May 2011 Goals
Well, this is my first month with a mortgage and all other household related expenses. While I think my budget is pretty solid, the next few months will probably require a bit of tweaking and adjusting as with any new budget.
Also there were some of you who were asking about how much income I’m bringing in each month (and whether my $4,200 net income was really a true minimum, or if I was inflating that amount to make my budget look better). The answer is that I am not inflating my net minimum income each month. To put my numbers into perspective, in January I brought in $4,212.27 net, February was $5,485.93 net, March was $6,444.68 net, and April was $5,314.85 net. So based on the first 4 months of the year, I’m averaging a net monthly income of $5,341.68. Since my monthly budget is based off of just $4,200, I think that I’m doing pretty good! Now the challenge is to steadily increase that extra income going forward.
Last week, I presented my monthly budget on this blog, and based on your comments and my own research, I have made a few changes for May. These changes include:
- Mortgage payment – my original mortgage amount was $1,098/month. I have changed that to $600 accelerated bi-weekly, which works out to $1,200/month for those months with 2 pay cheques. By increasing my mortgage payments by choosing the accelerated bi-weekly option and paying an extra $51 bi-weekly, I will shave my almost 4 years off my mortgage. Once I get comfortable with this amount, I will think about increasing my mortgage payments to the maximum I’m allowed to pay (approx. $660 bi-weekly, which is 20% more than my required payments).
- Utilities – I have bumped my initial $80 budget to $100.
- Home Insurance – I had originally budgeted $75/month for home insurance. Well, I’m not sure what I was thinking, since I was quoted $221/year. I will pay it yearly as one lump sum, so I will not have to budget for it on a monthly basis.
- Savings Fund / House Fund – decreased my Savings Fund and increased House Fund.
May 2011 Goals:
- Make an additional $2,000 above and beyond my FT job
- Stay on budget while on vacation in Toronto & NYC
- Get a baseball card signed by Pat Hentgen (might be a long shot)
- Find a new Toastmasters club to join (the one I was going to is now too far away)
- Hire and complete renovation work on my townhouse
- Be completely unpacked by the end of the month
- Do research into figuring out how to rent out my extra parking stall
- Introduce myself to my new neighbours
- Complete 5x runs around my new neighbourhood
Ongoing 2011 Annual Goals:
- No buying lunch, snacks or coffee during the work week
- No buying clothing, shoes or accessories until May 19, 2011
- Work out at least 3x/week
18 Responses to “May 2011 Goals”
Author comments are in a darker gray color for you to easily identify the posts in the comments
Leave a Reply
As seen in…
Recent Comments
Categories
- annual goals (24)
- banking (27)
- blog (192)
- budget (96)
- car (41)
- contest (26)
- credit card (20)
- credit score (10)
- debt (28)
- design business (37)
- down payment (28)
- education (15)
- EI (16)
- emergency fund (18)
- entertainment (194)
- fitness (165)
- guest post (19)
- health care (56)
- housing (59)
- investing (43)
- job (301)
- making money (55)
- miscellaneous (308)
- monthly challenge (52)
- monthly goals (118)
- motivation (38)
- property (43)
- recipes and food (27)
- relationship (121)
- retirement (30)
- saving money (179)
- scooter (24)
- spending (447)
- sponsored post (10)
- tax refund (23)
- travel (313)
- vlog (2)
- weekly spending recap (93)
I love that you're overpaying your mortgage immediately!
Thanks! :) I'm hoping that I will be able to overpay even more once I get comfortable with my budget.
I think this looks great! My only caution would be to not stop your house EF once it hits $1,500-within 6 months of purchasing my place, I shelled out $1,800 for my 1/3 of the new gutters (I knew this would be coming when I bought the place and had already saved it, but still!). You'd be amazed at what surprises come up when you least expect them!
Also, I'm curious to hear more about the reno you're looking into. It's a huge time suck on one hand to DIY, but I have to say I felt an incredible sense of pride doing most of the work on my condo by myself (it was just drywall, paint, fixtures, faucets, etc.–all basic things). Leave the big stuff to the pros but take the time to revel in your success by doing the small things. And don't forget to take pictures!! I took pictures of everything from the place completely empty to the mess on the first day I moved in to the gradual change of paint colors, etc. My friends laughed at me, but now everyone loves looking through the "Chronicles" of my place.
Happy moving, renovating, and celebrating!!! (sorry for the long post!) :)
My recent post Makin Mo Muh-nay!
Oh, no I'm not going to stop my House Fund at $1,500. That number is how much my property tax is each year. I will keep saving that amount of money into the House Fund and won't stop.
Talking about the Toronto trip – have you visited the Bata shoe museum? I always liked it.
here's a 2for1 coupon if you are interested http://www.attractionsontario.ca/index.cfm?DSP=Ch…
i think you should increase your Household number a bit, for a few months – you never know what pots or cleaning supplies or bathroom mats you might need. plus a warming house party!
Thanks for the coupon! As for Household, I have a decent chunk of money set aside in my savings to purchase things like cleaning supplies, shower curtains, etc. The little things that I don't have, that I will be purchasing in the next few weeks. Moving forward, the $100/month I think is realistic.
I happy that you have a what looks like a great handle on budgeting for your new place. It's nice to this new development on your blog as well. You've been an inspiration for while now, and I wanted to let you know I think you are doing a fantastic job of ensuring you know what is to come being a new home owner.
My personal favourite thing is that you have based everything on the income from the full-time job and have left your side gig income as a bolster to your finances. And I truly admire your propensity to side hustle! I've grown tired of it, but with the success you've been finding, I am thinking seriously about picking up some of my own.
My recent post Week Seven- Lust
Looks like you are way on top of things :)
You are super organized and I m learning lots from you! Not to mention…. reading your blog keeps me motivated! hahaha
My recent post Buying Out A Car Lease v A New Lease
I'm so excited for this new life journey for you. Once I get my debt all paid off I want to save for a townhouse and i'm leaning so much from reading about your purchase. Thanks for blogging about it. cant wait to hear what type of renos you plan to do.
Thanks for sharing! I think it's great that you're going with an accelerated mortgage payments. I'm currently mocking up a budget that includes all the elements of home ownership so seeing your budget has given me lots to think about.
Keep up the great work!
My recent post The dangers of comparison
Good job for being proactive and mocking up a budget! I found doing that really helped when deciding exactly what price point I was comfortable with.
Krystal,
Your monthly budget sounds great and I'm amazed at yourself control on your clothing ban / not buying coffee/lunch snacks at work. Way to go,. girl!
Btw, Do you set aisde money for the taxes for your side income to pay at the end of the year? Or is it already paid every month? I'm thinking about a part time consultation business – and wonder abou the taxes. Thx!
My recent post The end in sight
Thanks! :) As for side income taxes, I've been fortunate over the past 5 years not to have paid any taxes at the end of the year. Seems like my business deductions and RRSP contributions always ensures that I get at least a $1,500 refund every year. Plus, the income I generate doesn't put me into a new tax bracket either. That being said, this year might be different since my income seems to be increasing a lot. So taxes will come out of my Savings Fund, if need be.
Thanks. I didn't realize the side income is treated differently. I was of the opinion that the side income will be added to my main fulltime income and thus pushing me into a different tax bracket and will be taxed more.
Thanks for the clarification!
My parents and I are paying our mortgage weekly. We find it much better this way as it's accelerated. I hate the idea of giving money to banks in interest. >_<
My recent post The Anti-Bride
[...] Krystal from Give Me Back My Five Bucks is very candid and shares her financial goals and budget for May [...]
Hi – I might have missed something in your calculations, but I think you've made an incorrect assumption that paying $600 bi weekly is the same as paying $1200 per month. The thing about biweekly payments is that you are basically making one extra payment versus monthly payments (26 biweekly payments instead of 12 monthly payments). So, $600 biweekly actually works out to $1300/month, rather than $1200 (600*26/12).
I know that paying $600 bi-weekly isn't the same as paying $1,200 a month. It's just that for May, there are only 2 pay cheques, so therefore I am budgeting for $1,200. On months with 3 pay cheques, I will be adjusting my expenses accordingly. My budget fluctuates monthly, and does not stay the same, based on my expected expenses for that month.