Happy May! It’s the beginning of a new month so it’s the time to make and share our monthly budget! I’ve been doing this for a while now and while each month is similar it gets tweaked a bit month to month and creating these budgets keeps me accountable.
Having a plan from the beginning of the month makes me feel so much more confident with money when it actually hits our bank account. We know exactly what to do and where things need to be paid.
May 2019 Budget
Income
This month I’m anticipating $5,300 in income, which includes $500 of extra/online income. This is roughly our average amount of income that we can count on for sure each month. Sometimes we will have more because I have a variable income and side hustles, but I budget my month based on the minimum I feel I can count on income wise and then adjust from there when I get our actual paychecks.
What comes out before our budget:
- Tithes
- 401k
- Health FSA
- Childcare FSA
- Health Insurance
May 2019 Budget
Here’s the monthly budget for our take home pay so far for May 2019:
Bills & Planned Expenses:
- Mortgage – $1,200
- Daycare – $480
- Utilities- $200
- Loan 4 payment – $267
- Loan 3 payment – $45
- Car Insurance – $160
- Phone – $160
- Internet – $72
- Healthy Wage – $25
- Therapy -$260
- Vet Visits – $400
- College Fund – $25 (forgot in my video!)
- House Stuff – $150
- Plants – $100
- Bug Spray – $80
- Extra Debt Payment – $150
Variable expenses:
- Groceries – $500
- Eating Out – $160
- Gas – $125
- Personal – $200
- Medical – $50
Sinking Funds
Sinking funds can be so useful. You can cover most of your yearly costs and most “unbudgeted” costs by using sinking funds. My “unbudgeted” category stressed me out every month because it’s always ending up at least $100, sometimes several hundred. I think sinking funds will eliminate that stress and bring more peace to our financial lives.
Here’s how we’ve set up our sinking funds for May:
- Car repair – $100
- Beach trip – $100
- Wedding party – $100
- Tech replacements – $100
- Life insurance – $35
- Gifts – $50
Creating the monthly budget with an outlook for all the upcoming expenses helps us create a more accurate paycheck to paycheck budget once we get paid. I know a lot of people love doing either monthly or biweekly budgets but I really do love doing both! It helps me see where things are
In the future we will need to increase the sinking fund category for pets expenses since vet visits can be expensive and heartworm meds are too!
We keep all our sinking funds in savings accounts at Capital One 360 (referral link w/ $25 bonus!) and split them out individually since the technology at Capital One makes it so easy.
Planning for many of these expenses months in advance makes the bigger expense so much easier when it rolls around. Honestly because I’m so forgetful it also helps make sure we have the money available when it is needed!
What I Use To Budget
Below are some of the items I use to budget with! I get a lot of questions about what I use with my planners and the apps I use to keep my budget on track every month so I want to share the budgeting tools I use to make budgeting both functional and fun.
Budget Stickers – I use a variety of budget stickers in my videos from Me And My Big Ideas, Erin Condren and various Etsy shops. I’ve linked my favorite budget sticker Etsy shops I use all the time below (affiliate links):
- Caffeinated Cait (script budget stickers)
- Elaine Michelle Studio (youtuber & budget stickers)
- Planner Kate (matte budget stickers)
- A Happy Blue Tree (kawaii budget stickers)
- HoneyInked Planner Paperie (clear budget stickers)
- Planner Envy (bright budget stickers)
Every Dollar – My husband and I both use a shared Every Dollar app account where we actively track our spending. This works best for us since my husband doesn’t use a planner and we have joint bank accounts and expenses.
Mint.com – I’ve used Mint for over years as a passive net worth tracker. It’s a more passive option and I don’t actively update it except for once or twice a year when I want to gauge my net worth progress.
Hopefully these tools will help you with your budget whether you love pen and paper or technology!
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