Budget Update: The Month Is Almost Over

Wow, June is nearly over.  I have been teaching an 8-week on-line this summer and at the end of this week we will be half way done.  Of course, the end of the month also means that I need even more diligence to make sure I do not go over our budget. 

Looking at the numbers on YNAB (You Need a Budget), I am still in the clear for our groceries.  In fact, I still have about a fifth of the grocery budget left to spend.  I plan to do some grocery shopping tomorrow, so I need to be very careful to not go over the magic number.  I really hope to stay within the budget for this month.

I hope that sticking to the grocery budget next month will be even a little easier since I plan to continue to wean the little one off of the jarred baby food and just have her eat the same food we eat.  Since she does not eat very much, I usually just give her some of my meal so I do not even have to do much extra work yet preparing her meals.

Unfortunately, there are other categories where we have already gone over budget.  While we do not eat out much, we have gone over our budget in that area.  Some of that stems from me not always having the necessary food to prepare my husband a lunch to take to work.  That is one area I need to work on next month.

We also have already gone over budget on clothes.  Since I stay at home, I try not to buy myself many new clothes, but my husband does need nice attire for work.  Also, we needed to attend a funeral this month and he did not have a dark jacket to wear, so off to the store we went.  We did, at least, manage to get the jacket and two pairs of nice dress pants for far less than their original price.  It's possible that our clothing budget is not realistic.  We will need to discuss that at the end of the month.

We've done pretty well in other areas like cleaning supplies, grooming supplies and haircuts, household tools and supplies, and furniture and equipment.  We have also been fortunate not to have any unexpected expenses arise this month.

Hopefully, some success this month will lead to even greater success next month.