It's coming up on the end of the year and I have a good idea of how much money I will be spending to the end of December (I hope).
I have a good idea of how much money I will have left in my bank account at the end of the year and I know what I had at the beginning of the year. I think it works out to me having overspent $900 for the year. I have managed to put away $3000 into a savings account and around $3000 into RRSPs, and some money set aside for my son, plus pay off my line of credit and most of my car loan (that will be done early next year).
This year I had the giant expense of a new A/C, heating, and water tank unit. $13000, I believe. I will hopefully have that paid off by the end of next year and will only have my mortgage remaining for debt. I've put bad debt into my mortgage I think 3 times. So, once the above is all paid off, my mortgage will be back at my original purchase price (not great I know). But, it is worth about $80,000 more than what I paid for it. On my current debt repayment plan I will have the mortgage paid off within another 8 years. I know not great, but I'm a single mom and I weigh the debt repayment against all of the activities my son wants to participate in (the activities tend to win out).
I know the debt repayment isn't as aggressive as it should be, but I'm trying.
I'm updating my budgeting spreadsheet. It now contains some charts so I can visualize where my money is going. This year the majority of my money went to: mortgage, condo fees, childcare, groceries, vacation (we are going to Disney next year and I have that time-share type deal that I'm still paying for), and debt repayment.
Next year I should have three categories removed from my budget: water heater (since I purchased this year), car payment (because I moved it into my mortgage payment and that portion is almost paid off), and pet (unfortunately, I had to put down my wonderful Placenta Head this year). Those three categories made up about $120 / month in my budget. That money can now go to debt repayment.
I'm also debating whether or not we will finally use that vacation time share in 2019. If we do, I'll be paying for the portion we have to pay, plus the flights in 2018. At the end of 2018 will be my last payment on the time share, so that will be a big amount of money for the year back in my budget for 2019. I'm thinking half to vacations and half to debt repayment (but let's get through 2018 first).
I still have a big amount on the Disney trip to pay in 2018 - the remainder of the hotel and all of our food. I know you can bring your own food into Disney, but my son is really picky and I expect we will just be eating pizza everyday. I'm going to start looking at the grocery stores that deliver to Disney to see what we can maybe buy and have delivered.
My spending app tells me that I was over my typical spend two months out of eleven. February - when I paid for part of Disney and summer camps. and June when I paid for the rest of summer camps. I had three months where I was on the cusp for overspending. So, I think that was a pretty good year. I can't expect to have every month under. I have Disney to pay for in January, camps to pay for in February and June.
I am hoping to keep my expenses down in December. I only have a couple of presents left to buy (should be under $100). We will have higher gas costs, and eating out costs because of travel for the holidays, but the rest should be under control.
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