Can we talk about my budget?

[hamster]

I can't decide if I'm struggling to adapt to our new budget, or if we're likely to find ourselves in a bit of a pickle. We've always been able to spend freely and still save, and that's no longer the case. Right now I'm only working 20 hours a week. I have an interview for a full time job on Wednesday, but that also means higher expenses in dog daycare and gas. I haven't kept an actual budget in a while, but I've got a good sense of where it goes. Retirement is on track. Cash savings is down to 2 months, but we've got a hefty investment account we could dip into.

Poof. You missed the good deets.

This essentially leaves us 2600 for the remainder of the stuff. I know we spend a lot on food (ok, beer) and our personal money is very high, so that's the easiest place to cut. Wyatt is not a cheap dog, but he probably is around $100 on average for food, meds, and toys. Of course we just had a $250 vet bill, and since he's a nutter, it won't be his only one for the year. We're also going through the obvious new house expenses. I typically pay car insurance in a lump sum, but it's due next month so I'll probably switch to monthly payments.

Would this amount left over make you comfortable? I'm worried we're going to struggle to add our savings back up, but I fully admit we've got a lifestyle adjustment to make as well. 

[aurora]

I know both times we bought a house we felt like we were hemorrhaging money for a bit afterwards, so I wouldn't panic just yet since you recently moved. The good news is it sounds like some of the items you may overspend on - food and beer - can be cut back fairly easily as necessary (unlike, say, a mortgage). Since you only work 20 hrs/week now, can you take the time to meal plan around sales?

What your budget is missing is the various irregular expenses: travel, auto maintenance, health costs, gifts. Maybe if you can get a better handle on these you'll know better if your budget is realistic?

[Melissa W.]

I would itemize it a bit more. It may help to see the exact numbers.

[AAM2012]

It's hard to answer your question without knowing all of the remaining numbers. How much are you putting in savings now? Can you set aside $200/mo for Wyatt and then you have the funds easily if a big bill comes up?

[msmerymac]

Fixed expenses are easy. It's the other ways you bleed money - beer, groceries, going out to eat, coffee, clothing, shopping. I know. I like beer and restaurants, myself. I don't even want to think of the insane number of points I have a Sephora. But that's what's easy to allow to get out of control and where you need to start tracking and budgeting. You're not overspending because of your mortgage, you know?

Also, do you have a save to spend account for Wyatt? If you budget out food, toys, pet sitting and average vet visits and keep that separate, that can really help in an emergency AND let you budget better.

Also: life insurance! Please. You own a house.

[hamster]

I'm glad to see nobody thinks we're doomed, and just need to rein in some spending. We've been doing better since we realized there was a problem. I skipped that $500 buffet I've been wanting/needing, so that's a good first step.

We do not have a dedicated Wyatt savings, as we've always been able to cash flow it. I just went through my CC statement so far, and a lot of it is for him (vet + prepay for some boarding we need later this fall) and....prime day.

I'll do some number crunching. I think not using my CC for everything will help too. We've been doing it to get the travel points, but there's definitely an out of sight, out of mind component as well.

[Deleted]

Well, my lifestyle is important to me so I'll sacrifice much more than most MM because I like to live a life of experience & adventure.

That said, I think the most important is planning for your goals, then reviewing your budget and see what needs to cut.

Are you wanting to save more? If so, then decide how much more and go from there.

But to answer your original question... Yes, I'd be comfortable with $2600 leftover.

[Deleted]

I'm in a similar spot right now - BF and I just combined finances and we have about $2800 leftover each month for discretionary spending/savings/extra debt payoff. Personally, I'm planning to use 1000-1500 of it for debt payoff and then savings (should have the CC/car paid off in about 7-8 months).

In other words, I think it's fine. Are you ok saving 1k a month? That would give you a ton of flexibility if you just watch it a bit (there is no reason anyone, IMO, can't live off of $1600 a month - even though I know I struggle some months, it's because I'm not being careful enough, not because it's not enough money).

I have to admit, I don't really "get" daycare for dogs. How much of a month expense is that? I would think that would be an easy thing to cut if you feel like you need to cut something. When my golden was a puppy she was a giant PITA (well, for her first few years of life, really!) and I just managed her by long walks in the morning/evening, confining her to one area during the day, and making sure there was nothing she could destroy within reach while I was gone.

[hamster]

Aug 3, 2015 9:34:52 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

I have to admit, I don't really "get" daycare for dogs. How much of a month expense is that? I would think that would be an easy thing to cut if you feel like you need to cut something. When my golden was a puppy she was a giant PITA (well, for her first few years of life, really!) and I just managed her by long walks in the morning/evening, confining her to one area during the day, and making sure there was nothing she could destroy within reach while I was gone.

It's $25 per session. We could probably get by with once a week if I worked full time. Right now it's rare because I'm home half the day. Wyatt is just a very high energy dog, and still struggles with the leash to some degree. I trust him not to destroy anything due to boredom, but if he doesn't get a certain amount of stimulation he becomes extremely needy. 

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2015 9:38:35 GMT -5 hamster said:

Aug 3, 2015 9:34:52 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

I have to admit, I don't really "get" daycare for dogs. How much of a month expense is that? I would think that would be an easy thing to cut if you feel like you need to cut something. When my golden was a puppy she was a giant PITA (well, for her first few years of life, really!) and I just managed her by long walks in the morning/evening, confining her to one area during the day, and making sure there was nothing she could destroy within reach while I was gone.

It's $25 per session. We could probably get by with once a week if I worked full time. Right now it's rare because I'm home half the day. Wyatt is just a very high energy dog, and still struggles with the leash to some degree. I trust him not to destroy anything due to boredom, but if he doesn't get a certain amount of stimulation he becomes extremely needy. 

Ok, $100 a month isn't that bad Makes sense! I wouldn't go much more than that if you are worried about money, but that's not really that much of your budget.

[aurora]

Aug 3, 2015 9:38:35 GMT -5 hamster said:

Aug 3, 2015 9:34:52 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

I have to admit, I don't really "get" daycare for dogs. How much of a month expense is that? I would think that would be an easy thing to cut if you feel like you need to cut something. When my golden was a puppy she was a giant PITA (well, for her first few years of life, really!) and I just managed her by long walks in the morning/evening, confining her to one area during the day, and making sure there was nothing she could destroy within reach while I was gone.

It's $25 per session. We could probably get by with once a week if I worked full time. Right now it's rare because I'm home half the day. Wyatt is just a very high energy dog, and still struggles with the leash to some degree. I trust him not to destroy anything due to boredom, but if he doesn't get a certain amount of stimulation he becomes extremely needy. 

I have several friends with high energy dogs who say that if they do enough over the weekend, a Wednesday doggy day care session is enough to tire out their pups enough that they're not annoying (plus regular walks, of course). So, I wouldn't be shocked if that was enough (don't know Wyatt personally, but apparently playing with other dogs for 8 hours is exhausting!).

Back to your original question and given your responses, I really think you should track your spending really carefully for a month or two, then sit down with your H to see what it looks like. We only have a budget in that sense, really: we tracked, and we know how much we spend in all of our categories, and we keep track ~monthly to make sure that we're not massively off from our expectations overall. We don't actually check within categories each month, just the total. But, going through the exercise initially was really eye-opening and helped us to understand how we spend and set our priorities for the future.

Just don't forget to include savings in your budget - not just whatever you have leftover, but the $ you are setting aside to meet your long-term goals before you go out for food/beer/etc.

[genet313]

Aug 3, 2015 8:38:23 GMT -5 aurora said:

I know both times we bought a house we felt like we were hemorrhaging money for a bit afterwards, so I wouldn't panic just yet since you recently moved. The good news is it sounds like some of the items you may overspend on - food and beer - can be cut back fairly easily as necessary (unlike, say, a mortgage). Since you only work 20 hrs/week now, can you take the time to meal plan around sales?

What your budget is missing is the various irregular expenses: travel, auto maintenance, health costs, gifts. Maybe if you can get a better handle on these you'll know better if your budget is realistic?

This has been so, so true for us as well and we're almost a year out from purchase.  A lot of it is work we knew we had to do, but so many unexpected things have come up as well, and work we expected to do has turned into more work, etc.   For us, it's going to be a solid 12 months of bleeding money and spending all our previously-allocated savings every month before I know we'll be back on track with saving.  Yikes, but not exactly unusual.  

In the meantime, we've tried to cut back in other spending areas to make up for it.  It sounds like you could do the same.

[laurao]

Lurker chiming in: just want to say our budgeting had come so far since we stared soend to save accounts (for travel, our daughter, the house, cars, and Christmas). It really enables us to stick to our monthly budget, and feel in control with any "expensive" months because they do not impact the actual budget, if that makes sense.