July 2006 Results
Campground Fees $712.95 ($23.00 per day) - Budget $750.00
We stayed under our budget in this category, but it was the most we have spent on campground fees in a month since we have been on the road. That's the problem with staying in state parks, which we prefer, where we are not eligible for any of the few discounts offered. :)
RV Clubs $0.00 - Budget $0.00
RV Insurance $0.00 - Budget $0.00
Propane $10.00 - Budget $0.00
Purchase of 4-pack of small grill cylinders for cooking.
Cell Phones $81.09 - Budget $81.00
Satellite Internet $0.00 - Budget $0.00
RV Taxes/Registration $0.00 - Budget $0.00
Satellite TV $67.95 - Budget $0.00
Had budgeted for lump sum annual payment in March, but decided to go with monthly automatic payments instead.
RV Maintenance $0.00 - Budget $50.00
Diesel $399.80 - Budget $300.00
Ouch! We towed the rig 542 miles. We drove the truck by itself another 1,063 miles (lots of appointments and driving back and forth from Taylorsville to Louisville when we were in the area - that's at least a 50 mile round trip each time and was over 700 miles for the month). So we drove a total of 1,605 miles in July - about 600 miles more than we would like.
So we have driven a total of 13,189 miles in 12 months since we hit the road. That's 1,099 miles a month on average. Of the 13,189 miles, we have towed 3,977 and driven just the truck 9,212 (including 2,466 miles during the two months we stayed in the Louisville area). We had no idea we would be in Louisville for two months out of the year, and that skewed our numbers a good bit - otherwise we would have been well within our 1,000 miles per month plan.
We paid about $2.76 a gallon on average in July.
Truck Maintenance $0.00 - Budget $35.00
Truck Insurance $0.00 - Budget $0.00
Truck Taxes/Registration $0.00 - Budget $0.00
Groceries & Dining Out $582.20 ($18.78 per day) - Budget $400.00
We got a little out of hand with the dining out (more like snacking out) during the month. We were at about $180 on that and we try to keep that portion of the budget at about $100 per month. Also, eating healthier costs more. We see a correlation between miles driven and food costs - the more we move around, the more times we stop for groceries and the more we eat on the go.
Laundry, Clothing, Hair Care $104.25 - Budget $50.00
We were high in this category due to a little visit to the salon by Linda before my 25-year high school reunion. :)
Entertainment $261.60 ($8.44 per day) - Budget $200.00
My high school reunion golf outing put us over the budget on this one.
Health, Life, Etc. - Annual Health Insurance $2,025.36 - Budget $2,500.00
Okay, here's the deal. Last year we paid $2,365.80 (197.15 per month) up front for our health insurance - $4,800 family deductible with a Health Savings Account feature and we pay 20% of costs after the deductible. For this year, I budgeted for an increase to $2,500.00. The bill came in at $2,709.00 ($225.75 per month) - a 14.5% increase.
So I called my agent to discuss the effect of increasing our deductible even more. We made the decision to stay with the same company, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, but to change plans and increase the deductible. So our new plan has a $10,000 family deductible with a Health Savings Account feature, BUT we are now 100% covered rather than 80% covered once the deductible is met. And the new premium is $2,025.36 ($168.78 per month for both of us).
Since increasing the deductible is considered a "downgrade" in the insurance company's liability (we take on more of the smaller expenses), there is no underwriting or exam.
Medical & Dental Expenses - Linda Medical Check-ups & Howard Foot Care $97.00 - Budget $0.00
Miscellaneous $1,998.23 - Budget $100.00
Holy cow! That Miscellaneous category will kill you. :) It seems like we will never stop buying toys and stuff to make our lifestyle more enjoyable and safer. We can't keep this up.
We spent $1,536.00 on our new Sea Eagle FoldCat boat, $162.07 on a marine battery and battery charger for the boat, $108.32 on an air compressor, and $74.19 on a weather alert radio at Radio Shack. That would be $1,880.58 of the total Miscellaneous expenses.
Totals $6,340.43 ($204.53 per day) - Budget $4,466.00.
So we were over budget $1,874.43 for July. Hellooooo! That would be the four purchases listed above in the Miscellaneous category.
So, always looking at the bright side, we were right on target except for those things that we didn't know we would want or need when I set the budget.
But I want to make something clear. We were over budget by $4,000 for June & July combined - very ugly for someone who has been preaching "tight budget" since the beginning. That's bad for my credibility. :)
However, what hurts my credibility even more is the fact that I didn't know we had some big lump sum money coming in over the past three months. :) How can Mr. Financial not know he was going to be receiving around $35,000 in tax refunds and a final payment on the sale of his company? Guilty - I knew we would get a tax refund, but had no idea how large it would be, and I was completely surprised by the last company payment.
If not for that unexpected windfall, we would not have paid $2,000 to get our truck fixed in June and we would not have bought all the toys and gadgets all at once the last two months. But since we had it, we decided to use a small portion of the money and sock the rest away to grow and keep us on the road longer.
My point in telling you that is to prevent those that are interested from thinking that it necessarily costs that much more on the road. We are just taking advantage of an unexpected situation and spending more than we would have had that situation not occurred. We have just a couple more things that we want/need and a couple lingering medical expenses to pay, and then things will get back to "normal" on the expense side.
Now, with all that said, we are still only over my year-to-date budget by about $600 even with the spending spree the last two months. I still think we can live on the road and pay ALL expenses for $2,500 a month, $30,000 a year. I built in an extra $5,000 of cushion in our budget for 2006 so the budget is set for almost $35,000. We should still come in under that figure for the year, but we'll try to get it as close to that $30,000 figure as possible.
For a look at January - July go to Our 2006 Actual Expenses. To see our budget click on Our 2006 Budget.
On the income side, we made $667 on our various ventures. Most of that was eaten up by our RV-Dreams.com logo apparel purchase, but we still managed a profit for the month of $100.00!
Our business income & expense summary statement is now available at Our 2006 Business Financial Summary page.
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