First Of The Month

Sunday is always a good day to sit down and set your plans for the week. This Sunday is also May 1st, so it's a doubly good day to get your life in order. Take a look at your calendar for the month and get it together. Make note of any upcoming expenses, like birthday gifts, car inspections, etc. Most importantly: take a look at your budget and make adjustments. A quick check-in with fresh eyes can help avoid financial mishaps this month. 

In the past few weeks we've had a few things come up (for better and worse) that require a few budget tweaks. Here's my new and improved budget for the month of May: 

Just like last time, I'm using my really real life money numbers here - but using percentages for the sake of anonymity. If you are curious enough to get out the calculator and figure out what we bring in a month, then go ahead and do you. But just so you know, there are better uses of your time. And also, you are like Darth Nebby levels of nosiness.

While your income may stay the same from month to month, chances are that your obligations do not. Things happen! Things like school ending, holidays where you have to buy 5 people gifts, or unexpectedly expensive medications that you have to factor in now. 

One of my changes was that my son is done with preschool in one month, so we won't have that to pay for (until August when my daughter starts).  Also, we sold our house in Pittsburgh and closed in the middle of April. Because we had quite a bit of equity in the house we did well and turned a nice profit. I have allocated a little bit of that to pay off a hospital bill that was bringing me down each month. Because of those things I can finally buy some new clothes, hallelujah. 

Here's what the budget looks like now: 

 The only new categories this month are clothing and going out. Luckily, I live in an area of the country where the consignment shops are amazing. I am very, very excited to get out there and buy some new things. Also, now that my daughter is not wearing diapers anymore that Target/misc item is a bit bigger than need be. Long story short, I am totally buying all the things and not feeling bad about it. 

If you need help getting starting on making your own budget, check out my post here. Any questions? Shoot me an email at mindonyourmoneyblog@gmail.com.