Six Figures Under

May 2024 Budget Update

Stephanie — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:49:04 +0000

How is it already June?

While time may be flying by too fast, I always enjoy finishing off one month’s budget and having the fresh start of a new month’s budget.

As one month ends and the next begins, it’s a prime time to review your budget and financial goals, resolve to make improvements where needed, and start with a clean slate.

Instead of seeing budgeting as a chore or a punishment, I see it as an opportunity and a privilege. Rather than spending money on a whim, we can plan our spending based on our priorities. That way we will have money for the things that are most important to us, rather than spending it on whatever is in front of us at any given moment.

How do you change budgeting from a painful chore into a fun challenge?

Set goals! Having goals has turned budgeting from something dreaded into something anticipated. Whether our goal is paying off six figures of debt or saving for a fun trip, a goal gives us a reason to prioritize our spending and an outlet for enthusiasm!

If “budget” is a bad word in your house, try setting a financial goal that you’re excited about! Suddenly budgeting is an opportunity instead of an obstacle.

Budgeting is not just fun when you have excess. I have an archive of more than 10 years of budget updates showing how a goal kept us excited about budgeting even when our income was small.

But for now here are the details of our family’s May 2024 finances!

Spending in May

When we first understood the concept of living on last month’s income, it rocked our financial world in the best kind of way. If you have no idea what that means, here’s a video walk-through. Or you can read up on how you can get started.

At the beginning of each month, we start budgeting by first adding up the income we earned the month before. In May, we budget and spend what we earned in April. We knew on May 1st exactly how much money we had to work with during the month. So on May 1st, we start the May budget by taking everything we earned in April and assigning it to our May budget categories.

We can’t see the future, so on the first of May, these dollar assignments were really just best guesses and goals. We’ve been doing this for years and can make some pretty good guesses, but every month is different. Our dollar assignments at the beginning of the month almost never stay exactly the same because our needs and priorities usually change during a month.

It’s normal for our spending plan to change during the month. The important thing isn’t spending exactly how much we had guessed at the beginning of the month. It would be silly to let our May 1st guesses dictate what we can and can’t do all during the month. The important thing is to not spend more total in May than we earned in April.

If we need to spend more in one budget category than we had originally assigned, that money has to come from some other budget category. We revise the budget categories to meet our priorities during the month, but we can’t just add more money to all of them, because the total amount stays the same all month long. A changed budget is not a failed budget. A budget needs to be flexible in order to be successful!

Here’s our family’s final May spending for all of our budget categories.

Giving

Tithing – $2,134 We start out the month paying a 10% tithe on our income. Like all of our May spending, our tithing is calculated on what we earned in April, which you can see in this Budget Update. We often get questions about this. You can read our thoughts on tithing here.

Fast Offering – $100 Each month we take one day to go without food and drink (fasting) and contribute to a program that helps people who need it.

Monthly Bills

Mortgage – $2,823 We have a 15-year mortgage on our 2200 sq ft house in Northern California. We’re so thankful to have locked in our mortgage interest rate at 2.375% when we refinanced in December of 2020 (all of the details and numbers are here.) We currently have about $171,000 remaining on our mortgage.

Electricity – $6 Last year we installed solar panels on our property, a $70,000 investment that we just finished paying for recently. Our electric bill is just the $6 unavoidable fee.

Car Insurance – $126 This bill reflects a moment in time when we only have two vehicles (we donated one of our minivans and our Ukrainian family got their own policy for their car) and just before we put our 16-year-old daughter on our policy. Next month this will go back up!

Internet – $75 We have cable internet through Comcast. When we bought our home six years ago, we invested $5,000 into getting cable internet brought to our property. It has been worth it every single day since then.

Water – $65 Our water bill comes every other month. In April we set aside $75 and in May we only needed $65 more for the bill.

Garbage- $49 Like the water bill, our trash pick-up bill comes every other month, so each month I set aside the money for half of the bill.

Cell Phones – $769 We upgraded one of our phones in May which is why this category is so high (normally it’s $212). We pay for eight cell phones: five for our family, and three for the Ukrainian family that we sponsor. Our phones are all through Visible. Visible is a Verizon subsidiary that offers no-contract plans with wifi calling, unlimited cell calls, and unlimited data on the Verizon network. We’ve been using them for years. You can’t beat paying just $25 per phone each month with unlimited data.

Music – $0 Our music teacher generously offered his time and talent to teach our 11-year-old Ukrainian girl free of charge. What a blessing!

Everyday Expenses

Food – $780 I made quite a few freezer meals in May which was wonderful! In fact, we started June out with 16 freezer meals left in the freezer! We also stocked up on chicken breasts, peanut butter, and strawberries during the month.

If you need help getting your grocery spending under control, you can learn all about my strategies and method in my Grocery Budget Hero online course. Get $20 off with the coupon code STARTNOW. That puts your total cost at $39. I promise you’ll earn that back many times as you build your grocery budget hero skills.

Fuel – $1,140 Our gas spending was up significantly (over $400) from the month before. Since we donated our Odyssey at the end of April, we drove our 15-passenger van (which gets much worse gas mileage) more than we ever have before. The good news is that gas gradually creeped down during the month and a few days ago finally went below $5/gallon.

Household Misc – $437 Our miscellaneous category in May included regular household needs, stocking up on Ziploc bags at Sam’s Club, paying for digital storage, and some Amazon purchases like a desk-mounted monitor stand for Mike’s standing desk, car window break emergency tools, and a fogless shower mirror. We pay for Scribd (Everand) every month, too, so we always have lots of audiobooks on demand without having to wait to borrow them with the Libby app or pay for audiobooks individually like with other apps.

Clothing – $156 – We got new church pants for a couple of the boys, along with a couple of pairs of shoes.

Animals – $72 We got four bags of chicken feed.

Allowances – $130 We give our kids “practice money” as a weekly allowance. You can read all about why we decided to pay our kids allowance that’s not directly tied to chores, as well as all the details of when and how much in this blog post.

Sports – $15 In May we just had admission to one basketball game.

Sinking Funds

For our normal budget categories above, we take out any funds that are still left at the end of the month and send them toward our big financial goal. For example, if we started the month with $600 in our groceries budget category, but only used $520 of that, the other $80 would go toward our current major financial goal. Focusing all these extra funds from each category into one goal helped us pay off our solar panels several years early.

In contrast to the regular budget categories described above that we zero out each month, we also put money into the categories below. These are our sinking funds. Our sinking funds are categories where we set aside money for periodic expenses each month and let it roll over and build up until we need it.

The amount in bold is the amount we added to the fund this month, followed by spending notes and the current balance of each fund.

To answer a question we often get, we do not have separate bank accounts for these funds. We had separate accounts many years ago when we first started budgeting but we learned that was overkill. Instead, all of the money sits in our checking account. Since we spend according to our budget category balances, not our checking account balance, we’re not worried about getting the money mixed up. We seriously never even look at our checking account balance unless we’re reconciling the account. We track our budget categories and spending in YNAB, a budgeting tool we absolutely adore. Yes, you can adore a budgeting tool. Don’t believe me? Try it out. If you have been using Mint or something similar to manage your finances, you’ll want to read about our switch to budgeting with YNAB.

Medical/Dental – $300 added. We spent $500 on a down payment for orthodontic work for our 3rd child. Current category balance is $1,798.

Car Maintenance – $400 added. In May, we didn’t spend anything! Current category balance is $856.

Christmas – $200 added. In May, I spent $0 on Christmas 2024. Current category balance is $990.

Disability Insurance- $190 added We set aside money each month for disability insurance so that when the annual premium is due we have the money ready. If Mike is unable to do his work as an attorney due to illness or injury, this disability insurance will replace about 60% of his current income. Since our income potential is our greatest financial asset right now, we want to have disability insurance to help us protect it. Current category balance is $470.

Life Insurance – $100 added. Our life insurance premiums are due each November, so we set aside a portion of the estimated total each month which will go toward next year’s premium. Current category balance is $673.

Birthdays & Gifts – $50 added. We didn’t spend anything in May. Current category balance is $128.

Car Registration & Smog – $50 added. We spent $0 in May. Current category balance is $202.

Family Fun Fund – $100 added. We spent $111 on fishing gear for a little family backpacking trip. Current category balance is $0.

Home and Garden – $300 added. We spent $131 in total in May. We bought this spool of weedwhacker line, sweet potato starts, and a few random things at the hardware store. Current category balance is $256.

Big Trips – $4,250 added. We originally made this sinking fund to save up for a fun family trip in 2025, but we are expanding it to include a trip we will take this summer, a trip that we’ve dreamed of for over a decade. We will need to average around $1,500 per month to make both our 2024 and 2025 adventures happen. Since we had an unusually high income in April, we put a big chunk toward our trip fund. We have already spent some of the money we’ve saved to pay for flights, some accommodations, and some gear. In May we spent $571 which includes travel insurance, a short 1 hour flight within Guatemala for all of us, and some gear. Current category balance is $5,665.

Investing

Kids’ 529s – $150 added. Investing just $25 per child per month for college isn’t much, but we are okay with that. Neither of us had much college savings when we went to college, but with scholarships, grants, loans, and jobs during school we were able to get our undergraduate degrees without debt. We may contribute more later, but right now we’re happy with small, consistent contributions. I looked at the balances recently and was pleased to see that this small contribution that is barely noticeable in our monthly budget has added up to over $15,000! If you want to know more you can read about how we decided to start 529s for our kids.

IRA (Steph) – $583 added. With this same amount each month, I will reach my $7,000 IRA contribution for 2024. Mike has about $1,300 each month deducted directly from his paycheck into the state pension fund for his retirement.

New Goal!

Since we finished paying for the remainder of our solar installation back in November, we have a new financial goal (in addition to our trip goal)!

With our Honda Odyssey gone, we’ll need to find a replacement vehicle soon. Originally we were set on another 8-passenger van, but since we have our 15-passenger van for when we all go together, we might get a car instead. The most we have ever spent on a vehicle is $5,500 (the 2007 Odyssey that we bought in 2019), so our goal of $20,000 sounds like a lot!

In May, we set aside $4,250 for our new van fund. We also spent $385 on a CarFax report and two prepurchase inspections (while not at our goal, we found a couple of used cars within the amount we have already saved, but sadly both vehicles were a no-go).

With our current total of $11,027, we are 55% of the way to our goal of $20,000.

Income Earned in April- $12,711

Above you can see everything we spent in May (that we had earned and received in April.) At the same time we were spending what we earned in April, we were also (of course) earning money during May. At the beginning of June, we set up our budget to allocate spending from our May income.

This concept of getting a month ahead, has made such a huge impact on our finances! It takes some work to get to the point where you are living on last month’s income, but the effort is completely worth it!

The income section below shows the money we earned in May, which we won’t touch until June.

Attorney Income – $8,925 Mike works as an attorney for the state of California. This is his take-home pay after taxes, social security, his pension contribution, and health insurance premiums.

Rental Income – $0 For years we rented out a one-bedroom apartment on our property through Airbnb. We gave that up to take in a Ukrainian refugee family for a couple of years. We loved Airbnb and will likely go back to that in the future. If you’re thinking about renting out your space on Airbnb, check out this post where I talk about how much you can make on Airbnb.

Law Firm- $0 Before working for the state, Mike did estate planning and business transactional work. Over the last few years he has had a steady stream of potential clients, most of whom he refers to other attorneys, but he still occasionally helps former clients. He doesn’t cut himself a paycheck each month, just a couple of times a year.

Blog – $1,381 I only pay myself a couple times a year now. My blogging income took a major hit when I put the blog on the back burner during Covid to start homeschooling my kids. It is slowly recovering as I put more effort into posting regularly and all of the things I do behind the scenes. Thankfully the income still covers my fixed blogging expenses (which are a lot more than most people would guess) and allows me to pay myself a few times a year.

Child Care – $803 Back in August, I started taking care of the 2-year-old Ukrainian girl while her mom goes to English school (and her siblings go to regular school). This payment also includes some stipends for training.

Tax Refund – $1,532 Until we (Mike) actually did our taxes this year, we weren’t sure if we were going to owe or not. We had to change our withholding partway through the year when we figured we had used up our credit from installing solar. We were pleasantly surprised to fins that we did not owe anything. We got our California refund last month. This is our federal refund.

Solar – $70 At our solar true-up we had a small surplus generation.

At the beginning of July come back to see how we use this income to fund June’s budget.

How’s Your Budget Working for YOU!?

That was a lot of words and numbers! Congratulations for making it all the way through our May 2024 family budget update!

Now we would love to hear from you!

Any questions on what or why we spend what we do?

What are your current financial goals?

Do you find that your budget is helping you reach your goals, or is it not working like you wish it was?

Let’s chat in the comments!

This post contains affiliate links for products or services that we love and recommend.

The post May 2024 Budget Update appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Find Money You Didn’t Know You Lost– Search Your State’s Unclaimed Property

Stephanie — Tue, 28 May 2024 08:52:42 +0000

Can you imagine a lost and found that has millions, even billions, of dollars in it? Neither can I. Yet every state has a lost and found like this. It’s the unclaimed property division, a part of the state treasury or controller.

The billions of dollars of unclaimed property is spread out among everyday people like you and me. The problem is most people don’t know about it. Surely if we knew we lost hundreds or thousands of dollars, we would quickly claim it. I’d willingly claim anything with my name on it!

About 1 in 7 Americans have unclaimed property being held by a state, totaling 70 billion dollars!

Those dollars have people’s names on them. They just don’t know it! And more unclaimed money gets delivered to the state each day.

Where does unclaimed property come from?

When businesses, corporations, associations, and financial institutions have been unable to contact the owner and there has been no account activity for a period of time (generally three years, though the laws vary), the holders of the property (and by “property,” we usually mean money) are required to report and deliver it to the state for safekeeping until the owner or the owner’s heirs are found.

Examples of unclaimed property include:

Dormant bank accounts
Uncashed checks (paychecks, commission checks, refund checks, etc)
Unclaimed insurance benefits
Dividends, stocks, bonds
Utility deposits, refunds, or overpayment
Mineral royalty payments
Contents of safe deposit boxes

Can there really be money you don’t know about?

I know what you’re thinking. If you are someone who keeps pretty good track of your money (especially the money that’s coming in), then you probably wonder How could someone “lose” money or have money they don’t know about? I wondered the same thing.

Many times money is lost when there is a change of address or a death. Other times people just forget about a check and it never gets cashed. Some people may just not know that they are the beneficiary on someone’s insurance policy. Heirs and beneficiaries can be tough to track down.

As an attorney who does estate planning and trust and probate administration, my husband directs his clients to search for any unclaimed property left by the person whose estate is being administered, as well as any property left by a spouse who predeceased the current estate. He further advises that they check again a few years after the death, since the death itself is often a cause of some property being lost. Some of his clients have recovered a whole lot of money for the beneficiaries of the estates they are administering.

Search for yourself, but don’t stop there!

I first searched my own name (married name and maiden name) in all five states that I have lived in. No dice. Then I searched my husband, which again turned up nothing. I did find about $2,500 owed to my father-in-law (owed to his business), nearly $1,000 owed to another family member, over $100 owed to my brother-in-law, and smaller amounts owed to others in the family.

Even if it’s not tons of money, but it’s worth a couple of minutes of time to claim it.

Look up your friends and family too. It’s pretty exciting to be the bearer of good news! You’ll also want to look up deceased parents or anyone to whom you are a legal heir. Even if the estate was already distributed, finding more property can trigger additional distributions. In many states, the unclaimed funds will be sent directly to the heirs who sign an affidavit of their right to receive them, without ever going to court or re-opening a formal estate administration process.

How do I find out if I have unclaimed property?

Every state’s treasury department has an unclaimed property division. The state holds the money until the rightful owner claims it. There is no time limit or expiration on how long they are allowed to hold the money. They will safeguard that money until the owner or the owner’s heir claims it.

To make it easy for you, I have put together a direct link to each state’s unclaimed property division website where you can search to see if you or a relative is owed money. Every search tool is a little different, but generally you will provide at least the last name, then you’ll be able to look through a list of results which include the first name, an address, the company that owes the money, and often the exact sum of money (sometimes an estimate like “less than $100”). This information will give you the clues you need to know if the property is yours.

If you’ve lived in multiple states, then you’ll want to check all of the states you’ve lived in. Many of the states have their information available at missingmoney.com, a website endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

Claiming and retrieving your money from the state is free and is a simple process. Go straight to the source and beware of people or companies who offer to “help” you get your money for a fee.

Unclaimed Property Information and Databases by State

Alabama	Louisiana	Ohio
Alaska	Maine	Oklahoma
Arizona	Maryland	Oregon
Arkansas	Massachusetts	Pennsylvania
California	Michigan	Rhode Island
Colorado	Minnesota	South Carolina
Connecticut	Mississippi	South Dakota
Delaware	Missouri	Tennessee
Florida	Montana	Texas
Georgia	Nebraska	Utah
Hawaii	Nevada	Vermont
Idaho	New Hampshire	Virginia
Illinois	New Jersey	Washington
Indiana	New Mexico	West Virginia
Iowa	New York	Wisconsin
Kansas	North Carolina	Wyoming
Kentucky	North Dakota

How about you?

Have you found any unclaimed property for you or someone you know? I’d love to hear about it!

Share this!

People you know have money owed to them too! Wouldn’t you like to be one to direct them to it?

Share this post on Facebook and other social media so your friends can find their missing money too! They’re sure to thank you!

The post Find Money You Didn’t Know You Lost– Search Your State’s Unclaimed Property appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Freezer Meal Prep for the Month

Stephanie — Tue, 21 May 2024 17:09:23 +0000

A couple of months ago, I started making freezer meals our go-to plan for dinner. Before that, getting dinner on the table used to be so tough. With all of our kids’ sports and other activities (for which I’m the main driver), plus all of the commitments that Mike and I have, our evenings are pretty full. We had lots of leftovers nights and fend-for-yourself nights. Having meals ready to go has really improved and simplified life.

As I mentioned in May’s Grocery Haul blog post, my plan for May was to stock our freezer with freezer meals for us to use on a regular basis. You asked what my freezer meal plan would be, so I’m detailing it here.

I assembled most of the freezer meals the evening after I went shopping. I had lots of help from the family, but it was a whirlwind (read: it was a mess), so I didn’t really take any (good) pictures. I’ll try to improve that in the future.

Freezer Meal Planning

Before going grocery shopping at the beginning of May, I went through everything in my the freezer side of my refrigerator (I wasn’t ambitious enough to attempt our two chest freezers in the garage). I made plans to use what I found as ingredients in my freezer meals (veggies, meat, etc) and by putting together little “kits” of items that went together.

For example, I found about 3 pizzas worth of homemade pizza dough, frozen mushrooms, peppers, pineapple, pepperoni, precooked chicken chunks, and precooked ground sausage. I put all of those items in a grocery bag, stuck it back in the freezer and wrote “pizza kit” down on my freezer meal inventory list.

Here are some of the kits I put together while organizing the freezer:

Pizza Kit
Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Corn-on-the-Cob Kit
Chicken Noodle Soup Kit
Quiche Kit
Cherry Cobbler Kit x 2 (not a dinner )

I looked through my favorite freezer meal book and chose the recipes I planned to make. I started with some favorites that we have previously tried and liked, including:

California Breakfast Casserole x 4
White Bean Chicken Chili x 4
Seriously Good Chili x 4
Creamy Cheesy Broccoli Soup x 4

I added a few new recipes from the same book, including:

Tempting Taco Pasta Shell Casserole x 4
Hash Brown Casserole x 4
Cauliflower Crave Soup x 2

I also wrote down a few favorites that we love that aren’t from the book, but are family favorites that freeze well.

Creamy Tacos Casserole x 4
Butternut Squash Soup x 4
Spaghetti with Meatballs x 4

My original hope was to make about 40 freezer meals, thinking that we would use about 20 per month. On days when I had time to make a non-freezer meal, I would, plus I knew there would be other gathering where we would eat with friends or at a church activity. I figured I wouldn’t get all 40 meals done in a day, but I wanted to see how many I could finish.

It turns out the deciding factor on how many freezer meals I could make wasn’t my time or energy, but freezer space! I ended up making everything except 3 of the recipes, but I still ended up with a total of 32 dinner freezer meals (including the “kits”). I figured I could make those other recipes later in the month (or next month) when I have freed up some freezer space.

For the spaghetti, I actually didn’t make anything, but I did buy 6 pounds of meatballs. Making the noodles and homemade sauce is not hard, so I’m still calling it a freezer meal for counting toward my total.

Beyond dinners

In addition to freezer meals, with the help of my older kids, I did some other meal prep for the month. It is so nice to start the month with food that is (nearly) ready to eat.

Rolls

I put my oldest in charge of making two double batches of Soft French Bread dough. We shaped into rolls, then froze the balls on baking sheets. Once they were frozen, we put them into bags of 20. When we want to have rolls along with one of our soups, we can just put the dough balls on to a baking sheet to thaw and rise.

Breakfast Burritos

My older kids love having breakfast burritos in the freezer as a grab-and-go breakfast. I use the recipe in Seriously Good Freezer Meals. I mixed up a 6 times batch of filling then put my second oldest in charge of making the burritos. We ended up with 70-some burritos for the freezer.

Yogurt

I made a gallon of yogurt the same night that I was making all of the freezer meals. We don’t put it in the freezer, but it is great to have on hand to eat with fruit and granola for easy breakfasts

Granola

I made a double batch of overnight granola the day after my freezer meals adventure. It will last about a week. And by last, I’m not talking about shelf life. It will last much longer than that in a sealed container. I’m talking about how long before my kids gobble it all up.

Here are some PAQs

Yep. Not a typo. That’s a “P” not an “F.” I’m calling these Potentially Asked Questions

Won’t you get sick of those meals?

Maybe. But I think we’ll be just fine. If we eat 5 freezer meals per week and have 10 different freezer meal options, then we will repeat every two weeks. That’s not going to bother anyone around here. And, as always, if any kids don’t like what we are having, they are welcome to make themselves a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.

Do you reuse the foil pans for freezer meals?

Sometimes. If it’s easy to clean, then I love saving them to reuse for a future freezer meal. If it’s a tough clean (crusty burned on stuff in the pan wrinkles), then I don’t hesitate to throw it away. Remember, my whole object in making freezer meals is to save time!

Do you reuse the freezer bags?

Once upon a time, back when we were paying off six figures of student loan debt, I did. Mike will wash them out sometimes even now, but generally I just throw them away. I hate when a reused bag has a hole in it and ends up dripping when it thaws, so I prefer to use new bags each time. If we have washed freezer bags I will use them for something else, not freezer meals with liquid in them.

How about you?

Do you make freezer meals? What is your favorite?

Feel free to link and suggestions that our family might enjoy!

The post Freezer Meal Prep for the Month appeared first on Six Figures Under.

My Shoulders and Your Budget

Stephanie — Tue, 14 May 2024 19:22:43 +0000

When I very first started blogging in 2013, I would often have “debt discussions” with my early blog readers. At the time, my husband and I had just decided to pay off our law school debt as fast as we could. Since we had six figures of debt, we knew it was going to be a long haul. Paying off debt was always on my mind and I was happy to talk about our goal and progress with anyone who would listen.

Not everyone is as open and willing to talk about debt with their in person friends as I was. Others who had similar financial struggles and goals were looking for a place to talk about debt. Having debt discussions with my blog readers helped us all stay focused on our financial goals.

Even though I don’t talk about debt as much as I used to, I still can’t help but see the financial analogies in my daily life experiences, so today I’m going to share a recent one with you.

My shoulders

I have been having some problems with my shoulders since early last fall. I knew there was a problem, but I put off seeing a doctor thinking that there was probably nothing he could do about it anyway.

I had waited long enough that my annual physical was coming up so I planned to bring it up with my doctor. He ordered x-rays and sent me to physical therapy.

Never having done physical therapy before, I had low expectations that it could actually help me. I was delighted to have a physical therapist who was very positive and completely confident that she could help me. I didn’t realize how doubtful I had become, until I was exposed to her radiant confidence.

Maybe healing was possible!

She gave me a bit of homework, which I was happy to do, especially with the physical therapist’s confidence that it would help me.

It’s been about a month of weekly physical therapy and I am in a great place! I rarely feel the pain that I used to, though I still avoid certain movements and compensate to avoid potential pain (habits I acquired to try to avoid pain for months before I went to the doctor).

Now my shoulders have improved enough that it’s easy to fall into laziness and neglect doing the things that I know will help me reach my goal of being completely healed.

What my shoulders have to do with your finances

As I reflected on the shoulder experience I am currently living, I couldn’t help but think that it’s kind of like the journey to financial peace that many people have.

Maybe you have a financial pain that has been bothering you for a long time. Maybe it’s debt or bad spending habits. You don’t want to get help or address the problem because you just can’t envision that anything could really ever change.

Then you come across a guide who can help you and knows that healthy finances are actually completely within your reach. She is so positive and confident that you start to believe that maybe financial peace really is possible. Even for you!

You start to follow the plan she has outlined and you have success! After a while you decide that maybe where you’ve gotten is good enough. After all, you’re in a much better place than you started, so you can’t complain.

Still you know if you continue to follow the plan, diligently sticking with the “prescribed exercises,” a full financial recovery is totally possible. Why settle for less?

The prescribed exercises in my case were printed out for me by my physical therapist and given to me along with the stretch bands needed to complete them.

The equivalent in our financial analogy could be budgeting, controlling spending, and sticking with your debt payoff plan.

Don’t give up!

You’ve come so far and overcome so many setbacks.

You’ve developed new habits and learned new skills.

You’ve made progress and had a taste of what is possible.

Don’t stop now. Don’t settle for “good enough.”

In case you can’t tell, I’m absolutely preaching to myself as well.

And I’m convinced! I’m off to do my full regimen of exercises right now.

What about you?

What do you need to recommit to doing to achieve the financial peace that you want? Let’s do this together!

If you need help making a plan to get started on your debt-free journey, check out my Smash Debt Guide.

You’ve got this!

The post My Shoulders and Your Budget appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Monthly Grocery Haul for our Family of 8 in May 2024

Stephanie — Tue, 07 May 2024 18:56:03 +0000

It’s been a while since I shared our monthly grocery haul. This past year has been a whirlwind, so I haven’t been as organized and intentional as I like to be. With rising food prices, our grocery spending has been higher than it ever has. Still, in the past 12 months, our average monthly spending on food for our family of 8 has only been $711.

Even with inflation, you can still feed your family without breaking the bank.

Of course this just doesn’t happen. I have specific strategies that I use to keep our budget low. I share those strategies in my course Grocery Budget Hero. The course includes 20 lessons that build on one another. The 4+ hours of video content is divided up into manageable chunks so no matter how busy you are, you can still find time for this valuable training. Use the code SAVE20 to get $20 off and get your grocery budget under control.

Before making May’s monthly grocery shopping trip, I made a very well thought out plan. I planned all of the meals that I would be making and wrote down all of the ingredients, then checked the pantry and freezer to see what we already had. Everything else went on my grocery list.

I have found that homemade freezer meals work best for our family. We have busy schedules, so having ready-made meals that just need to be thawed and heated works really well for us. I am planning for us to eat 5 freezer meals per week (20 per month). My goal is to make 40 at once so that I have a good variety to stretch over two months. We’ll see how it goes with freezer space though.

We keep our food storage, pantry, and freezer pretty well-stocked, so we don’t shop for everything every month. This month I shopped at Sam’s Club and Winco. You can either watch the video below or just scroll down for the exact prices.

Sam’s Club- $227

Powdered Sugar (7 lb) $6.98 x 4 = $27.92
Honey (48 oz) $9.98
Clementines (5 lb) $5.92
Bananas (3 lb) $1.47 x 4 = $5.88
String Cheese (48 ct) $9.74
Cottage Cheese (3 lb) $4.88
Shredded Cheese (5 lb) $12.18
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (5 lb) $11.87
Romaine $3.58
Spinach (16 oz) $3.38
Tortilla Chips (96 oz) $11.98
Southwest Salad Kit (12 oz) $2.38 x 3 = $7.14
Kale Salad Kit (12 oz) $2.88
Rotisserie Chicken $4.98 x 2 = $9.96
Meatballs (6 lb) $17.98
Pork Sausage (2 lb) $6.98 x 3 = $20.94
Sour Cream (3 lb) $5.28 x 2 = $10.56
Milk, 2 % $3.04
Milk, whole $3.38
Half and Half (1 qt) $2.48
Kit Kat Ice Cream Cones $7.88
Raisins (60 oz) $9.78
Large Flour Tortillas (54 oz) $7.92 x 3 = $23.76

Winco- $180

Yogurt (32 oz) $2.36 x 3 = $7.0
Frozen Broccoli (16 oz) $1.33 x 4 = $5.32
Eggs (5 dz) $13.97
Ground Beef (5 lb) $13.98
Garbanzo beans (1 lb) $1.48 x 4 = $5.92
Kidney beans (1 lb) $1.28 x 4 = $5.12
Granny Smith Apples $.98/lb x 5 lb = $4.99
Honeycrisp Apples $.98/lb x 6.4 lb = $6.27
Strawberries (1 lb) $1.28 x 24 = $30.72
Shell Pasta (1 lb) $1.18
Dried Apricots $5/lb x .38 lb = $1.90
Limes $.25 x 4 = $1.00
Salsa (32 oz) $3.28 x 2 = $6.56
Graham Crackers $2.18 x 6 = $13.08
Potatoes (5 lb) $98 x 2 = $1.96
Cilantro $.57
Coriander $4.48/lb x .06 lb = $.27
Baby Carrots ( 1 lb) $1.28 x 2 = $2.56
Carrots (2 lb) $1.48
White Onions $.78/lb x 3.2 lb = $2.52
Yellow Onions $.68/lb x 5.75 = $3.91
Oranges (8 lb) $5.98
Green Chilis (4 oz) $.78 x 4 = $3.12
Roma Tomatoes $1.28/lb x 5.3 lb = $6.82
Bread $2.55 x 8 = $20.40
English Muffins $2.58 x 4 = $10.32
Corn Tortillas $3.26

So in May we spent $408 on our monthly grocery haul. We will still make other small shopping trips for more produce and lots of milk (we go through nearly a gallon a day, but we already had milk in the fridge when I went shopping), but the bulk of our shopping is done.

In addition to making lots of freezer meals, I will be making homemade yogurt, granola, oatmeal packets, cornbread, and rolls (freezing balls of dough from this recipe for rolls) in bulk so we are set for the month.

I would love to hear how these prices compare to what you are currently paying. And if you’re surprised that my prices are better than you’d expect for California, you’re not wrong. Knowing where to shop and what to buy really is a game-changer. I would have to pay twice as much if I just went to a regular grocery store in my area. It’s definitely worth it for me to drive 30 minutes away to do my monthly shopping where I do.

The post Monthly Grocery Haul for our Family of 8 in May 2024 appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Our detailed family budget with all of April’s income and expenses

Stephanie — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 21:24:47 +0000

I’m always a fan of living by a budget, no matter your means. Budgeting allows you to be in control of your money instead of having your money control you. Your budget gives you the freedom to spend where you want because you are the one who sets the budget.

If you don’t prioritize your spending ahead of time (by budgeting), then you are likely to spend not according to your real priorities, but based on what is convenient, more enticing, or whatever opportunity comes up first.

Budgeting is especially fun when you have a goal you’re working toward (which should be the case most of the time). When we were paying off six figures of student loan debt, we were very motivated to carefully allocate our money because we were really eager to pay off our debt.

Now, nearly eight years after paying off that debt, we are focusing saving on taking some fun trips with our family. It’s easier to turn down enticing, convenient opportunities to spend money when we have a goal to focus on.

Interested in the details? Let’s jump into our family’s April 2024 finances!

Spending in April

At the beginning of each month, we start budgeting by first adding up the income we earned the month before. In April, we budget and spend what we earned in March. We knew on April 1st exactly how much money we had to work with during the month. So on April 1st, we start the April budget by taking everything we earned in March and assigning it to our April budget categories.

We can’t see the future, so on the first of April, these dollar assignments were really just best guesses and goals. We’ve been doing this for years and can make some pretty good guesses, but every month is different. Our dollar assignments at the beginning of the month almost never stay exactly the same because our needs and priorities usually change during a month.

It’s normal for our spending plan to change during the month. The important thing isn’t spending exactly how much we had guessed at the beginning of the month. It would be silly to let our April 1st guesses dictate what we can and can’t do all during the month. The important thing is to not spend more total in April than we earned in March.

Here’s our family’s final April spending for all of our budget categories.

Giving

Tithing – $1,553 We start out the month paying a 10% tithe on our income. Like all of our April spending, our tithing is calculated on what we earned in March, which you can see in this Budget Update. We often get questions about this. You can read our thoughts on tithing here.

Fast Offering – $100 Each month we take one day to go without food and drink (fasting) and contribute to a program that helps people who need it.

Monthly Bills

Electricity – $6 Last year we installed solar panels on our property, a $70,000 investment that we just finished paying for recently. For part of the year we produce more than we use, so we will also have some credit toward our bills in the winter when we won’t produce as much because of the shorter, cloudy days. Our electric bill is just the $6 unavoidable fee.

Car Insurance – $285 Last month we had 4 cars on our car insurance and now we have only two (though our bill doesn’t reflect that yet). In April our 2007 Honda Odyssey needed repairs that cost more than we wanted to spend on a car with 200,000 miles on the engine. We donated it to a local charity who will sell it for parts. Our Ukrainian family also began paying for their own car insurance in April.

Water – $75 Our water bill comes every other month, so in April we set aside half of what we expect the bill to be.

Garbage- $49 Like the water bill, our trash pick-up bill comes every other month, so each month I set aside the money for half of the bill.

Cell Phones – $212 We pay for eight cell phones: five for our family, and three for the Ukrainian family that we sponsor. Our phones are all through Visible. Visible is a Verizon subsidiary that offers no-contract plans with wifi calling, unlimited cell calls, and unlimited data on the Verizon network. We’ve been using them for years. You can’t beat paying just $25 per phone each month with unlimited data.

Music – $0 Our music teacher generously offered his time and talent to teach our 11-year-old Ukrainian girl free of charge. What a blessing!

Everyday Expenses

Food – $671 Our food spending was slightly lower than it has been so far this year. I made a lot of freezer meals early in the month which we enjoyed all month long. I’ve been trying to use food from the freezer to “rotate” our stored food. We eat at home almost exclusively; we don’t go out to eat or get takeout. We keep a well stocked pantry and freezer, as well as long term food storage.

Fuel – $733 Right now gas is $5.56/gallon at the cheapest spot in town.

Household Misc – $539 Our miscellaneous category was a lot of little things that added up to a bigger number than normal. We did a much-needed update of our 72-hour emergency kits. It has been probably 2.5 years since we updated them, so it was pretty hilarious to see the size of the kids clothes in the bags (and diapers for the youngest)! I brought flowers to people a few times. I renewed my book club membership and my annual quilt guild membership. We bought a computer dual monitor stand, vacuum cleaner filters, and other random household things. We pay for Scribd (Everand) every month, too, so we always have lots of audiobooks on demand without having to wait to borrow them with the Libby app or pay for audiobooks individually like with other apps.

Clothing – $0 – I didn’t spend anything on clothes aside from things I got for our upcoming trip (categorized under “Big Trips” below).

Animals – $66 We got dog and cat food.

Sports – $37 In April we renewed an AAU basketball membership and paid entry fees to watch a couple of basketball games.

Sinking Funds

The amount in bold is the amount we added to the fund this month, followed by spending notes and the current balance of each fund.

Medical/Dental – $300 added. We spent $115 on copays for one emergency hospital visit and several office visits. With six kids it’s never boring around here. Current category balance is $1,998.

Car Maintenance – $400 added. In April, we spent a whopping $8 for blinker bulbs. Much nicer than March! Current category balance is $456.

Christmas – $200 added. I spent $0 on Christmas 2024. Current category balance is $790.

Disability Insurance- $190 added We paid $2,217 for our annual premium, which leaves a little in this fund for next year. We will continue to set aside money each month for disability insurance so that when the annual premium is due we have the money ready. If Mike is unable to do his work as an attorney due to illness or injury, this disability insurance will replace about 60% of his current income. Since our income potential is our greatest financial asset right now, we want to have disability insurance to help us protect it. Current category balance is $280.

Birthdays & Gifts – $50 added. We spent $48 in April for gifts. We got our 9-year-old daughter this 3-D pen which has added a whole new level of creativity to her art. She loves it! Current category balance is $76.

Car Registration & Smog – $50 added. We spent $0 in April. Current category balance is $152.

Family Fun Fund – $75 added. We spent $102 for our whole family to attend the musical put on by the local high school. They were doing a show that was appropriate for the whole family (which isn’t always the case), so we wanted to show our support. The show was great and kept everyone in our group (ages 4-43) entertained the entire time. Current category balance is $11.

Home and Garden – $400 added. We spent $325 on a roll of field fencing to use on our orchard expansion. We also got a couple of new chains for the chain saw, which Mike has been keeping busy. Current category balance is $86.

Big Trips – $3,497 added. We originally made this sinking fund to save up for a fun family trip in 2025, but we are expanding it to include a trip we will take this summer, a trip that we’ve dreamed of for over a decade. We will need to average around $1,500 per month to make both our 2024 and 2025 adventures happen.

Of the amount added this month, $97 was credit card points and $200 was rebates on the two new phones we bought last month (we got a $100 rebate for sending in two old phones). We bought some gear this month including waterproof hiking boots for all 5 of us (including these, these, these, and these), hiking pants (these for the guys), backpacks that are just the right size, lightweight travel towels, money belts, and a battery pack . We also got passports for all six kids (only 3 will need them this year, but the others will need them next year so we just got them all at once). That alone cost $840! Current category balance is $1,986.

Investing

New Goal!

Since we finished paying for the remainder of our solar installation back in November, we have a new financial goal (in addition to our trip goal)!

In April, we set aside $3,000 for our new van fund. With our current total of $7,162, we are 36% of the way to our goal of $20,000.

Income Earned in April- $19,671

Above you can see everything we spent in April (that we had earned and received in March.) At the same time we were spending what we earned in March, we were also (of course) earning money during April. At the beginning of May, we set up our budget to allocate spending from our April income.

The income section below shows the money we earned in April, which we won’t touch until May.

Attorney Income – $8,925 Mike works as an attorney for the state of California. This is his take-home pay after taxes, social security, his pension contribution, and health insurance premiums.

Law Firm- $5,066 Before working for the state, Mike did estate planning and business transactional work. Over the last few years he has had a steady stream of potential clients, most of whom he refers to other attorneys, but he still occasionally helps former clients. He doesn’t cut himself a paycheck each month, just a couple of times a year.

Blog – $0 I only pay myself a couple times a year now. My blogging income took a major hit when I put the blog on the back burner during Covid to start homeschooling my kids. It is slowly recovering as I put more effort into posting regularly and all of the things I do behind the scenes. Thankfully the income still covers my fixed blogging expenses (which are a lot more than most people would guess) and allows me to pay myself a few times a year.

Child Care – $3,619 Back in August, I started taking care of the 2-year-old Ukrainian girl while her mom goes to English school (and her siblings go to regular school). The county is very slow with payroll so it has taken a while to get paid, but this month I was paid for seven months of child care.

Tax Refund – $2,061 Until we (Mike) actually did our taxes this year, we weren’t sure if we were going to owe or not. We had to change our withholding partway through the year when we figured we had used up our credit from installing solar. We were pleasantly surprised to fins that we did not owe anything. This is our portion from California. We should also be receiving a federal refund as well.

At the beginning of June come back to see how we use this income to fund May’s budget.

How’s Your Budget Working for YOU!?

That was a lot of words and numbers! Congratulations for making it all the way through our April 2024 family budget update!

Now we would love to hear from you!

Any questions on what or why we spend what we do?

What are your current financial goals?

Do you find that your budget is helping you reach your goals, or is it not working like you wish it was?

Let’s chat in the comments!

This post contains affiliate links for products or services that we love and recommend.

The post Our detailed family budget with all of April’s income and expenses appeared first on Six Figures Under.

How we budget for an epic international family trip

Stephanie — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 18:29:58 +0000

The closer our kids get to leaving the nest, the more we are prioritizing family travel and adventure together. Our oldest will graduate from high school in just two years, so we are eager to take some of the trips that have been on our short list for a long time.

If you read our March Family Budget Update, then you know that we made a recent decision to budget for a big trip together this summer in addition to the trip we already have planned for Spring Break 2025.

A friend recently gave me this financial advice for traveling: “Just come up with how much everything will cost, then double it. That should be about right.”

No way. Not me!

In any travel, cost is a real factor. For me, thinking through all the expenses and plans well in advance allows us to prepare financially for the trip so we can just enjoy ourselves when we get there, without that nagging feeling that maybe we shouldn’t be spending so much, or that surprise total at the end that leaves us scrambling to cover unplanned expenses.

In this article, I want to walk you through my process for planning and budgeting for a big trip like this. I am meticulously planning our itinerary and travel so that we know precisely how much money to save before we go.

An important reminder

I should start by saying that these trips require some sacrifice on our part. We didn’t just come into new money that allows us to take this trip.

Right now we are prioritizing family travel over many other things that we could be spending money. For example, we would really like to replace the flooring in our house. Our carpet is thrashed and hideous. Every time we have someone new over, I am embarrassed by how ugly and stained our carpet is. A few months ago we explored options for flooring and got our house measured for cost estimates.

Ultimately, we decided that making memories with our kids while they are still at home is more important to us than having nice things like beautiful floors, decent furniture, and more-than-basic cars.

Helping in that decision is the fact that we still have lots of little people who are especially hard on floors and furniture.

I think it’s important to remember about the trade-offs. When I am keenly aware of our awful old carpet every time someone comes over, I remind myself that I am choosing to spend money on travel right now instead of home improvement. When I remind myself about that tradeoff, I don’t feel bad for myself and I don’t regret my choice at all.

WHERE we’re going this summer and WHY

A few months after Mike and I were married, we spent 4 months living in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala for an internship with LDS Employment Services. We taught a career workshop and a self-employment workshop to (mostly) young adults who were getting started in the working world. We also traveled to different parts of the country to train local volunteers so they could continue teaching the workshops after we had returned home. We quickly came to love the country and the people.

That was 18 years ago!

For years we have planned to return and take our kids to Guatemala so they can meet our friends there and get to know this beautiful country. We have been pretty busy during these past 18 years, but we know that once the kids start leaving home, getting them all together for a family trip will be even more complicated.

I have looked at airfare several times in the past years, but was never ready to make the trip happen. A few weeks ago, I peeked again this summer and was pleasantly surprised. That got me excited and I started to look seriously into making this trip happen this summer.

When we were in Guatemala in 2006, we didn’t have much in the way of extra funds for travel. We took advantage of a few opportunities for additional touristy-type travel after finishing our internship, but we barely scratched the surface of what Guatemala has to offer.

We decided that taking all 6 of our kids (ages 4, 6, 9, 12, 14, 16) would be a little overwhelming for many reasons, so we decided to take only the oldest three. The oldest three have each studied Spanish, so the trip will be more meaningful for them.

The three little ones aren’t missing out entirely. They will fly to their grandparents’ house for two weeks, so they aren’t too disappointed about missing out on Guatemala.

Dates and Flights

The first step for planning our trip was setting the dates and getting flights. When I had initially looked at flights (before we had even decided to take the trip), I found flights in the $300-$400 range. At first I was prioritizing the price of the flight, trying to plan the dates for the least expensive flight, but those dates didn’t work for my parents.

I didn’t want to give up the idea of going this summer, so I continued to look at alternate dates and found even better dates that would allow for a longer trip. I looked for a more convenient (but still well-priced) flight that would have a layover at my parents’ airport so we could personally hand off our three younger kids.

Knowing that we wanted to see some of the sites in northern Guatemala, I looked into flying into Belize to start out our trip. If we flew in and out of Guatemala City, we would have to take another round trip flight up to Tikal to see that area. By starting out in Belize we can cut out a leg of the in-country flight.

I made a spreadsheet to compare the options for two different sets of dates then showed Mike the options. He voted for the option that gave us a longer time in Guatemala. I also compared the cost for the lowest tier of service and the tier that allows you to change/refund your flights and choose your own seat assignment.

For our own peace of mind when investing this much money into a trip, we wanted our tickets to be changeable/refundable in case something came up. And, for the comfort of our littlest travelers, being able to choose seats together sounded like a good idea. We debated this additional cost and decided that for those two reasons, it was worth it to us to pay the extra $730.

Round Trip– From Home to Grandparents (x3) $805

One-Way– From Home to Belize (x5) $1,300

One-Way– From Guatemala to Home (x5) $1,455

Total cost: $3,560 (5 people to Guatemala and 3 people to Phoenix)

Looking at it on a per person basis, that breaks down to $268 round trip for the kids going to Grandma’s house and $551 round trip for each of us going to Guatemala.

Because we had already started saving for our Spring Break 2025 trip, we had money already set aside that we could immediately put toward our flights. Had we not already been saving for our 2025 trip, we probably wouldn’t be making this 2024 trip happen.

—-Budget for Flights: $3,560—

Activities for our Guatemala Itinerary

Once we knew the dates of our trip and had the flights secured, I got started planning where we would go and what we would do. This was the fun part! I listed all of the places we wanted to visit and things we wanted to do, then started fitting them into the schedule based on their location. Some things needed to be on certain days (like going to church in Quetzaltenango to see our friends where we used to live), so we put those things on the calendar first and worked more flexible activities around them.

If I were planning for activities in the United States I could easily look up the admission prices to the various parks, museums, and sites and then dig deeper to see how to get the best deal for each one, like I did planning our San Diego family adventure a couple of years ago.

In Guatemala, it is wise to pay for not just the admission but for a guide to take you around, especially when we’re talking about going into the jungle. While there will inevitably be many willing “guides” near the Mayan ruins and other sites, we’re planning to book tours ahead of time with reputable companies. There are tour guides available for every budget. Since we will also need transportation to the various sites, in many cases we have found tours that include travel.

Here are paid activities that we plan to do in Guatemala. I added a link to the Wikipedia article for each one if you are curious. The cost listed is the total for 5 of us.

Xunantunich Mayan ruins in Belize – $100– includes transportation, entrance fee, and tour

Cahal Pech Mayan ruins in Belize – $25– includes entrance fee only

Yaxha Mayan ruins in Guatemala – $163– includes transportation, entrance fee, and tour

Tikal Mayan ruins in Guatemala – $178– includes transportation, entrance fee, and tour

Fuentes Georginas volcanic hot springs- $100 includes transportation and entrance fee

2-day backpacking trip up Acatenango volcano to see Volcan de Fuego – $320 includes transportation, entrance fee, guide, camping equipment, and food

Semuc Champey turquoise pools and caves in Guatemala- $128 includes transportation, entrance fee, and tour.

In addition to these, we will be visiting people and places that don’t cost money like the Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple and the Coban Guatemala Temple. I am also adding in $150 to the budget for anything else we might have time to squeeze in.

Total cost of Planned Activities: $1,014

Extra for unplanned activities: $150

—-Budget for Activities: $1,164—-

Accommodations

We will be traveling all over Guatemala (and a little of Belize, too), so we will be staying in many different hotels, hostels, and Airbnbs. Once I nailed down the flow of our itinerary, I started looking for where to stay.

In most parts of Guatemala, the price of accommodations can be significantly less than most places in the US. We could have booked really nice places for what a mediocre place would cost here, but I was careful not to get carried away. With two weeks of nights to book, even a “great deal” adds up, and we are mostly just going to be sleeping in these places.

Location was a more important factor than price in choosing where we stayed. Since we will either need to walk or get a ride everywhere (we aren’t renting a car), it is important to us to be situated within walking distance of the bus terminal or wherever we are visiting.

I was careful to book places that were easy to cancel in case our plans change. Here are our planned stays:

San Ignacio, Belize (hostel)- 1 night – $85

Flores, Guatemala (hotel)- 2 nights – $162

Guatemala City (apartment)- 1 night – $55

Quetzaltenango (Airbnb)- 3 nights- $240

Antigua (hostel)- 3 nights- $114

Lanquin (hostel)- 1 night- $56

Coban (Airbnb)- 1 night- $84

Guatemala City (Airbnb)- 1 night- $64

Estimating the budget for this portion of our trip was pretty easy since everything is booked in advance. I’m still adding in $100 of wiggle room to cover any changes depending on the exchange rate. Most of these places will be either paid in cash in Quetzales or charged to our credit card in foreign currency. While Google is handy for estimating the exchange rate for making our budget, credit cards usually use a less favorable exchange rate in reality.

Total for booked accommodations: $860

Wiggle room: $100

—-Budget for Accommodations: $960—-

Travel within Guatemala

We have absolutely no desire to rent a car and drive in Guatemala. That crazy driving is just too far out of our comfort zone, not to mention the dangerous roads and possible encounters with highway robbers.

Thankfully there are many other options for getting around. If you read about our family trip to Washington DC, you know we aren’t afraid of relying completely on public transportation to get around. Guatemala takes that spirit of adventure to another level!

To travel within Belize and Guatemala we will be using everything from taxis and Uber to “chicken buses” and microbuses. We will also take a one way flight from northern Guatemala (Tikal) to Guatemala City. We will mostly use various buses. The downside of taxis and Ubers is that with 5 of us traveling together, we would require two cars every time, which doubles the cost and means we have to split up.

I researched the various bus routes and making notes of prices, pick up locations, and schedules. Thankfully, there’s a lot more information availalbe online than there was 18 years ago! I won’t bore you with all of the details, just the totals. The totals below often represent several different modes of transportation. The cost listed is the total for all 5 of us.

Belize City Airport to San Ignacio $90 (Taxi – Charter bus)

San Ignacio to Flores $135 (Taxi – Chicken bus, includes $100 tax for leaving Belize)

Flores to Guatemala City- $225 (Flight – Uber)

Guatemala City to Quetzaltenango- $60 (Charter bus)

Quetzaltenango to Antigua – $70 (Charter bus – Chicken bus)

Antigua to Lanquin- $110 (Chicken bus- Charter bus – Chicken bus)

Lanquin to Coban- $25 (Chicken bus)

Coban to Guatemala City- $70 (Charter bus)

Guatemala City to Airport- $15 (Uber)

These are just the cost estimates for getting from city to city, but don’t include all the travel within each place (from door to door). We will surely do a lot of walking (sometimes that’s just easiest), but will also take other transportation as needed. I’m adding in $150 of wiggle room to our transportation budget to account for extra travel or difference in actual cost (vs what I found from my internet research of mostly blogs).

Total estimated major travel with country: $800

Additional wiggle room: $150

—-Budget for In-country Travel: $950—-

Food

If you have read about our other family travel adventures, you know that we don’t budget much (if anything!) for food. Eating out is expensive and with a big family, the cost adds up quickly! Since eating out isn’t a part of our normal lives, we don’t do it on vacation either and no one knows the difference. When we are traveling, we try to stick to our normal food budget. We love staying at Airbnbs where we can easily cook for ourselves to keep food costs down.

The food for our trip to Guatemala will be different than our normal family trips for several reasons:

We won’t be staying places with kitchens for most of the trip. In fact, many of our stays will be for just one night.
We will have a very full schedule that won’t leave much time for home cooking.
From our previous experience, we know that finding ingredients we are familiar with can be really hard.
We want our kids to experience authentic Guatemalan food.
Prepared food is not prohibitively expensive there like it is in the US.

Now, does that mean we will be eating out for every meal? No. I expect we will buy prepared food once or twice a day on days other than Sunday. We can buy bread and produce from the market to eat for most breakfasts and lunches. We are pretty easy to please.

We will also have to buy all of our water since the tap water in Guatemala is not always safe to drink.

For our budget, I’m figuring 500 Quetzales per day (100Q per person per day). In American money that’s about $65 per day which is $13 per person per day. I really think that will be plenty!

—-Budget for Food: $845—-

Gear

When I first started thinking about this trip, I envisioned packing light with each of us taking just a traditional carry-on and a backpack. It wasn’t long after I started planning that I realized that would be a terrible idea.

We will be staying in 8 different locations and riding on cramped buses to get between them (with travel of up to 10 hours at times) and walking across towns to get to bus stations. Sometimes we will be checking out of one place then going on tours all day before traveling to our next accommodations. We won’t have anywhere to stash even a small suitcase while we are galivanting around the country. We need to pack even lighter than that, which is fine, but requires some additional gear.

Our new plan is just backpacks. I did some research on the carry-on size maximum and found 40L size backpacks that will work. They are a few inches too tall, but slightly smaller in other dimensions, so they can be squashed if their size is challenged.

We will be in Guatemala during the rainy season, so it could be potentially raining everyday. While trash bags can work in a pinch, I wanted backpacks that had rain covers included. We already have one backpack that should work. After reading reviews, I chose these backpacks for the other four.

Now that we are packing for two weeks in a carry-on backpack, we have to be careful about everything we’re bringing. For now I’ll just mention some of the main gear items we are budgeting for.

40L Backpacks – $40 x 4 = $160 (we chose 4 different colors of these affordable backpacks with excellent reviews)

Waterproof hiking boots – $65 x 5 = $325 (so far we have purchased these, these, these, and these)

Lightweight microfiber towels – $30 (After lots of comparing of sizes and prices, I got this set)

Lightweight hiking pants – $40 x 4 = $160 (so far we have 2 pairs of these for Mike and our oldest son)

Money belts – $7 x 3 = $21 (we bought 3 of these since we already have 2 from our first Guatemala trip)

Battery pack– $36 (We got this battery pack to be able to keep phones and headlamps charged)

Mosquito net head covers for adventuring in the jungle- $13 (We bought this 6-pack)

Total estimate for the above items: $745

I will add an extra $155 to cover additional clothing or toiletry needs that come up as we are packing.

—-Budget for Gear: $900—-

Spending/Giving

We really aren’t sure what sort of souvenirs we will buy, but we expect there will be some things. We will set aside $500 for spending.

We also want to set aside some money that we can use to give as we travel. I know we will want to give, so having money already planned for this will allow us to give without worrying that it will cause problems with our budget. We will budget $300.

—-Budget for Spending/Giving: $800—-

Total Trip Budget

To summarize, here are the current budgeted expenses for our summer 2024 Trip to Belize and Guatemala:

$3,560 — Airfare (includes $805 for 3 youngest to fly to Grandma’s house)

$1,164 — Activities

$960 — Accommodations

$950 — Travel within country

$845 — Food

$900 — Gear

$800 — Spending/Giving

TOTAL: $9,179

Right now we are looking at nearly $9,200 for 5 of us (including the 3 younger kids flying to Grandma’s house). I prefer to err on the side of slightly over-budgeting, so I am actually expecting to stay below this budget.

After the trip, I will do a follow up post detailing our actual spending on our Guatemalan Adventure so that we can see how it compares with our informed budget plan.

I love having such a detailed trip budget rather than just an arbitrary amount that we hope will cover our trip’s expenses. A thoroughly planned trip budget like this lets us know how much money we need to set aside between now and when we take our trip. When we are traveling we don’t have to stress about how the cost of things is adding up because we anticipated our costs ahead of time.

I hope it was helpful to get a sneak peek (okay, it was more than just a peek!) into what goes on in my brains (and many spreadsheets) when I plan a big trip.

I should also mention that I think this part of planning is FUN, not a chore. I like having all of my financial ducks in a row, so budgeting for a trip this way is my jam. I also know that future Stephanie will be able to relax and enjoy herself so much more without having money worries hanging over her.

How do YOU budget for trips?

When you budget for big family trips, do you budget meticulously or just save a certain total amount?

Have you been to Central America? What travel tips do you have?

The post How we budget for an epic international family trip appeared first on Six Figures Under.

How much can you actually earn on Airbnb? Here’s how to find out!

Stephanie — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 18:29:19 +0000

If you have a space to rent, whether it’s an entire space (even your own home) or just a room, there is money to be made on Airbnb.

When we were looking for a house to buy back in 2016, one of our soft requirements was that the property have an extra living space, like a basement apartment or mother-in-law quarters, so we would have the option to rent it out if we wanted.

That is exactly what we found and bought in 2017. Then, in 2018 we started renting with Airbnb.

We weren’t sure what the demand would be like, as we are in a pretty rural, non-touristy area.

We were shocked, in the best way possible!

It turns out that people need somewhere to stay, just about anywhere in the world, even if it doesn’t seem like a vacation destination. We were constantly booked and the income was consistent, reliable, and plentiful.

When we travel, we look at Airbnb options before we look at hotels. We shouldn’t have been surprised that other people do too!

We have had guests come for all sorts of reasons: weddings, funerals, visiting family, traveling through, contractors working in the area, traveling nurses, quiet time to study, out-of-town divorced parents spending time with their local children, and touristy things that aren’t even really that close, to name just a few. Maybe the most random reason for visiting our Airbnb was a couple who stayed the night before going on a mushroom hunting tour in a neighboring town!

You won’t know the demand until you try, but I bet you will be surprised, too!

How much can I earn with Airbnb in MY area?

The price of Airbnb rentals varies greatly. Your location is the biggest factor, but as our experience shows, you don’t need to be in a typically touristy area to have success.

Take a look at Airbnb’s earning calculator (if you’re on a phone, you’ll need to click “Learn More” to get to the calculator) to see what you could earn in your area. You can specify if you’ll be offering an entire house, private room, or shared room. I double checked what the calculator says for our area and it’s pretty accurate, though we tend to make a little more than the calculator’s estimate. If you are off the beaten path with no other Airbnb listings in the area, then Airbnb may not yet know the demand for that area, but there’s a good chance you could be pleasantly surprised.

With Airbnb there are no sign-up fees or fees to list your place on the platform. You choose your nightly price and cleaning fees. Airbnb generally charges hosts a flat 3% fee on each booking, which is essentially just the cost of them to process the guest’s credit card. so you won’t pay a thing until you actually have guests book your place and check in. And then, it’s just taken out of the guest’s payment, so you don’t have to come up with any money out of pocket.

Getting paid through Airbnb couldn’t be simpler. Airbnb will direct deposit your earnings into your bank account when your guest checks in (or PayPal if you prefer). There’s no waiting until the end of the month or anything like that. you get paid immediately!

Airbnb is totally flexible. You choose your own availability. You can have your space be available as often or as infrequently as you want. It’s so convenient to be able to block the days when we aren’t going to be home or we’ll have family or friends in town and want to keep our space open for them.

If you’re thinking that you can’t host on Airbnb because you don’t have an entire separate apartment to rent out, think again (and keep reading)!

You can make money with your primary residence!

Some people rent out their own home when they go out of town as a way to help fund their travels.

I remember on one visit to the coast, we stayed in a three-bedroom house that was clearly the family’s regular residence. Every thing was clean and clutter-free, but the house wasn’t as sparsely furnished as many Airbnb homes are. Half of each closet had clothes, the fridge had some food in it, there were plenty of towels, etc. For us, that was great, as there were a good variety of toys for our kids to play with.

From their photos throughout the house, it was clear that the young family liked to travel. I assume they list their house on Airbnb only while they are away on their trips. They had a neighbor be available to help us if we had any issues. The garage was locked and inaccessible to us (they probably put their personal/sentimental/valuable things in there), but we had access to everything else.

What a great way to help fund your family’s travel, by renting out your home while you’re on your own travels!

Here’s another creative option for renting out your primary residence. We had some friends with a very large home who built themselves a smaller, above-the-garage apartment where they would stay when their own house was booked. Their huge house, great for reunions and retreats, rented for over $900 a night, with a minimum booking of 3 nights. Was it inconvenient to move into the garage several weekends a month? Probably, but it paid their mortgage when times were tough.

You don’t even have to leave to rent your primary residence on Airbnb.

Many people rent only a portion of their home, whether it’s a basement or just a bedroom. One time when Mike and I were in Washington DC for a conference, we rented a room in a house that was shared with other guests. We had our own bedroom and bathroom, but the kitchen a living space were shared. We had a great experience chatting with other travelers, and one of the people we met was even going to the same conference that we were!

Is being an Airbnb host worth it?

Some people wonder if hosting on Airbnb on a small scale is worth it. By “small scale,” I mean that we do everything ourselves. We don’t have a property manager or a cleaning person. To some people that sounds like a lot of work and they wonder if just getting a regular long-term, traditional renter is better.

For us Airbnb is totally worth it!

When we host on Airbnb, we earn double what we earned when we rented to long-term tenants.

Do I have to do extra laundry and cleaning with Airbnb? Yes.

Is it worth earning an additional thousand dollars a month? Absolutely!

The additional hands-on work is definitely worth the financial return. Especially once you get into a routine and know what to expect, “turning over” the rental between guests can be pretty fast.

Ready to get started with Airbnb?

If you are ready to start hosting with Airbnb, then I would love to help you get started and answer your questions as you go along.

First, go to Airbnb’s earnings calculator (if you’re on a phone, you’ll need to click “Learn More” to get to the calculator) to see what you can expect to earn in your area. Since this is my referral link, Airbnb will let me know that you are looking into hosting. They won’t share any personal details with me, but I will be able to connect with you through the Airbnb messenger so that I can help walk you through the process. I would be happy to share my best tips with you and mentor you as you get started on Airbnb. Right now Airbnb will also give you a $40 bonus when you welcome your first guest.

If you’ve been following us for long, you know that a year ago we welcomed a Ukrainian refugee family of four to live in our apartment free of charge. While our income has taken a hit, we see it as a unique opportunity to serve and give. While we love our Ukrainian family and they are free to stay as long as they want, we expect that at some point after they settle into life in the United States and the mom learns enough English to get a job to support her family, they might move on. Then we’ll be back to hosting with Airbnb.

In the mean time, I’m happy to help YOU get your own Airbnb up and running! Click HERE to get started. Having Airbnb as an additional stream of income can really make all the difference for your family to reach your financial goals!

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The Power of Asking– Simple Questions Have Saved Us Thousands!

Stephanie — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:40:58 +0000

Sometimes saving money just requires asking a simple question or two. With very little effort you can be saving money on your monthly bills and beyond. In many cases it is just a matter of asking to pay less.

It never hurts to ask, right? The worst that can happen is… nothing, which is exactly what is going to happen if you don’t ask.

How much money could you be saving?

Today I’m sharing four examples that teach four principles about how simple questions can save loads of money. I would love to hear your experience in being brave enough to ask potentially awkward questions in order to save money.

Rates are Negotiable

My first experience with reducing bills was when my husband and I were first married. After being married for only four months we left the country for an international internship. We moved out of our apartment and put our things in storage. Naturally we called to cancel our utilities, including our land line phone.

My husband explained to the phone company representative that we were moving out of the country so we needed to cancel our phone service. As soon as the representative heard “cancel” he kept lowering the price to entice us to stay with their company!

We though it was pretty funny because it wasn’t about money. We were leaving the country! No great deal on our monthly phone bill was going to change our mind. We learned something though, which we stored away for when we came back to the states: rates are actually negotiable!

Customer Loyalty Pays

My dear friend wanted to get an iPhone but couldn’t see adding the data plan to her monthly bills. She decided that if she could get her other monthly bills lowered enough to cover the cost of a new phone plan then she would go for it. I was impressed with her discipline to stay within her current budget.

She called her cable and internet provider and politely said,

“I have been a loyal customer for X years and really like your service, but I feel like I am paying too much. I get offers in the mail about signing up for other providers at much cheaper rates. I am willing to switch to get a better price, but I would like to stay with you if it’s possible. Is there anything you can do to lower our rate?”

Both companies were willing to lower their rates and she got her iPhone without increasing her monthly bills. As loyal customers, we have more power than we think.

Have a Creative Alternative

Another close friend was tired of paying for expensive trash pick-up in her rural area, especially since her family didn’t generate very much garbage each week. Her husband had just moved his small business to a new office in a newly developed business area. He was the first one to sign on with the builder/landlord. Noticing the large dumpsters were never full since the office space wasn’t yet all rented out, she asked the landlord if it was okay if she brought the family’s trash up to the dumpster each week. He agreed, which completely eliminated the monthly garbage bill!

Of course every situation is different and will require its own custom solution. By thinking creatively about lowering your monthly bills, you may be able to come up with a solution that will save you.

Look Beyond the Bills

While tuition is not a monthly bill, this example teaches the same principle. When he decided to return to school and applied to J.D and M.B.A programs, he received a scholarship offer from both the law school and the business school at the university he ultimately selected. The law school offer was more generous than we expected. The business school offer was much smaller. A few days after receiving the offer from the business school, he contacted the dean of admissions and explained that while he would love to attend, he wasn’t sure we could justify the added cost over an already expensive law school education. Fifteen minutes later, the scholarship offer was doubled and our tuition cost was down by ten thousand dollars– just for asking!

This seemed like a novel idea to us at the time, but talking with other students, our experience was hardly exceptional. Many students ask for increased scholarships or other benefits, and if a school wants you to attend, they’ll often accommodate the requests. In retrospect, my husband probably should have also negotiated an increase at the law school.

The lesson: A scholarship offer is usually not a take-it-or-leave it proposition. Treat the initial offer like a starting point for negotiation and you could ends up thousands of dollars ahead. This lesson applies equally well to job offers. The first offer is a starting point, and the company has illustrated by making the offer that they want you there. Don’t be afraid to ask for more.

Is asking a potentially awkward question worth it?

Umm… YES! The best part about saving on monthly bills or tuition (as opposed to just a purchase here and there) is that you see the savings every month! Even just a little less on a monthly bill will add up quickly over time. The savings can go straight to paying off debt or saving for the future.

Could you be a phone call away from saving hundreds of dollars a year by reducing your bills?

You’ll never know unless you ask!

How have you experienced the power of asking?
Have you had experience getting a monthly bill reduced by just asking?
If you could get a bill reduced, which one would it be?

Note: This post was originally published in January 2014.

The post The Power of Asking– Simple Questions Have Saved Us Thousands! appeared first on Six Figures Under.

What we spent and earned in March 2024

Stephanie — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 11:29:24 +0000

It’s no secret that I love budgeting! Sure, sometimes it’s annoying trying to reconcile accounts and it’s frustrating that saving takes so long. Progress can feel slow when you’re working to pay off big debt, but then feeling the peace that comes when you have control of your finances is worth all of the hassle.

Budgeting is key to being in control of your finances. Budgeting is not just something that’s recommended for people who are struggling financially. It’s the truly the key to reaching your money goals, and that’s true for all people.

In March, we made some sudden, exciting money moves that wouldn’t have been possible without diligent budgeting. I thought about a trip that we’ve been wanting to take for over a decade and how quickly our kids are growing up. I peeked at the flight prices and found them significantly less than when I had looked any time in the past. Within days I had the flights booked and a solid 2-week itinerary planned out.

It hasn’t always been like this.

When we started openly sharing our finances on 2013, we had six figures of student loan debt. Through hard work, sacrifices, and diligent budgeting, we paid off our debt less than three years later.

We didn’t stop budgeting when we became debt free.

Our frugal game was strong, so we continued tackling one financial goal after another.

If you have financial goals, you should budget. If you don’t have financial goals, you should make some! I bet it won’t be too hard to think of what those goals would be. It’s just a matter of vocalizing them and committing to start. Budgeting just for the sake of budgeting isn’t very fun, but budgeting to reach financial goals is super motivating!

Every month we share our family’s real budget with you in an effort to break the taboo about money and help you see how a budget can help you reach your financial goals.

Okay, let’s jump into our family’s March 2024 finances!

Spending in March

When we first understood the concept of living on last month’s income, it rocked our financial world in the best kind of way. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, this video will tell you all about living on last month’s income and how life-changing it is. Or you can read this article on how you can get started.

At the beginning of each month, we start budgeting by first adding up the income we earned the month before. In March, we budget and spend what we earned in February. We knew on March 1st exactly how much money we had to work with during the month. So on March 1st, we start the March budget by taking everything we earned in February and assigning it to our March budget categories.

We can’t see the future, so on the first of March, these dollar assignments were really just best guesses and goals. We’ve been doing this for years, so we have a lot of history we can rely on, but every month is different. Our dollar assignments at the beginning of the month almost never stay exactly the same because our needs and priorities often change during a month.

It’s normal for our spending plan to change during the month. The important thing isn’t spending exactly how much we had guessed at the beginning of the month. It would be silly to let our March 1st guesses dictate what we can and can’t do all during the month. The important thing is to not spend more total in March than we earned in February.

Here’s our family’s final March spending for all of our budget categories.

Giving

Tithing – $1,775 We start out the month paying a 10% tithe on our income. Like all of our March spending, our tithing is calculated on what we earned in February. You can see February’s Budget Update here. We often get questions about this. You can read our thoughts on tithing here.

Fast Offering – $100 Each month we take one day to go without food and drink (fasting) and contribute to a program that helps people who need it.

Monthly Bills

Car Insurance – $285 Our car insurance includes four cars right now (three are ours, one is for the Ukrainian family we are sponsoring).

Internet – $70 We have cable internet through Comcast. When we bought our home six years ago, we invested $5,000 into getting cable internet brought to our property. It has been well worth it every single day since then.

Water – $63 Our water bill comes every other month, so in February we set aside half of what we expect the bill to be, then paid the remainder in March.

Garbage- $49 Like the water bill, our trash pick-up bill comes every other month, so each month I set aside the money for half of the bill.

Cell Phones – $985 This was an expensive cell phone month for us. We bought anew phone for Mike and got a phone for our second oldest (both Pixel 7a). Now we pay for eight cell phones: five for our family, and three for the Ukrainian family that we sponsor.

Our phones are all through Visible. Visible is a Verizon subsidiary that offers no-contract plans with wifi calling, unlimited cell calls, and unlimited data on the Verizon network. We’ve been using them for years. You can’t beat paying just $25 per phone each month with unlimited data.

Music – $0 Our music teacher generously offered his time and talent to teach our 11-year-old Ukrainian girl free of charge. What a blessing!

Everyday Expenses

Food – $813 We eat at home almost exclusively; we don’t go out to eat or get takeout. We keep a well stocked pantry and freezer, as well as long term food storage. Our grocery spending is just for our family of 8 because the Ukrainian family receives income-based food assistance now.

Fuel – $653 This is the first full month that the Ukrainian mom has had her car. I still drive her kids during the day while she is at English school, but she drives herself around and can take her kids to evening activities. Right now gas is $5.19/gallon at the cheapest spot.

Household Misc – $280 In addition to normal household necessities and subscriptions, we needed a new belt for our clothes dryer, phone cases for those new phones. I bought xanthan gum for a recipe, the original Roots series on Blu-ray, and Matt Sprouts and the Curse of the Ten Broken Toes (both my 11- and 8-year-old loved the book and can’t wait for the next one to come out).

Clothing – $186 – We bought two new pairs of running shoes and a few other clothing items.

Animals – $23 We were stocked up on animal food, but needed a few fish tank things.

Sports – $200 In March we paid for our daughter’s spring AAU basketball team.

Sinking Funds

The amount in bold is the amount we added to the fund this month, followed by spending notes and the current balance of each fund.

Medical/Dental – $300 added. We spent $200 on an exam for contacts and a year’s worth of contacts at the optometrist’s office. I’m certain I can get them cheaper online now that I have the prescription. If you order contacts online, I would love to hear your recommendations. We also had some doctor/ER copays totaling $80. Current category balance is $1,813.

Car Maintenance – $2,004 added. In March, we spent $3,006 on maintenance for one of our vans. We also got new wipers and a new seatbelt for the middle of the backseat. We have gotten away with not having a seatbelt there because we can still can buckle a cars seat in there with the latch system. Current category balance is $0.

Christmas – $200 added. I spent $13 on future Christmas gifts. Current category balance is $590.

Birthdays & Gifts – $50 added. We spent $47 in March for gifts. I keep a gift stash at home which comes in handy when the kids go to parties. Current category balance is $76.

Car Registration & Smog – $50 added. We spent $0 in March. Current category balance is $102.

Family Fun Fund – $100 added. We spent $150 on a first payment for a summer youth camp for our two oldest. Current category balance is $38.

Home and Garden – $0 added. We spent $20 on Chip Drop. Current category balance is $80.

Big Trips – $1,285 added. Of the amount added, $420 was credit card bonuses and points and cash back from Rakuten. We originally made this sinking fund to save up for a fun family trip in 2025, but we are expanding it to include a trip we will take this summer, a trip that we’ve dreamed of taking for over a decade. I’ll share more about it soon. We spent $3,964 this month to book the flights (for 8!) and some of the accommodations. The original plan was to set aside $500 per month. Now we will need to average around $1,500 per month to make both our 2024 and 2025 adventures happen. Current category balance is $63.

Investing

Kids’ 529s – $150 added. Investing just $25 per child per month for college isn’t much, but we are okay with that. Neither of us had much college savings when we went to college, but with scholarships, grants, loans, and jobs during school we were able to get our undergraduate degrees without debt. We may contribute more later, but right now we’re happy with small, consistent contributions. I looked at the balances recently and was please to see that this small contribution that is barely noticeable in our monthly budget has added up to over $15,000! If you want to know more you can read about how we decided to start 529s for our kids.

New Goal!

Since we finished paying for the remainder of our solar installation back in November, we have a new financial goal (in addition to our trip goal)!

We will need to replace one of our vehicles (our minivan that seats 8) soon, so saving for that will be our new goal! Originally we were set on another 8-passenger van, but since we have our 15-passenger van for when we all go together, we might get a car instead. The most we have ever spent on a vehicle is $5,500 (the 2007 Odyssey that we bought in 2019), so $20,000 sounds like a lot!

In March, we set aside $2,900 for our new van fund. We also spent $65 on a CarFax report for a car that turned out to be not nearly as awesome as we had hoped. With our total of $4,162, we are 20% of the way to our goal of $20,000.

Income Earned in March- $13,804

Above you can see everything we spent in March (that we had earned and received in February.) At the same time we were spending what we earned in February, we were also (of course) earning money during March. At the beginning of April, we set up our budget to allocate spending from our March income.

The income section below shows the money we earned in March, which we didn’t touch until April.

Attorney Income – $9,804 Mike works as an attorney for the state of California. This is his take-home pay after taxes, social security, his pension contribution, and health insurance premiums.

Rental Income – $0 For years we rented out a one-bedroom apartment on our property through Airbnb. We gave that up to take in a Ukrainian refugee family for a couple of years. We loved Airbnb and will likely go back to that in the future. If you’re thinking about renting out your space on Airbnb, check out Mike’s post about dealing with insurance for your Airbnb rental or our explanation of how we handle our Airbnb finances.

Blog – $4,000 I only pay myself a couple times a year now. My blogging income took a major hit when I put the blog on the back burner during Covid to start homeschooling my kids. It is slowly recovering as I put more effort into posting regularly and all of the things I do behind the scenes. Thankfully the income still covers my fixed blogging expenses (which are a lot more than most people would guess) and allows me to pay myself a few times a year.

At the beginning of May come back to see how we use this income to fund April’s budget.

How’s Your Budget Working for YOU!?

That was a lot of words and numbers! Congratulations for making it all the way through our March 2024 family budget update!

Now we would love to hear from you!

Any questions on what or why we spend what we do?

What are your current financial goals?

Do you find that your budget is helping you reach your goals, or is it not working like you wish it was?

Let’s chat in the comments!

This post contains affiliate links for products or services that we love and recommend.

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