Let’s skip the pleasantries and get right to the meat of this monthly report, shall we?
Savings of T
$1074. The 3-paycheque month helped me out here. Only $126 off my $1200 per month savings goal!
Extra Income Beyond my Day Job
I made zero dollars over and above the day job. Got a raise April 1, but that’s included in day job $$. I promptly added the extra cash to my automated RRSP transfer so I wouldn’t be tempted to spend it.
T’s Family Expenses
| Category | Apr-21 | Relevant Notes of Notey-ness |
| Mortgage Interest | 240 | |
| Mortgage Principal | 912 | |
| Property Tax (Paid annually in Apr/May) | 3461 | First time paying this all on my own. I’m so proud. Haha! |
| Home Insurance (Annually – May 2021) | 0 | |
| Home Supplies | 57 | Plastic lunch containers, plus various kinds of household soap. It is amazing how fast containers disappear around my house. My theory is they go out in lunches but do not come back. I probably need to start an inventory system…we love these Sistema containers as they are relatively inexpensive but versitile. Also, they APPEAR to be leak proof! |
| Home Maintenance, Repairs, Renos | 52 | Tomato plant, rug for deck. Trying to make my old deck seem nicer so I can live with it another year. Any idea when lumber prices will come down? |
| Heat (Wood & Propane – supplements electric heat) | 0 | |
| Mobile Phones (2 Phones on Public Mobile) | 83 | Public Mobile is da bomb! Use my referral code to sign up after your order your SIM. You will get a $10 credit! T’s referral code is NR2OR4. |
| Electric ($247 Equalized) | 247 | |
| Internet, Home phone, TV | 110 | Bell. Stupid bundle is cheaper than just internet. For now, anyway. At least we have fibre optics. |
| Bank Fees | 6 | |
| Water & Sewer (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) | 243 | |
| Fuel for 2 cars | 136 | Abnormally low. But last month was abnormally high. I think we must have filled our tanks in the last days of March. |
| Car Repairs, Maintenance, Registrations, Licenses | 0 | This category has been ROCKIN’ IT since we got our new-to-us Toyota in October. HURRAY! |
| Parking for Hubs | 79 | |
| Auto Insurance for 2 cars | 100 | |
| Groceries | 1216 | wtf. Theories: I didn’t split out pet stuff or household supplies. I have some receipts to go through…. |
| Dining Out / Takeout – Family | 103 | Not bad! |
| Health (Prescriptions, Vitamins, Dental, Eye care, other medical costs) | 285 | OTC meds. Lots of them. (I had health issues this month!) Nutritionist, and dental cleanings for the fam. |
| Fitness, Sports | 57 | Badminton set! |
| Toiletries | 11 | Toothpaste |
| Childcare | 335 | |
| Life Insurance for 2 adults | 156 | |
| Memberships & Subscriptions | 25 | Netflix & Disney + |
| Haircuts | 0 | |
| Clothing | 123 | Kids footwear, pants, and Hubs shirts. How my kid’s feet grew 2 sizes over the winter, I do not know. |
| School supplies, Education | 0 | |
| Pet Fund | 92 | Litter & food. We now have 2 BIG bags of litter. We dabbled in clay litter but no one likes it so now we’re back to wheat (sWheat Scoop). We’ll probably just mix them together for now. FOR THE CAT PPL: This litter is more expensive, and does not clump quite as well as clay, but it weighs much less and smells much better! It is also more environmentally friendly. So I guess we’ll stick with it for now until we find something better. |
| Tech repair & replacement | 11 | Income tax software donation. I don’t know why. I was feeling generous. |
| Charitable Giving | 52 | |
| Gifts & Holidays | 162 | Easter, replacement Christmas gift. |
| UNKNOWN | 0 | |
| Vacation | 318 | prepaid to Parks Canada for Otentik rental this summer. I’m so excited!! |
| Tanya’s Allowance | 116 | What we call our “fun money”. Personal items, hobbies, dining out solo, etc. I went a bit off the rails, most of this is dining out. I DID spend $11 on the Smith Manoeuvre eBook! Have not started reading yet. |
| Entertainment – Family | 0 | |
| Lotto Pool | 0 | |
| Alcohol | 0 | |
| Total Spending | 8788 |
Summary
For this monthly report, I am happy with savings. Extra income was a bust. But honestly I’m just slogging over here, so I’m ok with it. Expenses were high, but considering property tax was paid in full this month, I’m not fussed about it. I’d like to see grocery come down in May by a few hundred dollars if we can swing it. There’s tons of food at home, so shopping the pantry might be a theme for the next couple of weeks.
How are things going with your path to FI? Are you excelling in the areas of saving, making, and spending? Tell me all about it in the comments!
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Selling some extra things around the house that are not being used at your suggestion has brought in a few extra $$$! :). Thanks!
Glad that it is helping Tv. 🙂 What will you do with all that extra cash? Haha!
You’re doing great! Smart move to get the extra pay into the RRSP. My readers will be happy to see the $0 car maintenance, LOL! We will need to update your numbers!
I’ve never heard of sWheat Scoop! I love that! Will have to tell my cat-owning friends about it.
Another informative and interesting update. Looking forward to next month’s!
Hello, thank you for your feedback! Yes, car maintenance has been great this year. So thankful. Thank you for stopping by and your never ending support 🙂
Great to see you sharing your progress despite the slog feels lately. Totally feel you there!
Also noticed there’s a typo in your image at the top of the post… not sure if it’s been mentioned before or maybe it’s on purpose?
With another provincial lockdown and the ever-present languishing these days it’s always motivating to see how other people are continuing on their financial independence journeys, so thank you for sharing your monthly update! 🙂
Haha! Thanks for telling me about the typo. I was clearly typing way too fast and furious that day!! The slog is hard. Trying to do the bare minimum to stay on track. Thank you for stopping by 🙂