Pivoting… Already.

By Mrs. Xennial

It’s only two days from February 2022, and I’m already pivoting? You bet I am! There are several reasons behind it, and I’ll explain further below as usual. But I want to point out that it isn’t a bad thing to pivot your budget from time to time, and as often as you want, really. It’s PERSONAL budget/finance, and it sure is PERSONAL after all. If this isn’t you, and you have a system already and are happy about the system? By all means, stick to it. I’m doing so because I want to maximize my money since I’ve gotten a pay cut (hopefully talking about a pay raise soon with my boss though), and I feel like with the current amount I have, I should pivot as needed for sure.

So here’s some little tweaks I’ll be making for the month of February (and on, maybe):

1. Housing:
   • Previously, I’m putting more towards principle, which takes the percentage for housing to 32% from my take-home pay. I guess I’m having second thoughts on that since it isn’t really enough to make a dent, and honestly our mortgage rate is pretty darn good (2.75%), so I want to start making exact amount requested, and invest the rest instead (the rest=”Remaining” category; which, at 8% adding Roth and other savings, puts me at 26% saving per month). So for this category, it’s going from 32% down to 25%, which is a comfort zone for me.
2. Utility:
   • Another thing I’m also excited (under the utility category? Really?) is the increasing daylight. During the dead of winter (sorry midwest and northeast coast folks, this is PNW standard), our utility is HUGELY different. With less daylight, more rain, and those 10-days-too-long snow days around Christmas, our solar panels weren’t really doing much in helping us save money in utility. Early January was when I got the heaviest power bill (at about $250), which had me use the unspent money in other categories in January to absorb the extra since I didn’t budget over $200 for electricity. I’m hopeful that this will go down soon, and our summer power bills were always the happy amounts (less than $20/month usually). I will probably still continue to budget for $100 during the happy summer days in preparation for the heavier winter power bills later this year. (And yes that means more pivoting is coming.)
3. “Shopping” as my buffer:
   • This isn’t necessary something I’ve pivoted number wise; but mindset wise, I see this as my buffer for grocery, really. Like I mentioned before, I want to reduce my random purchase as much as possible for the sake of saving money and for the environment, and really evaluate wants vs. needs with each purchase. And honestly? We have plenty of wants even in the grocery category (I want desserts, mmmkay?) and I think that would be my splurge for the most part. Worry not; I still have the fun money and restaurant budgeted, so I’m not necessarily cutting out all the funs in life.
4. Fitness:
   • My awesome trainer is giving me some suggestions since I’ve been doing quite well during our sessions, and that we are going to change it up a little. Instead of our weekly live sessions, we are changing to 2x weekly sessions per month and some movement assignments via app with her support, which brings the monthly amount lower at 5% now. Sure this isn’t a significant amount, but this adds to the “Remaining” category which will go towards investment.

This is actually also not taking in the 401(K) that is about to kick in as my 90-day trial period is coming to an end, and if I remember correctly, we are looking at a 3% match, which means that there will be 3% going from the remaining category to 401(K). Knowing that I will still have 5% in the “Remaining” category to invest elsewhere, that’s music to my frugal ears. And my hope is that we are able to discuss a pay raise soon, and that would up the percentage of the investment as well.

Interestingly, today, my affirmation is:

I’m motivated and excited to chase my dreams.

And if I wasn’t motivated as much before, you’d be damn sure I’m more so now. 🙂 Cheers y’all, and Happy Lunar New Year!