Hope’s Actual Spend – August, 2024

by Hope

I posted my forecasted spend for August back in July here.

And now that we are at the end of the month, this is my report on actual spend.

Notes

I will explain the large difference in the kids’ contributions in a future post. But I anticipate receiving several hundred more dollars of that in the next week. Beauty’s car purchase came with some unplanned expenses so she needed to delay her payment.

Unplanned Expenses

There were a couple unplanned items like Princess school costs. She received far less in financial aid grants due to my increased income in 2022. So rather than have her take a loan for that, I just covered it. I am so grateful that I was in a position to do so.

We did visit a oral surgeon with the goal of getting Princess’ wisdom teeth out this fall. We’ve known this was needed for some years, but she’s not prioritized taking the time to get it done. It is now made itself a priority with the pain caused by their growth. All 4 are impacted, coming in sideways and none have broken through the gums. All of my kids have had this done except for History Buff.

Varying Utilities + Heat

My electric bill was WAY HIGHER than expected. But then again, the heat has been merciless. We are on month two of $350+ electric bill. Praying that it drop considerably in September. It’s definitely been a little bit cooler here lately.

Lower Part Time Income

You will see that my part time income was even lower than expected. The manager has been struggling with controlling labor costs so she specifically asked me to have regularly scheduled staff handle many of my typical in store duties. That was fine with me, but did result in less income.

But I was able to sell an old iPad for $300 so that helped offset that drop. I continue to identify things to sell and have a list of things that I plan to list in the next couple of weeks. It’s just taking the time to get photos and do the research on what price to list them at.

I have plans to sell my inherited collection of antique cameras and some furniture next. (The kids have all had ample opportunities to express their interest in having or inheriting anything, but other than that, I am still very much in purge, minimalist mode.)

I don’t think there was anything else unexpected here. I already wrote about how I decided to pull my savings and pay off the credit card instead.

Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.