Our Monthly Budget: September 2015


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Our Monthly Budget: September

We’re pretty excited for a new month to try our hands at budgeting. Despite starting our new budget last month, we still had extra expenses with getting settled in and restocking our pantry. So September will be a welcomed fresh start. Johnny’s excited for September for other reasons… cough, cough… college football. Saturdays from now until November will be devoted to the almighty College Game Day. Pray for me. But maybe it will be good for our budget… college football will consume us so much that we won’t have time to even think of spending an extra cent.

So without further delay, how about we jump right into September?

September 2015 Budget

Rent:  $1620

Utilities: $377

  • Electricity:  $55
  • Gas/Heating:  $55
  • Cell Phones:  $127
  • Water: $70
  • Sewer: $25
  • Internet:  $45

Food:  $450

  • Groceries:  $325
  • Eating Out:  $125

Non-Discrectionary: $297

  • Gas: $110
  • Auto Insurance: $41
  • Life Insurance: $66
  • Aflac: $80
  • Health Insurance Premium: $0
Everything Else:  $305

  • Pet Supplies
  • Baby Supplies
  • Dry Cleaning
  • Home/Personal Care
  • Entertainment
  • Medical
  • Miscellaneous
  • Clothing

Gifts: $40

Vacations: $0

Total Expenses:  $3,089

Plus…
Church/Charitable Donations:  10% of income
Savings: at least 25% of net income, but planning on enough side income to have saved 50% at the end of the year

A few notes about September…

  • We still haven’t gotten our first utility bills in our new place, so we may be adjusting the current numbers for those once we know more.
  • I’ll be keeping track of all of our meals in September so I can do a comprehensive post on what a month of meals and grocery/food costs look like in our house. I’m excited to share it at the beginning of October, so stay tuned!

I feel like September is the last normal month of the year before the craziness of the holidays begin. I’ve been known to start a little Christmas shopping in October… With all the unexpected costs that our budget has taken on these last couple of months, we’re ready for a normal month ahead. How is your September budget shaping up?

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11 Comments

  • Reply Ali @ Anything You Want September 1, 2015 at 9:06 am

    Looking forward to the post about a month’s worth of meals/groceries! I am always interested to see how other people make it work, especially on a budget.

  • Reply Rob September 1, 2015 at 10:19 am

    Hi Joanna!

    Well if you guys can manage to save 50% of your combined net incomes by year end then that will be a major achievement, what with all your hectic activities so far this year! 🙂

    As for us, well our September budget (given that we are both retired now) is pretty stable, what with regular fixed incomes and spending pretty much on track as in the past. Investment income is the major variable in our lives these days so that we simply judge on how things are going in order to decide on any “extra curricular” spending on any unplanned things or activities. Generally it’s all good.

  • Reply Dave September 1, 2015 at 10:33 am

    Excited for your post on your food/meal planning! I’ve been amazed at that budget number since I started reading…

  • Reply Steve September 1, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    Great update on your September budget. I was thinking of tips for budgeting and just posted a blog about it today:

    http://www.weretiredearly.com/Blog/2015/09/01/5-budgeting-tips-for-august/

    Your budget seems well defined.

  • Reply Nicole September 1, 2015 at 1:24 pm

    I’m excited to read your food budget post… That number amazes me! I work pretty hard at keeping our grocery budget in check and I am nowhere close to your numbers… My kids are a little bit older, but still!

  • Reply Maddie September 1, 2015 at 6:09 pm

    I am super excited to see your grocery budget post. I just updated our final August budget and groceries were yet again way over what I budgeted. I shop deals, go to walmart grocery and we usually use everything up (not a lot of throwing out spoiled stuff) and I cannot get it any lower. Whenever I’ve done envelope budgeting and gotten really close to the number I have written down, we both feel like we’ve eaten a lot of processed food and that there is barely enough to eat throughout the month. I’m really looking forward to your food philosophy : )

  • Reply MomofTwoPreciousGirls September 1, 2015 at 10:06 pm

    Can’t wait until your food posts! Will you break down the cost on a per meal basis? And if you do it for a couple months you will have an amazing resource for your planning going forward!

  • Reply caity September 2, 2015 at 12:25 am

    Wow! You guys have a great rate on car insurance! Would you mind sharing who you use??

  • Reply Clarisse @ Make Money Your Way September 2, 2015 at 4:39 am

    Good thing that you still continue to give 10% of your income to charitable donations. Every Sunday too, I always give some amount to our church.

  • Reply Jen C. September 3, 2015 at 4:18 pm

    We are never this behind–we haven’t even put together our September budget! Thankfully we’ve put spending on a hiatus until we sit down and do it, but we’ve been so busy we haven’t made time.

  • Reply Allison September 7, 2015 at 9:39 am

    How do you watch college football without cable or satellite?! I want to ditch our dish so badly it football is a deal breaker in his household.

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