June 2018 Budget

June is the first month that we’ll be living on one income as I become a stay-at-home to our beautiful 2 month old!

To answer the first obvious question, yes, we are operating on a budget deficit!  Our expected expenses are higher than our income.  But fortunately, we’ve planned and prepared for this day!

Our budget follows the YNAB principle.  Our current month’s budget (expenses) are based on last month’s income.  We also budget down to zero, giving  every dollar a purpose.  After all our fixed bills (our only debt are 2 0% car loans), we allocate the remaining money towards sinking funds (car, travel, gifts, discretionary) – these are our rollover categories.  We’ve also padded these categories the day we found out I was pregnant in anticipated of losing one income.

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INCOME:  $3538

This is my husband’s income after taxes; and also includes two month’s worth of child tax benefits.  Our application for child benefits finally got processed and we have been approved for $305 monthly.  Pay is retroactive so our first cheque will be a big one.

FIXED BILLS ($2008)
These are all our expected expenses, excluding car loans and discretionary.  We have a “vehicle fund” which includes everything car related (loan payments, gas, insurance, maintenance etc) and a “discretionary fund” which are roll-over categories.

Baby Budget 360: JUNE (Month 2)

My baby was born on the 30th, which makes tracking monthly expenditures so much easier; it always falls within a calendar month!

BABY BUDGET 360 refers to all baby consumables:  cloth diapers, disposable diapers, wipes, formula, toiletries, etc.

We have a separate budget for big ticket items (baby furniture, breastfeeding/pumping accessories) or those one-time expenses (clothes, toys, etc).  You can read more about that baby budget here.

At the beginning of the year, I estimated our monthly baby expenses to be $300.  Just last week, we received our assessment for the Child Tax Benefit – for $305.  Pretty cool how that pretty much cancels each other out, budget wise.

Pre-baby, we already started stocking up on cloth diapers (about 2days worth).  That amounted to $339.

Month 1:  We spent $211.

Let’s see how Month 2 was:

May 2018 Budget

First thing’s first:
– My budget is a we budget:  my husband and I share finances
– We live on last month’s income so May budget = April income, May expenses
– I just had a baby and stopped working on April 15th; so May was operating on a 1.5 income.  We are in the midst of transitioning into a one-income household.
– I have a lot of sinking funds!  I save for huge, one-time expenses monthly.  This definitely helps in our transition as well.

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INCOME:  $5919

This is my husband’s income and half of my income.  I stopped working on the 15th of April in anticipation of our daughter’s birth.  We padded all our sinking funds when we found out we were pregnant so even though we only have one income source, we have reserves for our yearly expenses.

We also converted our “Europe Fund” last year into a “Baby Fund” so we have all of her one time expenses  covered (furniture, clothes, toys, etc).  Her recurring expenses (diapers, wipes, formula, etc) are under the “Baby 360” category – we’ve budgeted 300 monthly.

FIXED EXPENSES ($1489)

NIAGARA Weekend Getaway

For my birthday weekend last month,we spent two nights at Niagara Falls.

The original plan (last year) was to go to Europe for two weeks (it’s my 30th!) but we got pregnant; so our Europe fund got converted into a baby fund.  Truth be told, I felt bad spending on a staycation when I had just recently became a stay at home mom with no income.  But the husband insisted, so off we went.

Niagara Falls seemed like the only option since we would be bringing our 3-week old baby with us and I didn’t want to spend so much time on the road.

THURSDAY: 

My husband booked off Friday so we were able to get a head start on the weekend.  Since it was Memorial weekend, staying Fri-Sun would have cost us thrice as much!   Staying on a Saturday night was upwards of $300!

We took the 407 (toll road) on the way to Niagara to cut on driving time; we didn’t want to be on the road too long since we knew our baby would need a feeding in the next hour or so (we actually ended up stopping at a gas station 10 minutes from the hotel because she really needed to eat and had been crying for quite a while now).  $19.78

We stayed at Sheraton on the Falls, which is a 30 second walk from the falls; and we had an amazing view from our room.  Front desk actually gave us a free upgrade! upon seeing our newborn with us.  I had only paid for a “city-view room”.  $340.38

We also paid for hotel parking for 2 nights.  $69.4

We got to Niagara past 9 so by the time we were all settled in and ready for dinner, everything was just about closed.  We ended up ordering in some pizza and wings from Dominos.  $48.54

FRIDAY:

We spent about 5 minutes at the falls before deciding to head back!  We decided to be cautious and just spend the whole weekend in our hotel room (as planned) rather than risk our newborn outside.

In addition to a complimentary fruit platter sent to our room, we had some cookies and random snacks for breakfast.  Plus coffee from Starbucks.   $10

For a late lunch/early dinner, we decided to splurge on the hotel’s buffet restaurant.  It’s on the highest floor and had views of the Falls.   $122.94

Because we were so full from that meal, we never really ate that night except for some Sweet Jesus ice cream we had while watching the fireworks from our hotel window.  $15.44

SATURDAY

We drove back home after checking out; and had lunch at an event we were headed straight to.

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I’m really glad we went on a staycation for my birthday weekend instead of just spending it at home.  It was a nice change of pace after spending almost a month just being home.  It was nice to spend some quality time with our little family as well, just enjoying our newborn for ourselves.  The husband and I binge watched Riverdale on Netflix that entire weekend and it was one of our best weekends ever!  Nothing beats quality time with family 🙂
Weekend cost breakdown

Hotel:  $340.38
Parking:  $69.4
Tolls:  $19.78
Meals:  $171.48
Coffee/Treats:  $29.44

Total Spending:  $630.48

Baby Budget 360: MAY (Month 1)

My baby was born on the 30th, which makes tracking monthly expenditures so much easier; it always falls within a calendar month!

At the beginning of the year, we estimated our monthly baby budget to be $300.  This includes diapers (cloth AND disposables), wipes, formula, toiletries… basically any consumables within the month.

We have a separate budget for baby furniture, bottles, breastfeeding/pumping accessories, clothes, toys, etc.  (We have currently spent only half of this allotted category).

Let’s see how we did on month 1:

April 2018 Budget

LATE POST.  We had our baby a few weeks ago (April 30th) so life has been a whirlwind since then, adjusting to life with an infant.  I am also typing up this blog post using only one hand, as I am carrying my baby with the other.  She’s real clingy!  Won’t let me put her down for long.  She’s adourable and the sweetest though; and makes all the sleepless days and latching pain worth it!

April budget:  March income, April expenses. 

In case you’re wondering, yes, that is a negative number I am projecting at the end of the year … that’s because I will be on maternity leave in April and being “self-employed” (technically a contractual employee with no benefits though), I won’t be able to avail of Canada’s Employment Insurance (which would have been 55% of a parent’s monthly income).

Our budget is based on a zero-sum system.  Basically, before each month begins, each amount is assigned to a category and income-expenses always equals 0.  I just have certain categories in red so I’m aware of where I spent more than allotted that month.  Either way, most of my categories roll over… whether under or over budget.

Now onto the details:  

Baby Budget Update

Last month, we had our baby shower and our family and friends gifted our baby with lots of presents!!  Some of those presents, we had to return due to doubles or because we decided they were unnecessary.

Including all the returns, cash presents, and gift cards we received, which totals about $1700… this will go towards our daughter’s RESP fund (tuition fund).  Since we didn’t allocate any of our budget towards her RESP, we are incredibly grateful for this generous start!

We’ve allocated $7000 for a baby fund.
…. So far, we’ve spent $96 on prenatal vitamins (we got pregnant right after our wedding so it took a while for my husband’s insurance to process me as a dependent.  I personally don’t have insurance).
… $87 on nursing clothing.  Half of my mat clothes are considered part of my discretionary expense and the other half I include as part of the baby fund
… $32 worth of expenses on a baby show
… $392 spent on the baby shower
… $1812 spent so far on baby’s things
We still have about $2000 left for upcoming baby stuff.  And the rest for her baptism/birthday expenses, which I’m hoping will be enough.

Here is a more detailed update on our list from last month:

Cloth Diapers!

Have you ever heard of cloth diapers?  Chances are, unless you’re expecting/have kids/or have experience with kids, you haven’t!

I’ve never heard of cloth diapers until my husband suggested we use CD for our upcoming baby.  I’m not going to lie, after doing research, I find it a lot of work!!  And maybe the savings isn’t even worth the hassle of CD.

And just to add, environment concerns are not an issue.  It’s not a factor for me to not use disposables.

Disposables:  Purchase diapers.  Change the baby.  Throw out used diaper.  Done.

Cloth diapers:  Change baby.  Scrape off poo (if any).  Wash cloth diapers every 2-3 days.  Make sure wash routine is perfect!  Otherwise you’d have to “strip” and “bleach” diapers.  You also have to clean the machine every month!  And take into consideration your water hardness, detergent, etc etc.  It’s a lot of upkeep!

But here’s the cost breakdown:

March 2018 Budget

March budget:   February income, March expenses. 

In case you’re wondering, yes, that is a negative number I am projecting at the end of the year … that’s because I will be on maternity leave in April and being “self-employed” (technically a contractual employee with no benefits though), I won’t be able to avail of Canada’s Employment Insurance (which would have been 55% of a parent’s monthly income).

Our budget is based on a zero-sum system.  Basically, before each month begins, each amount is assigned to a category and income-expenses always equals 0.  I just have certain categories in red so I’m aware of where I spent more than allotted that month.  Either way, most of my categories roll over… whether under or over budget.

Now onto the details:  

Baby Budget

When we found out we were pregnant last year, one of the first things I did was rework our budget.  What was originally meant to be a “30th birthday trip to Europe” suddenly became a “baby fund”.  That meant that $7000 of our 2017 budget was allocated to our baby – I meant this to include everything from prenatals, maternity wear, baby shower/baptism expenses, nursery furniture, clothes, etc.

One can be frugal and purchase from thrift stores etc of course; but second hand hasn’t really been my thing =I  (unless they’re preloved from family and close friends).

If we had to buy everything for our baby, our total comes up to $6000: