Well September was a good month! I would have to go back into the records to check and see, but it may have been a record low month for us. We only spent $515 CAD ($415 USD)!!
The main thing we were trying to do this summer was to keep our grocery budget around the $550 per month mark, and we did a lot of stocking up in May and June, sometimes buying enough of a sale item to last all summer. So if you remember, we spent a lot of money on groceries in May ($929) and June ($726).
But then it all came down to whether or not we planned well enough for September to be ultra low fr everything average out.
Note: All of these prices are in Canadian dollars. For U.S. dollar equivalent, you can subtract about 20%.
So, here's how it all broke down...
Gasoline: We spent $62.77 on fuel. Mostly for our friend Wendy's car to get us back to Moose Jaw.
Groceries: Well, it worked out pretty good. Ruth is sooo good at planning our grocery purchases efficiently. We spent only $163 during the month of September. Here's our summer grocery purchases... May $929, June $726, July $355, August $463, and September $163... averaging out to $527 per month!
Alcohol: We broke down a little bit in September and bought some wine. In fact, there was a $5.00 off coupon on a 5 litre box, so we bought one. And it wasn't even that good! Oh well. In total, we spent $81.20 on overpriced booze here in Canada.
Miscellaneous: Only our cell phone bill ($23.50), car insurance up until the point it was sold ($58.50) and the oxygen sensor that we had to put in the little blue car when the rabbits chewed the wires ($63.62). So a total of $144.63 in the miscellaneous column.
Travel: We flew from Regina to Ottawa (with stops in Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto) for only $36.23 each because of the free Air Canada coupons we had from being bumped from our flight from Toronto to Regina in late April. Total came to $72.46.
So, a total of only $515 for the month. Wow!
October will be different of course, but it's hard to say by how much. We've got the budget set at around $2,000 but it could be a lot more or a lot less. Too many variables because I'm getting some work done to the motorhome and I don't yet know the exact costs.
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Well done - that sure is a good month expense wise.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think we surprised even ourselves on that. :-)
DeleteVery good month for you, now enjoy the rest f your time here in Ontario.
ReplyDeleteYep, it was a great month which is a good thing because this month is going to be quite the opposite.
DeleteHoly cow, you guys are amazing! It goes to show when you get your bills to a minimum it really takes very little to live well
ReplyDeleteThank you Cheapchick! It really helps because we were still at the campground so we didn't really have much in the way of expenses, this month will be a different story.
DeleteNow that's cheap! You should expand your alcohol budget a bit. I know it's in reference to Canadian pricing and taxes but a glass of wine is good after a hard day's work. :)
ReplyDeleteWe will expand the alcohol budget this month because we are not working but it will still be reasonable, we hope!;-)
DeleteNo one has every heard of just ONE glass of wine! :-P