Club Thrifty April Budget Breakdown
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Howdy, folks! I’m happy to report that spring is finally in the air in Central Indiana. I haven’t even turned my heat on for a few days, and I’m looking forward to low energy bills and plenty of sunshine.
It’s been so nice out that we’ve been taking the kids to the park almost every day. It’s been so fun! Our neighborhood has several big hills so it’s a pretty good workout as well- especially when we pull the kids behind us in a wagon. It is almost swimsuit season, and this Mama wants to look hot!
Speaking of swimsuits, I’m super excited about our spring vacation to Panama City, Florida later this month. We rented a nice oceanfront condo, and my oldest child is going to turn five while we’re there. I can’t believe it! I am so proud of her and the person she has become. But sadly, this is the last time we’ll be able to go on vacation on her birthday since she’s starting kindergarten this year. *Cue tears……
More Good News
I have an announcement to make, and it may not seem significant to you, but it’s super important to me. Here it is:
I have not had any Diet Coke in 12 days.
Everyone knows that I am a raging caffeine addict with cravings similar to the skankiest of meth-heads. But I decided to make a change after reading how awful drinking pop is for our overall health. I mean, I may end up with a $12,000 Obamacare deductible, so I need to take care of myself. Am I right?
Vanilla Reloads
After I wrote about how to pay your mortgage with a credit card on Monday, several people said that CVS was going to stop letting people pay for Vanilla Reloads with credit starting March 31, 2014. However, CVS Stores around here haven’t gotten the memo yet, or are choosing to ignore it. Perhaps it’s a regional change? Anyway, I’ll let people know if I run into any trouble buying them at CVS in the next few weeks.
April Budget Breakdown
Let’s get down to business. We all know what you’re here for!
- Mortgage: $1,500
- Groceries: $500
- Daycare: $600
- Internet: $145
- College L: $25
- College V: $25
- Gas/Misc: $200
- Cell Phone: $55
- Health Insurance: $394
- Florida: $600
- Electric $100
- Gas $50
- Sewer: $35
- Water: $40
- Lawn Treatment: $45
- SEP IRA: $1,000
- Roth IRA (H): $500
- Roth IRA (G): $500
Total: $6,314
A Few Details….
First of all, I cancelled Comcast internet and signed up for AT&T Uverse instead. They did require me to pay a $100 installation fee, and that’s why I have to pay $145 this month. However, I qualify for a $100 Visa gift card for signing up so I’ll get it back at a certain point.  Still, I hate it when companies make me jump through hoops like that.
We are going to get our lawn fertilized and treated this month for $45. I splurged. Sue me.Â
The $600 I budgeted for our Florida vacation should cover the following:
- The cost of gassing up Greg’s Prius for each leg of the trip
- Groceries for one week
- One dinner out on my daughter’s 5th birthday
- One dinner out with Lance from Money Manifesto
- A few gifts for my daughter’s birthday. So far, I’ve bought her a book and a Frozen DVD
- A surprise for my daughter’s birthday, like maybe a dolphin cruise (Shhh……..don’t tell her)
Oh, and make sure to check out my new interview at The Daily Interview!!!!!
How is your budget looking this month? Any big expenses coming up?
Great job on stopping the pop Holly. Think of how much better your teeth and your gut will be without all the citric acid and who knows what that artificial sweetener does to the rest of you. Great example for the children as well.
It will make a huge difference I’m sure. It’s been 13 days now!
Well we bought a car this past weekend so the payment on the loan will be part of our monthly expenses. I don’t have much motivation to pay it down early, though, because we got a 2.19% rate on it (I know you hate your loans so my rate argument is null here haha). I do plan on putting up a new retaining wall in a couple months so that’ll be a bigger expense on our budget. Nice job on no Diet Coke! If I can go a day without a can of pop I count that as a win. Totally addicted.
Me too! I feel good now that it’s been a few weeks. I went through some serious withdrawals for a while there.
Good for you for dumping the pop. It really is horrible for us, and I’ve cut way down too. Your trip to FL sounds super fun!
I hope so!
I am glad you are contributing to your savings at a great rate. The lawn treatment can be reduced a bit, depending on your next door neighbors lawn condition.
No such luck there! Everyone on my street has a beautiful lawn!
Besides, we were too cheap to get our lawn treated at our old house and weeds took over. I don’t want that to happen again.
The most important is the crab grass preventer in the spring, and any broad leaf control in the fall. Control the growth with water, control the green with fertilizer.
Woohoo! Dinner out with me (and the wife)! You don’t know what you’re in for 🙂
I put it in writing so you couldn’t cancel……again
Sounds like you guys are going to have a fun spring break! I would love to be sitting on the beach one of these days.
Me too!
Hi Holly,
I have two questions for you: How do you get your grocery budget so low at $500 per month? $500 is my goal for April but I’m pretty sure that is very unrealistic. We spent $767 in March on groceries (including diapers, paper products, toiletries, cleaning products, etc.) and this is with coupons, price comparison, and meal planning. I’ve stopped buying organic food besides organic meat. We also cook at home every night and don’t go out to eat. Any tips for getting that number down?
Also, how is your health insurance premium so low? What company do you have insurance through and how much do you have to budget per month for co-pays, deductibles, etc.?
I am working every month to reduce all of our bills and increase our savings and money thrown at student loan debt.
Thanks!
I wrote about groceries earlier this year:
https://clubthrifty.com/feed-family-4-500-per-month/
Basically, we eat a super cheap meal 3-4 times a week. We also don’t eat meat and I think that helps.
We are still on our old health insurance plan through Anthem, but it’s supposed to expire in December. We have an $11,000 deductible! I don’ budget anything for copays because we still have about $1,000 in a HSA that we haven’t touched in over a year. I don’t think any of us went to the doctor last year other than our kid’s well visits =/
I have no advice on how to save on health insurance except to call a broker and see what’s out there. Does you or your husband’s work offer a plan? If so, I would stick with it!
This may sound weird but I seem to eat more when I have diet soda. More so with diet soda than regular. Anyways I try to stick to coffee and water!
That doesn’t sound weird at all. I think that Diet Coke makes me crave sweets! I also feel that drinking pop with a meal makes me likely to eat more vs. drinking water. Either way, there are no benefits to drinking Diet Coke. It was time to quit.
Congrats on trying to kick the diet coke habit. I pretty much have quit, but every once in awhile on a hot day after long games of volleyball, I love that fizzy burn. lol! 600 is a great price for a family vacation, and the dolphin cruise sounds awesome. I think she’ll love it. My friend has a fishing boat and we went out to whale watch…didn’t see any whales, but saw a dolphin stampede which was one of the most amazing and cool things I’ve ever seen.
I love seeing wild dolphins!
Congrats on the break up with DC! I eat organically and super healthy but still have the addiction. I’m trying to replace it with iced tea but don’t want yellow teeth. 🙂
So happy it is spring, also!
I hear ya. Water is best but it can be so boring.
That picture is so sweet! I hope you have a safe and wonderful trip, and that your daughter enjoys her birthday surprise. 🙂
Thank you!
Congrats on ditching the Diet Coke! Are you completely caffeine free now? I ditched artificial sweeteners for good over a year ago, but I drink tea for a little caffeine!
I usually drink one coffee in the morning. I don’t mind a little caffeine- just don’t want all the craziness that is in Diet Coke!
Escellent budget and I like how you include your retirement savings too.
Thanks!
Nice job on the diet coke…you’ll be ready for swimsuit season just with that tweak alone! Going to check out your interview! 🙂
Thanks!
It’s awful when your kids start on a school schedule because now (at least if you are a responsible parent) you will only be able to take vacations when the rest of the masses are taking them and the deals are not quite as good. We typically go to locations that are “out of favor” when we have breaks. However, we are going to Florida in a few weeks, and I am excited about a few days away with my son.
Hope you have fun!
I used to have a terrible diet drink habit. Now, I don’t have those issues and I feel much better. Glad to hear that your CVS is still allowing you to buy the reloads with your CC. Who knows if they will actually implement the nationwide thing that they told me about.
No more VR’s at CVS. Today it went to cash only. No biggie- I just have to buy Visa Gift cards at Kroger now. Its slightly more of a hassle, but I’ll survive.
Good job cutting out soda (or pop as you call it out there =) I cut it out years ago and don’t really have much a craving for it. Glad I did…I’ve read about how bad it is too. Have fun in Panama City…I went there back in the day…spring break in college! Before that the only Panama City I knew was in Panama.
HA! Yeah, we’re just going for a low key family vacay with the kids!
We are pretty much limited now to spring break and July, the month Jim had off, to travel. It’s not so bad, but fall trips would be nice. My only remaining vice is Diet Pepsi. Maybe someday I can give that up too.
You can do it!
We have year-round school here so the kids get two weeks off in October.
I used to drink several cans of Diet Coke a day. It was my weakness, too. It’s by far the best of the diet sodas. But we’ve since switched to water, and I only cave when we go out to eat. Congrats on the 12 days! It’s all downhill from here.
I hope so. The first few days sucked!
Awww have fun on your spring vacation in Florida! Your oldest girl is precious and I wish her an early very happy 5th birthday. 🙂 Awesome interview too!
Thanks!
I gave up soda when I was training for my last marathon. Didn’t drink it for months. When I finally had one again, it tasted strange. I felt much better not having that in my system. Now I only drink it about once a month and don’t really miss it at all. Best thing is, by not having it in the house, my kids aren’t drinking it much either.
Plus it is a waste of money. I was drinking 3 or 4 two-liters per week and now I no longer have to spend that money. It isn’t a lot but it adds up to a whole lot over the course of a year!
Happy birthday to your daughter, Holly! She’ll love her dolphin cruise. They are so gentle and beautiful. And her Frozen DVD will be a huge hit. My girls loved the movie too. 🙂 I haven’t drank soda in years. I drink mainly water and tea and some coffee. I still like a little caffeine but I don’t want all the chemicals. The girls are older now but when they were little we use to walk to beach, pulling the girls in their wagon. It was a good workout as it was downhill going there and all uphill on the way back. I’m kind of glad they are old enough to walk back-and-forth on their own two feet.
Sometimes we let the kids walk themselves and they are so slow. They’ll stop and pick up leaves or whatever. Ha! It’s not really exercise if we let them walk too.
I went cold turkey on diet coke about 4 years ago and actually had my first sip of it since this weekend (I had a headache and t was the only thing with caffeine around to try and kick it). 4 years later, I don’t know why I liked the stuff so much. It tastes like a bunch of chemicals!
It really is gross. I honestly don’t even know what’s in it!
Nice job on giving up diet coke! The carbonation in drinks had always bothered me so I mostly drink water. I’m sure your daughter will be so happy with a dolphin cruise! That’s a great present. I’ve been on one and it was really fun.
I hope they like it! Hopefully they’re not too scared to be on a boat.
Ha it sounds like we keep planning vacations within days of each other. We had a trip planned to Panama City Beach for April as well but a family emergency just came up so we are canceling it.
Oh no! That sucks! Maybe May then, huh?
I cut back on soda a few months ago, but now I’m addicted to those little flavored water enhancers. I guess from one vice to another…
Ugh! That sucks! I drink a little bit of crystal light =/
A few weeks ago I decided to lessen my coke intake but I just do it once a week unlike before I almost drink everyday and I know it’s not healthy. 🙂 Advance happy birthday to your cutie baby Holly!
Thank you!
Okay, just WOW!
I don’t know how you gave up Diet Coke so easily. In my case, it is an addiction. Beautiful picture by the way and great planning out your bills.
Just a quick question, is there any reason why it costs so much for lawn treatment?
They are fertilizing and spraying for certain kinds of critters. I got pricing from three different companies and went with the cheapest!
Good job giving up the diet soda!
Thanks! I’m so glad I did.
Happy birthday to your daughter! 5 does sound like a full blown kid status which must be weird for you!
I have been thinking about getting a lawn treatment, too. Our lawn is kind of a mess because we had a mole who kept popping up, digging up our lawn, and then leaving bald patches which the weeds loved. We tried to seed and hand de-weed, it just didn’t work very well.
It feels like full-blown “kid” status. I wish she was still a baby!
My budget is happily lacking gas/car payment/insurance this month as our car is sold! So just $100 public transportation pass for Steve to get to and from work 🙂
Our biggest expense will be the $2,200 for taxes on the 15th. Yikes!
Nice! I wish we had public transportation around here =/
I’m working on cutting out Diet Pepsi too. UGH I did it while pregnant (I was neurotic about what I consumed) and I would never let my daughter drink it so why should I? I’m down to maybe 2 cans per week…there is NOTHING good about it. It sounds like your daughter is going to have an amazing birthday!
I heard that the coloring in Pepsi is actually really carcinogenic so I’m trying to avoid it from now on. I don’t drink soda as it is but I do have the occasional treat when I’m dining out. I do love club soda though! I could drink flavored, unsweetened seltzer all day…
Also, how did you get your rental for PC? The “Redneck Riviera” is a favorite vacation spot of mine since my sister lives in Atlanta and we’ve driven there twice before for fun. I’d like to find more cheap rentals.
I always rent them off of vrbo.com. You rent directly from the owner in most cases and there is usually some room for negotiation. I love the redneck Riviera!
I can’t believe how cheap your grocery bill is for the month…!