Confession. We didn’t actually budget for the holidays this past year 😬. Should we have? Maybe. But after nearly a decade of actively tracking our finances, we’ve developed pretty solid instincts about our spending. Having ample savings also plays a huge role in our lack of a holiday budget.

February was a month of logistical headaches. We dealt with fraudulent charges on our main credit card early in the month. Thankfully it was resolved quickly, but the replacement card got caught in the major winter storm that hit in late January/early February, so it arrived weeks late (with the second replacement card I had to order as a replacement for the replacement 🙃).

In my spreadsheet budgeting days, I always wanted to add our food spending up at the end of the year, but it required more effort than I wanted to put in (very doable, just never happened). Using Monarch has made this much easier, a couple clicks and I had exactly what I needed.

We spent about $200 more than we intended to in our Food & Dining Out budget category in January. A big winter storm hit at the end of the month and we stocked up on non-perishable food and water in case our power went out or our pipes froze.

I wrapped up November thinking our gift spending would slow down, and maybe even drop back down to pre-holiday levels, because we were done buying gifts for the kids… No such luck.

I started using sinking funds long before I knew what a “sinking fund” was. I just thought of it as “setting money aside so Future Jill doesn’t get stressed out.” It wasn’t until I worked for Jamila Souffrant that I heard the actual term. She was explaining sinking funds and I remember thinking, Nope, never heard of that. And then as she kept talking I thought, Ohhh… I’m already doing that. I just didn’t know it had a name.

Budget wise, November was calm. After October’s surprise brake repair bill, it felt nice to have a month with no big, unexpected expenses. We also had some extra income come in through Mike’s work, which helped us rebuild our checking account buffer and cover some areas where we went over budget this month.

Unless you’re planning to sell everything you own, moving across the country isn’t cheap. And even if you did sell it all, you’d still spend money on transportation and new belongings when you arrived at your destination. Any way you slice it, you’re inevitably going to have some move related expenses.

October kicked off with a fun surprise: a ~$1,900 car bill for brake repairs. Starting off the month with a big unexpected expense seemed to open the floodgates for everything else, we found ourselves thinking, “Well, we’re already over budget… what’s a little more?”

In September 2025 we spent a long weekend in Carolina Beach, North Carolina (about a 4-hour drive from home) celebrating good friends who are getting married next spring. They rented a giant beach house and invited several families to join (and even covered meals). Incredibly generous!

September was a full month. It kicked off with an impromptu visit from one of my high school friends and her family. They stayed two nights, we ate great food, went on a beautiful hike, checked out a new brewery, and cut cardboard with a saw (don’t ask!).

This week was pretty run-of-the-mill for us. The kids had a full week of school, five full days for E and three half days for H. Mike worked his usual schedule, and I fit in my work during H’s preschool hours, early evenings, and a bit on the weekend.

On average, our family spends about $1,330 a month on groceries (22% of our overall budget), which falls right in between the moderate-cost and liberal food plan amounts that the USDA publishes.

I used to be a diehard spreadsheet person. For years I couldn’t fathom paying money for a budgeting tool. And honestly, I still love a good spreadsheet…

When it comes to budgeting, we think of it more as a guide than a rulebook. It’s a suggestion, not something set in stone. Some months we stick to the numbers pretty closely, other months life happens and we adjust.

Over the years, we’ve gone through lots of iterations of our budget. Here’s a peek at what we’re currently tracking.

Budgeting didn’t formally enter the picture for our family until 2016. That was the year E was born, and the year I started my faculty job.