Okay so it's been bad year for spending.
I was perusing our spending. Big budget categories
$25k traveling - big was the WDW trip that was about $10k. Seriously awesome though and I got a christmas card photo out of it. This year I'm not sure we are going to spend less I'm feeling around $20k I usually predict.
$15k dog. Seriously unexpected. He had surgery for $6k, then all his visits to vet with every other week blood measurements. Then his $500/month medications. He turned 2 in May and yes he's a rescue. I'd have probably been better off with a purebred bought from a breeder. But he's our third rescue and honestly he's a GREAT dog. Last night our husband teased the kids and said our best kid is the DOG. Hahaha. But I must admit that when my kids are pissing me off the dog is sometimes the only person listening to me. He goes on walks while I just think and talk. He lies on the couch and bed with me and kids. He guards the house when my DH travels. I'll admit to being very attached again. Sigh. I did tell my DH because of his disease I bet he won't live as long as we thought. And we'll likely get one more dog.
Home - $27k mortgage interest, $11k property Taxes, $10.5k new driveway, Yard $2k, closets $500. Homes are a money pit. Next year I am thinking we are maybe doing a new shed and I'm going to work on the addition I wanted.
Groceries and Eating out $24k about $1k/month for both. I am trying to rein in eating out but the groceries well what can I say? Our eating out is about about $50-100/meal 2x/week. The real budget buster for eating out is when family/friends visit and we pick up that check. Thanksgiving and Christmas looking at it we spent over $1k during those weeks both times. Then we're spending $100-200/meal plus a week in the summer with my inlaws and two weeks in Hawaii. It runs up our eating out amounts fast.
It was a crazy year.
2019 spending
January 7th, 2020 at 07:25 pm
January 7th, 2020 at 09:40 pm 1578433218
January 7th, 2020 at 10:25 pm 1578435901
January 7th, 2020 at 11:33 pm 1578440027
January 8th, 2020 at 12:40 am 1578444021
No I don't make principal payments. I let it ride. We have a very low interest rate. It's just a large dollar value.
Rob i've been thinking about that a lot. A large part of what we spent last year was traveling, eating out and groceries. I'm going to try and be better about eating out. I'm thinking if I curb eating out to $600/month instead of $1000 then $4800 for traveling. Let's see how we do. Can i curb groceries by $200/month? Maybe. I can try. That will help to fund traveling.
I am do know our traveling I may not be able to curb as much mostly because I don't want to.
June - $5500 cruise
Feb Hawaii - tickets by miles, hotel with points
January Ski - $600 hotel, $1k tickets, $400 lessons
March Ski - $600 hotel, $400 lessons
May Mother's day weekend- $1k weekend
Memorial weekend - $2k
July Hawaii $1k tickets
October trip - $8k
puts us at $20,500 without I know we'll spend more in June. Ugh so I might have to cut back October to something not international or as long.
January 8th, 2020 at 01:22 am 1578446531
Use OpenTable to make reservations even if you don't really need reservations at the place you're going. They have a rewards program. You get at least 100 points per reservation and they offer 1,000 points on select reservations (usually early or late times). Every 2,000 points you get a $20 reward. We will sometimes do a search for the 1,000 point places and pick where to go for dinner based on that. And I've made a reservation as little as 10 minutes before we got there just to get points (I did that just the other day).
January 9th, 2020 at 05:41 pm 1578591703
January 9th, 2020 at 06:29 pm 1578594594