Here is a sneak preview of how we did in 2014. I’m comparing my 2014 budget to my 2013 budget to see how we did. Going into 2014 we had $26,268.93 in all sorts of debt. Going into 2015 we are down to around 17795.39! That’s almost 10k in debt paid off! To think when we started this in 2013, we could barely afford to pay $25 extra a month toward paying off debt! God is good.
| 2013 | 2014 | Difference | Comments |
| Income $61,352 | Income $73,500 | $1,2148.00 | Woot! Income going up is always a good thing. I got a raise this year and Lindy took a seasonal supervisor position at her work so that is why it increased so much. |
| Income: Interest Income $7 | Income: Interest Income $9 | $2.00 | Made $2 this year than last by doing nothing. Interest is my friend now. |
| Auto & Transport: Auto Insurance -$791 | Auto & Transport: Auto Insurance -$829 | -$38.00 | Auto Insurance went up a little bit. Probably do to the ticket I got last year. I’m planning on switching this over to pay every 6 months rather than every month to save more money. |
| Auto & Transport: Gas & Fuel -$4,063 | Auto & Transport: Gas & Fuel -$3,543 | $520.00 | Gas went down a lot at the end of this year. That helped us here. :P |
| Auto & Transport: New Car – NA | Auto & Transport: New Car -$200 | -$200.00 | We started to save for a new (used) car but then decided that paying off debt would be best. |
| Auto & Transport: Service & Parts -$294 | Auto & Transport: Service & Parts -$1,138 | -$844.00 | Go Go Car Repairs. Oregon’s DEQ is the dumbest thing ever. Had to throw money at my car and Lindy’s to fix the check engine lights before we could get our tabs. We still have more work to do on Lindy’s car. |
| Bills & Utilities: Internet -$550 | Bills & Utilities: Internet -$760 | -$210.00 | Internet bill went up a little. Still not too bad. |
| Bills & Utilities: Mobile Phone -$1,677 | Bills & Utilities: Mobile Phone -$759 | $918.00 | Holy crap! Switch to Republic Wireless this year and saved a ton. I’m a fan of this. |
| Bills & Utilities: Television -$363 | Bills & Utilities: Television -$1,055 | -$692.00 | I got some extra sports channels. I need to look at cutting back on this a bit. |
| Bills & Utilities: Utilities -$1,417 | Bills & Utilities: Utilities -$1,196 | $221.00 | Some how our utilities went down. I’m guessing this is due to me turning down the heater this year (Sorry baby!) |
| Bills & Utilities: Web Hosting – -$117 | Bills & Utilities: Web Hosting -$132 | -$15.00 | Same ole, Same ole. |
| Education: Student Loan -$3,481 | Education: Student Loan -$6,705 | -$3,224.00 | Crushing the Student Loans! We doubled what we paid last year! |
| Entertainment: Apps -$142 | Entertainment: Apps -$155 | -$13.00 | Same ole, Same ole. |
| Entertainment: Dates -$1,412 | Entertainment: Dates -$1,277 | $135.00 | Spent a little less on dates. More like found more dates that cost less. |
| Entertainment: Event – Lindy -$25 | Entertainment: Event – Lindy -NA | $25.00 | This was a one time event last year. |
| Entertainment: Furniture -$28 | Entertainment: Furniture -$222 | -$194.00 | We put $20 a month toward this fund. Lindy wanted a new vacuum so that’s why we have the increase. |
| Entertainment: General Expenses -$772 | Entertainment: General Expenses -$2,036 | -$1,264.00 | Ouch… we need to do better about this next year. |
| Entertainment: Lindy allowance -$440 | Entertainment: Lindy allowance -$769 | -$329.00 | This is skewed a little because she also has side hustles that add extra month into her allowance. But we did increase our allowance from $25 to $50 a month too. |
| Entertainment: Mick Allowance -$294 | Entertainment: Mick Allowance -$2,974 | -$2,680.00 | Hello my allowance! This is skewed a lot because I keep track of my allowance stuffs seperately. So this doesn’t have my income from all my side hustles added in here. Right now, I’m only -$20 over my budget ;) |
| Entertainment: Rodeo -NA | Entertainment: Rodeo -$176 | -$176.00 | I think we put this in a different fund last year. Anywho, we purchased the tickets for a bunch of people and they paid us in cash. So that cash went to groceries I believe. |
| Entertainment: Singing Competition -$145 | Entertainment: Singing Competition -NA | $145.00 | My wife did not do this in 2014 |
| Entertainment: Singing Lessons -$465 | Entertainment: Singing Lessons -NA | $465.00 | My wife did not do this in 2014 |
| Entertainment: Sporting Events -$1,456 | Entertainment: Sporting Events -$2,829 | -$1,373.00 | Definitely spent more this year. But this is really my only “hobby” so I don’t mind :P |
| Fees & Charges: Speeding Ticket -$260 | Fees & Charges: Speeding Ticket -NA | $260.00 | Yay! I met my goal of not getting a ticket this year! |
| Financial: Debt Killer -$6,009 | Financial: Debt Killer -$917 | $5,092.00 | Debit Killer is what we used to pay off credit card debt. We killed the last of it off this year! Woot! That’s 5k we used to pay off loans! |
| Financial: General Savings -$900 | Financial: General Savings -$2,107 | -$1,207.00 | Saved a bunch more this year! We are now saving $100 a month. |
| Financial: Lindy’s Ring -$690 | Financial: Lindy’s Ring -$572 | $118.00 | No more ring debt. Done. |
| Financial: Prosper Loans -$2,233 | Financial: Prosper Loans -$5,993 | -$3,760.00 | Doubled up on the personal loan debt too! I want to be out of debt by 2016. |
| Financial: Roth IRA -NA | Financial: Roth IRA -$120 | -$120.00 | Started throwing $10 a month into our Roth IRA. Not much but at least it is something. |
| Financial: Standard Stocks -NA | Financial: Standard Stocks -$10 | -$10.00 | Just started putting $10 a month into Standard Stocks too. Getting prepped to do this for next year :) |
| Financial: Tithe -$5,700 | Financial: Tithe -$7,044 | -$1,344.00 | Income increased so tithe increased. |
| Food & Dining: Alcohol & Bars -$70 | Food & Dining: Alcohol & Bars -$360 | -$290.00 | This year, I found Scotch. And it was good. And expensive. |
| Food & Dining: All Food/Coffee -$1,335 | Food & Dining: All Food/Coffee -$1,290 | $45.00 | I feel like we ate out more this year and maybe we did, but we spent a little less. Not bad. |
| Food & Dining: Stims -$NA | Food & Dining: Stims -$266 | -$266.00 | We started budgeting for my zipfizz and my wife’s coffee. Gotta stay away on the night shift yo. |
| Food & Dining: Groceries -$3,820 | Food & Dining: Groceries -$5,023 | -$1,203.00 | Groceries increased a bit. This should go back to normal next year. |
| Food & Dining: Mick’s Groceries -$68 | Food & Dining: Mick’s Groceries -$401 | -$333.00 | I started buying more grocies for when I cook dinner. |
| Food & Dining: Take People Out -$305 | Food & Dining: Take People Out -$448 | -$143.00 | Woot! We took more people out/hung out with more people this year. |
| Gifts & Donations: Charity -$476 | Gifts & Donations: Charity -$456 | $20.00 | Same ole, Same ole. This is the child my wife has been sponsoring for years. |
| Gifts & Donations: Christmas Gifts $292 | Gifts & Donations: Christmas Gifts -$618 | -$326.00 | Spent more on Christmas this year. Although this year, I also put our presents for each other into this budget. |
| Gifts & Donations: Gift -$1,693 | Gifts & Donations: Gift -$1,299 | $394.00 | Less weddings, less wedding gifts, less spend on gifts ;) |
| Gifts & Donations: Trusting Jesus -$638 | Gifts & Donations: Trusting Jesus -$1,761 | -$1,123.00 | I love this. Huge increase in our Trusting Jesus fund. I want us to continue to give away a little more each year. |
| Health & Fitness: Dentist -$128 | Health & Fitness: Dentist -$70 | $58.00 | This budget was stopped after opening my HAS |
| Health & Fitness: Doctor -$742 | Health & Fitness: Doctor -$12 | $730.00 | This budget was stopped after opening my HAS |
| Health & Fitness: Eyecare -$55 | Health & Fitness: Eyecare -$43 | $12.00 | Not much here. |
| Home: Art -$50 | Home: Art -NA | $50.00 | We decided not to save for Artwork for our home, until we are out of debt. |
| Mick’s Furniture -$132 | Mick’s Furniture -$65 | $67.00 | My furniture budget so I can by electronic gadgets we need. :) Saving for harddrives for a media server. |
| Home: Home Insurance -$227 | Home: Home Insurance -$231 | -$4.00 | Same ole, same ole |
| Home: Mortgage & Rent -$6,860 | Home: Mortgage & Rent -$11,230 | -$4,370.00 | Our rent went up this year… ouch… |
| Shopping: Clothing -$378 | Shopping: Clothing -$511 | -$133.00 | Not too bad of an increase |
| Shopping: Cosmetics/Toiletries -$347 | Shopping: Cosmetics/Toiletries -$555 | -$208.00 | We got electric toothbrushes that increased this amount a bit. |
| Shopping: Electronics & Software -$2 | Shopping: Electronics & Software -$34 | -$32.00 | Xbox Live yo. |
| Transfer: Credit Card Payment -$899 | Transfer: Credit Card Payment -NA | $899.00 | No more credit card debt! |
| Transfer: Dummy Category -NA | Transfer: Dummy Category -$182 | -$182.00 | I made a mistake in Mint and it meant that we had $182 less than what we thought we had. So I created a dummy category to offset it. Because it’s not real and I’m a dummy. |
| Travel: Vacation -$1,138 | Travel: Vacation -$2,811 | -$1,673.00 | Spent more on our vacation this year compared to last. We see it as the last hurrah before kiddos. We will be scaling back on this for 2015. |
Not too shabby for 2014.
Scaling back on vacation?!?! May it never be so!
;)
But really, we’re not scaling back. On that. Wha-ha-ha-ha.