $12896.59
- Actual Cash Savings Going Into Emergency Savings: Calculated is $9520.94 (total monthly net income) – $12896.59 (actual expenses paid out for the month) + $1877.35 (projected expenses) = -$5253.00
This month we had to borrow $3375.65 from savings in order to pay the extra investments. Take out the extra investment payments and we had a good month, just a shame it doesn’t show it.
Saving money
What are Projected Expenses? – We project expenses throughout the year so we have the money saved. PE= A projected expense is money automatically saved each month so it is ready when the bill comes in or when you need it as in the example below.
We review 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. Sometimes we remove a projected expense as well so it’s very important to keep an eye on your expenses.
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 these expenses 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 in order to pay for that incoming expense. So this means the numbers go up and down in the projected expenses account based on what we need to pay for that we saved for in the account over time.
The only thing you need to do is track your projected expenses each month manually as I can’t customize that for you in the excel budget spreadsheet as I don’t know what you will use for projected expenses.
For now we will have to manually track which means month after month we add up what we save in each projected expense category and minus what we spend so we know how much we have and what is left in each category. I’ll be updating our personal excel budget spreadsheet for 2015.
We pay money into the projected expenses account continually throughout the year even when bills come due as its revolving so as one bill gets paid the money continues to come in from the other categories all year-long. This ensures that money is always available. It may not always be enough but having something ready is better than having nothing at all and having to use credit.
So the $1860.68 gets paid into the projected expense account every month no matter what. It seems to be easier to track our money this way but you can do what works best for you.
Projected expense example
If our clothing category was a projected expense we have a budget of $50 per month for the two of us. 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. I’m hoping to put together a projected expenses spreadsheet to track the expenses all year-long otherwise you need to do that to make sure you don’t overspend what you haven’t saved or will save over the course of the year.
It’s a fairly easy process and becomes a lifestyle change for your finances but the most important part is that the money is available and saved, which means potentially less 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 for our 2014 budget I can incorporate that into our spreadsheet so it tallies the numbers up as we go along. That way we will be able to know exactly what we’ve spent as an ongoing total.
Our numbers
Below you will see two tables, one is our budget and the other is our actual budget for the month of July 2014. This budget represents 2 adults and baby on the way plus all of our investments.
Budget for July 2014
If it is highlighted in blue that means it is a projected expense of ours. You will also see our budget does not include the emergency savings as this is factored in at the end.
(Click photo to see larger image)
Actual budget expenses for July 2014
July 2014 Goals
Below is my list of things to carry out in July and although it seems long sometimes I need to create it that way just so I remind myself just how much I really need to get done. Most of the goals are similar to June because I just didn’t have the time to get the jobs done.
- Get the backyard cleaned up- PASS
- Finish adding lighting to the front yard landscaping FAIL (I’m going to try to get it done this year)
- Hide the wires on the flat screens I hung on the walls (I finished one now I need to do the other)
- Complete projected expenses tracking sheet for budget (ongoing)
- Reach 3200 Twitter Followers- FAIL (close here as well but will work on that for next month)
- Reach 6460 Facebook Followers- PASS (Amazing. I’m seeing some movement on FB although slow since I don’t do contests that much anymore. It’s nice to have followers join your page because they want to and not because they have to)
- Reach 1820 Pinterest Followers- FAIL (I haven’t been pinning much lately so that’s probably why. I’ll work on that)
- Read a chapter in my personal finance blog -FAIL ( I really need to focus on reading but with limited time it’s been difficult)
- Finish the spare bedroom decor -PASS (I’m pretty much done the baby room now. Just a few bits and bobs to finish up)
- Help a new blogger with a task or question -PASS ( I connected with a new blogger this month and helped out)
- Finish the blog updates PASS (For the most part Grayson has completed all the necessary concerns. Now I just need to finish up my section of the blog)
- Connect with a new blogger -PASS
- Reach 2600 Followers Facebook for The Free Recipe Depot– FAIL (Very close)
- Rip out the upstairs bathroom- FAIL (This has been put on hold until after the ensuite is finished)
- Repair the fence in the back garden-FAIL With all the rain in Ontario lately and my lack of time this has been put on hold.
- Paint baseboard in the back room- FAIL (This is not a huge priority but something I’d like to get done)
- Buy a new blind for the garage- FAIL (You would think the amount of times I’ve been to Home Depot that I would have done this but no. I’ll work on it)
August 2014 Goals
- Finish adding lighting to the front yard landscaping
- Hide the wires for the flat screen TV in the spare bedroom
- Complete projected expenses tracking sheet for budget (ongoing)
- Reach 3200 Twitter Followers
- Reach 6500 Facebook Followers
- Reach 1840 Pinterest Followers
- Reach 2610 Followers Facebook for The Free Recipe Depot
- Read a chapter in my personal finance blog
- Help a new blogger with a task or question
- Finish a page on the blog I’ve been working on
- Connect with a new blogger
- Finish the ensuite bathroom renovation
- Repair the fence in the back garden
- Paint baseboard in the back room
- Buy a new blind for the garage
Budget updates month by month
In case you missed our budget updates from the start of the 2014 year I will list them all below.
That’s all for this month check back at the beginning of September 2014 to review our August 2014 budget to see how we made out with our numbers and if any changes were made. Hopefully I’ll have lots more done with the budget numbers.
Happy Budgeting CBB’ers!
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