June 2016 FrugalMaster Results

I am back from a great family vacation.  We headed up to Niagara Falls for a few days to spend time with my wife's side of the family.  The cousins had a blast seeing the sights and hanging out.  This was a budgeted vacation so we will see how the FrugalMaster 2000 performed in next month's results. 

June however was a different kind of spending.  There were changes in my insurance that set me over my normal budget.  There was also my birthday weekend away.

It was a weekend away at a great state park.  Being a state park it was very low cost compared to any other tourist trap.  I think it was $109 a night (2) for a recently renovated cabin that slept 6.  It was very clean and modern.  The kids (and me) enjoyed swimming, fishing and hiking.  We did all of the cooking with dinners around the campfire.  That also kept costs very low. The entire weekend cost us around $300 which I think is great.

Fixed spending was over budget

For June we were $411 over budget in the fixed category.  The usual quarterly sewer utility bill was a painful drain of $415.  Honestly I don't know if me and the kids really produce that much waste but according to the county we do.  Heck the baby does her business in the diaper and that gets put into a landfill.  Sometimes I do miss living in the country where water and septic were free (minus maintenance).  That would save me $250 a month.



My new house insurance and car insurance I will talk about in my next post.  The goal as always is to reduce spending where I can to have more savings for retirement.  Why pay more for insurance that I have never had to use in my life and I am 42 now (fingers crossed!)

I do wish I were a stay at home dad.  There would be an attempt to make baby food with that baby ninja device or something.  My daughter is now hard core on baby food and I had forgotten how expensive the stuff is.  It is adding $28 per week to my food costs.  Besides that looking at my transactions I went to the grocery store more than once a week.  That tells me I need to do a better job of planning the menu so I only go once a week.  I am human and when I go sometimes I come back with things (junk food) my family does not need.  Plan your menu and stick to it.  Not only will it reduce your grocery costs but also reduce the temptation to eat out.

Looking at the chart below we can see the percentage of my income going towards fixed costs is lower than last years.  Part from higher income and part from continued frugality.  This gives me the juice to keep on going.  Charts and graphs help you visualize your success so give them a try.


Guilt Free spending was over budget

Well technically if you don't count spending related to vacation (separate budget) then I was under by $144.  However I lumped vacation into GFSM.  Vacation isn't a necessity in life but a luxury.  One of my goals for the year was to save ahead for vacation so that when the bills come in I can easily pay them off.

Like I mentioned earlier my birthday weekend camping was a few hundred dollars.  The rest of the money taken from the vacation budget was for passports for the adults (16+) in the family.  That amounted to a hefty bill of $257.  We did normal processing to save money and the passports came a few weeks before we left for Niagara Falls.

Savings Goals were still met though!

In the end though (even with vacation) we were able to come out ahead.  All three of my savings goals were met.  My vacation fund is almost totally funded and I am half way there with both my Emergency and Christmas funds.  All that for a grand total of saving 9% of my income.  Just looking at this now I found it weird to be able to fund all my savings goals and only save 9%.  Thinking about it more I am using surplus savings from previous months to fund the goals.  Plus as I take vacation I am also depleting my vacation budget too. 



I hope your month of June was a great month of saving and investing.  I look forward to reading up on them (if I have not already).  Drop me a comment if I haven't visited your site.

Regards,

Dividend Family Guy

Comments

  1. Passive Income DudeJuly 26, 2016 at 5:17 PM

    Hey that's still great DFG! Niagara Falls is a special place for me - that's where I proposed! May be somewhat cliche, but it was AWESOME, let me tell you. :) Anyway, I'm going to be posting my JULY Savings Rate here in the next few days and am looking forward to seeing how I did. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dividend Family GuyJuly 26, 2016 at 10:18 PM

      That is awesome PIDude. It is a beautiful place with lots to do. Cool I will check out your rate later.
      Cheers,
      DFG

      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.