May 2018 – Financial Update

I’m late again, but here’s the May update on my financial goals:

Goal #1 – Emergency Fund

Human Emergency Fund: $0

Pet Emergency Fund: $4290 (no change)

We didn’t increase or decrease either of the emergency funds in April, but the pooch has had some issues already this month, so my guess is that the pet emergency fund will have decreased when I do the next financial update in June.

Goal #2 – Maternity Leave Fund

As I mentioned in my last update, this goal did not get completed, but I’m on maternity leave now, so the deadline has come and gone.  No point updating you on this goal anymore.

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 predicted last month that I wouldn’t review any budget categories in April, and I was correct.  My husband and I have had a few discussions regarding budget categories though, and have thought about how to decrease our spending… But I haven’t done any official category reviews.
2. Just like March, April spending has been pretty low for the past couple years because the vacations that we started in March would carry over to April, and as I said before, travel spending comes out of our planned spending categories, rather than the regular spending categories.
   April 2016 total spending was about $6600.
   April 2017 total spending was about $7500.
   The average of those two would give me $7000.
   So what was April 2018’s total spending?  About $8390.  Way over the average…
   What are the highest categories?  Well, we bought some stuff for the house, and also paid a bunch of family expenses… But the crazy thing about our spending is that the baby specific spending actually hasn’t been that high… I want to do a post about what we have spent and bought for baby so far, but not sure when I’ll get around to that…

Goal #4 – Save for California Road Trip

With the budget set at $5400, and $750 spend already in March, we had $4650 left to save.  In April, we allocated a grand total of $150 for this trip.  Not exactly the $930 I had calculated out that we would need to save each month… But better than nothing… Only $4500 left to save…

 

Goal #5 – Maintain Net Worth

As expected, with my income drastically decreased, and a spendy April, our net worth has gone down… The decrease comes in the cash savings category, as expected.  We are now below my goal for the end of the year, but we will see how the rest of the year goes, and when I go back to work…

How did your finances fair in April?

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