Cars

So, I've been tinkering with my budget again (what I do every day). I realized that my car is not going to last me forever. It's a 2010, so I'm hoping it will last me another 4 years (at least). So, next year I will start putting aside money towards a new (to me) car. In 4 years I won't have a ton to spend on a car, but may have enough in my emergency fund to offset that (without making a huge impact on the emergency fund).

I have also modified my budget when it comes to money being set aside for my son's higher education. When he's 17 instead of putting all the money I would have put aside to the mortgage (paid off by then), I'll take half that money for a new (to us) car for either him or I. We have public transportation where we are, but it's not fantastic. So, I want to at least plan for him having his own car. By then he should have a job and be footing the bill for at least the gas and maintenance, if not the insurance (we'll cross that bridge when we come to it).

I was asked yesterday how I was doing since being on Gail's show. I think I'm finally doing pretty great. It took me a few years. I was on the show when my son was only a couple of months old and now he's 7 and I'm finally on track. It is so hard being a single mom sometimes. I had no idea there were subsidies for day care. That would have been a huge help to me for 3 years!!! But, I can't change the past, I can only look to the future and learn from my mistakes. I'm finally doing pretty well and will have my mortgage paid off in 27 years instead of 25 (and I put debt into the mortgage at least 3 times). So, thanks again to Gail for putting me on the right track.

End of Year Budget Review

So, I rejigged my budget numbers based on what I spent this year (and what I plan to spend for the rest of December) and determined that I was over on two categories this past year. Now, I'm not sure where my math went wrong because I have enough in my bank account to cover my December Visa bill and have money left over. So, I'm not sure if I actually did go over my budget. Obviously, the new heating / cooling system was over my budget (my house budget was not equipped to cover a $13,000 expense), but that aside my budget tells me I was over in two categories.

I was over by $300 in my public transit category. At the end of the year I was asked to switch from my local office to a downtown office. Which meant I needed to start taking the train. This was not an expense I had expected and couldn't budget for. The expectation is that my yearly bonus would help to cover this new expense, but I had to handle it until January.

I was also over in my books / toys / gifts category. Apparently, I spoil my son. This category also held our expenses for computer backup and security ($250 at the end of the year - which I had forgotten about). I was over by $420. I've upped my son's allowance starting this month so that he will be responsible for the majority of books he buys (and will hopefully start to understand why I love the library so much). We spent a lot of money on video games this year. I bought my son a 2DS system for his birthday and games at Christmas. Plus we had games and accessories for the Wii early in the year. Next year I am planning on replacing the Wii (it is on its last legs). We will hopefully be able to borrow games from the library for whatever system I end up getting. I will have to plan ahead for that purchase as it will not be cheap.

But, with those (3) categories aside, I think I had a fabulous year in terms of budgeting. It was really my first year to really make sure I was doing it and I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made. I have my mega spreadsheet that I review daily. It has details of my budget, my spending, where my mortgage is and will be in the coming year, where my son's RESPs are and when I will be able to start putting more towards that goal, where my RRSPs are (not great). I know I should focus on my RRSPs but I really want to get the mortgage paid off and Jude's school costs figured out. Jude will still need to pay for part of his school, but I'm hoping that I can keep the amount as low as possible for him. I do not want him drowning in debt when he gets out of school (like my brother and I).

I'm planning to up the amount of money against the budget and Jude's RESPs next year. My goal is to have the mortgage paid off in 9 years and then put that extra money against Jude's school budget.

So, year 1 of budgeting is almost in the books. Here's hoping I don't spend more than I've planned this month.