Over Budget

Well it looks like the budget was busted again. I scrolled back in the blog to find last year's and I was over budget then too. Last year I was over budget by $350 This year is almost exactly the same. I was over by $400. Which means I spent $1400 on Christmas this year.

I know from reading many other blogs this is an atrociously high number. And in many ways it is. There were a couple surprises (read - I was not THINKING ahead).  It leaves me wondering what I will do next year.

First budget 'surprise' - a gift for my student teacher. He was with me for 4 months. He gave me a gift set and card from Tim Hortons worth $50. Unwritten rule that the teacher gives a bit more than the student so I gave him a gift card for $75 for a restaurant in the city he's from. I won't have this in my budget line next year so it shouldn't be a concern.

Second Budget 'surprise' - my new Great Nephew. He wasn't a twinkle when I made the budget in January and it's my mistake that I didn't make things work to include him within the budget. This was a big decision as he is the first of many great nephews and nieces to come. Precedence. There are four sisters in my family. Sister 1 has money. Or debt. or both. probably both. Her gifts are beyond extravagant and I am not in the same league and there is no point in trying to be. Sister 2 is the new grandmother. She fits different gift giving protocol. That left Sister 3 and I to decide how to set the precedence. We wanted the money to go the baby and it was my idea to give our niece something to start her son's Education Fund. Sister 3 was really excited about this. We gave her money in the form of a money order (with son's name on it) and wrote our note in our cards to say that we wanted the money to go to start his RESP fund. They don't have a lot of money and I think this is the most valuable gift to give that will last. Of course Sister 3 and I had to decide how much. We threw around a lot of numbers. Understood was that the baby's first Christmas would be a larger amount, with each following Christmas (or birthday) to be a smaller amount. We decided each of our gifts would be $100 and the following years it would be $50 each.  I don't buy for any of my nieces and nephews so this seems more do-able. Our niece was very touched at our generosity and said her father had also given  her money but she didn't know how to set up an RESP. Sister 3 will take care of her tutorial on that and get her started. It was a very good thing Sister 3 and I set up some rules and guidelines for ourselves as my nephew, who just got married in August, announced that he and his new bride are expecting in June. This would be Sister 1's first grandchild. I had already used my auntie intuition to determine she was pregnant at Thanksgiving. She had lost one at 6 weeks, a year or so ago, so I didn't want to say anything until she felt comfortable announcing it.

The rest of the money??? Well at work I had secret santa, I paid for a good part of my class's potluck, and I bought them all treat bags. I can't give them nothing, when many of them give me very thoughtful gifts, so it is my way of giving back. I spent about $130 ish there at work.

Tree misc. - I bought the tree from a fellow staff member's son, who has to sell them for his hockey team. I bought the big honking turkey for our gathering of 25 at mom's. That came from another of my former students who had to sell them for hockey. I bought some stamps and a bit of wrapping paper. I bought veggies and fruit to make trays for Christmas eve at my sister's. We had the offering for Christmas eve service and we had the basket we got for the adopt a family for Christmas at the Food bank.

The rest went for gifts. The boys didn't get a lot of items but the things they got cost a fair bit. They were very appreciative of what they got.

Where did the over budget money come from? you may ask? It came out of grocery money and entertainment money. No debt was incurred.

So what does that mean in terms of budget? I suspect it means that my budget is going to be $1400 for next year. I will have that money saved ahead of time, as I have done before, which means no debt.  I will watch more carefully the price on little things. I know that can save me a fortune.