#218: Our Q1 Budget Reality Check

In this episode, I’m sharing a Q1 budget recap as part of our “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without” year. I walk through what worked over the past three months, including areas where we saved money, lowered recurring expenses, and leaned into a thrift-first mindset for clothing, home items, and kids’ needs.

I also talk about where real life didn’t line up with the budget—things like higher utility bills, car expenses, and annual costs that I didn’t plan for. Some categories weren’t overspending issues, just reality, and it was helpful to see that distinction more clearly.

Finally, I share a few simple shifts I’m making for Q2, including adding sinking funds, adjusting categories, and continuing habits that are already working well. If you’ve been wanting to check in on your own spending without feeling overwhelmed, this is a great place to start.

www.daraboxer.com

Transcript

A Quarterly Budget Reset

Dara Boxer 0:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Raw on the Cooked, a weekly podcast that provides simple routines around the home plus raw and honest book reviews. My name is Dara. I'm a Midwestern stay-at-home off to four young kids, and I thrive on simplicity. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode. So, a couple of episodes back, episode 211, I shared our decision that 2026 would be the year where we would, quote, use it up, wear it out, make do or do without kind of year, end quote. And so I I genuinely feel like this is a really good year to pay attention to where our money is going, um, to just be intentional about our purchases. If there needs to be a purchase, is it something we can find on next door or at a thrift shop or a consignment store? Um, and just again be really, really thoughtful with discretionary purchases, in addition to a couple of other things I wanted to share with you. And so now that we are in April, uh we are over with Q1, but I still feel like it's important to look back and reflect on the last three months of spending, right? January, February, and March, and kind of just see what the wins were, what some of the losses were, and sort of like any lessons I can pull from it. And some of them were we did save some money, um more than I expected, but just not in like ways that I thought. So I'm excited to actually share that with you and just kind of like go over our our recap for Q1 and again where the wins and where the losses were, and just some things that I've noted along the way. So welcome to another episode. You're listening to 200 and episode 218, and I am just sharing our Q1 update because life happens. Okay, so for the last couple of years, um, or actually last year and a half, ever since Sophia was like literally days old, we actually started um with a house cleaner, and she is amazing. We love her so much, she's very expensive, very expensive. Um, it was one of those costs that we were kind of like, well, four kids, and I feel really guilty about it, especially because I do stay at home. Um, but I don't know, it's just we've gotten very used to it. Anyway, one of the wins this year was that we decided to renegotiate with her, and um she no longer does the basement floor, which is totally fine, and we were able to renegotiate a price that kind of matches where we feel comfortable paying. So that felt like a huge win because that was something weighing really heavily on me, like literally on my shoulders and on our budget. So I'm very thrilled about that. Uh, our household sundries. Uh I used to budget about$400 and the Q3, I'm sorry, the Q1. So over the three-month average, I was spending a little less than$300. And so I think what's really helped with that is ensuring that I use up what we have first. I mean, I'm always gonna have a backstock of like tissues and toilet paper and paper towels and soap and you know, things that like we're gonna go through all the time. Like we go through popcorn and Cheerios and certain crackers. Um, like right, like I'm not gonna be stingy about like everyday items and things like I absolutely know we're gonna use up, like toothpaste and whatever, but there were some other categories that I just felt like I I had a backstock of and like would just end up like reordering without going through it. Anyway, so long story short, that somehow ended up saving us a little bit of money there. So that works out great. Um, we decided it was time to lower our home and auto insurance. So we had been with USAA Home and Auto for gosh, literally forever. I don't think we've ever changed or renegotiated. And one of my husband's colleagues had mentioned to us that in this market, you actually you you get penalized for sticking with home and auto insurance um because you're you're like the good, awesome rates are only gonna come to new customers. And so he and his wife bounce back and forth between different companies almost every other year, um, just because like there's no um, oh my gosh, what is the word that I'm looking loyalty? Like there, there's no reward for being loyal anymore. So we went and moved over to State Farm, and that has saved us over$100 a month, uh,$112 to be precise, which you know doesn't sound like a huge amount of money, but over the course of a year, that's well over a thousand dollars. So I'm gonna take that as a win. Um, dining out, I thought we kind of hit on par. We I budget for about$175 a month, which is not a lot in today's day and age. That's like two meals for our family of six out, um, which reflects the fact that I do do a lot of home cooking. Um, so and I'm comfortable and happy with that, and I'm thrilled to report that we were under budget for the three-month average in Q1. I can totally see it creeping up uh once the weather gets warmer and nicer and just the nature of spring and summer. Uh groceries were totally on par around what I budgeted for, so I feel like that's a big win. Um, my husband accidentally it ended up lowering our internet bill. We had to get a new router. I I don't know, there was like some weird complication, but our internet bill used to be$90 and he lowered it to$75. So that was exciting. Um, another small win is that um we I added a new category, and that is my Alex Impulse buffer fund. Um, so I just budget a little bit of money for him, and I don't have to think, worry, or even care what he buys as long as it stays like under the budgeted number. Whereas before, like he didn't really have his own category and it would stress me out because I'm like, oh, where am I putting this? Or like what it you know what I mean? Like to now have to have like a little bit of a buffer fund where like I just don't care. It's like an Alex purchase, like great. Um, and I will say the same for me as well. Um, so the kid gear wins and like kids' clothing was that um I my daughter needed a costume for school. I decided to we thrifted it at Goodwill instead of just going on Amazon and buying something new, so that felt really good. Um, we ended up having to get a new lunch box for my son. I it's a long story. Um, so I was able to use a gift card to cover the amount. That felt like another win. Um, and then with home decor, uh I had to purchase some more napkins. We used cloth napkins, um, and I ended up thrifting an arts and crafts table last year, and I needed to get new chairs for it, this this Q1. And I ended up finding three dollar chairs at a thrift store, which felt like just awesome. So I anyway, so like the cumulative home decor that I spent in the last three months was less than a hundred dollars, which felt like a humongous win compared to how much I used to spend previously. So I'm really proud of myself for that. Um, and then spring and summer clothing haul for the kids. Um, I thrifted almost everything that they have. Plus, we have we're very, very fortunate. We have a really awesome community of friends and family that like hand us hand-me-downs for our kids. Um, so I haven't spent that much money on the kids' clothing, really, like gosh, probably less than a hundred dollars for all four of them, which is incredible. Um we're also very lucky that we have really awesome kids' consignment places in this area. So if we do need to go somewhere, it's gonna be really affordable. Um, for me myself, I thrifted a really awesome pair of black Chelsea boots that I had wanted for a really long time and a matching thrifted belt. Um it was$12, by the way, so that was awesome. Um, and then a big project for us this year is to raise a flock of chickens. So by the time this episode airs, I will have picked up our days old chicks, and I'm so excited. Anyway, I was able to find a homemade brooding box and a heat lamp, a water bowl, and an automatic feeder from a really kind family, giving it all away for free on next door, which saved me hundreds of dollars, which so it was just a huge win. And the rest of the supplies caught me cost me less than$50 at the hatchery where I'm picking up these chicks. Um, another little expense to that was the chicken coop itself. Um, we have no idea what we're doing, so we just decided to buy like something super cheap and super easy online. Um, so it was not as expensive as it could have been. So that is very exciting. I will have to keep you guys updated on our chicken adventure. Um, okay, so then I I don't want to say losses, but here is what real life sort of like here's where life ignored my budget. Okay, so for gas and electric, I usually budget around$400. Um, and gas and electric were a lot more than$400 on average in Q1. So that sucked. Um, I I don't know, it's just 2026, I guess. You know,$400 that was um a conservative number based on our last year prices. So I I don't know. Um, I don't know. 2026 is all I can say. Um yeah. Uh so I have a car parking and maintenance and gas category, and uh we did well with that. Uh however, we had a little bit of a car emergency. We ended up, um, my husband had a dead battery. It was super expensive, very expensive. It was like$500 for a new car battery, and just it was a mess. Um, of course, his registration was also due, so the paperwork for that was another$100. I needed a new driver's license, which was like, I don't know,$30. So our car parking and maintenance budget was totally blown out of the water because of a dead battery. Um, kids' activities. I usually just budget uh$240 a month for piano for my daughter. Um, but then we sort of impulsively added on an after-school uh art session in March for the kids. So that was$160 for our two older kids. They loved it. They had the best time. So it was a little bit of an unplanned expense, but it was it worked out really well. Um, so for memberships, I keep like a small, modest uh couple hundred dollars a month for monthly things like the gym membership. Um, I host my podcast on Pod uh Buzz Sprout. Um, I have like Apple Storage, things like that. Um, we have a couple ho websites we host and like just like memberships to a couple of different museums around the St. Louis area. Um my husband decided to splurge on an annual family pass for the aquarium. So that was$230, which I didn't really plan or budget for, but what can you do? Um, we've already gone three times, four times in Q1, so it's already paid for itself. Um, so it's hard to call it a loss, right? Like it wasn't, but it wasn't planned for in the annual budget. And then a huge oversight on my part was not budgeting for the following school year. It always costs to enroll children in the upcoming school year, uh right, like the new year enrollment fees, uh, the financial aid application, uh, preschool needs a month worth of tuition, uh summer camp on all these things in Q1, just one after the next. So that was several thousand dollars worth of like whoops for for content budget, all that. Um, so yeah, uh, I guess I'll know for next year. Okay, so options, like non-optional costs, right? Like it's we can't there's like there's nothing we can do about like a super high gas and electric bill. Uh, there's not much we could do about a dead car battery. Uh, there's not much we can do about, you know, re-registering cars and renewing driver's license. Um, so some categories aren't necessarily discipline problems, they're just reality. Um, and it's always great to have a little buffer fund, right? Like it's kind of like what, you know, savings are for, I suppose. Um, and then the uh the like oops, I forgot to plan for the obvious things like enrollment fees, summer camp, and applications. Uh, the insight there is just like it happens every year. Um, so it's not an emergency, and this should really be a category. Um, so that is a note for myself. And then values over budget, right? The art class uh in March that my older two kids were signed up for, and then the aquarium membership. So some like quote losses are more about like clarity, and we spent more here because it felt like it mattered. Um, so I again it's hard to call it a loss. And so um some of the Q2 pivots, so Q2 um is April, May, June, uh, that make things like you know, really like clear and actionable, and really just some lessons. So I decided that I'm going to separate my haircut and clothing to uh really get like a more micro picture on like how much we're spending on clothing and how versus how much we're spending on haircuts. And so they say for budgeting, like if you want to get really granular, that's where you track and see if you can help edit and uh find a bleed. And I feel like by lumping in haircuts and clothing, I feel like I have more to spend on clothing than I actually do. And clothing is a big sticking point for me. So unfortunately, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to separate clothing and haircut and get like really granular with that. Um, I'm gonna have to create like an annual uh expenses sinking fund for things like um dead batteries, uh, I guess, um, and also like registration fees. Um, I think that would be very helpful to have moving forward so we can dip into something like that. Um, and I again I'm a little upset with the gas and utility and the water bill and like how crazy expensive it is. I always um at the start of the year, I look back at the 12-month and like what was our water, sewer, gas, and electric, and I get a 12-month average for that. And then I always buffer and put like a buffer of like 10% more just in case, like for the upcoming year with inflation and whatever. And this year did not even come close to touching that. So that really sucked. Um, but I feel like we're all probably in the same boat, and then additionally, I might have like a kids' activity buffer for things like um, you know, an this school is running like another art program, or maybe they're gonna run like a you know soccer clinic in May. Um, so just sort of having like a little bit of an additional buffer for the kids, just in case something comes up with the school, maybe it would be a good idea for Q2. Um, and so things that I'm definitely gonna keep and protect is the husband buffer fund um and the uh thrift first rule. I it's been working out really well. Um I'm really proud of myself for not just being like, oh, well, let me just, you know, go online and to my favorite shoe place and like look for that black pair of Chelsea boots that I really wanted. Um, so yeah, that was kind of it. Um I feel pretty happy with where we were at budget-wise, and I really hope that we can continue on this trend for Q2. Um, I do know right now that in April and coming up with like beautiful weather, um, we have some expenses, you know, plants and garden-wise, um, but all good things. So thank you guys so much for tuning in, and I encourage you guys to look back at the last three months. I know sometimes at the end of the year, people like really want to like in the new year have a good, wonderful budget, right? But then the prospect of looking back at a full 12 months is really, really daunting, and they don't blame you. So I feel like breaking it up into quarters could be an excellent way to see kind of like where you're going and just like kind of do like a little check in. Um, so I hope that gives you some food for thought. Thank you guys so much for tuning in, and I'll see you back here next week.