Halfway Thru the Year Review

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I know, I know, another post about reviewing your spending. BUT IT'S IMPORTANT! If you do not consistently check your spending habits and how you are doing compared to your budget, then you will never know when to pull back or indulge. Would you even be shocked if I told you that I look at our finances for at least 30 minutes a day? It's true. I also do not use Mint or any other platform that links to your banking because it does not break everything out enough. Plus, I am a huge nerd and just love spreadsheets and analyzing different scenarios. I really do find this to be fun.

 When it comes to finances, June was a great month. It was our highest income month this year, highest savings month, we went on a vacation under budget, increased our emergency fund and spending was down. I believe that when you become intentional with your money, you find money that you didn't think was there. 

 Below is our June budget for food, alcohol, cats, etc.

In my May review, I said we needed to pull back on our alcohol purchases and we did  in a big way. We spent nothing on alcohol. This past weekend a meal we tried to prepare was a big bomb so we ended up getting more take out than we expected to this month. We really need to have back up emergency meals at home so we don't feel like we have to get take out. Our Household purchases was up for the year, but we hadn't done a big refill of paper products, cleaning products, etc until now. This should stay down the rest of the year until December when we do it again. 

 Other budgeted items:
The only real shock of this month was our water bill. I don't think our water bill has ever been this high but we have been watering our lawn every night, so this is the result of that. I just know now that if we want to improve our lawn, that the cost of that will go up, so I have increased our water budget for the next few summer months. Everything else was spot on or under budget. Like I mentioned before, this was a great month for us financially. I hope we can keep this up for the next 6 months.

Our July goals are to continue to slow down alcohol purchases, stay on budget and continue to save up. Right now we decided to not put more on our mortgage and instead just stack it up. JP is still on furlough and with covid, we just don't know what to expect. We have been doing so well with our workouts and bike riding that I know we will continue to do that. And we are having our true dining experience for the first time this week since the shut downs. Sushi Den is opening up and I got us reservations for Friday. I have never been more excited to eat out than now.

What goals do you have this month? How are you doing halfway thru the year? Please subscribe, share, like and comment. 

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