Reviewing our Budget and 2020 Goals
The first week of June we evaluate how we are doing for the year. We will compare our budget to actuals for the year and check in on the goals we put in place in January. We will then make any edits we see fit.
As you are aware from our May review, we have overspent on our alcohol for the year. This prompted us to increase our budget so that we do not overspend the last half the year. Finances is like trying to eat healthy. Sometimes when we screw up our healthy eating goals by eating a burrito in the morning, we throw our hands up in the air and declare the day as a cheat day and continue to eat unhealthy for the remainder of the day. When we could have declared that a cheat meal and made better choices for the rest of the day. Spending money is similar. We could have said that we can no longer spend any more money on alcohol for 2020, but that is unrealistic. A budget is not in place to restrict you but to empower you and allow you to make smarter choices.
I began this blog to have people follow our journey on paying our house off in 5 years. This means that January 2025 we will no longer have a mortgage. But like most people in 2020, things are not going as planned. First, JP left his job and we did not have his income for a couple of months. Then he landed a new job and coronavirus hit so he was put on furlough almost a month later. During this time, we needed to save up for a car for him. So, we have had a ton of hurtles outside of coronavirus for 2020, but we are not letting that slow down our 5 year goal. So I did what anyone with an obsession with planning does, I set up an amortization schedule and put down reasonable extra monthly payments all the way thru the end of 2024 and we are still able to reach out goal.
Once we reviewed our spending for the year thru May, we saw that we are actually doing a great job on staying within budget. The only 2 items we felt needed adjustment was our alcohol and our extra mortgage payments was down. So, we adjusted those 2 categories for the year:
The above chart shows that we were originally only going to spend 1.5% of our income on alcohol so we increased this. We were also going to pay 13.2% of our income on making extra payments towards the mortgage, but with everything that has happened in 2020, we decreased this to 7.6%. We will make up for the low payments in 2020 in the next 4 years to reach our goal.
I set goals a lot. Some people that know me think it's crazy how much I plan. I set daily, weekly, monthly, yearly goals. I am that person that has to write everything down on a list. This is what allows me to organize my thoughts and work efficiently and effectively. Because I set up so many goals, I know that sometimes life happens and it gets in the way of achieving those goals in the original time frame. It's ok to edit your goals instead of throwing them away because you didn't do it in your original timing. Just like it is ok to edit your budget each week. If you said you were only going to spend $100 on groceries for the week but you have actually spent $130, that is ok. You just need to realize that you either need to increase your grocery budget or maybe you aren't writing a list when you go to the store. Without direction we wonder around aimlessly putting things in our cart that we may not need or use.
I challenge my readers this month to write down a goal you have. What is your goal, when do you plan to get this goal completed and what are you going to do to get this done? You must be specific and write it down. What goals do you have this year? Be sure to share, comment, like and subscribe.
As you are aware from our May review, we have overspent on our alcohol for the year. This prompted us to increase our budget so that we do not overspend the last half the year. Finances is like trying to eat healthy. Sometimes when we screw up our healthy eating goals by eating a burrito in the morning, we throw our hands up in the air and declare the day as a cheat day and continue to eat unhealthy for the remainder of the day. When we could have declared that a cheat meal and made better choices for the rest of the day. Spending money is similar. We could have said that we can no longer spend any more money on alcohol for 2020, but that is unrealistic. A budget is not in place to restrict you but to empower you and allow you to make smarter choices.
I began this blog to have people follow our journey on paying our house off in 5 years. This means that January 2025 we will no longer have a mortgage. But like most people in 2020, things are not going as planned. First, JP left his job and we did not have his income for a couple of months. Then he landed a new job and coronavirus hit so he was put on furlough almost a month later. During this time, we needed to save up for a car for him. So, we have had a ton of hurtles outside of coronavirus for 2020, but we are not letting that slow down our 5 year goal. So I did what anyone with an obsession with planning does, I set up an amortization schedule and put down reasonable extra monthly payments all the way thru the end of 2024 and we are still able to reach out goal.
Once we reviewed our spending for the year thru May, we saw that we are actually doing a great job on staying within budget. The only 2 items we felt needed adjustment was our alcohol and our extra mortgage payments was down. So, we adjusted those 2 categories for the year:
I set goals a lot. Some people that know me think it's crazy how much I plan. I set daily, weekly, monthly, yearly goals. I am that person that has to write everything down on a list. This is what allows me to organize my thoughts and work efficiently and effectively. Because I set up so many goals, I know that sometimes life happens and it gets in the way of achieving those goals in the original time frame. It's ok to edit your goals instead of throwing them away because you didn't do it in your original timing. Just like it is ok to edit your budget each week. If you said you were only going to spend $100 on groceries for the week but you have actually spent $130, that is ok. You just need to realize that you either need to increase your grocery budget or maybe you aren't writing a list when you go to the store. Without direction we wonder around aimlessly putting things in our cart that we may not need or use.
I challenge my readers this month to write down a goal you have. What is your goal, when do you plan to get this goal completed and what are you going to do to get this done? You must be specific and write it down. What goals do you have this year? Be sure to share, comment, like and subscribe.
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