Everything I Spent in April
This year I’m sharing what we spend in our household each month and why.
Reasons for sharing this with you all are two-fold.
1) It holds me accountable. Accountability is a very important pillar of healthy money habits.
2) It fosters a community of openness and transparency here on my site, which is my goal. If we talk about money, we all grow more comfortable with it. So I’m putting my money where my mouth is... 😏
We are 40 year old dual income family with 3 kids ages 13, 11, and 9.
Some expenses will be shown as percentages while others in U.S. dollars.
This month’s income was higher than usual because my husband had three paydays. Instead of spending that extra bit, we chose to save it. This is a great practice to level up saving (or investing).
Pivot Expenses & Surprises (the unexpected…)
There weren’t any unexpected expenses, only some unusual expenses due to our vacation.
We also made a change to our travel plans for said vacation. We’d planned for my husband to drive and the kids & me to fly; however, we changed the plan, rented a larger vehicle and all drove instead. Family road trip! 🚙 The choice saved us about $300.
Planned Expenses
Home: Mortgage + Utilities = 17% of take-home pay
Home: Repairs & Services = 1%
Home: Supplies = 2%
Home: Subscriptions = 1%
Insurance = 1%
This includes our auto and term life insurance policies.
Food = 12%
We went a little over budget on dining out and groceries this month. We had to restock just about everything after vacation, and we had a very pricy dinner out one weekend (worth it)!
Auto: Gas = 2%
We drove to Florida, which cost us quite a bit in fuel; however, we covered this and all other vacation expenses with our Vacation Fund
Family: Kids = 4%
The extra amount we put in this budget has really helped!
Family: Health = 1%
Giving = 4%
We give a portion of our income to organizations we believe in each month. This month we gave to our local library.
Fun Money = 11% of spending
My husband and I each have our own guilt-free budgets for stuff we want. Each one (his & mine) is tight enough that we do have to keep an eye on them but also loose enough that we’re not stressing over every single dollar or discussing every expense. It’s a good balance for us.
My Fun Spend - Specifics:
I bought a new puzzle board and five baby chicks! With the remaining, I set aside a few bucks for business costs.
Savings & Investments
Short term Savings:
$415 for Vacation Fund - had to start refilling this subsavings account
$200 for Repair Fund
$170 for Christmas 2024
We set aside a bit each month for the most expensive time of the year. This fund has saved us loads of holiday headaches through the years.
$2,600 for Goal Fund
That extra payday was socked away in our Big Dream Fund for our someday home in Florida.
All these funds are all kept in HYSAs, so that saved money earns interest!
Long Term Investments = 17%
$1,166 for 2024 ROTH IRAs (mine + my husband’s).
{For those who qualify, the 2024 max ROTH IRA contribution is $7,000, which is $583 each month. My husband and I each have a ROTH account, so $1,166 per month is our plan.}
Our 401k (traditional IRA) and HSA investments are taken out of our paychecks before tax.
The leftover dollars went toward our kids’ 529 investments for post-high school education.
That’s it. One-third of 2024 is over!
It was a pretty good month overall. As a saver, I’m always pleased to have a month with a few extra bucks to toss into savings.
Please remember — It has taken us a decade of ups and downs to get on the same page with our budget, and while we’re nowhere near perfect (we have to pivot somewhere just about every month), we are making steady progress.
Budgeting is a marathon not a sprint, so take it easy on yourself if your numbers didn’t add up the way you’d expected. Allow for grace. Reflect, learn, and adjust.
How did your April spending go? Let’s all learn from the mistakes or surprises and celebrate the wins!