Welp, we weren’t home for most of December which meant we had a highly unusual budget. Nevertheless, we are still going over our budget in December. This is a breakdown of a millennial couple’s $9,000 income!
Watch the full December beers and budgeting report video. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!
We spent $7,855.43
Well, not really. Kyle got really freaked out that we had spent nearly $8,000 in December. But in all reality, this is the total that we spent and set aside in separate savings accounts. I add savings contributions to our budget because that money is “spent” on our goals. Then, I transfer that savings amount into the appropriate savings account.
For example, I transferred $750 from our checking account into the Jeep Wrangler savings account. Technically we didn’t spend the money. But we did pull it from our monthly budget so it gets deducted from our income. Make sense?
If that’s true, then just how much did you save in December?
I’m so glad you asked! Here is a breakdown of how much we saved in December:
Down Payment – $750
Vacation Fund – $750
Jeep Wrangler – $750
Treat Yo Self Day – $100
Stash – $10
Acorns – $1
Total – $2,361
The $2k grand didn’t get spent rather it got set aside.
We brought in a combined $9,043.42 income
We had another excellent income month. We brought in just over $9,000 in income. I had a good income month with Debt Free Millennials so now I’m paying myself a higher salary and consistently. Keep in mind, I started Debt Free Millennials in 2017 and for a solid six months (probably more) I did not pay myself. Those were some tough times but it has paid off!
In addition to our paychecks, we rent out our second parking spot which brings in $150 per month. I add that to our income total each month. Parking comes at a premium around here and luckily there’s a lot of people who will gladly pay it.
Celebrating our income month with a good beer and a Chiefs win! Playoffs, baby!
We had $1,188 leftover this month
Budgeting has been so second-nature for me that nearly every single month we have money leftover. Which means we have to make a decision with how we are going to allocate it. If you ever have money leftover in your budget, you need to give it direction. You can split it up into different goals. Take some and add it to your debt. Hell, add all of it to your debt. Take $10 bucks of it and buy some Chipotle. It doesn’t matter so long as you give it direction.
The Thrift Savings Plan is finally maxed out
This month, Kyle and I decided to keep this extra money in our checking account. This is because Kyle maxed out his Thrift Savings Plan! This is a government-sponsored retirement plan. One of our 2020 financial goals was to max out the TSP and here we go checking it off the list already. The one thing in question is we don’t know what his paycheck amount will look like after this new contribution is taken into affect.
The contribution amount that Kyle is setting aside per paycheck is roughly $700. I can’t wait to see what this does to our retirement amount and our total net worth!
How much we spent on Christmas
Oh yeahhh, Christmas! The Christmas budget is actually split between November and December since we bought gifts in both months. We also bought plane tickets and traveled back to the Midwest for the holidays. Here’s a breakdown of what we spent on Christmas:
Gifts – $946.54
Travel – $1,396.76
Total – $2,343.30
Eesh. That’s a lot of money. However, we had all of this money saved in a separate vacation fund. Once the money is spent, I pay ourselves back with money from our vacation account. One thing to note, Kyle piggybacked our holiday travel with a work trip in Kansas. He’ll get reimbursed for one flight and get some per diem. That should decrease our total amount a bit.
The pros
- We brought in a combined $9,043.42 income this month!
- We spent three weeks traveling in the Midwest for the holidays.
- Maxed out the TSP.
- Put more money towards our savings goals.
The cons
- We were gone most of December so our vacation fund took a hit.
- It was hard to keep track of everything while on vacation.
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Learn How to Pay Off Debt By Putting A Budget In Place
