Household Budget Revisited

 Awhile back when this whole debt repayment project began, I posted our average monthly household budget. Since then, of course easing into some things, I’ve been working on reducing it to free up more money for debt repayment. So after having some time to test out feasibility…

Housing Expenses	Amount	Explanation
Mortgage	$1,521	We make weekly payments (DH gets paid weekly). Status: Unchanged.
Property Tax	$442 $410	Our city has quite high property taxes. We also have a fairly large lot by city standards, back onto "ravine", and are in a desirable location. Status: Our property assessment came back AND in January our property taxes went down by $32 per month.
House Insurance	$77	Status: Same.. but working on seeing what insurance company can do to lower our monthly insurance bills.
Water Bill	$30	This bill comes quarterly so this is a monthly average. Status: Unchanged.
Electricity Bill	$125	Average Status: Stay tuned for a post on this.. changes are on the horizon.
Natural Gas (furnace, stove, hot water heater)	$125	Average Status: Same as above.
Insurance (Car Insurance, Life Insurance)	$360 $390	Status: Our new car needed more coverage than the old one, which was a difference of $30/month. We’re working on seeing what our insurance provider can do to reduce these costs.
Investments
RESPs	$75	For both kids. It is not much but if we stay with this contribution, they would each have enough money for approx. 3 years of tuition at a local university. We’re comfortable knowing we could at least help them with this. We also want them to play some role in contributing to their own education. Status: Unchanged
TFSAs	$216 $0	DH and I each have one. This money is only used for “emergencies” and is therefore not a substantial amount. Status: We stopped contributing to TFSAs and instead transfer the money to credit card repayment each week. If an emergency arises, we’ll have access to credit to cover it.
Household Expenses
Home Phone, Cable TV, Internet, Cell phone	$230 $190	Note: Includes long distance package, some specialty tv channels, and a PVR (rent-to-own - $40 more over the term than to purchase flat out). Cellphone is a  smart phone on a pretty good student plan $60/month Status: Called customer loyalty department and got them to shave off $40/month since I noticed their fees were increasing.
Cell phone	$70	Note: Cellphone is a smart phone on a pretty good student plan $60/month – yes this is under my name too... Status: Unchanged.. patiently waiting until September when the contract is up.
Groceries	$520 $400	Includes all household cleaning supplies, diapers, personal hygiene items, etc. Status: Expect a post on this soon.
Gas	$465 $400	DH travels approx. 120km round trip to work. I travel about 30 km. Status: Got a new vehicle – now spend only about $20/week in gas. Nearly half of what I was spending before.
Childcare	$600	Family member watches kids (1 f/t, 1 p/t) Status: Unchanged
Debt payments	$1,540 $1,740	Some are interest only payments… sigh… Status: TFSA redirection.
Total Monthly Budget	$6,396 $6,153	Status: So far, we’ve dropped the monthly budget by $243. Hoping that we can make it down to $5800 by the end of the year.