November 2008 Spending Report
As you can see, November was a pretty ordinary month for us. We were able to hit our savings goal of 40% to stay on track for our down payment and Black Friday didn’t affect us too bad 
. Here are a few of the highlights.
Miscellaneous
Normally we try and keep our misc category to a minimum. That way we are able to better track exactly where each dollar is going instead of throwing any random/odd charge into misc. So if we need to make an adjustment it will be easier to spot our problematic areas. Our goal has been too keep the miscellaneous expenses under 5% of our income, but as you can see this month we were 7%+. In looking back at why this happened I think a lot of it was because of Black Friday. We were searching for Christmas gifts for friends and family and ran across a couple deals we couldn’t resist. Isn’t that how it always happens? If you go out on Black Friday, you’re bound to bust the budget. When all the dust had settled and we had returned what we really didn’t need, we still ended up a little over budget so we made some adjustments to other categories to compensate for the over spending. Hopefully now, the majority of our Christmas shopping is behind us.
Savings
Once again, we feel like we should just be counting our blessings. We were able to keep our savings goal of 40%+. Although we aren’t able to put 100% of this 40%+ towards the down payment of a home (part of it is 401(k) & HSA savings), about 25% of it goes towards our down payment fund. We are now more than half way there and should be able to reach our goal a month faster than we had previously projected.
Gas
Gas wasn’t a huge part of our budget, but that is a good thing. I think one of the positive aspects of the downturn of the financial markets has been the fact that gas prices have been dropping just as fast. Just last night I was able to fill my tank up for $1.42 a gallon. That is more than half of what it cost less than five months ago. It has eased the stress on our budget which has been a huge blessing during this holiday season.
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