Estimated reading time: 16 minutes
See the Canadian Budget Binder family’s March 2024 budget update. Learn how we manage our money, track expenses, and strive for financial success.
If you’re new to CBB, this is a monthly budget breakdown so you can see how we spend and save money.
Why I Share Our Monthly Budget
For anyone new to CBB, this briefly explains our monthly budget update.
I look forward to putting this post together as it lets us see where our money was spent.
A budget also acts as a diary for your expenses so you can look back to see success and failure.
After all, we can only be successful if we learn from the mistakes we make along the way.
Our budget update also lets readers know that we are not perfect and must make changes like everyone else.
We use the tools (Free budget Binder), and I hope you have downloaded your free copy.
If there’s any information that you’d like to know or explain about our budget, please share your comments below or reply to this email.
Alright, let’s get into this.
Percentages For Our March 2024 Budget
The year-to-date percentage chart is another way to chart our household budget.
March 2024 Household Budget Percentages
Savings of 50.8% include investments and savings based on our net income.
Our life ratio of 27.06% contains everything from groceries, entertainment, miscellaneous items, health/beauty, clothing, etc., all variable expenses.
The life ratio is over again in March, which we attribute to Costco, Health and Beauty, Prescriptions, and Pet budget categories.
I’ll explain more about these overages below.
Transportation covers gas, insurance, and maintenance for our vehicle, which is fully paid.
Our house and vehicle are paid for, and we have zero consumer debt; however, we still pay property taxes and maintenance fees of 5.60%.
The projected expenses of 9.92% can change based on what we encounter monthly, such as a new item we need to save for.
52-Week Savings Challenge
In December, I started a 52-week Savings Challenge and asked my readers if they wanted to participate.
Below is the jar we created to save the money for twelve months.
Our son stated that he wanted to participate, so it was decided that he would save his allowance or any other money he earned.
In the savings jar, he’s saving $5 weekly from his allowance, totalling $60 for March 2024.
He created a Moolah Jar label for his money savings jar, which I thought was funny.
We don’t count the extra days; we only count the full weeks monthly.
CBB Fan 52-Week Challenge Update
Below is a CBB fan, TFSASaver, joining us for the 52-week savings challenge and keeping herself accountable by sharing with all of you.
Hello Mr CBB,
Here’s a recap of my savings for March 2024.
- I sold a couple of items for a total of $50
- In March, I used $20 of PC points, put the money into my savings account
- Lucky me, I found $1 in a cart (on a blizzardy day!)
- Total for March = $71 into my savings account.
- My monthly goal is $62, so I am happy with that.
TFSASaver
Grocery Food Savings Jar March 2024 Update
Why will we track our grocery discounts for the entire year?
Tracking Our Grocery Discounts For One Year + Free Printable
I will tally it at the end of the year to see how much we saved buying reduced food products.
Read the 2023 End of Year Grocery Food Savings Jar Review.
We saved $76.61 for March using coupons, rewards apps, and Flashfood.
Some of our savings were dairy products, including 4L bags of organic milk for $3.00 on Flashfood.
So far, in 2024, purchasing discounted food has saved us $357.54.
I can’t complain about that!
March 2024 Budget Estimation and Actual Budget
Below are two tables: Our March 2024 Budget and our Actual Budget.
Our March 2024 budget represents two adults and a 9-year-old boy.
Budget Colour Key: It is a projected expense when highlighted in blue.
Since May 2014, we’ve been mortgage-free, redirecting our money into investments and home improvement projects.
Spending less than we earn and budgeting has been the easiest way to pay off our debt and save money.
This type of budget is a zero-based budget where all the money has a home.
Estimated March 2024 Budget
We may not need all the money we budgeted for in each category; however, remember the number is only an estimate from the previous year.
Don’t forget to budget for projected expenses because your entire month can fail due to not planning.
Actual March 2024 Budget
Canadian Banks, We Use
- 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 high-interest savings account (HISA)
- High-Interest Savings Account (HISA)– This savings account holds our projected expenses.
March 2024 Budget Category Changes
Our budget categories remained the same in March.
Breakdown Of Our March 2024 Budget
Below are some of our variable expenses from March that I will discuss.
Allowance Mrs. CBB
Our allowance category is over because of Mrs. CBB and not me. Haha!
She might have to give up her allowance in April and May to catch up. Haha!
Prescriptions
Besides Mrs. CBB’s paying for the shingles vaccine, our prescription expenses were standard.
The total cost for both shingles prescriptions will be under $400 and not covered by our health insurance.
She’s now suffering from daily full-body hives, so there will be even more expenses for us until we sort that out.
Grocery Budget March 2024 Budget
Our monthly grocery budget is $900 plus a $25 stockpile budget.
We spent $896.64, or $3.36, under budget for our March groceries.
That doesn’t happen often, but it’s a happy time at the CBB home when it does.
Lately, we’ve been more attentive to coupons than ever before, although we don’t use many of the products offered.
Pet Expenses
In March, our pet expenses of $672.28 were over the budget of $350 for our two cats.
This was not a planned expense for our cats; however, we discussed how this would make our lives easier and theirs happier.
The cats always want to go outside since that’s their instinct, and now they can do it when we are in the garden or enjoying dinner on the deck.
We found an outdoor Catio for Mr. Black Snack Cat and Big Ginger so they can enjoy some fresh air this summer.
The price was a $219-$20 coupon, which we thought was decent after comparison shopping.
Since the furniture and decor weren’t included, we purchased two attachable hanging cat beds for $20 each.
Also, because of their fabulous sales, we ordered more cat food and treats from Chewy, a unique new Canadian pet food company.
Spend $80, save $20, and the prices are better than Amazon so I wouldn’t miss out.
Delivery is about the same as Amazon, too, within two days.
Lastly, we purchased a Cat and Dog grooming vacuum 6 in 1, mainly for Big Ginger, who has lots of hair. He gets brushed daily outside, but this machine is magical during the winter.
We bought it on sale and paid $122.72, including taxes, for the machine.
Health And Beauty
We budgeted $270 and spent $820, and I know you think that’s impulsive, but it happened with good reason.
As noted in our budget update, this was our worst budget category for March.
Most of what was purchased under this category came from Costco, Amazon, and Shoppers Drug Mart.
Items such as toilet paper, which we stocked up on from Costco and then Zehrs, were $14.99 x 4 for 30 double rolls.
Also, at Zehrs, the Scotties Tissue was on sale for $3.99 reg $8.99, so we picked up 3 boxes.
I mentioned a deal on Amazon for Tide and Gain laundry soap on Facebook in March.
Spend $75 and save $20, which was hard to pass up even though it’s a savings above our monthly budgeted amount.
Both laundry and softener were on sale and at competitive prices, so we made two purchases to stock up.
I still remember buying laundry soap for $0.50 after using a $3.50 off coupon.
We had 96 jugs or Purex in our cold room for years, but sadly, they are gone.
This goes back to 2010-2012 when deals and coupons were hot!
Healthy Living
In reviewing receipts and Amazon, I found purchases for Pure Protein Bars, Atkins Protein Bars, a hair wax stick, Crest toothpaste, and vitamins. (All items were on sale and compared.)
We also took advantage of 20x the PC Optimum Points at Shoppers Drug Mart and purchased hair spray, Pantene conditioner, sunscreen, Reactine, Cerave face cream and wash, and some grocery items.
Mrs. CBB (see how she dominates this category, haha) purchased IL MAKIAGE products for her face from New York.
She purchases from them once or twice yearly, so it’s not a monthly expense.
Best Protein Shakes In Canada
Lastly, Mrs. CBB bought a stockpile of Good Protein shakes in almost every flavor for us.
We love Good Protein, which causes no gas or bloating and has zero chalky aftertaste like whey protein.
It offers 100% natural plant-based ingredients with a balance of nutrients.
If you want to try Good Protein, we highly suggest this product.
Our favourite flavours are Creamy Vanilla, Mini Eggs, Peanut Butter Chocolate, Mocha, and Salted Caramel.
Now that we are stocked on protein powder and have purchased silicone granola bar molds, we plan to make protein bars instead of buying them.
Free shipping on orders over $55, and you get 60 days to try it, and if you don’t like it, you don’t pay for it.
It’s so popular that there’s even a dedicated fan Facebook group for Good Protein.
Here’s 30% off your first Good Protein order using coupon code Save30!
FlashFood App
Every person who signs up gets a $5 credit, a freebie offered by Flashfood for new app customers.
Also, Flashfood has added a small service fee to every order, which I feel is acceptable. No business can run without earning money, and nobody can work for free.
Flashfood was kind enough to drop by the CBB Facebook page to answer questions under my post and explain the service fee.
Use my referral code, MOCD28ZN4, to get the $5 credit, and your first purchase must be over $15.
For the record, FlashFood keeps changing the referral earnings from $3 to $5 for new members who sign up for free.
This means that if you use my code, you’ll either get $3 or $5 cash back into your account based on what they are offering at the time.
PC Optimum Rewards Points 2024
Over the last 45 days, March into April, we have earned 126,341 PC Optimum Points or approximately $126 of free product.
We started 2024 with under 7 million PC Optimum Points, or $7000, and now we finally hit the mark.
I know many of you might think this is a massive number of points, and we agree.
The process of saving them started after our son was born in 2014.
Between diapers and formula, we amassed points faster than we could spend them.
Yes, we have redeemed many times, but only during their Mega Bonus Event at Christmas.
Redeem 250,000 points for $500; I believe it was $600 at one point.
A few blog posts are available for anyone who wants to learn more about how we earn PC Optimum Points.
- How To Earn PC Optimum Points Fast
- How We Earned 4 Million PC Optimum Points
- President’s Choice Financial World Elite MasterCard
TD Visa Cash Back Amount
Our TD Visa has a cash-back balance of $432.01. Yes, I know I keep saying I will use or transfer it, and I will soon.
Canadian Tire Rewards Credit Card
I’m saving this to put towards purchases to accessorize the garage so I can buy an old car or truck to fix with our son.
Dream Air Miles March 2024
I’m adding Air Miles because they emailed Mrs. CBB, and we realized we hadn’t invested much interest in the program.
Most points are from our house and car insurance, which offers Air Miles.
There was a point where we had to choose Cash Miles or Dream Miles.
Since my family lives in the UK, we felt the Dream Miles would have worked best for us.
I hope to explore this program in 2024 and would love feedback from all of you who invest the time into building miles.
Hit reply and tell me about your Air Miles experiences.
March 2024 CBB Net Worth Update
After tallying three rewards cards, we found $7432.01 in cash/rewards to redeem.
The above amount is not factored into our net worth, although the $1320.82 Canadian Tire rewards and TD Rewards are cash.
For March, we saw an increase in our investment portfolios by $18,822.12 or 1.78%.
Our cash and emergency savings increased by $7,761.39, or 4.53%.
We increased our net worth by 1.65% or $26,583.51 in March
Investing is a big part of increasing our net worth, and it’s essential to prioritize your finances.
If you have any specific questions about how we invest our money, please comment below, and I’d be happy to answer them.
Until Next Time!
That’s all for our March 2024 Monthly Budget.
I will be back in May to review our April monthly budget.
If there’s something you’d like to see in our monthly update, hit reply to this email and let me know.
Thanks for stopping by, and please subscribe if you are new to CBB to get my weekly blog post and monthly newsletter.
Read our budget updates from 2012-current.
Mr. CBB