Budget Update: December 2018

Our monthly budget does not change much. 

It is primarily fixed expenses, like rent, phone bills and car insurance, which remain the same month after month.  Even the amount budgeted to our miscellaneous line (more on that here) stays the same most months. 

So instead of giving a line-by-line breakdown for our monthly budget update, I do something a little different.  Each month, I share five highlights from our budget, along with three goals for the month to come.

Here is the update for December 2018.

Monthly Budget Update: December 2018

In December, we…

• Put an extra $710 on the student loan

In total, we put $1,160 on the student loan in December, with the aforementioned $710 going to directly to the principle. Our snowball is usually bigger but we scaled it down a bit to contribute to our Christmas fund. This is how we…

• Stayed on budget for Christmas!

Did we spent a lot of money? Yup.  But it was all planned spending and I don’t have any regrets (and we don’t have any Christmas debt coming in 2019! Awesome!)

• Dipped into our emergency fund 

Living in Atlantic Canada means driving in Atlantic Canada winters – which means winter tires are a necessity.

We found out in November that are were not going to get us through the whole season, so we set out to buy new ones. We ended up getting a great deal but it was still an unexpected expense. However, thanks to our $5K emergency fund, we were able to deal with this with minimal stress. We’ve already started to repay the amount we withdrew for our new wheels. 

• Moved our travel budget into general savings

And consequently, accepted that we’re not going to go on a trip in the near future. The numbers just don’t support it right now. That’s OK, though. It’ll happen sometime. For now, we’re keeping our vacation savings with our general savings. 

• Sucked at tracking our spending 

Gah. When I finished Tracktember, I thought I would just continue into December. I wanted to. But boy, did I ever fail at this. Ah well! 

January 2019 Goals

Looking ahead, in January we will…

• Make a BIG student loan payment

January is a bonus pay month in our house, which means we’ll be able to make a huge student loan payment. I’m really excited! 

• Start contributing to our RRSP again 

The plan is to add a few hundred dollars to this ahead of tax season. Yes, we still contribute to an RRSP even though we are paying back debt. Yes, I know Dave wouldn’t like this. No, I don’t care. We aren’t strict baby-steppers. You can read more about that here.

• Do a big clean/declutter at the apartment

I’m off during the first week of January – and I intend to use some of that time to clean our apartment. As a result, I’m hoping to have some items to list for sale. This won’t be a big money maker by any stretch of the imagination, but nothing wrong with making a couple bucks. 

Your turn! How did December turn out for you? What are your goals for January?

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