Budget Update: November 2020

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 2020.

Monthly Budget Update: November 2020

In November, we…

• Paid $450 to the student loan

This is the minimum payment. We are on track to be sub-$20K by the end of the year.

Outstanding principal balance: $20,237.32

• Added $635.90 to our emergency fund

At a minimum, we keep at least $5K in this fund at any given time. We have been working on beefing up our emergency fund over the last couple months. This felt like the right thing to do given the current state of, well, everything.

Current EF total: $6,354.74.

• Added $738 to our house fund

We continued adding money to our house fund in November. While we are unlikely to hit the $8K goal this year, we should be able to finish out the year with $6K.

Current house fund total: $5,482.55

• Spent $51.69 from the car maintenance fund

November in Atlantic Canada means it’s time to prepare the car for winter. In particular, it means swapping the all-season tires for winter tires.

• Added new sinking funds

We use sinking funds to save for irregular expenses. For the last few years, we have had three main ones: car maintenance, cat medical and gifts.

This month, we added two new ones.

Cat food: The food the girls eat is pricey, due to one of them being a picky eater. We buy the 16 pound bag and it usually lasts a few months. The idea with this fund is to put away about half of what a bag costs every month so when we have to get more, the money is there.

Subscriptions and co-pays: The idea here is to cover things like our Costco membership, massage co-pays, etc. We’re not putting a lot into this account but it’s nice to have a bit set aside for these things.

December 2020 Goals

Looking ahead, in December, we will…

• Finish Christmas shopping

We are just about finished now — most of the remaining items are gift cards. That said, we’re also going to have to make a plan for how to get gifts to folks this year, as we might not be able to travel.

• Cancel the gym membership

I wrote about the plan to cancel our membership here — and in December, we’re going to follow through on it. Shortly after publishing the post, I got an email from the gym saying they were extending the freeze until the end of January, which is great, but it doesn’t change my plans.

• Sell and/or donate items

In November, I finally got around to listing some things that have been taking up too much space for too long…and I ended up making about $70 in the process! I really do not enjoy selling things on marketplace/Kijiji but I have been trying to declutter over the last few months. I’m planning to continue into December. Whatever I don’t sell, I’ll donate.

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

Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst