Everything I Spent in October

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 14, 11, and 9.

Some expenses will be shown as percentages while others in U.S. dollars.

Pivot Expenses & Surprises (the unexpected…)

Oh boy… I didn’t want to share this month’s results with you, friend. I really didn’t. But I’m committed to the accountability, so here we go.

Simply put, we overspent in October, and it was not circumstantial. Life didn’t toss us any hardships, no big pivots. We just… spent more than we’d budgeted on non-essentials. Here are the details and what we did next to right the ship.

Planned Expenses

Home: Mortgage + Utilities = 21% of take-home pay

We were under budget, mostly due to our electricity bill coming in $75 below expectations.

Home: Repairs & Services = 1.5%

Nothing unexpected in this category this month.

Home: Supplies = 3%

We exceeded budget by about $20 in October, but nothing crazy.

Home: Subscriptions = 1%

Nothing unexpected in this category this month either.

Insurance = 1%

This is just our life insurance policy. Health insurance is paid before my paycheck gets to me, and our auto policy is now paid just twice a year.

Food = 14%

Our grocery spending was about $100 under, but dining out was $180 over, so overall we went over budget on food in October.

Auto: Gas = 3%

Our gas spend came in at about $30 under budget. Not too bad.

Family: Kids = 14%

Braces, pay days, and the monthly saxophone payments are now budgeted here. This budget line is a hefty one now, and we still managed to overspend… by a lot. Between fall break activities, Halloween costumes, a big field trip for one kid, it added up fast! I learned that a bit of padding in Oct next year for Halloween and fall break entertainment might be necessary.

Family: Health = 2%

Counseling and the usual expenses were covered here, and we actualized under budget.

Fun Money = 17% of income

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 overspent. Several outings with the kids (the beautiful weather made those pumpkin patches irresistible), some impulse Amazon purchases on Prime Day, my quarterly hair color appointment. I just went over the budget.

My husband followed a similar pattern in his Fun Spend budget this month, so when we had our most recent budget meeting, we both made a plan to redefine our spending goals for November. I’m going to challenge myself to a “No Spend November,” and he’s planning to trim his weekly spending, too. We’re choosing this, not punitively, but reactively. We went over for October, but we can right this ship to keep from overspending the year.

Savings & Investments

Short term Savings:

$415 for Vacation Fund

$200 for Repair Fund

$170 for Christmas

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.

All these funds are all kept in HYSAs, so that saved money earns interest!

Long Term Investments = 16%

$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 rest of those investment dollars went toward our kids’ 529 investments for post-high school education.

October is in the books!

As difficult as it was for me to admit that we overspent unnecessarily this month, it’s ultimately worth it. Sharing holds me accountable to my goals and helps me see the next right thing to help me get back on track.

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 (October is a perfectly imperfect example), we are making steady progress and keeping our overall direction on track.

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 October spending go? Let’s all learn from the surprises and celebrate the wins!