by Hope
I have been “forecasting” for years. It’s my way of budgeting and planning. My kids also use this method.
Here is my planned spending for next month. Praying there are no surprises because I am planning to the last penny especially with Princess’ wisdom teeth surgery this coming month.
10-01-2024 | Groceries / Hygiene / Dogs / Gas | -500 |
10-01-2024 | Full time income – varies | 11950 |
10-03-2024 | Auto Insurance | -930 |
10-03-2024 | Mortgage | -1015 |
10-03-2024 | Investment Acct | -350 |
10-03-2024 | EF Savings | -790 |
10-03-2024 | Travel Savings | -500 |
10-04-2024 | City Utilities – varies | -150 |
10-05-2024 | Princess rent | -750 |
10-07-2024 | Return from Texas | -200 |
10-09-2024 | Electric – varies | -250 |
10-10-2024 | Part time Income – varies | 240 |
10-10-2024 | Meds for Dogs | -425 (est) |
10-14-2024 | Princess surgery | -3610 |
10-14-2024 | Verizon | -350 |
10-20-2024 | Kids Contributions | 400 |
10-26-2024 | Windstream | -71 |
10-27-2024 | Twins Birthday | -200 |
Taxes, SS, Medicare (30%) | -2550 | |
I will pay off the Frontier card this month. And savings continues. And I will figure out this month how my new income is going to affect my taxes and self employment related costs. So that number may be affected significantly once I run some analysis.
It’s also the twins’ birthday month! Last year I could do almost nothing. While I will stick to my budget, I do plan to try to come up with something pretty cool for their birthday. Ideas?
With the dogs being boarded next month for our Thanksgiving trip to Texas, I must make sure they are up to date on everything specifically Bordatella, etc to prevent kennel cough. Not sure on cost, but I figured this amount should be plenty.
The kids’ contributions have been adjusted based on Paying Back Gymnast AND I anticipate that Beauty will have a plan for moving out and no longer be paying rent. (That’s not firm at this point, but it’s a definite possibility so I am planning accordingly.) Their remaining payments are their phone payments (the Verizon bill).
Update on 9/16: I wrote this post at the beginning of the month. And then all sorts of things changed. So I’m publishing it as planned, but there will be revised version going up by the end of the month that will be a more accurate plan. Lots of moving parts and decisions being made.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.