First Half of 2024 Spending in Review
It’s helpful for all of us to look at both the details of spending, saving, investing, and giving in larger swaths of time than just monthly.
So now that January-June is through, my husband and I are looking back on the last 180 days to see what we learned. Here are our biggest findings:
We spent a LOT from savings.
While we planned to spend some, we did not plan for a lot of our pivot expenses. The chiropractor plans, the surprise hot tub repair, surprise business taxes and filing fees, car maintenance, trip costs. It has been an expensive quarter.
And the learning has been valuable. I’m so grateful, for example, that in the last few years we’ve been socking away a couple hundred bucks a month in a repair fund. We know we’ll have to spend it — just not when — so building it and other annual or semi-annual expenses into our monthly budget has been a game-changer.
We also put a little dent in our dream fund. This has to happen sometimes. I don’t love adding setbacks to our big plans for the future, but I’m glad we had the pivot money when we needed it. And with my annual bonus, we filled it right back up. Pivots are part of the plan!
We haven’t allocated enough for monthly spending on kids, and we determined we need an increase to that budget.
Let’s face it, in many ways kids get more expensive as they get older! Forget baby showers — I want someone to throw me a teenager shower because these kids are wearing out the wallet! From expensive calculators for school to cell phones to braces to summer camps, it feels like every time we turn around there’s yet another something that requires a scramble for cash.
Fortunately we found a couple of areas where we’ve over-budgeted, so we’re able to easily allocate those extra dollars for the kids.
We had several unexpected expenses come our way in the first part of the year, and we handled it without going into debt. Having been where we’ve been, we always celebrate that win!
Reflection is a very important component of any growth, and we find it very rewarding to practice reflection specifically on our money, celebrating the successes and learning from our missteps, all the while carrying self compassion and grace right along with us.
Join me on the journey!