February 2018 – Financial Update

I’m a bit late getting this out… But I’m away for work right now, so it’s a little harder to get all my numbers sorted out… And I’m missing some because I have them saved on my home computer… Which is obviously at home…

Anyway…

We are already over a month in to 2018, so it is time to do a quick check-in on the finances to see if I’m on track to meet my financial goals for 2018.

Goal #1 – Emergency Fund

We went the wrong way on both emergency funds this month…

Human Emergency Fund: $4240 (-$1160)

Pet Emergency Fund: $3695 (-$395)

We borrowed from the human emergency fund to fund some other budget categories and to make up for some low holiday pay cheques (my husband doesn’t get paid for his holidays).  I suppose I could have stolen from some of the other budget categories that are storing money for the once annual payments on other things, but I find it easier to keep track if I only borrow from one place, and the emergency fund is a good a place as any (especially because I am diligently tracking its balance).

The pet emergency fund was used for pet medical expenses.  Big Cat has his annual exam, which always is an ordeal (he hates the vet with such a vengeance I feel a bit bad taking him there).  And then Little Cat appeared to have either a cold, or some asthma, or something going on, so we took her in for a check-up, and got some blood work, antibiotics and some other meds for her.  We think it’s helping to stop the coughing and sneezing fits that she was having… But I guess we will have to see once the meds are done…

In any case, both funds did not go in the direction that I wanted, so it just means that there is more work to do in the coming months… I also haven’t done the plan for this goal, like I promised I would when I did my initial goals post… I’ll get on that this month.

Goal #2 – Maternity Leave Fund

The plan was supposed to be this:

1. Save $800 for Baby Fund in January
2. Save $1200 for Baby Fund in February
3. Save $1500 for Baby Fund in March

This month I’ve only put $400 in to the fund… So… the plan now looks like this:

1. Save $400 for Baby Fund in January
2. Save $1600 for Baby Fund in February
3. Save $1500 for Baby Fund in March

Luckily, with my out of town work this month, there should be some extra income that might be able to help meet this target.  We will see…

Goal #3 – Monthly Spending

This was a two part goal… the first was to review 2 budget categories each month to see how we could decrease our spending… the second was to keep each month below the average of the same month the 2 years previous…

1. I cheated a bit on this goal this month… I chose the first 2 categories to be our mortgage, and our utilities & home insurance…
   Mortgage: not much we can do here… We are locked in at a good fixed rate for 5 years (just under 4 remaining), so there is no way for us to decrease that.
   Utilities & Home Insurance: In general, we are doing pretty good with utilities… It’s hard because with the last couple months of renovations, the electricity and water usage has gone way up.  But we are pretty diligent about keeping our usage low, but I am going to work harder at having shorter showers in order to decrease both water usage and electricity (hot water heater is electric).  For home insurance, our renewal is up this month, so I will do a bit of research before renewing our insurance with the same people, so that I know if we are actually getting the best deal, or if we can do better with someone else.  (Homework for February – better put that in my bullet journal…)
2. We had a spendy month… I’m pretty sure we went over the average by quite a large margin, but let’s review…
   January 2016 total spending was about $6000.
   January 2017 total spending was about $8800.
   The average of those two would give me $7400.
   So what was January 2018’s total spending?  About $9200.
   Fail.

Goal #4 – Save for California Road Trip

I did nothing on this goal this month… But I had the deadline for my first task as March… So I’m not behind yet…

Goal #5 – Maintain Net Worth

This is the goal that I will unfortunately not be able to report on this time… My numbers are at home… I can pretty safely assume that I our net worth didn’t go down in January.  We didn’t pay any large home renovation bills, and, although it was a spendy month, we lived within our means (barely)… And still put savings away in our TFSA and RRSP accounts… My guess would be that we maintained net worth.  No gain.  No loss.  Just as this goal is intended.  However, I cannot confirm… Sorry!

How was January for everyone else?  Did you make progress on your financial goals?

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