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No perfect month

February 4th, 2015 at 04:43 pm

I keep wanting to do a perfect month of tracking, to show how much money we can save (for purposes of knowing how much house we can afford, or how long I could stay home if I had a baby), but something always come up.

This month our child needs a new bed (he is really growing out of his toddler bed), of course a mattress, few sets of bedding, mattress protectors...
he dropped a glass blender and it broke so we need to buy a new one, my mom's milk frother broke, we gave her ours and now need to replace it...

4 Responses to “No perfect month”

  1. chloe Says:
    1423072562

    I think the point might be that there is no "perfect month." Stuff like that is always going to come up, so it should be part of your tracking. Because stuff like that will come up after you buy a house or while you're on maternity leave. So keep tracking!

  2. Buendia Says:
    1423095495

    Yep, I have slush funds specifically for my imperfect months (all of them!). I have been using YNAB and it's easy to track in that program. I have a fund for unexpected medical and a fund for unexpected house repairs, plus budget amounts for things like clothing, household items (like your milk frother) which roll over to the next month in order to take care of all of the imperfect budget issues... Our budget amounts are based on past reality (I agree with Chloe! Keep tracking so you know what that reality is!).

  3. scfr Says:
    1423098708

    Outsider note: For each of the purchases you are considering you used the word "need." Are they really needs? What would happen if you did not replace the milk frother? I mean, besides getting you closer to your home ownership or new baby goals?

  4. Nika Says:
    1423112290

    "What would happen if you did not replace the milk frother?"
    I would have a useless espresso machine.

    As to getting closer to home ownership, that gap cannot be breached with a delayed frother. We work very hard and increase our income, but property prices outpace it so fast no matter what we do. Small homes in my neighborhood in Bronx appreciated by over 1 mil as compared to what they cost 4-5 years ago. Manhattan apartments we looked at 5 years ago are now doubled in price. Waiting patiently until you are in a good position proved not to be the greatest strategy. If we had stretched to buy in Manhattan back than, right now we would be perfectly comfortable with that mortgage and have many hundreds of thousands of appreciated equity, instead of getting further and further from that goal.

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