Hot on the heels of discussing Christmas gifts, I figured I might as well do a budget roundup from 2024. I find posts of this ilk are either deeply fascinating or horrifically boring depending on the audience. You get to decide where you land!
HOW WE TRACK SPENDING
At the beginning of each month I download the transactions from our joint chequing account and our personal credit cards (one each). I record all our expenditures under the appropriate category and that same information is funnelled into a summary spreadsheet that gives running totals for each category, along with monthly averages.
HOW WE SPENT MONEY IN 2024
- Every year there always seems to be a dominant area of spending. In 2023 we bought a new-to-us (used) SUV in cash. Early in 2024, shortly after “The Car Literally Won’t Turn Off” incident, we ended up repairing and selling our owes-us-nothing-but-is-going-to-become-a-money-pit Hyundai. We spent several months living as a one-vehicle household, but quickly discovered that wasn’t ideal. In June we purchased a used car (in cash – so a significant investment upfront, but it means we now own two vehicles outright; no car payments!). This made our Auto expenses this year…quite spendy. This category also includes car insurance (on two vehicles), repairs and maintenance (tire changes, undercoating), plus the cost of gas/car washes. Cars are very expensive to own and operate. But living in a quasi-rural area, they are really a necessity.
- The other big category was House Investment. A major financial milestone in 2024 was paying off our house, and this includes some lump-sum “overpayments”.
- The pie chart does not include personal taxes or investments in anything other than the house (so saving for future education in an RESP – which is partially matched by the Canadian government – GICs, RRSPs, TFSAs, etc.)
- Since we manage our own business, phone and internet expenses are covered by our company + we get a portion of money spent on Household and House Investment back since we maintain a home office. Those rebates are not factored into this pie chart.
- We do NOT track cash. If we find $20 on the street or if I sell something at a consignment store and get a payout, we do not classify that as income. If we buy something in cash I don’t track it. If I send a child into the store to buy a bag of apples for $5.99 and I give them a $10 bill, none of that transaction will show up in our spreadsheet.
Our biggest category in 2024 was Auto at 26.2% and our smallest category was General Thrift at 0.9%.
AUTO (26.2%) | Last year auto spending was 33.5% (for reference, in 2022 it was 6.6%) so while it was a significant portion of our spending, it includes buying a second new-to-us vehicle in cash. In 2025 this should shrink back down closer to 6.6%!
HOUSEHOLD INVESTMENT (18.4%) | This includes regular mortgage payments, and any extra payments to complete the mortgage. I don’t foresee any major household investments in 2025 (costs associated with painting a room, for example, would go under Household), so this should be close to $0??
HOUSEHOLD (11.1%) | This includes things like property taxes, house insurance, general home repairs, heating and water bills, and general home purchases (furnace filters, home decor, water heater/propane tank rentals). I’m thinking of combining all insurances (home, vehicle, life) into a single category next year.
CHARITABLE (10.9%) | Various causes we support; one of the most special is helping cover school expenses and basic living costs for a boy Indy’s age in Kenya and a girl Belle’s age in Ecuador. They love communicating via letter with these children who we’ve sponsored for over 6 years now. It also includes all other giving, including a down payment for a humanitarian trip John will be taking to Rwanda later this year.
GROCERIES (7.6%) | Our grocery spending is up from 2023, and it continues to be a sobering reminder of just how fortunate we are; inflation – especially as it relates to basic human necessities like shelter, food, communications, and medical needs – has wreaked havoc for so many in 2024. What an incredible blessing to never have to prioritize food over heat, to never go hungry. The skyrocketing rates of food insecurity are heartbreaking.
TRAVEL (6.7%) | This includes: flights, meals, and entertainment on vacations (this doesn’t include any local adventures here in Nova Scotia where gas would just go under Auto and restaurants/movies/events would go under Meals and Entertainment). In 2024 we went to Barcelona (though the plane tickets were on 2023’s budget) and Portugal; this also includes the tickets for our 2025 trip to Paris which were booked in 2024.
MISC (4.5%) | This is terrible categorization. It mostly represents purchases from the Dollarstore, Walmart, and Amazon. I am too lazy to pull things apart, so this is a mix of household items, groceries, and gifts. I’m going to separate things a bit more intentionally next year.
HEALTH (4.2%) | Most medical procedures are covered free of charge by the Canadian medical system. But we don’t have private insurance, so things like eye care and dental work are only covered free for our kids. Spending this year included new glasses for John, Belle’s braces (completely out of pocket since it’s technically a cosmetic procedure, not a necessary intervention), medications, and any other health-centric expenditure.
KIDS (3.2%) | This includes haircuts, school fees, and other activities (summer camp, recreational sports leagues).
MEALS AND ENTERTAINMENT (2.0%) | This covers restaurant meals/coffee shops, movie tickets, takeout, and subscriptions (we have five: Spotify, Netflix, Disney+, TSN and John’s monthly Oura ring fee).
GIFTS (1.8%) | Self explanatory, but a significant chunk of Miscellaneous belongs in here…
LIFE INSURANCE (1.2%) | Self explanatory. I think I’ll combine all our insurances into a single category next year.
CLOTHES (1.4%) | This category is up from 0.5% last year. It includes thrifted clothes from several independent thrift stores we visit (so NOT “General Thrift” below), but it’s also where I would record any clothing or footwear we happen to buy new.
GENERAL THRIFT (0.9%) | This is the amount of money we spent at our favourite chain of thrift stores (Valu Village). This encompasses household items, gifts, and clothing. I don’t tease out specific purchases, but John will also sometimes buy electronics that he refurbishes and sells for a profit.
In case you’re interested in a side-by-side comparison.
2023
2024
Our overall spending was down quite a bit in 2024 – mostly because for several months of the year we had no mortgage payments and the used car cost quite a bit less than the used SUV we purchased in 2023.
And there you have it!
Your turn.
- Do you track your monthly or annual spending habits?
- If so, what was your biggest category in 2024? Smallest?
- Do you track cash (in/out)?
- What category would you like to see go up (e.g. more going toward travel) and what category would you like to see go down?
Header photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Discover more from The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
mbmom11
This s so interesting! Do you not use cash enough that it would not show up on the chart or affect the categories much? I don’t use cash often, but there are still places here where cash is required / preferred.
I stopped budgeting strictly years ago, but I am trying to track food expenses right now. I know things have gone up in price ( I keep a mental list of what things cost) , but I want to break it out more clearly. Many things have gone up over 50% in the past few years.
And insurance – sigh. We just added teen son to the car insurance- so that got inceased by 30%.
Congratulations on paying off the house! We did that too, though the monthly payment wasn’t much. We can use the mortgage payment funds to pay for the car insurance increase.
Elisabeth
We don’t use cash much at all. I pay the kids their allowance in cash (but I don’t track that and they are responsible for how they want to deal with their money), we occasionally buy some things second-hand in cash (say, at a yard sale), but I would almost never use cash in a “regular” store. I don’t think it would budge any category at all based on how little we use cash.
With groceries, at this point, for me it is “it costs what it costs” and “can I get this on sale.” All the sales are now much higher prices, too, but I feel like certain staple foods need to be purchased so I just put them in the cart, accepting there is literally nothing I can do at this point about inflation. But it is insane how some things (chocolate chips! olive oil!) have skyrocketed.
That’s so great you paid off your mortgage. It’s not always feasible or even the right financial strategy for many people, but I am very glad we were able to prioritize paying it off. Thankfully we have a few years before we’ll need to insure a kid. I’m terrified already!
Maria
I’m one of the “finds it super interesting “ crowd. Cars are expensive! I don’t have the time right now to do a pie chart but I 100% know that auto is the biggest expense for us too. We bought a minivan with cash in October. My in-laws moved to town and we need to be able to help transport my grandmother-in-law. We’re trying to sell our old car though because we really don’t need 2 and it would be really nice to get some of the money we spent on the van back by selling the Subaru.
Between the new van and a couple house repairs that needed to be done 2024 was an expensive year. There are two smaller house things that really do need to be done this year, but other than that I hope 2025 is less expensive! We need to rebuild our short/midterm semi-emergency fund. (That’s what I call the savings for things like car repairs that are expensive, an unexpected big house expense etc.)
Elisabeth
That makes me feel better! Having auto so high two years in a row is unusual for us, but it makes sense since each year we bought a used vehicle outright (I mean, money transfer, so not literal bills). It’s great you can go down to one vehicle.
There are lots of things we “could” do in 2025, but nothing that HAS to get done which feels like a relief after 5+ years of basically something being broken or being renovated.
Jenny
A couple things I really love here- one, you paid off your house!!! That’s huge. And you have no car payments! We’ve been in both those positions- the house we liced in before this one was paid off, and for a while we had no car payments- but right now we have a mortgage and TWO car payments, sigh.
Second, I love your attitude towards the rising cost of groceries. Instead of complaining about it, you say “we’re so lucky to be able to afford this.” We ARE lucky. No matter how expensive groceries are, we still go to the store and buy just about anything we want. A lot of people aren’t in that position.
Elisabeth
Jenny, it is so huge and we are so fortunate. First, that John works in such a well-compensated field, second that we live in an area that is generally relatively affordable, and third that we’re content with “lesser” homes and “used” vehicles! That trifecta has been a real blessing.
To be honest, I can’t even imagine not being able to buy food. How are we living in 2025 and people are still going hungry? Growing up my parents has very little money, but the one thing we always had was hearty food. I’ve never known a day of food want in my life, never had to skip a meal because there wasn’t something to eat, and isn’t it sobering to think that the majority of people on this planet can’t relate to that. It’s just…awful.
Nicole MacPherson
Congrats on paying off your house! Yay!!!
We do track expenses and it’s weird now that Rob is retired, because now the income comes in different ways. Our travel funds come from the travel budget that we had set aside when he was working, for example. Personally my largest expenses are groceries! But you know how that goes.
Elisabeth
Groceries are…a lot. We don’t eat organic, we shop sales, and we have pretty basic tastes, so I think that helps keep our grocery bill fairly reasonable but even still. It is rather shocking to buy 2-3 things and end up with an $80 bill. Olive oil! Flour!
Birchie
Good stuff! I didn’t track spending until two years ago, which is of course when I started thinking about leaving my job. I use Empower Personal Capital, which is free and does a pretty good job, and I’ve been known to extract the data and run it through a spreadsheet to get more detail. This is something of a one time project, since I just needed to get a general idea of my spending to check that my savings and investments will be able to cover my expenses once I stop working. It’s also helped me to confirm that yes it’s OK to spend money for fun.
Elisabeth
I can’t wait to follow along as you transition out of your career – both logistically and financially. And I know you have big plans to do some fun things with those savings 🙂
Joy
I find this super interesting and pie charts are incredibly satisfying! I really love how you break it down. I don’t track specifically but I know our grocery costs have risen the past two years especially – prices are discouragingly high. We have also seen an increase in clothing expenses the past two years as our children have steadily grown out of hand-me-down territory and also have more personal preferences for their appearance. I just donated a tall stack of Abby’s old jeans that the younger girls won’t wear – dark wash skinny jeans are not the thing anymore. I get it but it still sort of pains me.
I guess when they were very small children we spent almost zero on this category because of hand-me-downs, so I will try to factor that in in my mind.
Congratulations on the mortgage pay-off – what a big accomplishment!
Elisabeth
We are a bit freer with our spending now that we have more financial freedom BUT, there are still some things I simply can’t stomach at the store. The prices are just too unbelievable. Our grocery spending has more than doubled since we had two toddlers at home.
Agreed that the hand-me-down phase is largely behind us. Thankfully Belle really likes to shop at thrift stores, so almost all our clothes (fancy Nikes aside) are second-hand, but even still…it adds up!
Colleen Martin
Paying off the house is such a huge accomplishment, especially when you’ve been putting extra money into the mortgage, so big congrats! We are planning on having ours paid off for Phil’s 45th birthday this year and I’m very excited to start saving those monthly payments, although with two in college and one in med school plus Catholic elementary school tuitions, I don’t think as much will get saved as I would hope. I have to admit that I’m a wee bit jealous of the healthcare in Canada because we pay over $15,000 a year for our family plan, which does not include copays for every visit – blech!
mbmom11
Do you have HSA? Money can be taken out pretax for medical expenses. It’s eye opening how $1000 taken off the gross only lowers the net by $750 or so. This is good if you only take the standard deduction and not itemize.
Congrats on getting close to paying off the house- that will be a great birthday present!
Elisabeth
How exciting!!! You’re so close to the big moment and I’m sure that will feel monumental.
The Canadian healthcare system has a lot (A LOT) of flaws, but I firmly believe in equal access to care and so despite the flaws, I feel tremendously fortunate to live in a country where basic medical support is free of charge. I remember reading a blog once about a mom in the US who didn’t have great insurance and she was debating about taking her daughter (with a minor, but worrying, fever) to the ER. She knew it was going to cost over $1,000 for the visit. While we have horrible wait times in Canada, I am so glad we can walk into any hospital and get medical care without spending a penny (other than our tax dollars, of course).
NGS
Woot! Woot! Yay for paying off your house. That’s so amazing! We still have fifteen years on our mortgage, but I think we can probably pay it off in ten. That still sounds like a lot of time when I write it out like that.
I should get my husband to track his expenses. I wonder if he would cooperate so I could get a better view of our overall expenses? It sort of violates a lot of our non-spoken agreements about financial independence within our relationship, though. Oh, well. I’ll post my expenses next week, but it will not be our entire household.
Elisabeth
I’m curious if you sit down and have discussions about how much money you have jointly? For example, what would happen if Dr. BB didn’t have enough money available for a mortgage payment. Would that automatically fall to you. (Not a great hypothetical, I’m just genuinely curious since we share an account, but I do know some other people that keep their finances separate.)