Budget stuff

We don't make very much money, so we have to be cautious about how we spend it. In fact, the poverty industry in Canada would have you believe that we live below the poverty line! Poor us!

And so, we keep track of how much money we spend. We don't really have a "budget" to speak of, but we do write down everything we spend. This gives us the ability to track where our money goes, and decide if we need to make any changes.

Our grocery bills seem to stay fairly consistant. Our first year out of the house we spent an average of $383 per month on food. Our second year was $356 per month. Part of the difference is the 3 months we spent on our trip out east. We found groceries to be VERY expensive in the eastern provinces., and we averaged over $500 per month while we were there.

And our gasoline bills are high due to my current driving job, the driving trips out east, and the fuel for the motorhome. We averaged $556 per month the first year, and $351 per month the second year. Even now that we're not using the motorhome, we spend about $300 per month just using the little car.

The one category that has always seems to cost us more that we figure is "miscellaneous". This includes everything from vet bills for Whiskey to drivers licence renewals. Something comes up every month. Our goal for this year is to bring that figure down. I think we have some ability do that, although some stuff just needs to be paid.