HAPPY 2017 EVERYONE- BUDGET TIME

123bedebtfree

Hope all of you had a wonderful and safe new year! My goal is to stay on budget! Here is our 2017 budget with a few changes from 2016

Joint income- 4000.00 ( same)
mortgage- 1075
electricity- 250.00 ( use to be 200 but kept going over budget)
water- 70- use to be 45
netflix- 11.99
dish network- 35.00
hulu- 8
car insurance( 3 vehicles) 245 - 2 full coverage one liability
life insurance 76
internet -55
car payment-206
cell bill-123
hoa- 110.00 - increased from 95
gas -200
groceries- 400
toiletries- 50
savings- 500
vacation-500
left over stays in checking

what is your new 2017 budget? whats different from your 2016 budget

formerlyjessica490

We don't really budget for the year, just check to check. We pay the bills, and stash the rest. We keep fun money on hand to pay in cash and discuss credit card purchases.

abrewer5

I budget pay check to pay check but it generally stays the same from month to month. Major difference I'll have this year is my SL should be paid off in March (depending on tax return) so that money will be going toward savings/paying off our boat loan faster. Other than that I don't expect much to change.

julieanne912

Yeah a yearly budget wouldn't work for us since it is constantly changing, we pay things off, then add something else, and H gets quarterly bonuses which are variable.  So check to check it is, with it mostly staying the same.

cbee817

Our biggest difference will come in July 2017- no more day care payments, but we're adding a HELOC payment for our exterior renovation project. Goal is to get the HELOC paid off by the end of 2020. Small COL increases, but I always up my 401k contributions by 1% and our health insurance contributions are going up, so it'll probably be a wash this year. DH doesn't get his yearly bump until September when the new school year starts. 

hoffse

I'm not going to post my whole budget unless folks want to see it, but these are the changes we are making:

-Increase retirement/investments by 1% (we do this every year).
-Send an extra $700/month to student loans.
-I just got a car last week, so that will add $450 to our budget each month.  H's car is paid off.
-Disability insurance just started auto-deducting last month, so it's still very new to us.  That's $200/month.
-Starting to budget $200/month for health care.  We rarely consume health care, but we are both on high deductible policies, and we are TTC.
-$1,000/month toward our baby/slush fund.  We plan to just keep adding to this through the year so that we have a really nice cushion for unexpected expenses after birth or an option to take some unpaid leave.  If we don't conceive this year, then we will reassess this slush fund going into 2018.

Finally, this is not MM at all, but I am adding $300/month to our budget for "services."  This is lawn care, home care, dry cleaning, tailoring, etc.  Could we do all of this ourselves?  Yes.  But our time is limited, and we can afford to hire others to do these things for us.  H and I both got large raises this year, and this is going to improve our standard of living a lot.

labro

I'm waiting to approach our budget after we find out if DH is getting a bonus and a raise, which will be sometime in February. Otherwise the only change for now is a slight decrease in our take-home to cover our federal tax withholding shortfall.

LillibetteV

We can't really plan the whole year out yet because we don't know what our childcare options are going to be. Ideally I'll be granted an extended maternity leave when I tell my boss I'm pregnant next week in which case we won't have to pay for daycare until next January and we've already budgeted for me to not get paid for 4 months. Otherwise we'll have to start looking into daycare options - we currently "pay" daycare to our savings account based on the most expensive one in town, but I haven't actually visited any of them to decide which one we would feel most comfortable with and which lines up most with what we want. We can afford both options, it's just I don't know which one will come to be. And of course there is always the possibility that if my extended leave request is denied I can try and work out some compromise between the 3 months I'm allowed to take and the 6 months I want, or maybe even part time options that will reset the budget. I'm super antsy to work that all out, but I'm waiting until our nuchal translucency test this Friday to say anything to work just in the unlikely event we get some horrible diagnosis at our ultrasound - I just don't want to jinx it! 

short+sassy

Good!  I'll take this opportunity to get my financial thoughts in order.  I have too much going on.

Income:   $8185 (gross, except f/t job)- down $140/month because I lost two hotels on my p/t gig. Also $2655 (net) is my f/t job income which is going bye-bye in the near future.  But I'll be adding another $1800-$1900, once I get tenants in my new duplex (been taking TOO long).  So.  It's a moving target!

Car Insurance:  $225 (no car payment)

Mortgages:  $1,115

HELOC:  $2300, this is the strangler, large balance only amoritized for 10 years. Planning a cash-out refi of one of my properties in the next 1-2 months to cut the balance in half and get a better monthly cash flow.

Property taxes not escrowed:  $300/month (paid annually)

Property/Flood insurance not escrowed:  $305 (down $60/month)

Electricity:  varies around $120

Water/Trash:  $60

Cable/Internet: $150 (just went up $25)

Cell phones:  $90

Gas:  $40

Groceries:  $400

Medical:  $300 (currently using HSA, which is taken out before my net)

18% set aside from rental income for future vacancies/repairs:  $730

CC Payments:  I'm not sure the minimums.  I used to pay them off every month, but they got out of control with my reno.  Now I pay them down about $1K-$2K/month.  I want to pay most of these off again after my cash-out refi.

Right now, any extra income is going against either my credit card debt or HELOC balance.

csuave

Our monthly expenses are fairly consistent so instead I looked at what our major spending and savings goals are above regular monthly activity.  
I put together rough estimates of costs for what we want to buy this year in major expenditure categories:
$700 trip to Florida
$1000 new computer
$1200 for next season's hockey tickets
$2000 landscaping
$4000 vacation(s)

And a general goal to save $5000 by the end of the year to start our new car fund.

That's $13,900 this year ($1158 per month) to cover everything.  The total may change based on actuals and we may have some leeway depending on if we get a tax refund, etc.
I'm calculating that our monthly income towards family expenses will leave us with $740 extra per month to meet these goals.  That is a bit short of of the $1158 per month goal.  We will most likely make up this gap by continuing to do AirBnb but we'll see how things are lining up after our first few months and make adjustments as needed.

vlagrl35

We do our yearly budgets right before the school year starts in August.  Not much changes - activities for DD and possible changes in insurances/property taxes.

AprilZ81

No major changes for us, if we get raises they usually take effect in March so we will re-evaluate then.  

I'm going to try to not get distracted by "small" projects that take up money but I don't know how successful I will be.

We need a new garage door, replacing it with what we want will be about $2,500 including a new opener and installation.  I want to pull up our brick patio that is in the front of the house where there should be a flower bed, I would love to hire that out but I think we will have to DIY that one to save money.  I would rather get more mature plants to have an immediate impact on our curb appeal.  Those two projects will probably be this spring and then our outdoor projects will be done until we start replacing windows.

I'm also hoping to re-do our master bathroom but no word yet from our contractor on when we can get on his schedule.

We will also be TTC again sometime in mid-late spring.  We will be seeing a specialist so we will have more medical bills.  We have the nursery painted grey and the furniture purchased already, so if we do get pregnant a lot of the big expenses are already behind us.

als1982

We'll actually have more take home pay starting this month since we increased our retirement contributions to over 20% during the last half of 2016 in order to meet the max.  We'll be able to drop those to 15-17% to max out in 2017.  

In terms of spending, I added a line item for a cleaning service - but I've yet to pull the trigger on it.  We'll see...

jtmh2012

als1982 said:

In terms of spending, I added a line item for a cleaning service - but I've yet to pull the trigger on it.  We'll see...

For those budgeting a cleaning service, how much are you setting aside?  We keep talking about it, but likewise haven't done more than that.....

als1982

jtmh2012 said:

als1982 said:

In terms of spending, I added a line item for a cleaning service - but I've yet to pull the trigger on it.  We'll see...

For those budgeting a cleaning service, how much are you setting aside?  We keep talking about it, but likewise haven't done more than that.....

Off the top of my head, I think we set aside $120.  I was planning on setting this up through Amazon Services and getting 10% cash back through Ebates.

hoffse

jtmh2012 said:

als1982 said:

In terms of spending, I added a line item for a cleaning service - but I've yet to pull the trigger on it.  We'll see...

For those budgeting a cleaning service, how much are you setting aside?  We keep talking about it, but likewise haven't done more than that.....

We are setting aside $250 for bi-weekly service with 2 cleaners for 4 hours of cleaning per visit.  It works out to be just over $15 per hour.  We also haven't pulled the trigger yet.  I probably won't until I see what our raises actually amount to be after tax so I can budget better beginning in February.  We are paid in arrears, so January's pay is always low compared to the rest of the year.  We won't really see what our raises work out to be after taxes until the very end of the month.  

I thought about using a private individual to save money, but we decided that using a company that is insured is worth the extra expense.  I don't know if it's like this with all companies, but the one we are looking at has insurance to cover legal/medical fees if one of the cleaners gets injured on our property.  Basically they would indemnify us if we got sued.  I'm not as concerned about theft, but if that were to happen that is also covered with their insurance.

Stephanie2167

Budget is currently month to month.
Take home: $9000

Rent: 1950.00
Car Payment: 190.00
Gym: 10.00
Electricity/Gas: 200.00
Water: 45.00
DirecTV: 80.00
Internet: 85.00
Cell Phones: 150.00
Ballet: 120.00
Groceries: 800.00
Eating Out: 150.00
Gas: 200.00
Daycare: 1750.00
Before & After Care: 330.00
Credit Card: 1500.00
Savings: 800.00

I've put myself on a spending freeze as I'm a terrible online shopper. There are also items I plan to work on like lowering the grocery bill. Ballet will be over in June and instead of signing the girls up with summer activities ($$) we're going to take a break from structured activities until fall. Then they'll all start gymnastics. Credit card should be paid off in April. I get a bonus in February which may go towards paying off the debt or into savings. 

bmo88

We are not making too many significant changes this upcoming year, unless we are fortunate enough to conceive again/have a successful pregnancy. 

So our monthly budget will be:

Gross Income: $10,300

Expenses:

Mortgage/Homeowner's Insurance: $1,750
Health Insurance Premiums: $225
HSA Contribution: $250
Phones: $85
Cable: $90
HOA (internet, cable and rec center/pools): $118
Car Insurance: $91
Car payments (paying off 2.5 years early): $1,000
Fuel: $80
Groceries: $450
Eating Out: $150
Flex/Fun Spending: $200 ($100 each)
Pets (food/vet/toys): $120
Toiletries/Cleaning Products: $75
Home Repairs Fund: $100

Savings/Investments:
Roth IRAs (combined): $916
401k (me): $1,000
General Stock Purchase: $98
Emergency Savings: $700
Baby Fund Savings: $300

We have other larger purchases/expenses come up throughout the year that we typically just cash flow and don't track monthly like vacations or furniture.