Financial update. We did great for February. We hit all of our savings goals and paid off our May cruise vacation in full. We actually had quite a bit left over in our fuel and grocery categories and decided to just let it carry over to this month for extra cushion. The only unexpected expense were the 4 disney park tickets that we bought. 2x 5-day adult park hoppers and 2x 7-day adult park hoppers. We decided to go ahead and get them before they introduced expiring tickets. We used money from our DVC fund to cover the cost, but will be paying it back over the next 5 months from our vacation savings fund. So by July, we will have paid that money back and future vacation savings can accrue for other trips. DH and I both felt it was a smart choice since we will probably save several hundred dollars by buying these tickets now. As DVC owners, we know we will be back to Disney.
I have been playing with our budget for the rest of the year. I anticipate child care expenses starting in January, so it is important for us to think about our spending and savings over the next 10 months to be prepared for the big change in costs. I should be able to take 3 months of maternity leave, fully paid, through a combination of extended sick leave and vacation time. This will allow us to continue with our regular budget between October - January and not have to adjust for any decrease in pay. We are currently saving $500 each month towards baby expenses and so we should have a good cushion by January, even after purchasing everything we need for baby. My car will also be paid off by December. We are currently paying $700 towards it each month, so starting in January, we will shift $250 of that money towards the child care expenses and use the other $450 towards payments on DH's car loan. This would allow us to have DH's car paid off within 18 months or so from January, giving us more flexibility in terms of child care expenses for a second kid later on. And we would get the other $250 by cutting down our vacation savings fund in half each month while paying day care expenses. I am not really accounting for the fact that 1/2 of the child care expenses will come out of a dependent care FSA, since I don't know exactly what that will look like. I expect any extra money we get from the tax benefit will act as a cushion for other baby related expenses.
And I realized that we would still have another $200ish dollars left over starting next month, so DH and I have decided to put that extra money towards my Roth IRA. This will bring our retirement savings rate up to 20%, which has been our goal since we finished paying off our credit card debt last fall. I feel like things are really starting to fall into place. We are setting a good amount of money aside each month for important expenses and future savings, but are still able to have reasonable amounts of money for fun stuff, eating out and travel. This has really been due to YNAB. As a financial tool, it has been the best thing I have ever used.
We will see how the budget goes for the next few months and if necessary, we can make some adjustments later.
