Budget Results February 2016

I shared our February expected expenses and budget here at the beginning of February and now that life has slowed down a bit I want to share how that plan worked for us including where we saved and gulp overspent.

We saved (came in UNDER budget) on the following:

Water Bill $24.37 (Put into savings)

Chiropractor $56.00 (Put away for later use)

Medical-Co-pays and Prescriptions $37.00 (Put away in THIS category for later)

Tire Rotation (Put $10.00 away for upcoming repair-We used the money left from this and last month’s oil change to purchase new wipers for hubby’s car.)

Gas (Put $100 into savings…the ambulance ride and mom driving to and from our hospital stay saved us a ton on gas)

Chili Supper (Put the unused $5 into savings)

Last House Phone Bill (Final was $42 less than anticipated. This was added to to our savings as well.)

Supplies (Budgeted $200 Spent $209.36 Including a new faucet handle & shower head. I chose to use the money from our supplies instead of house repairs for these expenses in order to limit my spending.)

Haircuts (We skipped these this month but continued to add it to the “haircut” envelope)

Total savings from budgeted items: $171.37.

We put $188 total INTO the emergency fund in February.

Overspent Categories or Surprise Spending

Groceries (Budgeted $400 Spent $408.51)

Friends Fundraiser for Church Camp $33.74

Food while staying at the hospital $35

Food for the return trip from the hospital and on the road $50

Replacement medicine for me while at hospital $20

Eating Out while on the road traveling for visits and appointments $18.03

Bulk GFS purchase $147.41

Girl Scout Cookies – We budgeted $12 but spent $20 because who can tell a first grader going door-to-door in 6 inches of snow NO. Not.this.ex-girl.scout.leader. We bought two more boxes and they were DELICIOUS!

Surprise or overspending total: $320.69

How did we cover these expenses? We chose not to take our anniversary trip since my daughter needs constant companionship and even the hospital wants me in the same room or one nearby due to her complexities and I had budgeted a bit more for savings but chose to buy the groceries in bulk. We also received checks from some of the consignment shops we take items to and payment for some crafts.

We will share more about our side incomes (in addition to our stable main income) in our next post.

Treasured Tidbits by Tina