April 2012 Canadian Budget Binder Family Budget Update

It’s the end of April and that means a Budget Update for Canadian Budget Binder is in order. I admit I do get excited at the end of the month to see how we did for the month. We’ve worked hard as a team to keep our budget in check which is important in any relationship. It’s very important to be mindful of your data input and to go over it to make sure it is correct.

We now have 4 people testing the Canadian Budget Binder Spreadsheet for the month of May so we look forward to their opinion. Our projected expenses for the month of April continue to change as you will see below compared to March. It seems we had some other expenses pop up that we had not thought of but this is reality, be ready for these surprises.

New Projected Expenses

Central Air Inspection Yearly $140.00 plus tax
Saving for extra weeks payments through year for mortgage as there are 52 weeks per year. Even though we get an extra pay in certain months we still wanted to budget in the money for the extra mortgage payments in those months as well.

Through chatting with our Facebook Fans I felt it was so important to stress that you have to be able to balance a budget. For Example, If you net x amount each month you have to spend less than you earn. If you budget in more than you earn you are spending money you have not earned thus causing debt. This debt will only continue to grow unless you:

1-Make more money

2-Pay it off

You can’t physically save any money in an Emergency Savings Account if you are spending more than you make. It’s also critical to consider that there are 52 weeks per year when allotting money in your budget categories.

This Equates to:

26 Weeks if your pay or bills are bi-weekly and every month does not necessarily mean 4 weeks. There are in actual fact 4.33 weeks in every month so if you set something up to be a weekly expense it may be costing you more per month than you budgeted for.

Groceries this month went pretty smooth although we had to force ourselves to stick to the budget. It is so easy to get caught up in the “savings‘ or “coupons” usage that you can get well over budget even though you save money with coupons.

There are times when we say, yes we will need this and use this so we stock up with coupons. It may put us over budget but we pay for it in other areas so we don’t spend more than we earn. More fans are now playing our Grocery Game Challenge each month. Our goal is to grow this game so others will make a difference in their grocery budget. I would like to see at least 15 people playing by the end of May.

Our Net Income for the month of April was higher due to

Tax Return of $377.99
Pathetic interest from the Savings Accounts $84.68
Overtime Pay

April Monthly Overview

We have 3 Bank Accounts

Chequing– This is where all the bills get paid from.
Emergency Savings– This is where our Emergency money sits.
Savings– This account holds money for projected expenses.

The CBB Family April Budget Breakdown

Monthly Budget Total: $5876.10

Total Coupons Used: $253.21

Projected Expenses: These are expenses we know we will pay for throughout year and save monthly for = $601.59

Total Expenses Actually Paid Out is: $4070.09

Calculated is $7029.05 (total monthly income) – $2357.37 (total monthly savings) – Projected expenses $601.59 = $4070.09

Actual Cash Savings Going Into Emergency Savings Funds: $2357.37

Calculated is $7029.05 (total monthly income) – $4070.09 (actual expenses paid out for the month) – $601.59 (budgeted expenses) = $2357.37 (Total Savings for April)

The Outcome: We were happy but aim to keep improving the budget and the Canadian Budget Binder Spreadsheet.

Total Net Income April:$7029.05

Allowance $15-Spent $16.33
Car Repair/Maintenance $11- Spent $62.74
Christmas $25- Spent $o- Saved $25 in account for future
Clothing $10 Spent $37.22
Dentist/Prescriptions $5- Spent $3.79
Electricity/Water $153.05- Spent $153.05 ( this will be changed to a projected expense in May as it should be and was not)
Entertainment-$7- Spent $0-Saved $7 in account for future
E-test–$4- Spent $0-Saved $4.00 in account for future
Furnace/Hot Water Rental–$37.46- Saved $37.46 in account for future
Union Gas (domestic) -$59.19-Spent $44.87
Gasoline/Diesel (vehicle)-$192-Spent $195.03
Grocery- $190- Spent $198.93
Home Maintenance-$50-Spent $63.78
Car/Home Insurance-$189.46-Spent $198.25 We also received $98 back from Insurance this month as we swapped vehicles for summer. Our new policy starts in May which should be $155 a month.
Income Tax Filing-$2.50-Spent $0-Saved$2.50 in account for future
Investment-$767.00-Spent $767.00
Licence Renewal Fees-$11.84-Saved $11.84 in account for future.
Life Insurance-$135.05-Spent $135.05
Lottery-$12 -Spent-$12
Membership/Club/Sports-$6- Spent $0-Saved $6 in account for future.
Miscellaneous-$294.50-Spent $288.61
Mortgage-$1470.30 -Spent $1632.15 ( extra weeks payment this month as well as $417 extra a month we pay.
Parking-$5 -Spent $4.40
Pet-$2.08-Spent $0-Saved $2.08 in account for future.
Property Tax-$287.45-Spent $856.22
Emergency Savings-Saved $2239.05-$601.59 projected expenses = $1637.46 saved
Vehicle Sticker-$16- Spent $o Saved $16 in account for future
Cable/Internet/Cell/Home Phone-$165.56-Spent $165.56
Work Tools-$50 Spent$23.34 Saved $26.66 in account for future