Budget Porn: September 2017

They say that you never bury the lede, so here it is: September destroyed our budget.

We spent way above our long term monthly average, most of our spending was completely discretionary, and this month threw off our future financial independence projections pretty significantly.

We might have screwed up.

Let's dig into the details to see how.

Here's the breakdown of what we spent last month:

Total September Spend: $5,807

Non-Mortgage Spend: $4,249

Annual Spend YTD: $36,661

Forecast 2017 Spend: $48,881

Yikes. So what the hell happened?

To start, some nesting happened. We bought two sofas for our living room, deciding that we didn't like the old couch that we inherited from a family member years ago. It worked just fine in the old house. It also worked just fine in the new house. Nothing was wrong with it, except that we didn't like the style or color. 

But as one sometime does when moving into a new house, we wanted new furniture. We wanted new couches, so we bought them. It's as simple as that. 

So when a check from our lender showed up in the mail, for our old escrow account balance, we earmarked those funds for furniture for the living room. 

(*Technically, we had already marked this money as "spent" in 2017, since it's coming from our old mortgage payments that were supposed to go to taxes and insurance. There was a temptation to not count this in this month's budget, since the funds were already accounted for in prior months' mortgage payment. But I'd rather double count, and make sure large purchases like this make their way into the history of our spending.)

A rare moment of obedience.

The other outlier expense was a painting. Mrs. Done by Forty's birthday fell in September again this year, and one of her old classmates is an artist who recently began selling her work. One item caught her eye: a mixed media painting with some of the background sewn in to the canvas. 

We were going to buy a print for $100, but asked if she would part with the original. At $500, it's obviously many times more expensive. But we're happier having the original. At least it's already matted and framed. 

This is another case of just getting something because we wanted it. And if you can't splurge a bit on a birthday...

Just to pile on, we spent $100 for NFL Sunday Ticket (available as a streaming option, as Mrs. Done by Forty is a student) and even shelled out an additional $50 for the Game Pass, so we can go back and watch whatever games we missed throughout the week. (And by "we", I mean "me". I have to force Mrs. Done by Forty to sit through a Steelers game.)

Rounding out our spendy month, we ran in to some medical costs. Both of us visited the dentist, where I learned I had my first cavity in some time. 

More troubling was an injury I developed on our trip to Europe this summer. It seems I have an inguinal hernia. It's not a huge deal. I can still bike and run; I just can't lift weights or anything too heavy.

But it will require surgery. I'm putting it off for now so we can potentially pair it with some other medical costs next year, especially as Mrs. Done by Forty might be coming on to my insurance. 

Still, we can count on shelling out about three or four grand, right around where my deductible currently is. Got to love those high deductible health plans.

Looking at all the money we've spent, and are going to spend in the coming months, there's a part of me that wishes we showed our full financial picture. Because despite all the money we parted with, we did still manage to save something in September. 

I get defensive when we spend too much. And who knows what too much is. 

I'm also pretty insecure about the prospect of spending more than $40,000 a year, since our initial goal set when we started the blog all the way back in 2012 hinges on spending exactly that amount. And the annual figures aren't trending to that amount.

When we decided to purchase our pricey new home, the deal that my wife and I made was that we'd tighten our belts a little bit. We'd commit ourselves again to frugality.

So far, that is not happening.

Is this increased spending in our new place just a temporary setback? Or is something approaching $50,000 annually going to be a truer figure, now that we have a bigger mortgage, and maybe someday, a bigger family, too.

If so, we'll need a bigger nest egg. Meaning maybe we won't be done by forty.

Here's how this month's spending impacted our forecast to reach financial independence, from the Mad Fientist.

April 2020 is the new target, a full three months later than the target date from August's annual check in. 

This is surprising, since even with the spiky green line showing an ever-increasing spending trend, it seems that we might actually reach financial independence just before my 40th birthday.

I have conflicted feelings about this. I'm happy that it seems we're still on track to reach our goal, somehow.

And, when looked at one at a time, I feel fine about all of these purchases. I like having new furniture to sit on, football streamed into our television on Sundays, and art to hang on our wall that makes my wife smile when she looks at it.

But the main reason I brought back these budget porn posts was to provide more motivation: to be more frugal. While I'm fine spending money in the abstract, or on a single purchase, we're not saying "no" to a lot of potential purchases these days. We're not delaying spending all that often. And it's at the point where it's impacting our larger financial goals.

So, as I always do, I turn to you fine readers when I get in a jam. If you can, please leave a comment below that gives us some advice, some motivation, or a tip that nudges us back to being a bit more frugal. 

Thanks for reading, friends.


*Photo is from Joelk75 at Flickr Creative Commons.