January $$

Money can't buy you happiness, but it will certainly get you a better class of memories.
- Ronald Reagan 

Here's how we did in January:

This was an interesting month because we spent 2 weeks in Orlando going to Disney World and Universal Studios. Both are not cheap, but we stayed pretty close to budget - here's how.

First the numbers:

Rent:
$850 - 2 weeks in Panama City Beach condo
$914 - 2 weeks in 2 bedroom timeshare condo Orlando, FL
$400 - last 5 days of the months in Savannah, GA Airbnb house

Total: $2164
$164 over

All Life Expenses:
Total: $1290
$290 over

All Food Expenses:
Total: $1304
$304 over

All Health Expenses:
Total: $717
$33 under

Grand total: $5475
$725 over


We spent 8 days at Disney World and 1 day at Universal Studios. In hindsight, this was too much for us. But here's how we fit all of that into that $5475.

First, was cost of accommodations. The $914 we spend on our 2 weeks in Orlando was way below what it would have cost us to stay in a hotel near or on Disney property. Not as convenient, but so much cheaper.

Tickets for 8 days at DW were $2150. But you'll notice we only spend $1290 on life expenses. Thanks to a great 2% cash back credit card we cashed out $1500 rewards dollars towards tickets. Then, Shanae got the 2 park hopper pass for all of us for Universal Studios from here Perfectly Posh reward points. Those tickets alone saved us $175 each - $875 for all 5 of us that day! 

For food we carried a small compressible backpack with simple lunch items into the parks each day. We ask for free waters with our lunch so we didn't have to carry any water. As soon as we finished each lunch a few hours into the day the backpack would compress down small enough to fit into a pocket so we didn't have to carry anything the rest of the day. We then could eat dinner in the park without concern for spending too much on food. And we didn't have to haul a bunch of stuff around with us all day.

At the end of the month we sat down with our kids and talked about the budget and what they would do. We put out fake money and said here's what you have - how would you spend it based on our spending over the past few months? Based on that we've all decided we need to modify our budget a bit. 

Here's what our spending targets are for Feb:
Rent: $2000
Life Expenses: $1200
Food Expenses: $1100
Health Expenses: $750
Total: $5050