week 16: where did our money go?
we finally got a glimpse of spring
Where did our money go? is a weekly recap of our spending - the needs, the wants, and everything in between. I’ll share links to my favorite finds, which may earn me an affiliate commission. But I’m all about transparency so I’ll only share what I believe is truly worth spending money on!
I track all of our spending in my budget template that you can find here.
Anyone else ready for some nicer weather? We had a few high 70 days but now we’re back in the 50s/60s. Either way… I know we’re so close to consistently warmer weather. Our yard is starting to get green and the flowers are starting to bloom. We planted some hydrangeas last year that I’m excited to see this year for the first time!
Happy Easter! We celebrated at my in-laws house. I couldn’t handle two weekends hosting in a row so my mother-in-law was so nice to take over the day this year. My husband did run out to the grocery store to pick up dessert because I totally forgot to go… he ended up spending $54.88 on a few things.
One thing that stressed me out was keeping our house clean. We both work full time jobs and have little kids. I wanted to enjoy my time with family but also was constantly thinking about everything I needed to do. I finally caved and we got a housecleaner! She has been amazing and we pay her $140 every other week.
We finally did a full grocery shopping trip and spent $107.56 at Aldi. Between my daughter’s birthday and Easter, we hadn’t shopped in quite a while and were running out of the basics.
Both of my kids go to daycare full time - it costs $724.50 weekly and it gets paid on Tuesdays. Yes.. it’s a lot. No… it doesn’t make sense for either of us to stay home.
Our electric bill got taken out today and shockingly… it was only $94.20! I’m not looking forward to the increase during the summer. Our AC unit is from the 1960s and still works! But we’re really hoping to get one more year at least out of it.
Two HVAC companies have tried to convince us to get a new AC unit because ours is so old. Every year.. they tell us how the new ones are so much more efficient and how we’ll save so much on our electric bill. But they are expensive AF so… we’re going to keep ours until it dies.
We did a little shopping today too. My husband stopped at Dollar Tree and bought some stuff for $4.05. And then I placed an $86.63 Amazon order for this peel and stick tile for our bathroom and these door stoppers for our bedroom door. Once we put in this sliding barn door, we won’t have any sort of door stopper and you know - my toddler will come running into the room and slamming the door open.
My husband made a stop at 7-Eleven and spent $10.02. I don’t really question his little spending like this since we’re typically under budget.
Have you ever used Rakuten? I love using it for purchases that I was already going to make. I shopped at Old Navy and Target today which both get cash back using Rakuten. Here’s my referral link if you’re interested!
I’ve been eyeing these shoes at Old Navy and I looked today to see that they were on clearance! But… I could only get them shipped. And if there’s one thing you should know about me - I hate paying for shipping. So I got a few shirts for myself and a nice button down shirt for my son in order to get free shipping. I spent $60.39.
My Target purchase all started with needing more dish soap (my favorite!) but the one I like would only ship with orders over $35 and they didn’t sell this in store. I was also super close to meeting the spend to get the Target Circle 360 membership for free! I ended up getting this diaper cream for my daughter, a snack and this new deodorant to try. For everything, I spent $37.91.
My husband filled up his gas tank at Costco for $48.45 and made a stop at Dollar Tree for $2.69. Then, I paid 2 medical bills. One was $124.69 for my son’s most recent ENT visit and the other was $125. This one was a payment plan with 0% interest for a bunch of medical bills we had last year.
Saturday was just a perfect day for us. We started the morning off with my son’s gymnastics class before heading to our local Tulip Festival with my in-laws! They were so generous and paid for our admission tickets. There was so much to do - tulip fields, lots of photo opportunities, food, playgrounds, obstacle courses, slides… my toddler was go, go, go the entire time! He had so much fun. We did end up getting him a toy at the end for $8.12 and he’s been playing with it nonstop since.
But since my in-laws got us into the Tulip Festival, we picked up lunch afterwards. We all went to Portillo’s and spent $69.69.
In total, we spent $1,698.78.
See you next week!
ps - need anything from amazon this week? Letting my affiliate link open in your app before checking out supports me at no cost to you! Thank you so much for considering!