May 2014 Budget

Here are the May Budget numbers for the Dividend Family Guy (or percentages) for what I am tracking against.  Currently I am doing percentages until I decide if I want to disclose my actual income.  My budget has 60% allocated to Fixed/Needs, 10% to investments, 10% to savings, 15% to Guilt Free Spending Money (GFSM) and 5% to various charities.



Income


The Day Job +50%

My budget accounts for just 2 paychecks a month.  This month was one of two triple paycheck months.  This comes in handy and helps with unexpected expenses.

Expenses


Fixed + 4%

I am not overly pleased with being 4 percent over.  Mainly because this is a triple paycheck month.  I should have been way under given 60 percent of 3 paychecks is allot more than 60% of 2.  The two largest expenses are my mortgage (30%) and close behind are groceries (20%.)  With the cost of food increasing (seems like monthly) feeding six people on a budget is difficult.  This does not include dining out as that falls under GFSM.  I usually budget $200 a week.  This month was an extra $200 for some additional items I bought from the CSA I belong to.  These extras are delivered weekly all summer long so my grocery cost will be less going forward.  Just 10 years ago when we were a family of 4 I remember spending less than $100 a week on groceries.  At a later time I will break this down in more detail.

Investments -52%

I purchased some stocks from cash from prior months.  I did deposit some cash into the cash account I use for investments.  However it wasn't what I budgeted for.  Some of this money along with savings went to pay a credit card bill (see Savings.)

 Currently I am not taking enough directly out of my paycheck to put into the cash account I use for investments.  This has the bad effect of spending it rather than saving.  I need to adjust my direct deposit to align with my savings goal.

Savings -191%

With a triple paycheck month this should have been allot higher as well.  In reality I saved less than 10% of 2 paychecks.  I had to dip into the savings reserve to pay a credit card bill from the previous month.  This bill included prepayment on our family vacation this summer.  

Family is very important to me and ever since we paid off our last credit card about 6 years ago we now take a family vacation every year.  I will only get to enjoy my kids (at their current age) once.  The memories will last me a lifetime so that dividend will always be there.

Guilt Free Spending Money -45%

This is my best area for the month of May.  I spent less than the 15% allocated to this category.  Some of the big ticket items in this category included dining out (55%) and gifts (34%).  May is my daughter's birthday and our wedding anniversary.  We also had a few family events this month were we gave gifts of money (hopefully wisely invested.)

Charity -99%

For the whole year I am not doing well on this category at all.  Kinda embarrassing that my money is going elsewhere instead of causes that need it more than I do.  This is usually the category that gets squeezed the most when I need to pay bills.  Unfortunately I have to take care of my family first.  This means all the other categories get priority so that my family can thrive.   I am not sure that is the best word for it.  One of the reasons I am doing this blog is to improve my communication and writing skills.   As this trend of little giving is likely to continue I may group it together with GFSM/discretionary spending going forward.  This combined with GFSM would then total 20% of my income.

 How does this compare to your budget?  Anyone else out there spending more on food that everything else?

 Image courtesy of   Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Comments

  1. Living At HomeJuly 2, 2014 at 2:38 PM

    I can understand for not wanting to post your income. I'm not posting my income either. A coworker discover I have a blog and is on a crusade to find it. He hasn't found it yet, and I doubt he will haha.

    Not every month is going to go as plan. But keep up the good work!

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dividend Family GuyJuly 3, 2014 at 9:59 PM

      Yeah it is tough to decide which way to go. If my company were to find out that I would rather live off of dividends rather than slave in a cubicle everyday they may choose to find someone else.

      Delete
  2. Dividend LifeJuly 3, 2014 at 1:21 PM

    My girlfriend is in charge of spending our $520 monthly grocery budget for the two of us; It's a lot higher than I used to spend ten years ago when I was living alone. However I am eating much healthier now too and there's a lot of value in that. The grocery budget includes non-grocery items such as toiletries and household products, and it's the second largest monthly expense after the mortgage.

    I'm looking forward to reading about the next step on your journey; maybe this month wasn't the best ever but it's hard to reach a destination if you don't know where you currently stand and I think you've done a great job in working that out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dividend Family GuyJuly 3, 2014 at 9:57 PM

      Thank you for the encouragement Dividend Life. We to eat allot of healthy foods. I am considering categorizing any junk food under guilt free spending money. Maybe that will help my wife and I focus on the good stuff and cut more of the bad stuff out of our (and our kids) diets.

      Delete

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This webpage is provided for general information only and nothing contained in the material constitutes a recommendation for the purchase or sale of any security. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at dividendfamilyguy at gmail dot com.