Thriftism's Monthly Budget - July Report

Happy August! With a new month rolling around, that means we need another budget update. For a quick reminder, we run our budget solely on my income of $2,400/month which gives us a gross income of $31,200. We do not include health insurance in our budget as ours is currently covered by our jobs, but if this was our household income we would also be taken care of by insurance subsidies. We do not include all discretionary spending such as traveling or major home renovations, but we do include all entertainment, grocery, dining out, and every day expenses. It is our essentials budget that we live on before adding in trips! If we can do it, so can you!

The Budget

Our goal budget is balanced with total income minus expenses equal to zero. Numbers in red are expenditures, while black is income. The green background indicates under budget. Red squares point out our overspending. 

We did change up the budget a bit to reflect that the student loan is paid off. We split that amount between miscellaneous expenses and increased the savings goal. 

WINS ✅

We had another good month for eating out. We were able to reduce our monthly average again. Our eating out budget came from Zumba on Tap.

We didn't buy any clothing in July or miscellaneous spending. This helped us lower us monthly averages to be on track or almost on track for all three areas.

Our household spending was under budget this month too! We had another month of keeping utilities under budget. We're not quite there yet for the yearly average, but getting closer every month. We will need to keep doing this to balance out for the year - this may be difficult as our internet cost is increasing by 8% this year. 

No care insurance this month and stayed under for fuel. No maintenance helped keeps costs down too.

NEEDS WORK ❌

Groceries went over budget this month, but hopefully we can keep costs down in August to make up for it. We've had quite a few extremely low months and it's been a struggle to keep from buying things (and sticking to rice and beans). 

Entertainment got a bit out of hand this month and we will have to dial it back in for August.

We did not need prescriptions this month, but I have continued buying Zyrtec to combat allergies. 

We also stocked up on a few pain killers like ibuprofen and probiotics this month pushing us over our goal. 

LAST THOUGHTS

We still went over budget in a few areas, but stayed under overall. We were able to increase our savings a lot and get back on track for the year. We actually have been saving over 20% of my income for this budget (in addition to Race's income). We are almost $65 under for the year (balance or $0 is the goal). Since we had excess, this money increased our savings. Still doubting our budget? Keep following along. 

Be sure to check our the Thriftism YouTube Channel for spending updates and budget report videos!