April Budgetary Results

April Food Budget $426.57 (if you are new to this blog the post in which I worked out this formula is here)
minus March overage of $30.30 = April Food Budget 396.27

Actual $396.72 - Success - only over by .45 cents!

It took me three months but I made up January's huge overage and am back on track. This method of carrying forward and reducing current month's food budget by previous months overages certainly keeps the budget on course. It also allows me to blow the budget near end of month if I happen upon a great sale, knowing that it will only reduce next months budget.

Coupons used $9.50 - one of the lowest months yet. I am almost at 95% scratch cooking so only using coupons on mostly non-food items. I found a great sale on pork loin mid month so with a little effort chopping up pork chops - the freezer is well stocked going into May.

Non-food items: all over the counter medications, soaps, razors, garbage bags etc: $72.19 of the budget. I would like to reduce this further and believe I will be able to when I can again stockpile after we move ourselves to Vancouver Island.

Meat: $99.11. I continue to buy family packs and break them down into family size meals. We had the older boys over a few times for dinner - and the younger two kids seem to have hollow legs at ages 14 and 16. I swear we went through six litres of milk the last time my 16 year old stepson was over for the weekend.

Annual Clothing Budget $200
April spent $9.99 on a shirt and a tank top at Goodwill (see previous post)
= $190.01 for rest of 2012

Annual Hair Budget $400
April spent $140.20 on a cut, professional colour (lighten not darken) and professional hair product
= $192.20 for rest of 2012

We also sold our truck $5500 which was reduced from original asking price due to a wheel bearing that was discovered during the purchasers mechanical inspection - he still bought it - thank goodness!

Also unloaded this week: sold 2 kids bikes $40, gave away a tube tv, one box and one bag to goodwill and recycled an old cell phone as part of a women's shelter drive (they recondition them and give them to women in crisis).
Total in stuff sold in downsize: $7910.

I have just over 20 days of work left and will be making the drive to move to Vancouver Island the first week of June to our new pad at Comox. Hubby will come as soon as we can unload the Alberta house - we did a further price reduction this week and are resigned to losing somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000 on this home from our purchase price. Fortunately, the home is paid for in full - and we made over $100,000 in equity on the sale of our last home so everything evens out in the end. Lesson learned is try not to tie so much of your equity up in your home. Our new home in Comox is smaller, less expensive on taxes and utilities and is 54% of the cost of our home we are trying to sell in Alberta. The difference in equity will be put to work making our life financially independent and hopefully a little less stressful.

Saturday was the 9th Anniversary of the weekend I met Hubby(married 6.5 years) - we celebrated by using a giftcard that we had received at Christmas and went to the Keg for a wonderful dinner of Steak and Seafood. It was one of the few good meals out we have had in the past year - excellent service and food. Afterwards we went for a walk around the pond and spotted:

Muskrats(look like mini-beavers) and Grebes (similar a duck)

It is baby making season on the pond so stay tuned for photos of tiny furry and feathered creatures as all seem to be pairing up!