A review of February

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It's already March! A new month, new budget and new goals. JP and I worked so hard on cutting our food budget for the month of February since January we had gone over and it was tough! We just kept reminding ourselves about our Houston trip and Sushi Den Date Night in March. We logged in our spending and reviewed the finals results this weekend.



Below is a breakdown of our budget to actual. Reminder that our food budget includes groceries, eating out, alcohol, household goods, coffee, tea, and kitty litter and cat food.

Most families struggle with the food budget the most, including us. Last month, JP and I had struggled with staying within our food budget so we decided to be more strict on ourselves this month. As you can see above, we stayed within our food budget - we spent lower in groceries and eating out. We did spend money on alcohol this month. The $157.07 was for a birthday night out for JP's friend and a couple bottles of fine wine. We also love Stags Leap wine and four times a year they have a great sale so we always purchase a case. As of this post, the sale is still going on and you can get up to 40% off, I highly recommend if you are a wine snob like us. Overall on our food category, I would say we did great this month. 

Moving on to the rest of our categories for February:


I am sure the first thing you notice is our auto budget.  We had budgeted for gas and an oil change but we ended up losing our only key to our car and had to purchase a new one. It is so frustrating when things like this happen which is why you should have an emergency fund so it is no big deal. Our oil change ended up costing about $65 since we had to replace the air filter, gas was about $100 and the rest was for a new key. After the snow melted we found our key in our yard. I also thought our Verizon bill would be more, so it was nice to see it much lower. Everything else we budget for well because we get the bills in the mail before they are due and before our payday so we are able to use actual numbers. 

Looking forward into March, I believe my yoga bill will go up another $10 or so since I have used up all the deals they offer. I do the unlimited yoga to get the lower price since I go during lunch each day, and so I think moving forward the price should stay consistent now. We also have our anniversary coming up and we have a budget in our Flywheel for that. I cannot wait!! Sushi Den, here we come! Our cats birthdays are in early April, so we will likely spoil them with wet food and treats, and that is also in our flywheel. I also took any extra money from our budget to go towards their expensive cat food. Our Kwonie Boy is high maintenance. Since we bought our case of wine, I don't think we will spend as much on alcohol. I also budgeted for my hair cut since that is also in March. My brother and his family are coming to visit too, so we will probably spend more on food that week and will adjust our budget accordingly. Our March goals this month is to continue to stay in our food budget and to watch our wine purchases. 

Do you celebrate St Patrick's Day? Do you go all out to where you should consider budgeting for this each year? What do you have going on in March that you need to budget for? Be sure to share, like, comment and subscribe.

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