For the month of November, I wanted to see how things would go if I didn’t follow a strict budget. I’m now realizing that I probably should have waited until December because I did quite a bit of shopping. My net worth did increase though. The markets performed decently and, as usual, I contributed a sizable amount to my retirement accounts. 

Liquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$1,546	$1,528	($18)
Emergency Fund	$5,411	$5,423	+$12
Savings Goals	$1,409	$585	($824)
Brokerage Accts	$1,297	$1,273	($58)
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Savings Bonds	$1,407	$1,409	+$2
Home Equity	$18,688	$19,250	+$562
401K	$38.580	$40,996	+$2,416
Roth IRA	$23,789	$24,638	+$849
Liabilities	Start	End	$ Change
Loans	($12,235)	($11,429)	+$806
Net Worth	$79,893	$83,639	+$3,746
% Change	+4.7%

My liquid assets decreased quite a bit due to my purchases.  I also have ~$500 in credit card debt that is carrying over into December. It’s been a while since I’ve had to carry over credit card debt into the next month and I’m not proud about that.  Using reverse engineering I can back out my spending and compare it to a typical month:

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
(1) Bills & Utilities	$175	$146	$10 under
(2) Food	$300	$319	$90 under
(3) Medical	$-	$92	$-
(4) Everything Else	$300	$1,170	$708 over
Total (1+2+4)	$775	$1,635	$860 over

I went way over my “Everything Else” budget. This is where my miscellaneous spending went:

• New TV – $635
• Christmas Gifts – $125 (With ~$175 left to go)
• Home Decor – $100
• Snow boots – $45

Thankfully the overages were anticipated. I didn’t actually stray too far from my budget, I knew these expenses were coming and so I did establish sinking funds for them (note how my “Savings Goals” category decreased in my net worth). But it was hard for me to gauge whether or not I was going overboard since I made so many extra purchases. It sure felt like I was going overboard, but turns out I did not.

Next Month

Last month I mentioned November was a 3 paycheck month. Turns out that the third check hasn’t actually processed it will be reflected in my December post. That’s why I have so much credit carrying over into December. I’m not going to be doing too much with the third paycheck due to impending medical bills and a loan payment to my parents.  After December I’m going to tweak my budget a bit to try and save more in 2019. Until next time!