May 2016 Budget Review

I’m continuing the low spending trend far into 2016, this is now the fifth month in a row that I’ve been under budget. I had a few unexpected expenses this month, but the low spending across the majority of categories countered that once again. In fact, the only category that I was above my budgeted amount was the health care category. And the unexpected expenses were the cheap part of the category! I’m expecting the below budget trend to reverse next month after going on vacation and contributing a larger amount to my Roth IRA, but it was a nice run to start the year off. It’s a weird feeling to not be devoting the majority of my paycheck towards my student loan, all of a sudden I’ve dropped a huge spending category from my budget.

Here is the actual budge for May:

I received a ‘market adjustment’ raise back in April which took effect in May, giving me a significant increase in monthly income. That was a welcome surprise as my standard raise this year was nothing to write home about! I did not have to make a car insurance payment this month, so I was able to save money there as well as not having any car maintenance in May.

My cell phone plan continues to come through Republic, though my 2013 Moto X is starting to finally show signs of wear. I might try to replace the battery before buying another phone. I’ve been reading that Android 6.0 ‘Marshmallow’ introduced a ton of battery savings, but unfortunately my phone won’t be receiving that update! My gas spending was low again, offset by the prices still being lower than last year and still using the gift cards I had purchased.

I went out to lunch a few times but was still under my budgeted $50 for that category, which also held for the entertainment category. The expenses for entertainment this month was a ticket to visit a zoo and another for a concert. The travel expenses all came from having to pay tolls.

Unfortunately I also got really sick last month, still not sure if it was from a cold or allergies but I was coughing too much to even fall asleep. I went to the doctor and got a prescription for a stronger cough medicine and an antibiotic. I was also running out of contacts, so I went to the eye doctor for an appointment and also bought new contacts. The contacts were the bulk of the spending in my healthcare category!

Here are the other budget items I’ve been tracking:

I contributed $2100 towards my Roth IRA, so I’m about halfway to hitting my 2016 contribution limit. My checking account went up by a larger amount due to how pay periods/budgeting falls from the end of April and the larger surplus that I had again in May. My car loan was just another standard payment, and that loan is now 20% paid off from the original amount which was a nice little milestone to hit.

If you add all the budgets up from the past five month, I’m looking at a surplus of around $2500 over the past few months. I’ll be making a dent in that next month with two camping trips and a concert, plus another contribution to my Roth IRA. You can see that between my emergency and checking account I have over the $15,000 combined, so that is too much money that isn’t working for me!

I plan on countering that with a larger contribution to my IRA next month, and I’ve also increased my 401k contribution to 10% of my salary to take advantage of those tax savings. I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing once my Roth IRA has been maxed out though, as that will leave a lot of extra money floating around in my budget. I could pay off my car loan, start a taxable investing account, or increase my 401k contributions even further. Anyone else have any other ideas?

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