Budget Update: December 2019

Our monthly budget update 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 2019.

Monthly Budget Update: DECEMBER 2019

In December, we…

• Paid $450 toward student loans

This total includes the minimum payment of $436, plus a little extra.

This is significantly less than we usually put toward student loans each month. Without going into details, we have something that needs to be taken care of that will result in two months (December and January) of minimum payments only on the loan.

Balance remaining: $29,669.73

• Took a personal development course

In December, I used some of my personal spending allowance to take the HB90 Bootcamp! I wrote about it more here, but in brief, this was a course all about goal setting, time management and planning. It’s something I wanted to do for a while but the Canadian dollar made it a little too expensive.

I spent about $180 after the conversion and really enjoyed the course! I think it will go a long way to helping me reach my goals in 2020.

• Renewed our Costco membership

Another year, another year of forgetting about our Costco membership until it was approaching expiration. I really should set up a sinking fund for this. We aren’t huge Costco shoppers, but we do have a list of things we try to only buy there: toilet paper, paper towel, spinach and cat litter. All of these items are a better price at Costco than they are at our local grocery stores.

• Shopped the Old Navy SuperCash sale

My Old Navy obsession continues for a second month, but I feel good about it. We ended up picking up about $230 worth of stuff for $160 in the end thanks to our collection of SuperCash.

I also purchased a few things from the Sephora sale and got really annoyed that the only way to redeem my $25 gift card was to spend $75. Ugh.

• Committed to a shopping ban for the first half of 2020

Based on the item above, this is likely a smart decision. I wrote about it here. I don’t know if I will be able to pull it off completely, but I’m going to try!

JANUARY 2020 Goals

Looking ahead, in January, we will…

• “Finalize” budgets for the first six months 0f 2020

I already have a start on this, but there is still some work to do. I use the word finalize loosely; our budget is a living document, so there are bound to be some adjustments throughout the year.

• Track all my spending

As part of my shopping ban, I want to track my spending so I can get an idea of where our money is going. I did this once before (more on that here) and found the whole experience illuminating. I’m hoping doing this will help create a regular habit of tracking my spending.

• Declutter the apartment

Not only are we coming into a new year — it’s a whole new decade! It feels appropriate to focus on clearing out the old to make way for the new. I anticipate this will result in either giving a lot of stuff away — or just tossing things. Dealing with buyers on Kijiji and Facebook is just too much of a hassle.

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

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