November Budget Breakdown and I’m BAAAACCCKKK

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As many of you know, I’ve been on vacation this past week.  I know you missed me.  And yes, the feeling was mutual.  *wink wink

Greg and I got back home Tuesday night after two subsequent plane rides that spanned a total of ten hours.  I was dreading those long rides but it wasn’t that bad at all.  We watched a few movies on the plane, including “Sex Tape,” which was downright hilarious.  I highly suggest it.  We also enjoyed the airline-provided meals and snacks which were free and delicious.  Score!

But it’s all over now and time to get back to reality.  With that being said, I just realized that I haven’t shared my November budget yet.  Here are all the juicy details you’ve been waiting for:

November Budget Breakdown

  • Mortgage: $1,500
  • Groceries: $600
  • Daycare: $380
  • College L: $25
  • College V: $25
  • Gas/Misc: $200
  • Cell Phones: $70
  • Health Ins. $394
  • Liberty Healthshare Enroll: $150
  • Electric: $100
  • Water: $50
  • Sewer: $35
  • Gas: $25
  • Internet: $51
  • Life Insurance (G): $86.25
  • SEP IRA: $2,000
  • Roth IRA: $1,000
  • Europe: $250

Total: $6,941.25

November Budget Details

As you can see, our budget is not all that interesting this month.  Still, a few things require a further explanation:

  • Healthcare sharing ministry enrollment- Since we have been priced out of health insurance in our state at this point, we are enrolling in a healthcare sharing ministry starting January 1st.  The $150 in this month’s budget is for our enrollment fee with Liberty Healthshare.  After we pay it, our new monthly bill will be $449 for my family of four.  Feel free to send me hate mail about my decision.  Everybody else does!
  • We went to Europe- Since the vast majority of our Europe trip was covered with credit card rewards, I only needed to budget a small amount of money to pay for the overage.  You can read about how I budgeted for our Europe trip in this post.
  • Retirement savings are up- I boosted my retirement savings slightly this month since my earnings are on the upswing.  Ever since I began a career as a full-time writer, I’ve always dreamed of the day when I would earn enough to save ridiculous sums of cash for my early retirement dreams.  I can’t wait to be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeee……..

Our End of Year Goals

Since it’s the end of the year, we’re also stashing away little sums of money here and there.  For starters, we’re contributing the full $6,550 we can contribute to our health savings account before the year comes to an end.  And second, we’re contributing $2,500 to each of our children’s college savings accounts in order to fully maximize our state’s tax credit for 529 contributions.  We’ve already contributed money throughout the year so the full amount we contribute this month will likely be somewhere around $4,000.

Other than that, we plan to do some end-of-year charitable giving as well.  I haven’t decided on anything specific yet, but we typically sponsor a family or two and give cash to charities we feel strongly about.  I typically do not share those figures on my website, however.  Some people would think we were incredibly charitable.  But for others, it would never be enough.

So, that’s my November budget in a nutshell.  My goal now is to get through the end of this month with work and take some time off for the holidays in December.

And so much for having a better work-life balance this month.  I’m already screwed and it’s only the 13th.  Sigh.

Must. Clone. Myself.

What does your November budget look like?  Anything exciting?

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42 Comments

  1. Welcome back Holly! I actually missed your posts. Sex Tape is really a hilarious movie. I love the acting of Cameron Diaz, she’s really super sexy there! One of my favorite romcom films! By the way, my November is still good. I haven’t got much expenses. What I am afraid of is my December because you know those Christmas shoppings I gotta do.

    1. Yeah, that movie was great! Good luck on the Christmas shopping!

  2. Welcome back! I am so impressed with the $250 for Europe. Every time I go back to Paris I find it freaking expensive. My friends always want to go out to fancy new places and even if I am housed and fed, $250 last only a few days in drinks and restaurants.

    1. We spent more than that but I had a bunch of cash-back saved up on one of my credit cards. In total, we spent about $100 per day.

  3. I’m exhausted just reading all that. 10 hour flights! Sheesh!!!

    Our budget is holding steady for now. I do plan to quit next month and do we will be in the red around by a loooooong shot. On top of that, we are still trying to get new life insurance and because my hubby is a private pilot, rates are horrendous.

  4. Glad to hear the trip was good–welcome back! Your November sounds pretty great and I’m impressed you only spent $250 in London & Paris. Our November is going to be pretty expensive since we’re hosting Thanksgiving and going on a little weekend trip to the Vermont mountains 🙂

    1. We spent more than that but most of it was paid for with cash back from one of our rewards cards!

  5. Welcome back Holly! Our November contains a few more expenses because we are finally selling one of our rentals (our former home, which we’ve been losing money on). The inspector found a bunch of issues on the inspection and of course the buyers wanted us to pay for them all. Soooooo glad we are getting rid of it!

  6. Since you love to jet-set and don’t have “traditional” healthcare… have you considered paying for emergency medevac insurance for when you travel? While I have never purchased it, I hear it isn’t that expensive in the grand scheme of things.

    Also big ups for getting the “max” amount into your kids 529 plans… nothing quite like an instantish 20% return!

    1. I technically have traditional health insurance until December 31st! I haven’t looked into it yet, but likely will.

  7. I like the idea of doing the charitable giving at the end of the year–I might take it upon myself to start that tradition in my own household. Thanks for the idea!

  8. Welcome back! Glad you had a great trip. Looking forward to hearing more about it. We are planning some EOY charitable things ourselves. Always fun to help those in need.

  9. Sounds like it was a fun trip Holly, welcome back! We’re doing some similar things with it being year end as we’re trying to reduce a potential tax hit all we can. 🙂 Nice work on the increased retirement savings – that’s always a good feeling, isn’t it?

  10. Glad you’re back but also glad you and Greg had a great time in Europe! 🙂 Our November spending is likely going to the be lowest so far this year so I’m ready to do cartwheels at this point. I too am really excited that we maxed out all retirement tax advantaged accounts this year!

  11. I promise not to send you hate mail for getting a community shared insurance plan, sounds interesting and like you exhausted your research to come to that conclusion.

  12. I’ll be really interested to see how the health share option turns out. Keep us posted. I’m still praying for major overhauls in the current system once the new members get into Congress in 2015 or the Supreme Court reverses their decision in some upcoming litigation.

  13. Welcome back and I really enjoyed (although secretly hated it) lol all your pics on FB! My Nov budget is super tight. Super. Yup, all I got. 🙂

  14. I don’t think I’ve ever heard airplane food described as “delicious”- Ha! What airline did you fly?

  15. Ben Luthi says:

    We went to Disneyland a couple weeks ago and had some wiggle room to spend how we wanted since the flight, hotel and park tickets were all paid by credit card rewards. Next week we’re off to Hawaii with my in-laws where we’ll have similar freedom since they’re paying for it! Best month of the year, I’d say 🙂

  16. Welcome back ! I am positive you guys had a good time in London/Paris! Two of my favorite places ever!!!! 🙂

  17. Welcome back! Awesome job on the spending for your trip. November and December will be tougher months for me since I won’t be working as much and will be spending much more for gifts and such but yay for the holidays!

  18. It’s almost cruel to ask “anything exciting?” after you were in Europe last month 😛 I’m glad you had a good time and you’re smart for throwing more money in your kid’s college fund. I seriously feel like I should start saving for my kid’s college, and I don’t eve have kids yet : ( I also wanted to let you know that you and Kim (Eyes on the Dollar) inspired me to set a goal to travel hack a vacation for my wife and I to Europe. We looked at her school schedule plus my work schedule (busy times during forecast when I can’t take off) and we realized we probably won’t be able to take an extended trip until January 2016 :0 It sounds ridiculous, but it’ll be like this for a couple years. It DOES give us a ton of time to sign up for rewards, though, and plan on how we will make the trip free.

  19. I can’t wait to hear what life is like for you on the healthcare sharing ministry. I have to admit I don’t know much about them, but they may be a great option for my clients. And I am glad you are back and had a blast on your trip, can’t wait to read more about it!

  20. Welcome back!
    We have a pretty low key November going on!

  21. Glad you survived your plane rides okay since I know how much LOVE them. 🙂 Can’t wait to hear the details! November/December are generally pretty spendy months for us so we always need to up our budget to accommodate the holidays, both girls celebrate their birthday, etc. It’s busy but fun. 🙂

  22. I’m impressed with all the savings you guys do! We plan on contributing to our Roth IRAs, but thankfully we have til April to do so

  23. Thanks for being so open with all your spending and budgets.

    Good on you for the charitable donations. It’s easy to get wrapped up with saving only 🙂

  24. I hope you guys had a great trip! Our November will hopefully be a quiet one. We need to stay under budget!

  25. Congrats on going to Europe for almost nothing. Welcome back to the grind, it is so much fun. Well at least you can work from home in pajamas. Your savings is too low, jack it up so you can be freee sooner. (Kidding)

  26. Glad you made it home safely. I can’t wait to hear more about your trip. Long flights are about the only time I ever get to watch grown up movies. I saw 3 on the way to and from Hawaii. It was awesome.

  27. We are planning on using points for a trip to Paris, too — great minds, huh? Will have to go back and read more about your trip. 🙂

  28. First off I am so jealous that you paid for a trip to Europe with reward points. That is so awesome!! A few of the blogs that I stalk have also talked about trips they have taking using the same method. I realize that I have to get with the program.

  29. Wow, that’s an impressive budget. This inspired me to make sure I review my budget because we don’t make that much less than you and don’t put away nearly as much. I usually do a year-end review. Of course, it doesn’t help that we have an older house, so more things need fixing.

    Still… Gotta figure this out.

    1. To be fair, my husband also works full-time but I don’t report his income because he works in a regular job with other people. So I have more money to work with in that respect.

  30. Looks like you handled things pretty well this month …. now the holiday season awaits, hahaha! 😛

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