Budget July 2015 ~ Glacier National Park

Ever since we decided that the path for us is out of the rat race and into an early retirement of our choosing, the Mr. and I have been keeping an eye on our finances and scaling down our spending. Neither one of us were complete clowns, but we certainly weren't looking out for our future selves at anywhere near the level we want/need to be.

So in comes the budget. Budgets don't work for everyone and in the future it may not be necessary for us but for now it is the way we are buckling down and meeting the tough goals we've set for ourselves. Read more about how we budget here.

We are labeling July appropriately Glacier National Park month. We knew this month would be spendy since we were going to have to pay for the rest of our hotel, rental car etc for our trip. We only overspent on vacation by less than $60 which isn't too bad. We set ourselves a pretty strict budget so I'm really happy we did this well. Our savings rate is down quite a bit this month but we're not worried. It was budgeted for. Next month we're back to normal. The only other major thing is that we paid off our CTS car loan. We are waiting on the title and then are planning to sell the CTS to buy a vehicle with better gas mileage. Look for an upcoming article explaining our great car switcheroo!

On to the numbers!

• Fixed Costs (Mortgages, HOA, Loans) $9510/ $3054 WOOAAAHH. That's just paying off the car loan. From now on this number will actually drop yay!
• Utilities (electricity, gas, water etc.) $270/$370 (expected) Back to being under for the month. In fact we're under in all categories here for the year. Yay!
• Monthly Costs (phones, internet, gym, pets, car maint, etc.) $899.88/ $600 We had a few art projects and home repairs that came up this month. Also had to register the car which is a bummer since we're planning to sell it next month but o well. We should see some of this money back.
• Food (groceries and restaurants) $581/ $500 Groceries were high this month. We had to stock up on staples like peanut butter, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. Should last us for a few months now.
• Fun (Travel, Mr.'s fun money, Mrs.'s fun money, Mr.'s camera fund, gifts)    $1495.67/ $825. Here are all the travel expenses we anticipated. Even with this great overage we're actually still under budget or right on budget for the year in all of these categories.
• Additional Income: $20.43. This is a random assortment of checks, interest and other sundries that came in this month. Unexpected money is a plus! We reinvest all our dividends, etc. so those don't get counted in this roundup.

Another great month on the books.

Now, let's take a look at the money-shot numbers.

Total May 2015 income: $10,156.74

Total May 2015 expenses: $5,743.69

This means our total May 2015 Take Home Savings Rate came in at: 43%.

And our May 2015 Total Savings Rate: 65% (includes maxing out our 401ks).

Our net worth: $635,012.22. Happy this is starting to grow again!

We're doing great! Just gotta keep on keeping on.

Another adventure awaits!