My computer keyboard is being wonky as...well, I don't swear, but if I did, you can fill in the blank with the word of your choosing but mine has an f in it, because I am that annoyed at it. I need to get a can of spray air and give it a good whooshing. So I will try to get this posted again without erasing it. My analysis will be at the end.
$361.23 Tithe
_500.00 Utilities
_400.00 Groceries
_400.00 Homeowner's Insurance
__75.00 Household Expenses Envelope
__70.00 Groceries
__50.00 DH Spending Money
__50.00 My Spending Money
__30.00 DD Spending Money
__75.00 DS Spending Money
_100.00 Computer Fund
_123.70 Emergency Fund
_100.00 Car Maintenance Envelope
1110.40 Citi
---------------------
3612.33 Total Money Out
For the groceries category, I still funded it even though we are doing the eat from the pantry challenge this month. We are still allowed to buy things like fresh produce, milk, and a couple of other items. Obviously not $400.00 worth of items, but whatever is left of that money will go into the Meat Fund, as we have started saving up for a steer for the freezer. It currently has $120.00 in its envelope.
Homeowner's insurance isn't due for a couple of months, but I wanted to get it saved and in the bank right away. I don't want to have to deal with it popping up suddenly, so I planned for it right off the bat. I'll do the same with property taxes next payday. I pay half for this stuff and Mom pays the other half. Whenever she is ready to pay it, then I can transfer it out of savings and writer he a check.
You will note that I made a deposit to the emergency fund this payday. The plan is to do $500 every 4 weeks. The majority will come out of the second paycheck of the month, but I still made a deposit. It is nice to start moving forward again. I'd really like to get back to 3 months of income again.
I feel a bit better now that I have a balance of $200 in the car maintenance envelope. We really wiped it out with getting all that maintenance work done two months ago. I feel like we can handle anything small right now, but I'll feel a lot better when this gets back up to $500 and then $1000. So much could go wrong with older vehicles, even though we keep them in tip top shape.
We did too much spending on the Citi card in the month of December. With Covid we ordered too much take out in weeks 3, 4, and 5. We could order and pay online and my mother would go pick it up and leave it at the top of the stairs for us and then call us that it was there. It was pretty easy when no one had the stamina to cook. Next payday will be about the same payment as this one. This month I am determined to not do that, hence the pantry challenge. And then I hope to stay in this habit, because we really do feel a lot better eating homemade meals. And it'll save us the $100 or so it costs to get takeout for four adults these days.
I did buy a budget binder in December and it came a few days ago. I transferred a lot of the money from my Dave Ramsey wallet, leaving only grocery and household money in there. I was carrying too much money around in the envelopes and if something happened and I lost my purse, I did not want to lose all that money. So I have nice pvc envelopes now for my different categories and most of them have stickers on them to show what they are. I have a whole bunch from my scrapbooking days, so I didn't have to spend on those. It's cute and fun and more importantly, safe.
So that's about it, really. Thus endeth my payday report.