Last month was a typical month as far as expenses go in all areas that we normally expect. What was especially nice was we were able to put $2000 into savings, and the month before we able to put in $2700. That is helpful as this month, December, property taxes are due, and that we can pay for out of our paychecks. There is money for back up in the savings account! More than last year, and certainly more than the year before – our hard work is paying off in small ways, but when we need the cash, it’s far easier to come by. I have made a small policy shift to increase our emergency funds to $10,000.
Food in both November and December can become a bit more simply because of the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas usually mean an uptick in the cooking. Final figures showed we spent $163.12 for our holiday meals, one hosted, and one as a guest for Thanksgiving. December may be less expensive, but we haven’t gotten to the planning stages of that yet. We won’t be hosting anything big, but maybe a small gathering of family.
We sold some books and made $450 from them – we have a lot of books! The result is we cleaned up a lot of area in the house and in the garage. Simplifying? I don’t know about that because now we have room to rearrange things . . . like a lot of boxes in the garage. Yesterday, we began moving things around in the garage, from the “small” garage to the “big” garage (our garage is partitioned into two areas). Empty bookshelves in the garage have household supplies once piled on the floor.
Ahead, in December, there may be some interesting expense differences in food, or none at all. Because of some dietary issues, our food bill may go up. That is going to be interesting to watch. It’s nothing radical, but will require a focus on different foods and different ways to cook things. From my vantage point today, it doesn’t seem likely to be a big change at all. Dog food costs will be increasing as we had to change brands after seeing that one puppy was not doing as well as hoped (allergies!).
Expenses for November:
- Electricity: $200.00
- Household gas: $21.77
- Gardener: $100.00
- Trash: $60.02
- Fuel: $37.40
- Groceries: $479.41
- Holiday Groceries: $163.12
- Alcohol: $27.33
- Chromebook: $119.00
- Books: $10.70
- Mr. 182 Hobby: $86.66
- Software: $79.00
- Household Expenses & Personal Supplies: $154.30
- Dog Food: $30.02
Of course, all the usual expenses of mortgage and insurance and credit card payments continue on their steady course, and are moving in a downward direction. Savings continues to increase. December will be a break-even month because of property taxes. Life continues, and we are enjoying it a lot!