Budget Update: January 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 January 2019.

Monthly Budget Update: January 2019

In January, we…

• Made a massive student loan payment

Five pays in January meant more money than usual went to debt.

In total, we put $2,051 toward the student loan in January. This included the minimum payment of $450 plus $1,601 in additional payments.

• We contributed to the RRSP

Tax season is around the corner, so we focused a bit more on putting money into our RRSP. These contributions are on the small side but I feel better knowing we’re at least putting a little bit of money away.

• We worked on rebuilding our emergency fund

We used some of our emergency fund to pay for new winter tires last month, so getting back to $5K has been a priority for us (for more on why we keep a $5K emergency fund, check out this post).

• I got paid from the side hustle that actually requires some hustle

This was from freelance work I did during the tail end of 2018. My plan is to use this money, along with any money I earn through my less hustle side hustles (I talked about them in detail here) to help fund some website improvements.

• We adjusted our budget to account for a new deduction

Without getting into too much detail, we’ll have a little less cash in hand due to a new payroll deduction. It’s not really a big deal – in fact, it is in many ways a good thing – it was just a bit surprising and as a result, we have to make some adjustments.

February 2019 Goals

Looking ahead, in February we will…

• Get ready for tax season!

Tasks for this include gathering all relevant documents and figuring out how I want to file this year. Last year, I bought TurboTax and it was fine. This year, I might look into other options. What program do you use to file your taxes?

• Spend some money on this blog

Not only does hosting come out this month, but I am also working (ever so slowly) on a couple blog projects. Stay tuned!

• Finish decluttering!

I feel like decluttering is one of my perpetual goals on this recap. We made a lot of progress getting our space organized in January – in February, I’d like to keep that moving and get some of the items we don’t need out of our house.

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

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