No spend / low spend February

[fryjack2]

Feb 2, 2021 21:09:32 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

We are still spending more than I’d like. Jan had a lot of unexpected expenses which was annoying.

We had an issue with one of our home heat zones that cost $400 to fix. We had an ER visit in Dec and the bill came and it was $250 (relieved it wasn’t higher but still frustrating.) We also had our car inspection and the car needed $200 in minor here-and-there repairs to pass.

@@@

The biggest budget factor we need to keep working on in Feb is probably our household food budget and baby spending. Still not cooking as much as we’d like. With the baby takeout always feels easier at the end of the day. And I get carried away buying him stuff that adds up: used outfits on EBay and fb marketplace that are each affordable but add up to a lot. I’m so sick of being stuck at home and shopping feels good, especially since I’m on a buying spree of cute summer outfits and wishing for the warm weather to come.

We also need to deal financially with some details around the rest of my wife’s unpaid parental leave and the details of my second leave which is being paid through a new leave law and how my employer will pay the balance that isn’t paid by the state.

I think you are in MA?  I'm currently writing a paper on this new law.  Would you mind if I maybe picked your brain a bit at some point?  General questions as a stakeholder in the new policy, nothing too intense  

[seeyalater52]

Feb 27, 2021 9:59:46 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

Feb 2, 2021 21:09:32 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

We are still spending more than I’d like. Jan had a lot of unexpected expenses which was annoying.

We had an issue with one of our home heat zones that cost $400 to fix. We had an ER visit in Dec and the bill came and it was $250 (relieved it wasn’t higher but still frustrating.) We also had our car inspection and the car needed $200 in minor here-and-there repairs to pass.

@@@

The biggest budget factor we need to keep working on in Feb is probably our household food budget and baby spending. Still not cooking as much as we’d like. With the baby takeout always feels easier at the end of the day. And I get carried away buying him stuff that adds up: used outfits on EBay and fb marketplace that are each affordable but add up to a lot. I’m so sick of being stuck at home and shopping feels good, especially since I’m on a buying spree of cute summer outfits and wishing for the warm weather to come.

We also need to deal financially with some details around the rest of my wife’s unpaid parental leave and the details of my second leave which is being paid through a new leave law and how my employer will pay the balance that isn’t paid by the state.

I think you are in MA?  I'm currently writing a paper on this new law.  Would you mind if I maybe picked your brain a bit at some point?  General questions as a stakeholder in the new policy, nothing too intense  

Absolutely! I work in MA but live in a neighboring state, but em eligible for the leave due to my employer being based there. Happy to give my perspective.

[fryjack2]

I wasn't doing a month of no spend, but this thread inspired me to calculate what we have spent in Feb.

Our savings plans are all automatically deducted from checking each month as are the majority of our bills.

We don't budget for groceries, but we have been more aware of what we spend. We get the same general thing each week and I did stock up on some of our staples that were on sale so last week's bill was higher. We also order take out at least once a week (we try a new local business every Friday) and don't plan to stop that.

We did spend on things that I am not sure will even happen:

-sports sign up and uniforms
-rebooking flights to this summer so that a credit from last winter wouldn't expire

I also bought some new gear I needed for work.

We are spending more on childcare than we have in months due to our work schedules this month.

We also paid a snow removal service instead of shoveling ourselves.

But our spending was way down this month in other categories.

[dellabear]

Wrap up, we did pretty well overall and kept our food expenses under budget and our personal spending very low.

I did pay a deposit for a summer holiday, bought a birthday gift and @@@ some new kid stuff after a growth spurt.

We also didn’t pay for childcare due to school closure so that put us $900 ahead and more than covered the above expenses.