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.