April's Unusual Spending

In an effort to curb out of control spending and to continue decreasing our total debt, I try to plan ahead each month and set aside funds for our unusual spending. Obviously, we are more successful some months than we are others.

Things we have to pay for in April are spring break, our last car registration of the year, our supplemental property taxes, and tea with friends. Overall, it doesn’t look too bad.

I am expecting some small extra monies this month to help cover some of the costs.  I worked a few extra hours in March that I will be paid out for in April. I’m using that to pay for our final car registration of the year. Paying 4 car registrations, one a month, boom, boom, boom, boom, at the beginning of the year is really a pain, but on the flip side, it’s nice to have it done and over with. The extra hours I worked should actually just cover what we need to pay! As much as I wish this money could go towards debt, I’m glad I don’t have to go further into debt in order to pay it. In the event that it’s not enough, The Husband received a raise that will go into effect with his first April paycheck. I’m sure that increase will be enough to cover the rest. Anything else left over from his raise will start to go towards debt. We are hoping for an after tax increase of about $90, which doesn’t sound like much, but over the course of the year, that’s more than $1000.

When we bought our new house 10 months ago, our property was reassessed at the new value. We received a supplemental tax bill for about $630. This was split into two payments by our county tax assessor with the final payment due on 4/30. (This was much smaller than the assessment we received on our first house, which was $1800; and a much smaller house and purchase price. Go figure.) I don’t have an actual plan to pay this yet. I’m hoping that there will be enough of a buffer in my checking account to pay for it that way. If, by its due date, there isn’t, this will be paid out of our yearly expenses account or taken from our savings.

Spring break… we are not traveling anywhere for spring break this year, but I would like to do some “stuff” with the kids on our time off. We have plans to paint The Boys bedroom which will incur some costs. We’ve already bought the paint but we need some of the stuff associated with prepping to paint: disposable paint trays, tape, paper, paint brushes, etc. Those are the only hard and fast plans we have for break. Other than that, we will just need to pay for “fun” stuff. I would like to take the kids to the movies and shopping for some spring clothes. We will probably hit up a bookstore at some pint too. Nothing too extravagant, but I want to do some fun things with them. Now to figure out where the money for this is going to come from…

Each year, I host a birthday tea with a group of friends. It increases my food budget. In order to make up for it, this year I plan to pad my food budget by about $15 each paycheck. That should be enough to keep me on budget for our groceries for the month, but we will have to wait and see. We have sandwiches, savories, scones, and sweets, but often we have a lot of the ingredients on hand and only to purchase a few. Hopefully that is the case this year too!

Overall, unusual spending for the month doesn’t look too bad so I hope we can keep it in check!