June

Our average house credit card bill, which includes groceries, gas, cable/internet/phone, prescriptions, cell phones and anything else that isn't personal spending, usually runs $800-1200 a month. I'd like to shrink that number, but with our income I'm comfortable with that range.

June, well June blew things out of the water. In a single day we put $1,964.61 on the card. This included what my insurance didn't pick up from a doctors visit, wheels for Gameboy's car, my wedding dress, and half of our wedding bands. That's also the day we put the offer on the house, writing a $1,500 earnest money check. The amount I paid the doctor (and will eventually be reimbursed through the FSA) kinda shocked me. The tires were unexpected but something damaged two and they looked ready for a blowout. The wedding stuff was expected, but if I'm honest not really planned for financially.

I'm going to put off looking at eating out on my personal card. I know I at least doubled (probably more like quadrupled) my spending goal on eating out. The 8 days I had jury duty I at lunch out every day and breakfast at least 4 days.

On the plus side we were able to cover everything without dipping into savings or the e fund. Groceries were also significantly below my goal of $150, thanks in large part to some unexpected gift cards. I ended up spending 106.13 on the card and $3o-40 in gift cards on groceries. While Gameboy was in training he got Target $5-15 gift cards as prizes which helped last month and earlier this month. The bad news is I do most of my spending analysis from my credit card (I probably spend $20/mth in cash) so I don't know exactly how much I spent on groceries.

Another plus was the unexpected windfall that brought the e fund to 70% or our most recent goal. With the new house I'm happy to have a cushion to fall back on. The auto-debits for my Roth also continued, so that account grew.

The one sentence version of all that: We spent way more than usual, didn't save much, but were also able to pay everything off without dipping into the e fund. I'd love to say that for July we're back on track, but I'd just be lying to you ;)