I had tracked my budget after the flu and I did surprisingly well considering I was ordering comfort food rather than cooking. I ended January with 6% of my budget unspent.
I even had a plan in place for February, which has been an exciting month! I attended a conference and the kitchen renovation has begun.
Every year, I attend this conference in February and every year I seem to under-budget. I gave myself $250 to spend but once again failed to take into account:
- Exchange rate
- True expense of tourist attractions
- All the gifts
I must confess that between getting over the flu, re-organizing the entire house so that it doesn’t look like a disaster zone as the kitchen is being gutted, and preparing for the conference I didn’t budget as I should.
I ended up spending $700!
$200 of that was pure nonsense. My flight was delayed by 2.5 hours, which meant that I was in the airport for nearly 5 hours. I may have wondered into a Body Shop, it may have had products for my skin tone and items not available in my country yet…you can guess the rest.
I’m now on a make up and skin care ban for the rest of the year!
In spite of my crazy spend while away, I’m only 4% over budget. This is because ML and I have been really careful with our spending this month. I cut down on my eating out, we have been cautious with groceries as we knew we wouldn’t have a kitchen for 3 weeks, and Bunny didn’t need anything this month.
As for the Kitchen renovation, I am so proud of us! We created a mini kitchenette in our basement which includes the microwave, toaster oven, toaster, coffee maker and mini fridge. I also figured out I could plug my full size fridge in my living room. I didn’t get as much cooking as I wanted done before the reno began yesterday but we have enough frozen meals and tinned food to feel human.
We’re also really fortunate as both our families have offered to prepare meals for us. By offer I mean that they have instructed us that we’re not living off frozen dinners and have been cooking extra portions and sharing. We’re feeling very spoiled!
Of course, the renovation is going over-over budget. It’s day 2 and we’ve discovered that we need a new sub floor. I’m terrified about what they’re going to find when they go to hook up the water lines and electrical. I know that with our plans we’ll be able to afford up to a $10,000 increase from our original budget. However, I’d really like to not have to!
How has your month been?
Saving Without Scrimping 