Monthly Expenditures Of A Family: April Budget Update 2022

For those who want to track their monthly expenditures, the easiest way is to do what we’ve done.

It’s no secret that many Canadians struggle to make ends meet or what we call house poor.

There’s also one thing we fail to do is to set time aside to understand debt and how to fix it.

I’ve always believed that money means business and when it’s your money, treat it right.

Stop maxing out credit cards you’ll never pay back but convince yourself that you will.

I get it, a credit card or line of credit is a last resort, and people would be stuck financially without it.

What’s even more worrisome is using debt to pay debt and how it becomes a vicious cycle.

Today, let’s look at monthly expenditures and how you can help yourself get out of the red and into some funky colours of financial freedom.

Stats Canada Average Expenditures Per Household

According to the latest Stats Canada Household Spending report, the average expenditure per household in 2019 was $93,723.

Compare the average expenditures per household in 2017, and it looks more like this $86,479

When Stats Canada begins surveys and statistical programs, below are a few subjects they seek.

Collection period: The data are collected continuously from January to December of the survey reference year from a sample of households spread over twelve monthly collection cycles.

Stats Canada Subjects

I’m sure by now you’ve read the title of this blog and are reading this blog post that you want a visual representation of where your money is going.

You’re not alone, and Canadians are struggling with increased prices of groceries, rent, interest rates, utility prices, and gasoline hikes, and that’s just the beginning.

• Families, households and housing
• Household characteristics
• Household spending and savings
• Housing and dwelling characteristics
• Income, pensions, spending and wealth

Each time we talk to parents at our son’s school, the topic of money and the ability to keep up finds its way into the conversation.

Families don’t know how they will tackle their mortgage payments after they renew if there’s a higher interest rate.

When planning your monthly expenditures/budget, always expect the worst-case scenario.

An example that I can share is after three months of buying our family home Mrs. CBB lost her job.

I know that sounds like putting yourself into a dark place, but if you don’t know your financial position, it will be more challenging if it happens.

For this reason, I always said to try and buy a home on one income; however, that’s near impossible today unless the buyers have a significant down payment.

We know a couple considering selling their house and moving to a cheaper housing community.

Although they thought they were ready to have a big house, they couldn’t keep up with the mortgage, bills and property taxes.

Make informed choices based on what you can afford and not what someone tells you that you can afford.

Many people jumped on the bandwagon with low-interest rates, buying more than they could afford.

Always consider what is happening today and the potential for tomorrow.

In essence, be prepared to some degree where emergency savings can save you from bankruptcy or a consumer proposal.

What Are Monthly Expenditures?

I consider it a monthly budget or a monthly expenditure list when I think of monthly expenditures.

How much money you’ve earned minus your expenses/debt for the month.

If you want your average monthly expenditures, you will revisit your budget numbers to see how much you’ve spent each month and divide it by 12 months.

We waited until we had a year of numbers to calculate the average expenses for each budget category.

If you are in a rush, take three to six months to find your monthly expenditures.

Remember that you can’t compare another family’s monthly expenditures with yours.

It’s impossible to do because they are not you and your spending habits are not the same.

For those of you with kids who go to daycare or perhaps you’re a stay-at-home mom, the money you get isn’t that much.

It only gives you a rough idea because, year to year, things change in our lives.

For this reason, we created the projected expenses so we could save for what we knew we’d have to pay during the year.

Budget Is Scary Word For People

The problem with the word budget is that there is work involved.

The easiest way that we do this is with simple office tools;

• Pencils and Pens
• Budget
• Lined paper to make notes
• Calculator
• Big eraser
• Budget Binder (Regular three-ring binder)

Families struggle to put food on the table and pay the mortgage, and here we are tallying up receipts.

Many of you are reading this because you believe budgeting sucks but have a debt to pay.

The truth is budgeting your monthly expenditures, and net income allows you to see a picture of your financial health.

We also call this our debt to income ratio, which is easy to calculate for the same purpose as above.

Take the time to create a Budget Binder and print any of my free budget printable forms.

I’ve done the work for you, and all you need to do is print and fill in the information.

Finance Professor Mr. CBB

Let’s pretend I’m a high school finance teacher, and you are the student in a class of 25.

If I were to ask the class whether they knew what their average monthly expenditures were, I’d see blank stares.

Not every student knows how to budget or understands basic financial terms, but they should.

Could you answer that question with certainty?

If you were to ask me how much we net and spend, it would be easy as pie to explain it to you.

We invest a bit of time together as a couple each month to create a budget report and yearly plan.

That’s a problem when a person is in debt and asks for help but has never attempted to track expenses.

There’s plenty of information on the internet to help anyone learn finance basics.

Put a little elbow grease into the budgeting process, and you’ll see how it can help you.

Budgeting For A Family Of Three

I often find the term ‘monthly expenditures‘ far posher than to, say, budget.

That’s all we are dealing with here, and for our little family of three, our expenses are high.

One of the hardest expenditures to compete with is our grocery budget. C

We allot $700 each month to purchase groceries and a $25 stockpiling allowance.

It’s no secret that we have struggled since starting this blog in 2012; however, we have done well.

As you read post after post on the blog, you’ll find areas you can improve in your budget.

How do I know?

I know because we’ve made all of those mistakes, but we own them now.

There’s no hiding anything because it’s all documented on the blog and our monthly budget.

Our son is Autistic and hardly eats, and when he does, his food is relatively standardized.

That means he doesn’t eat outside of the box and only foods that he knows he likes.

Since becoming debt-free, paying off debt and our mortgage, we splurge on foods such as Atlantic Salmon from Costco.

We do this because we should reward ourselves for all of the hard work to be in this position.

Don’t be afraid to include small rewards for big wins, such as paying off a credit card debt.

Stay motivated throughout the debt-repayment process.

Average Expenditures Around Canada

According to the latest Stats Canada Household Spending report, the average expenditure per household in 2019 was $93,723.

Compare the average expenditures per household in 2017, and it looks more like this $86,479

According to the Stats Canada Household Spending Report 2021, below are the subjects they explore when collecting household data.

The status is currently active, so they have no numbers to release yet for 2021.

Stats Canada collects data to update the Household Spending Report every two years.

The main purpose of the Survey of Household Spending (SHS) is to obtain detailed information about household spending, as well as limited information on dwelling characteristics and household equipment.

Stats Canada

Collection period: The data are collected continuously from January to December of the survey reference year from a sample of households spread over twelve monthly collection cycles.

Subjects

• Families, households and housing
• Household characteristics
• Household spending and savings
• Housing and dwelling characteristics
• Income, pensions, spending and wealth

Time To Dust Off Your Budget

Whether you are house poor or not, having a budget is critical.

An obvious red flag is when you are in debt and can’t pay your rent or mortgage on time.

Take what financial information you know and put it on paper, a spreadsheet or a mobile budget app.

You can’t solve a financial problem with your emotions, so get your hands there and figure it out.

Discussion: How has budgeting changed how you look at your monthly expenditures?

Please leave me your comments below as I want this topic to be an important one.

You can start your budgeting journey on CBB by reading my 10-Step Mini Budgeting Series.

Thanks for reading.

Mr.CBB

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CBB Family Budget Report

April 2022 Budget Summary

Hey CBB Friends,

It’s never a good month when we have zero dollars to put into our emergency savings.

The good news is that I spent over 5000.000 on the master shower and bathtub.

I still have to purchase the heated floor, countertop for the bathroom vanity and taps for the tub and sink.

I also need to purchase the tiles, including the floors and shower.

I’m hoping to share the photos with you along the way in my monthly newsletter, which will start again in June.

We also saw a spike in expenses in many budget categories, including gasoline and groceries.

Our son had his communion in April, so we left a card for the priest with money inside and bought a gift card for a wedding shower.

A busy month is buying gardening supplies and bathroom materials that our budget didn’t stand a chance.

Again, this is why projected expenses are essential, so you have the money ready when you need to start a home project.

That’s all from me in April. Please scroll down to see our actual monthly budget and the budget challenger 2022 budget reports.

Catch you all in May.

Mr. CBB

Budget Expenses Percentages

Our savings ratio was 19.54% in April, which isn’t the greatest, but more than 10%.

We saved more in March than we have in April because of purchasing bathroom renovation materials.

As you can see, our housing ratio shot up to 47.20% compared to March, when it was 5.38%.

I’m anticipating this summer to see our housing ratio continue to rise based on my master bathroom renovation.

Monthly Home Budget Breakdown

Below is a breakdown of our expenses which helps us understand where our money goes.

• Chequing– This is the bank account from which we pay our household bills. We use Simplii Financial, TD Canada Trust, and Tangerine Bank. Join Simplii Financial today!  Read more about the best Canadian online virtual banks.
• Emergency Savings Account– This money is in a laughable high-interest savings account.
• Regular Savings Account– This savings account holds our projected expenses.
• Monthly Budgeted Total: $6564.18
• Monthly Net Income Total: $12,807.54
• (Check out the  Ultimate Grocery Guide to see where our grocery money goes)
• Projected Expenses: These are expenses we know we will pay for throughout the year = $905.00
• Total Expenses Paid Out: $12,259.71
• Total Expenses Paid Out: Calculated is $12,807.54 (total net monthly income) – $905.00 (projected expenses) – $0 (Savings to emergency fund) = $12,259.71
• Actual Cash Savings going into Emergency Savings: Calculated is $12,807.54 (total monthly net income) – $12,259.71(actual expenses paid out for the month) – $905.00 projected expenses) = $0

Estimated Budget And Actual Budget Report

Below, you will see two tables: Our monthly and actual budgets.

Our monthly budget represents two adults and a 7-year-old boy.

Budget Colour Key: It is a projected expense if highlighted in blue.   

Since May 2014, we’ve been mortgage-free and redirecting our money into investments and renovations.

Spending less than we earn and budgeting has been the easiest way to pay off our debt and save money.

Monthly Budgeted Amounts April 2022

Actual April 2022 Budget Report Results

Another month under our belt for 2022, but I’ll be back in June to share our May Budget Update.

Keep reading below to see how our 2022 Budget Challengers are doing with their monthly budget report.

Thanks for reading,

Mr.CBB

Monthly Budget Challenge 2022

Hello everyone, welcome to the 2022 Budget Reports from our 2022 budget challenge.

Over the past two years, this challenge started with many positive CBB readers who wanted to join.

For 2022 we began with six people ready to change their lives by challenging how they manage a budget.

Each budget summary will always fall under the same Budget Challenger number below.

If you plan to leave comments about one of the budgets below, always use the budget challenger number so they know it’s for them.

Budget Challenger #1

I used up the food in my freezer and pantry as I only spent 200 dollars on groceries. 

Recently, I started to menu plan again since I find it easy to create for one person.

Over the past week, I sold more of my collections and made 60 dollars.

I plan to continue selling items to earn extra money.

I’m even helping my dad, which puts more financial pressure on me.

I’m sure I can save more money in May since I’m making myself available for overtime. 

In April, I received three paycheques which were fantastic.  

I’m in the positive $999.59, but I was negative $105.33, so now I’m a positive $894.26.

The extra money is going into my bank account, which is fantastic.

Budget Challenger #3

Hi Mr. CBB,

It was a high expense month for us.

The accountant bill we didn’t put in the budget, the damage deposit returned to the basement renter, and new tires for the van as the old ones were slashed last Fall.

We are in the negative for April due to these factors.

It was also a stressful month as the kids had been sick on and off throughout the month, so everyone was tired.

Grandma did come to visit us for Easter but also ended up getting sick, and we took care of her for an extra day before she headed home.

I didn’t work too much extra overtime or cancel some shifts to take care of the kids/myself.

My budget changed a bit as I added some of the extras in a couple of the existing columns as they are one-time occurring.

Maintenance was the return of the damage deposit, and Travel had the accountant bill.

I have been enjoying keeping on top of the budget each month.

There are many areas to improve, and I plan to work on this in the next couple of months.

You can read my April 2022 budget report here.

Budget Challenger #4

I returned to work half-time in April after March’s surgery and am now back to full-time.

During my 6 weeks of recovery, I came up with a plan to build narrow cupboards in the unused space under the breakfast bar, which will improve the condo’s storage options. I got a great deal on used pine shelving that I will repurpose for those cabinets.

One of the best financial things in April was lowering my vehicle and condo insurance costs from the previous year. I was able to bundle them together this year and have a new monthly amount for the PE account.

Another happy effect of spending so much time in the condo was finding items to sell on our local Buy & Sell. Since I only had one paycheque in April (plus the money I set aside in March), it was good to bring in a little extra cash.

Hobby spending was unplanned, but I stocked up on supplies which should last for the rest of the year.

Moving into May, I will be increasing my extra mortgage payments and TFSA deposits.

Since the gas price increase, I’ve been working on new cupboards and doing my best to walk everywhere.

Cheers until then!

Budget Challenger #5

Happy May, everyone!

April was an easy month for me.

My boyfriend was away, but it meant less driving and fewer groceries, but I spent more on fast food since he usually does the cooking.

Anyone who has seen my posts knows that I tend to lean heavily on my fast-food budget.

I had a ridiculously high cell phone bill from last month’s trip since I paid $10 a day for roaming.

Luckily it was worth it, but it still hurts to see how quickly the charges add up!

Also saw a $20 increase in my already stupidly high internet plan.

I am with one of the more expensive internet providers but continue to be with them because I have always had fantastic customer service.

When do you get to the point where you are spending too much?

My goal is to support locals, but it’s getting harder to justify the costs.

I got lazy about paying for things I had planned to get done in April.

However, May will be a bit rougher: changing out the tires and paying for CAA and my property taxes.

I got lucky, though, as April was a three-pay month, which will help me make payments in May.

Despite being high on some budget categories, having three paydays allowed me to come under the budget I set for myself.

Now to start putting aside money and planning for summer-related costs!

Budget Challenger #6

Hey,

April was expensive as we sold a rental property last year, so we had to pay capital gains this year’s tax season. 

I had put aside money from the sale in a Tangerine account, so at least the money was there, and I just transferred it.

I did go over a few things where it doesn’t look so good on paper but didn’t seem as tight as it looks.

Since my husband and I separated, I have lived on one income since January.

The good news is that we will reconcile, so he is moving back at the end of May. 

We will be back to 2 incomes moving forward, starting in June. 

As a silver lining, the lesson I learned financially from this is I can get by on my one income. 

My plan from June 2022 is to try to put what is equal to his pay in a savings account and pay off our mortgage in the next two years. 

From there maybe I can put money towards a new kitchen renovation.

At the same time, I will then think about my early retirement.

There is room to drop hours, so I can probably keep a few shifts after retirement for extra money.

At the same time, I want to keep busy while I am winding down.

The terrible news is that I am having surgery at the end of May and will be off work for 2-3 months. 

I’m sure Employment Insurance will not be enough (I am part-time, so I do not get benefits).

Once I have recovered, I might make perogies or paint and sell some stuff for extra income. 

So, it will be bittersweet–painful health and financial-wise, but a bit of a mental break.

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Have an excellent budget month, everyone.

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