Surprisingly enough I’ve never considered budget to be a dirty word. I’ve also never looked at the task with the utter distain I read about on finance sites. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck big time when I go over in certain areas though 
| ———————— | —————– | ————— | ————— |
| Mortgage w/ Taxes | $610.00 | $609.40 | $0.60 |
| RRSP | $100.00 | $100.00 | $0.00 |
| RPP | $65.00 | $66.63 | ($1.63) |
| Home Insurance | $40.00 | $35.50 | $4.50 |
| LOC Interest | $80.00 | $55.82 | $24.18 |
| LOC | $200.00 | $200.00 | $0.00 |
| Utilities | $140.00 | $139.62 | $0.38 |
| Fuel | $50.00 | $43.92 | $6.08 |
| Food | $100.00 | $130.34 | ($30.34) |
| Gifts | $200.00 | $217.33 | ($17.33) |
| Other | $80.00 | $70.46 | $9.54 |
My two biggest overages are my two most expected ones: Gifts and Food.
Sadly I knew I was going to be over budget for food on the first day of the last pay period (how’s that for sucky?). I picked up a bunch of stuff for my mom’s surprise birthday party, and between the total for that and my veggie order I was already over budget. Add on some get togethers and impulsive seasonal drinks, and you have me $30 over budget.
The gift overage has been a source of frustration for me. About $7 of it is from me moving one of my mom’s gifts ahead so I could do some planning, but the rest of it is The Boy’s gift. I’ve known exactly what I wanted to get The Boy since this summer, and I haven’t deviated from it. I’d tell you what it is, but with my luck he’ll start reading my blog.
I tried my luck with a Black Friday sale, but I had no such luck there. I went in to the store again today to see about picking the item up. While talking to the sales associate, I noticed that the price for what I was looking at had gone up a bit. I mentioned that it was just a little out of my budget, and asked if she could do anything about the price for me. The answer was no, which was fine, but it was kind of an abrupt snappy no. It kind of put me off, so I left.
I checked online, but the sales that were going on weren’t quite what I was looking for. I went to the manufacturer’s site and found it. $199.99. That’s fine and dandy, but as soon as the tax goes on I’m over budget again. So I snooped around online and found a discount code that would get me 10% off ($20). Perfect! I rang it all through, got to the end, and found out that shipping would be $20.
*head desk*
This is the big difference between shopping in the US and shopping in Canada. On the manufacturer’s website, there are two locations: US and Canada. On the US site, almost all of the products are on sale, and they offer free shipping on orders over $75. On the Canadian site, only one of their products is on sale, for a lesser discount, and shipping is $20.
And they wonder why Canadians like cross border shopping…
If I spend too long waiting for a sale, it might not make it here in time for Christmas (yay Canada Post!), so I hit okay. I’m $9.99 over budget on The Boy’s gift. *sigh*
All said and done though, I still have $124.78 left as “slush” that will be able to put into my business fund. This is a good thing, because it might take me a couple months to save up enough to get started on the permitting front.
This is what the budget looks like this go around:
| Mortgage w/ Taxes | $610.00 | $0.00 | $610.00 |
| RRSP | $100.00 | $0.00 | $100.00 |
| RPP | $65.00 | $0.00 | $65.00 |
| Car Insurance | $35.00 | $0.00 | $35.00 |
| LOC | $200.00 | $0.00 | $200.00 |
| Utilities | $100.00 | $0.00 | $100.00 |
| Internet | $60.00 | $0.00 | $60.00 |
| Phone | $100.00 | $0.00 | $100.00 |
| Fuel | $50.00 | $0.00 | $50.00 |
| Food | $100.00 | $0.00 | $100.00 |
| Gifts | $200.00 | $0.00 | $200.00 |
| Bank Fee | $15.00 | $0.00 | $15.00 |
| Other | $50.00 | $0.00 | $50.00 |
The gifts category this pay period has to cover my dad, and my sister’s boyfriend (my niece’s dad). I’ll be doing it this weekend with a friend of mine.
How is your holiday budget holding up?
Business Hours This Week: 0 Hrs. I went Christmas shopping yesterday.
Recommended Reading: Debt Free Dash.
Thanks for the link love!
I am way over on the Christmas budget but it will all work out in the wash.
Not a problem. I’m looking forward to your run!
Believe it or not I am just going with the flow for the season so long as my net worth increases.
You know what, that’s a great attitude. This season tends to add a lot of stresses onto people’s already full plates; going with the flow for it as long as it isn’t detrimental is a very smart move.
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