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It’s time for another budget report, Picky people! See how our expenses looked during July and where we plan to go in August. 

July was an interesting month, chock-full of budgetary anomalies. It would be an understatement to say I’m glad July is over. Mr. Picky Pincher and I have coined 2018 as “The Year of Grit,” and boy, I’m feeling that grit right now. But as stressful as things can get, we still made great progress towards our financial goals this month, and that’s what matters. We aren’t perfect, of course, but we were still able to set aside a good chunk of cash for debt.

See where our money went this month and what we plan to do in August!

P.S. If you haven’t already, please join our Picky Pinchers Facebook group! It’s a safe haven for frugal-minded folks to ask questions and share wins. I’d love to see you there!

Mortgage: $1,134.83

Yup, we’re slow ‘n’ steady paying down our mortgage.

Internet: $106.64

Standard charges for our high-speed internet with Speculum Spectrum. We’ve had insanely slow service over the last few months. Out of frustration, Mr. Picky Pincher called Spectrum to ask what was going on. As it turns out, there was a small error in the way our wifi was set up. It was a simple fix and now we’re able to stream with zero problems.

We got better service and didn’t have to spend an extra dime.

Phones: $107.93

Our phone bill will probably be in the $100 range for the foreseeable future. Mr. Picky Pincher doesn’t have personal wifi at work, so our pay-what-you-use plan is a little higher. Oh well! It’s still cheaper than the soul-sucking contracts we used to have.

As a big upside, we’ll be getting a $150 rebate to our phone bill since I purchased a new Google Pixel XL. That means we’ll get one month (and then some) for free! Not bad, eh?

I wrote this review after using Fi for one year if you’re curious about the experience.

If you’d like to join Google Fi, you can do so through my affiliate link right here. After 30 days, Google Fi will credit your account with $20, which is like getting one month free. Nifty eh?

Car payment: $345.36

Yup, we still have a car payment! Learn more about our car saga here. 

Insurance: $198.25

This includes homeowner’s insurance, life insurance, and car insurance.

Utilities (trash, water, energy): $254.19

Our trash is billed quarterly, so no trash charges this month! Our water bill clocked in at $88.35, which is par for the course for this time of year. I love that we caught a few inefficiencies in our irrigation system to trim the bill. Our energy costs were $165.84, which suuuucked, but that’s Texas summer for you.

Groceries: $571.74

We increased our grocery budget to $600 this month because we stocked up on smoothie supplies and bulk foods. I’m happy we at least came in under $600, but it’s still $170 more than we spend each month. Blah!

Food has been … weird this month. To be honest, I’ve been a little run ragged and it’s been hard to find meals that fit the bill of being cheap, fast, healthy, and delicious. But we’re on the never ending quest to find this food unicorn.

For next month, I’d love to keep our grocery total under $400. We’ve been able to do this before, so I know we can do it!!! I sense a lot of pantry meals are in the future.

P.S. Check out The Picky Pincher Cookbook for tasty recipe ideas!

Takeout: $219.22

I’m surprised that takeout is so low; we’re only $19.22 over budget. That’s amazing, considering our love for all things fried. Because food has been so tough this month, I’m not surprised we’re over budget on takeout. With hub’s varying work schedule, he sometimes has to buy lunch or dinner on the clock, which affects the budget. But I don’t mind, to be honest, because he stays fed and happy that way. In the future I’d love to work out some quick meals he can make without grabbing takeout.

The other culprit? We had lots of traveling this month. In fact, Mr. Picky Pincher was traveling nearly every weekend in July, poor thing. All said, I think we didn’t do too shabby, but we could always be better.

Medical: $282.20

Surprise! Remember how I talked about frugally dealing with surgery? It’s a saga that never ends. This month we received a bill from my anesthesiologist. It was only for $282.20, but that was $282.20 that I wasn’t expecting.

Grumble grumble.

Gas: $243.32

I don’t know if we’ve ever had a gas total this high. Mr. Picky Pincher had two weekend trips that required our less fuel-efficient truck, which ate up a lot of gas. We also visited my family in Oklahoma last weekend; for a total of 16 hours of driving, you can bet it used up a lot of gas, even in our Corolla.

This is an enigma for us, so I don’t expect this total to be so high in the future. At least there’s that, eh?

Household: $42

By popular request, we started separating out household items in our budget.

Some popular items we bought this month include:

• Toothpaste
• Toilet paper
• Freezer packs

Student Loans: $2,980

Not too shabby! We went over budget, which means we were able to put less money on our student loans. We use a zero sum budget system where every dollar has a purpose. We cover all of our expenses each month and contribute whatever remains to debt. It’s a real motivator to come in on budget!

Other: $1,718.21

We’re over budget this month by $500 or so.

Here are some notable July expenses:

• Birthday gift: I used a Prime Day deal to buy an Amazon Echo Spot and a Ring Video Doorbell as a birthday gift for my dad.
• Test application: Mr. Picky Pincher paid to apply for a professional exam he’s taking in October.
• Brewing supplies: Mr. Picky Pincher loaded up on beer supplies, including beer kits, yeast, and equipment.
• Fishing supplies: He also had a fundraising fishing tournament this month. Hubs loves fishing, but didn’t have any of the necessary equipment. He bought a rod and other fishing essentials for the tournament. He plans on fishing more regularly in our local lakes to relax and to (excuse the pun) reel in some cheap food.

• Mead honey: Mr. Picky Pincher loves brewing homemade mead, which is a wine concoction made with honey. It’s slightly sweet, smoky, and unlike anything you can get at the store. This time he ordered orange blossom honey from Florida for the newest mead. I can’t wait to try it!
• Family meals: We bought meals for our families during get-togethers. We used to put this in the takeout budget, but it makes more sense to include it here as a hosting expense.

Total expenses: $5,223.89

Total expenses with student loans: $8,203.89

Some people have asked about retirement contributions. Great question! I contribute $200 monthly to a Roth IRA, which I don’t count as either an expense or savings. I act like it’s money I never see. Mr. Picky Pincher also contributes to his employer-sponsored 401k, but we also act like we never see that money. I guess it technically counts as savings, but it muddies the water in our calculations, so retirement contributions aren’t included here.

We also don’t include costs for medical, vision, or dental plans, since that comes out of Mr. Picky Pincher’s check.

Savings rate: 44.85%

Cost per meal: $4.25

August goals

July was a weird month. We had a lot of outlier expenses, like gas, nice gifts, and fishing equipment. After looking over the budget, we’re planning on really tightening things up for the next three months.

Why?

Well, with any luck, we’ll be able to pay off our student loans by the end of October. That will give us SIGNIFICANTLY more freedom and less financial stress.

My main goal for August is to amp up our savings rate even more. If we can manage to set aside $4,000 next month, we’ll be in good shape. I think, for us, it comes down to making mindful daily choices, particularly about food. Let’s see where August takes us.

We want to know: How was your July? Were you a Frugal Francine / Fergus or a Spendy Susie / Stan? 

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