We’re definitely in Summer mode now (as you’ll see from our alcohol spend). July was fairly eventful. We made two road trips to the City to see family and we bought a new car. I’ll post about that later. We made a decent-sized down payment on the car but I did not include that in our monthly expenses as it would just skew the data too much. However the purchase still came with other expenses.

How did we spend our $$...

Vehicle – $3,743: We spent more than usual on fuel this month due to a couple of road trips ($361) but we also spent $3,325 on insurance. Half of that was for our regular annual insurance for the year and the other half was for new car replacement insurance. I think I have buyer’s remorse for that one. The husband called me from the dealership to ask my opinion. I’d never heard of this insurance but you pay for it upfront and it lasts 5 years. I honestly don’t know the details and I don’t blame him for purchasing it. I just don’t know that it was the right choice. Insurance is always a tricky one.

Rental Condo – $3,055: This one is also higher than usual thanks to $900 worth of property taxes this month.

Mortgage: $2,268: This amount includes both principal and interest. We are on an accelerated biweekly payment plan.

Food – $2,247: This is higher than usual. Our Food category includes Groceries, Restaurants, Coffee Shops and Alcohol. Alcohol was $404 this month which is not the norm. We hosted a BBQ for 5 families in our neighbourhood. We bought a bunch of beer and wine and some mixed drinks and of course everyone brought their own so no one even touched it. On the bright side that means we are pretty must set for alcohol for the rest of the Summer. We also made TWO Costco trips in July because of the BBQ and spent $365 on restaurants.

House Stuff – $1,734: This category includes anything house-related aside from mortgage payments and utilities. The bulk of this ($1,267) was to have our air conditioner fixed – which we didn’t know was broken. We had a company come out to do maintenance and they are certain there is a leak. The previous owners just had a leak fixed right before we purchased it (we saw the invoice). However it wasn’t done right or we have a new leak. Super frustrating but once it was fixed it was CLEAR it wasn’t working correctly because the air was SO much cooler immediately after he fixed it. The rest of the spend was on patio cushions, sprinkler head, dishes and a fireplace switch.

Daycare – $1,250: We pay for one of the most expensive daycare options in our city because it was the only one we could get into. We are very very fortunate to be able to afford this. However it still sucks. I think I need to do a post on Daycare costs soon.

Kid Stuff – $242: Last month we bought a baby gate, this month we had to buy an adapter to install said baby gate. We also bought a potty (yet to be used), some kids water bottles and boogie wipes. If you have a child and you are not familiar with Boogie Wipes you’re missing out. Though they’re $$$$

Dog – $241: Dog Food & Insurance. Yes we pay for dog insurance. No, I don’t know if we should be. However if we have a $10,000 decision to make with our dog one day. I don’t want to have to think twice.

Utilities – $169: We pay for Gas (monthly), Electricity (bi-monthly), and Water (quarterly). In July electricity cost us $128 and gas cost us $41

Other – $865: Other is mostly made up of clothing purchases… again… oops. I’m returning a bunch of it so August might be negative. I hope.

FREE GROCERIES: We redeemed $30 in free groceries in July thanks to our PC credit card. This is a free credit card and we pay off the balance in full each month. YTD we’ve redeemed $500.

Investments: In July we invested $3,385 into our RRSPs. We also contribute to an RESP for our child but I don’t include that in our Investment balances.

What Else? We also spent $30,000 CAD as a down payment on a brand new car. I won’t go into details here because I’ll do a separate post but that is why our Retirement Assets took such a dip as seen below.

Our Retirement Assets number is calculated as: Cash + Condo Value + Investments – Mortgages – Credit Card Balance. I do not take into consideration the value of, or any equity in our home. It went down in July due to the large down payment we made on our car.