Budget Porn, February 2018

Sometimes I wonder what google searches bring readers to this post series. What kind of weird, low-budget (or should I say, "affordable") porn is someone looking for when they stumble upon this blog?

But we don't judge here, friends. If you're here to satisfy your financial voyeurism by looking at what someone else spends on groceries or restaurants, that's just fine. And if you are here by accident, and were instead looking for actual pornography, that's fine, too.

I hope you'll stick around.

Here is how our spending broke down in February:

February Total Spend: $3,377

Non-Mortgage Spend: $1,901

2018 YTD Spend: $8,341

Projected 2018 Spend: $50,047

The cash system is beginning to work its magic, as we came in under budget for all three of the categories we actually have jars of cash for: groceries, date night, and restaurants. In the Done by Forty household, under-spending on food counts as a minor miracle. I don't think that's happened once in all the years we've been tracking our spending in our trusty spreadsheet. 

On the other hand, there are a lot more categories in which we don't have a jar of cash. This is by design, because we don't want to bring cash inside to a cashier when we buy gas, and we still want to buy things online. On top of that, there are plenty of things that aren't really discretionary: our utilities, our insurance, medical expenses. I doubt that the method of payment is going to cause us to spend more on these areas.

Still, we did spend quite a lot on the dogs, baby expenses and home improvement this month. Maybe using more jars is the answer?

Jax got a bad ear infection so we brought him in to have our vet look at it. She prescribed some new ear drops and gave us some tips on how we can potentially treat this ourselves going forward. Jax has always had problems with his ears. Twelve years in, I doubt there's a medication or home concoction that will ever truly solve the problem. We also refilled his prescription for his painkillers, which help him move around without his hip hurting him as much. Dealing with this stuff is just part of life with our old pup.

He's not that old.

We had some home maintenance costs in February, if only just to remind us that, yes, houses can be expensive. After plunging away at the shower drain all day, and perhaps re-injuring my hernia a bit, I finally admitted defeat and called in a plumber, who snaked the drain, failed to get his camera down the drain, and handed us a bill for $175. 

I went ahead and installed these hair catchers in the shower and the kitchen and, yeah, it's shocking how much they catch. It's unsettling to use my bare fingers to scoop them out every couple days, but better for that stuff to end up in the trash can than down the drain. Like Jay Baruchel's family home in She's Out of My League, we have very fragile plumbing.

We're also spreading out the baby expenses as best we can, and in February our big purchase was this crib. Mrs. Done by Forty has done the heavy lifting on the research for the baby purchases, and this one had all the things we were looking for without being too pricey. And luckily, the local store was able to find one in a nearby warehouse way cheaper than the online price, and they took a 20% coupon on top of it. You go, brick and mortar.

Next month, we can afford to buy the mattress.

Despite having a few one-off costs, we were able to land right around where we'd want to be on a monthly basis for a $40,000 annual spend goal. I'm going to call it a win...if only because I know the next couple months are going to be crazy expensive. More to come on that.

For now, let's see where the Mad Fientist's Laboratory puts us on our path to financial independence.

On track to be done by forty...but just barely.

I wish I could say the spiky spending of 2017 was going to be a thing of the past. But with the baby due in late May, a few pricey purchases are coming up in the next couple months. The $40,000 goal might seem ludicrous by this summer, and mathematically impossible by the fall. But as of right now, hope springs eternal.

I hope your March is off to a great start. As always, thanks for reading, friends.

*Photo is from andres.moren at Flickr Creative Commons.