As we start 2022 we will start heading back to a normal life and we have some big changes coming up for the year. I am going to start tracking my spending on a weekly basis. I am going to share here with a monthly round up to see how we did compared to our budget.
For the first time in a long time, we will have a car payment, it has been almost 5 years since we had a car payment. My 15-year-old daughter will start driving later this year, she has been saving up to purchase my wife’s car and we will be purchasing a used vehicle for my wife to drive. 3 years ago, I made a deal with my wife in which she would join a budget with me and contribute all but a small portion of her paycheck each month for household bills. In return I would buy the car that she wants up to a certain amount.
The chart below shows how we did in January, our largest variable expenses have been groceries and dining out. Groceries does include household items if they are on the same receipt, examples would be cleaning supplies, rugs, bathroom decor. It’s still an awful lot of money spent and we have to do better in February.
We were able to save about 15% of our take home pay last month into a savings account. Pre-tax items include 401k and HSA contributions but they don’t appear as a % of our income. I highly recommend saving now as much as you can as there are multiple tax benefits We are working towards a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) number I will share in future updates.
