Ah, I can’t believe it’s already mid-June. I don’t think I’ve ever been this late in doing my monthly updates. May was just a non-stop busy month, starting with closing on my home, buying appliances, and starting with the move-in process. 

Then I went on my pre-planned week-long vacation at the end of May which was a much needed break.

The day I came back to work, I was met with the news I’d been wanting, which is a transition full time into the role I was helping as a side project for the longest time. I love the manager and am happy to be transitioning into her team but this also means extra responsibility. 

Gone are the times I would be able to sneak in some time during work to do some house duties. It’s all-out craziness now with barely any time even for lunch.

This seems to be the norm with the role though. Busy months followed by chill months so I am hoping to just let this wave pass.

Adding to the delay in putting my updates is that doing my budget this month was rough. This was definitely not a good month to have my Mint account out of sync. 

I opened a new credit card after I closed on the home last month to take advantage of the sign up bonus. At the same time another card had been breached and I had to be assigned a new card. 

In the midst of all this, I forgot to resync the new cards to Mint.

The fact that I was making a lot of purchases for the home and went on my vacation this month certainly only made manually looking at these expenses to complete my budget this month harder. I guess you don’t really appreciate things till they’re gone because I only now realized how valuable Mint is in making my budget.

May Budget

I redesigned my budget starting this month to account for mortgage and utilities bills. This is a transitory month as most of my bills including my mortgage don’t start getting billed until June so my current budget is just an estimate that may change next month.

Fixed Spending

A big change to my budget is that I’ve removed ‘Rent’ and  ‘Loan to Parents’ lines. This is because my mom will actually be living with me for the time being (likely for a year). 

We haven’t gone into the details of what that means. I lived rent free for a year as my parents were generous enough to let me buff up my savings to buy my home so at the very least I will repay it by letting my mom continue living with me rent free for the year.

As for the loan, I plan to pay them in big chunks rather than as a monthly budget item which I started to do this month so I’ve removed it as a monthly item.

While it is not shown in my budget, it is still accounted for in my net worth calculation as a liability so my net worth calculation should remain accurate.

Variable Spending

Gas – Drove out of town to see Stars on Ice which cost quite a bit in gas.

Entertainment/dining out – $25 for the parking of the previously mentioned show. I had already bought the ticket a couple months back, reflected in that month’s budget hence why only the parking is on this month’s budget.

I went on a weeklong vacation this month which meant eating out (really good food!) every day. So worth it.

Groceries – Not sure why I went over-budget this month as I was actually out of town for a week. It must be some home goods purchases I made at the grocery store clumped into my grocery bill.

Alternatively, it is likely inflation doing its thing as I (and probably every one else in the country) have noticed increased prices in everything. This means I will probably need to raise my grocery budget to $200/month starting next month.

Shopping – Amazon shopping for home goods.

Miscellaneous

Chase Annual Fee – I decided to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card which is my first card ever with an annual fee.The sign-up bonus, estimated to be around $1000 worth of points makes the $95 worth it in my opinion.

Home Improvement – A lot of spending this month to get some necessities (fridge and washer/dryer being the biggest spending) into the house. The upside of my mom moving in with me is that I actually will be able to take most of the furniture into my home. So hopefully this month’s home spending covers the majority of the big-ticket items already.

Travel – Not shown as I paid for the hotels I booked last month and the majority of the meals we ate during our trip so I got a lot of money back this month after my friends paid their share back to me. In total I spent ~$2,600 for this trip including hotel, car, meals, and activities.

Savings

No savings this month as I actually dipped into it to purchase home goods.

Student Debt

Student debt paid this month: $880.77

Student debt remaining: $32,495.75

I’m closing in on getting under $30k which is exciting but unfortunately based on my minimum payments, I won’t actually get there for another 3 months. 

Goals for Next Month

I’m hoping to finish the move by the end of June. We are planning to rent out my mom’s place once it’s cleared out so hopefully we can start putting it on the market in July.