Happy New Year! It’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog. But, 2023 is done and I wouldn’t miss a budget review for anything.
It’s been a busy (and expensive) end to the year. We got married, attended several other weddings, and continued to work on repairing and updating our house.
Here’s the goals that I set for myself in July:
- Control spending as much as possible during this period of high expenses to prevent another budget blowout.
- Make sure to max out my Roth IRA before the end of the year.
- Ratchet my 401k contributions back up now that I have rebuilt my emergency fund, in preparation for maxing it out next year.
I’m glad to say that I hit my savings goals, my Roth IRA is maxed for the year and a couple paychecks ago I increased my 401k contributions to a level that will allow me to max it out in 2024.
My budget, however, was another matter:

A budget blowout, and an income extravaganza? Our wedding really threw off my budget in a way that I couldn’t predict. I was estimating it would cost us each about $3k net out of pocket, but we ended up making far more than we spent back in gifts.
Clearly, home ownership is expensive, and while buying a fixer upper allowed us to save a lot on the purchase price and monthly mortgage, I’ve been paying an average of $565 per month for hardware supplies, tools, and other maintenance in addition to the mortgage PITI.
In the alcohol and bars category, I spent about $1400 building a custom kegerator so I can carbonate my homebrewed beer and make my own seltzer. I’ve (halfway jokingly) calculated that it will pay for itself if I can drink about 400 gallons of seltzer water.
I also had to get new tires for my car, but beyond that it’s clear there’s just some general overspending across the board in many categories. I’m confident that I can mark off this average spending of $6k per month as the highest period of expenses for many years to come. But, the theme of 2024 will be taking a more conscious look at each and every purchase as to where it falls between the wants versus needs.
Budget Update, Net Changes, and Future Goals
I took this new data and updated my permanent budget with it. In the net change column, red indicates an increase in monthly spending in that category, whereas green indicates a decrease in monthly spending in that category.

Here’s the rationale for every value change explained in sequential order:
- I apparently underestimated how much more expensive it is to heat a whole house compared to an apartment, so my mortgage/utilities category has been revised up $50 per month.
- I also underestimated how much we would be spending on home improvements, so this category has been revised up $200 per month. I expect this to drop sharply in a couple years or so when we’ve finished most major projects.
- The wedding planning category is no longer needed and will be deleted.
- I expect to earn about $100 more per month due to a cost of living adjustment for my salary.
All in all, my budget is decreasing by an estimated $250 per month. It will be really great to get back on track spending-wise with this target in mind.
Savings Check-up
Let’s take a look at my total cash inflows to savings and investment accounts over the past 6 months:

An all-time high for savings, by about $180! So despite the wedding expenses, all remained well in the land of building wealth.
Net Worth Check-up
June 30, 2023 Net Worth: $355,832
December 31, 2023 Net Worth: $410,711
6 Month Change: $54,879
Onward and upward thanks to my savings and a rising stock market. The momentum is obvious, and I occasionally need to remind myself to just stick to the plan and that only fine-tuning is needed.