As I mentioned in my last post, we basically spent the first couple of months of my return to work from Maternity Leave sick. Daycare is a real bitch for that. However, aside from an aggressive stomach flu at the beginning of May (my 2nd one in 3 weeks) that ripped through our family and extended family, because oh yeah, we were actually on a mini vacation when it happened visiting my Brother’s family, we’ve been mostly healthy for the whole month! It feels really amazing. May numbers have been less amazing. However we did sell one of our vehicles in May for $8,000. As I mentioned last month, we put a $500 deposit down on a new vehicle (who knows when we’ll actually receive it) so the $8,000 will be going towards the down payment of that as well.
How did we spend our $$…
House Stuff – $2,594: This is the big one this month. This account includes anything house-related aside from Mortgage payments, and utilities. In May we paid our $1,300 home insurance bill. As the weather warms up we also tend to start spending more $$ on yard stuff and other outdoor stuff so we also bought some plants, hanging baskets, a hammock and a BBQ. The hammock from Costco was a 10/10 purchase. I absolutely love it. The BBQ was $699 pre-tax but I just happened to go online today to look for a cover for it and saw that the price dropped down to $599! It doesn’t even look like this is a sale price, it looks like they actually lowered the price. We purchased it through Home Depot so my husband contacted them and they’re refunding the $100 difference to us. I’m so glad I checked!
Daycare – $2,450: We paid for Daycare twice in May because our payment wasn’t processed in April
Food – $1,536: We spent $242 on Restaurants in May and $1,076 on Groceries. For context, groceries include household consumables as well as things like diapers, sunscreen, baby wipes etc. The remaining $200 was spent on Alcohol. Alcohol is expensive in Canada. Thankfully I hardly drink it these days so it’s mostly just for my husband and entertaining guests.
Vehicle – $1,042: May was crappy. We spent $500 on brakes and $245 on fuel. We also spent $42 on parking which is really high for us. Normally I drive my husband to work but he drove a few times in May and had to pay for parking. We also spent some $$ on some items needed to sell our 2nd car. On the flip side, we also made $8,000 this month selling our 2007 Audi. Used vehicle prices are insane right now.
Utilities – $584: I updated Utilities to include our quarterly Water & Garbage pick-up service. Yes, we unfortunately pay for water in our area. And it isn’t cheap. Our quarterly bill tends to be around $380 except for the end of Summer bill that is higher due to sprinkling. The year we moved into our house we were hit with an $800+ water bill because we didn’t realize how much sprinkling our lawn would cost. Now we basically give up and let our lawn die when temperatures increase.
Dog – $378: We pay for monthly Pet Insurance but we also bought tick medication for the remainder of the summer.
Vacation & Travels – $348: We took a short road trip to visit my brother’s family, and gifted them with the stomach flu. The costs here mostly include road-trip-fast-food, hydrating grocery items and ferry costs.
Kid Stuff – $143: Oops, I splurged and got her some clothing from the Gap. I try not to do this because clothing doesn’t last her more than a couple of months before she grows out of it but Gap tends to have ridiculous sales every once in a while so I couldn’t help myself.
Health – $126: Therapy! Unfortunately I’ve maxed out my benefits for the year. I should be able to get a few hundred more bucks out of my husband’s insurance but after that I’ll have to start paying out of my own pocket. I try to keep in mind that we should never hesitate to spend $$ on things related to physical or mental health.
Other – $1,167: The bulk of this amount in May was for clothing. Both my husband and I are lacking Summer clothes. He rarely buys himself clothing and I’m still figuring out how to dress my new body after having a child. We spent $850 in May, however some of this is still to be returned so we’ll get some of it back in June. I tend to order a bunch of clothes online and then return at least half of it because I HATE being in the mall.
FREE GROCERIES: We redeemed $120 in free groceries in May 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 earned $410.
Investments: May was our first time investing in 2023. We wanted to wait until I was back to work before we put any money away. We invested $7,500 between our RRSPs and well… we basically have nothing to show for it as our total investment balance actually went down. I hate looking at the market right now – so I tend not to. We also contribute to an RESP for our child but I don’t include that in our Investment balances.
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.
