Budget Update: November 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 November 2019.

Monthly Budget Update: NOVEMBER 2019

In November, we…

• Paid $1,768 toward the student loan

Another bonus pay month meant a larger than average student loan payment.

Our minimum payment, $436, is split between interest and principal. The remaining $1,332 went directly to the principal.

Balance remaining: $29,990.51!

• Our student loan interest went down…kind of

On November 1, 2019, the interest rate on federal student loans in Canada went down. I have been excited about this for months — so imagine my disappointment when I logged into our account and found it didn’t change.

A month later, I’m still not sure if our interest rate is correct.

While the actual rate for our account still reads 6.45 per cent, the daily charge is certainly lower than it ever has been. As of November 30, 2019, it was $4.21 a day. Not bad when you consider that it was over $8 a day in January 2019!

• Shopped (responsibly) on Black Friday

I did a good job keeping it reasonable for Black Friday this year! My biggest purchase was at Shoppers Beauty Boutique, where I replaced items I was out of and ended up getting about $40 in PC Optimum points. Other than that, I purchased gifts.

Added bonus: because I did most of my shopping online, I earned cash back through Rakuten (formerly known as Ebates). Do you shop online? You should be using Rakuten. If you sign up with my referral link, you can earn $5!

• Spent a lot of money at Old Navy

I wrote about this in this post, but it’s worth reiterating: I did a lot of shopping at Old Navy in November.

In fairness, it was on things I needed (a new winter coat, some sweaters for work) and it was all on sale but…yeah. A lot of money was spent.

• Added money to our emergency fund

If you recall, we used some money from our fund during our vacation in September. This month, we added money back to the fund. It’s currently sitting at $3,500. The goal is to get it back to the usual $5K as soon as possible.

DECEMBER 2019 Goals

Looking ahead, in December, we will…

• Finish all our Christmas shopping before going home for the holidays

As per our October budget update, we did finish almost all our shopping in November! Coming into December, we have a handful of people left to shop for. Feeling good about this!

• Renew our Costco membership

We don’t shop at Costco often but there are certain things we buy there. Toilet paper, spinach, granola bars and, most importantly, cat litter are all a great deal at Costco. Our membership expired at the end of November, so we’ll be renewing it this month.

• Enjoy time off work for Christmas

I only have to do one on-call day during Christmas holidays and I am excited about it! It will be nice to have a break.

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

Photo by Shopify Partners from Burst