A Third of Our Income went to Childcare | August 2025 Beers & Budgeting

All right, it is officially football season. >> Yes. >> And uh it is it is the perfect day for a football game. Before we watch a football game, we're going to be going over our budget, so stick around. >> Boring. >> Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. I'm your host Justine. This is my husband Kyle. >> What's up? And uh we are going to talk about our August budget. And before we do that, we're going to drink a really good beer. So, what do we have? >> This one's all the way from Manhattan in Kansas. I should say Manhattan, Kansas. There we go. Wabash drinking easy drinking ale as they call it. Uh it's 4.8% alcohol. And let's hold up our glasses to show everyone what it looks like. It's like purplish and slightly see-through, almost looking black, hazy, bluish, kind of like, you know, if you give your kid food coloring and they mix it up in a glass, it's kind of what it looks like afterwards. It's not I think it's supposed to be purple. Kansas State. >> Yep. >> Purple. So, >> yep. >> Anyways, here we go. So the carbonation then it tastes like champagne. >> Yeah, I think they use champagne yeast to make this beer. They actually are not my favorite. It's a little sweet and very carbonated. >> Yeah, >> but I get if you're trying to make a purple beer, you only got so much stuff you can work with. >> It doesn't taste like a beer. It tastes like a >> cider almost. >> Yeah, but also >> smell a champagney. I don't know. It's in a class of its own. >> Even the bubbles are really, really tiny like you get in a champagne. >> Yeah. >> Well, hopefully our budget goes better than our beer. >> How we doing here, kiddo? >> Yeah. Let's take a look. The August budget. Lots of stuff happened in August. Where would you like to start? >> Did we make it? >> We made it. >> Okay. So, we planned 13,000. We brought in 15,280 >> extra paycheck. >> Oh, thank God that >> for for the month of August. Mhm. >> Who made $125.30? >> Is that leftover from July? That's leftover from July. >> All right. Delete. >> Delete. All right. Now, you can see $1.45 is what we're working with left over. There were a couple of things that happened that I noted here. So, we had to pay for the car registration for both vehicles. >> That's a bill. >> Yeah. So, it was $368 for the Kia and 127 for the Subaru. We also had to pay uh car insurance for the Subaru. We paid $32 for that. We actually got a note from Progressive saying that our premium went down by $4 to the 302. A lot of people are also telling me on Instagram like, "Wow, that's super cheap for car insurance." So, this is always one with my one-on-one coaching clients where if I see a high premium, monthly premium amount for their car insurance, I'm like, "Please look at your coverage and take a look at your deductibles because if your deductibles are low, like 0 or $500, that may be contributing to such a high premium." >> Yeah. So, I always say if you have a really good emergency fund in which it could fully cover the deductible, then you can increase that and see what it does to lower your car insurance premium. >> I couldn't agree more with you on that. It's It's funny cuz some of them you can go in and play with the numbers and the sliders and it shows you how it all changes. So, if you got 10, 15 minutes, it's not fun. Just do it. >> Yeah, >> just do it. >> It's an easy one, >> Nike. Just do it. Right. >> Right. Also, there was an extra week of pay for our nanny. So, child care expenses this month was out the wazoo. I was going to go ahead and say that. And we knew that this year would be the most expensive year for child care. >> Yeah, we knew that. >> Mhm. >> All right, let's get in it. >> Uh, there were a couple of extra things. So, for Quinn's preschool, there was a I think it's fall registration or annual registration fee. It's a onetime fee essentially. >> So, that also contributed to um our child care expenses being a little bit over plus the extra week for the nanny. I mean, we're talking lots of money out the door for that cuz I'm looking that's $4,900 in childare. >> What >> expenses? >> Yeah. I'm going to need to get another beer. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Do you know what we can do with $4,900? >> I know. I know. The good news is >> Do you know how many golf clubs I can buy for $4,900? >> Oh gosh. Wait. Did you tell him that the guy who swindled you? >> He called me again yesterday. Again? I'm like, bro, >> if you missed last month's episode, the a guy like tried to get Colin to do a golf fitting and then forced his hand to buy a very expensive putter and then he called him yesterday >> again. I was like, "Nope." >> Okay. >> Anyways, >> anyways, I had mentioned this in the last episode, but we had a $411 electricity bill. I did change this to the easy pay or level pay plan. And the reason I hadn't changed it in the past is because they needed 6 or 12 months. I want to say it was at least 6 months of >> data. >> Yeah. In order for them to accurately get your average. So that will be $152 a month moving forward, which is much more easy for us to predict inside of our budget. >> Oh man. in September, August, like we've had double cold fronts. It hasn't been above 90 in like 3 weeks, and it's amazing. >> Mhm. Yep. So, the good news also is we spent $878 on groceries, which is the lowest it's been in a long time. So, I'm really happy about that. >> Yeah. >> And our restaurant budget actually was slightly under. So, we spent $317 there. Did we eat? >> How? >> Yeah. >> Usually when groceries are down, restaurants are up. When restaurants are up, groceries are down. >> Yeah. I don't know. There were a couple of things in August. Uh the weekend my sister got married, there was a rehearsal dinner, of course, the the wedding. So, you're eating food there. So, I guess that counted for a couple of meals. That that whole weekend pretty much food was paid for. Um >> I don't know. We just did a really good job there. >> Okay. >> And I think also utilizing stuff that we had in our freezer in our pantry. So >> there we go. I mean, you didn't go to Costco. >> I did. >> You did? >> I'm pretty sure I did. So, if you scroll down to the daily expense tracker, which by the way, you can pick up this exact same template. This is a super budget template that we're using in the link in the description box below. And what you can do is you can add a filter to your daily expense tracker. And then you can see I went to Costco and I spent $422. That also included diapers and wipes. So like a good chunk of that that at least 60 70 bucks was diapers and wipes. So yeah. Yeah. Let me go back up here so we can continue to go down because we we spent money in all of our fun money categories, but nothing too crazy except I do see $500 in Lucy money. What is this? Why did we spend $500 on our child? Oh. Oh. Oh, the baby gates was $200. >> Okay. >> $272 with formula. >> Okay. And you're like, "What? What kind of formula are y'all buying?" Hold on, back up. We We bought a bulk order of the formula that we use is a UK brand and with the new tariffs put into place. The the company actually proactively reached out and said, "Hey, we're going to get imposed with these tariffs before they go into effect. Go ahead and place your orders now while they're the same price as it's always been." And yes, it is a more expensive formula. It's an organic one, but we really like it. >> And she's been on on that one for since birth essentially. >> Yeah. I mean, the same one Quinn was on, right? >> The same one that Quinn was on. So, um, I ended up just ordering a big supply. And I'm hoping that between that and the breast milk that we'll be able to get her through until she's a year old and she can switch to whole milk. So, >> I love it. Long story short, yeah, the baby gates and the uh formula were the big things for her and why her her category. See, this is why you should have a scing fund for your kids, cuz we do $75 a month for Lucy, $75 a month for Quinn and any kind of activities, toys, clothes, arts and crafts. Uh we included Quinn's gymnastics fee in there. that's all included for them so that we never feel like we can't spend money on them that it's already included as part of their syncing funds. And so this this column right here is the like money left over in that syncing fund for each of them. >> We >> Yeah, we did a lot of a lot of um gifts. So we did um birthday gifts, bridal shower gift, bachelorette parties type stuff for my sister. So, yeah, there was a lot of paint by numbers. >> I saw that. I was gonna point it out, but I'm glad you did. >> Okay. >> Paint by numbers. >> Kyle bought a paint by numbers gift. And uh I like to put for all of our Amazon purchases or any kind of things where I'm like, "What did we spend on Amazon?" I like to put a little note inside of the daily expense tracker so I know exactly what that was. I kind of wish that somehow that could be included on your credit card transaction statement. So instead of it just saying Amazon Amazon Amazon, like Amazon hyphen paint by numbers, that would be cool if you could get that kind of data. >> Do you imagine what the credit card companies would do with that kind of data? That much insight. They would be become the biggest advertising agencies in the country. >> Mhm. That is true. I guess that's not really like consumer protection, is it? Is it? >> Do they really care? >> I know. No, no, no. Anyways, that's pretty much in Kyle's comment for the day. >> Yeah, home upgrades. I guess we technically didn't spend money on that in August because we did the deposit for landscaping in July, but we'll have to pay the the second half. And guess what? We can finally say >> the wall is done. Dundee not happening. It's over. >> Yep. >> It looks so nice. >> The retaining wall is done. I sat out there the other morning in a chair and did my work emails and drank coffee and it was nice. It was so beautiful and I love it. Turned out great. I'm glad it's done. >> It turned out so nice. I'm really excited to get in there and change up our plants behind the retaining wall because there's >> she's looking at it right now. That's where she's she's looking out the window. >> See it? >> Yes. So, I'm really hopeful that we can get in there perhaps this fall, kind of dig up everything that just clear it out. Clear out the garden beds where the retaining wall sits and then we talked about getting a smokeless fire pit. By the way, do you have a fire pit? Is it smokeless? Can you cook food on top of it? I'm talking like s'mores and bros and whatever you can put on a stick and roast. Let us know in the comments below what you like because we are in the market for one. We're trying to keep it on the cheap. Maybe find one on Facebook Marketplace and make it a fun little gathering. Quinn is so excited. >> Yeah, >> she really wants to go up there and she wants to camp out up there. So, yeah. >> Oh, it's going to be cool. >> It'll be so fun. >> I'm just glad it's done. We've been talking about it for like Well, depending on how you count, our backyard's been like that for pretty much a year. >> Mhm. It's been destroyed for a year. >> Yep. >> I didn't think I'd take that long. I am so impatient. I feel like projects shouldn't take that long. >> Well, honestly, it took a couple of months just to get the bids. >> Yeah. Yeah. People are slow, and that's part of it. And I'm like, why is it taking so long? It just is. >> Yeah. But now we know because we really liked the uh contractor we worked with and we're most likely going to work with them again. >> Oh, yeah. For sure. So, yeah, we want to get them back in to do the regrading around the home because if you recall, our basement flooded in July. >> Uh, which kind of added to all of this. So, we want to get that done. And then also add in some sort of like dry creek bed. What do you call it? >> It's just a drainage path of some kind. >> Yeah, rock drainage path down the side of our house to help water flow down and also away from the foundation. So, um I'm excited about that. It still looks like a a rock quarry in the backyard because we've got the old rock that we like >> to the new rock. >> Yeah. And >> pavers and all this stuff. So, >> yeah, cuz we're like, what do we use? What can we salvage? What can we sell ourselves? So, anyway, that's that. These are all up to date in terms of like totals and whatnot. So, that's all good to go. Man, the car fund is already at six grand. That's crazy. >> Yeah, we were just talking today at lunch like, should we go ahead and proactively trade in the Subaru for a small truck? >> Yeah, I had to go to Home Depot so often and just need a need a truck bed so often that I'm like, this wouldn't be a pavement princess, but it would get used on the weekends more than enough. And the cheapest car that you can buy is the one you already own. So, I'm like, >> what's the right financial thing? We might have to have another beer and talk about it, figure it out. >> There's nothing wrong with a Subaru. It doesn't even have 100,000 miles on it yet. It is a 10-year-old vehicle. And the insurance is real cheap. >> It's so cheap. So cheap. >> Obviously, you saw what we paid 302 for 6 months. >> All right. So, with the retaining wall done, I do feel like What happened here? You took the 125 out. >> Oh, okay. 125 from what? >> Remember it carried over from July and you're like, "Oh, it's July." >> Delete. >> Hello. Okay, so 900 bucks. Um, I mean, I think it's still going towards home improvement projects. >> Yeah, because we have to do the water mitigation still and that's going to be another five grand at least. >> Is that what they gave you back on the estimate? Uh, it was six, but I had him take some stuff off. >> Okay. >> So, I think we should just throw it at that. Yeah. >> By the time they actually get back around to doing it, we'll have the money saved up for it. And then after that, I'll be putting it towards the basement. >> Mhm. >> Yay. >> Yeah. I mean, I'm kind of excited about that. >> Oh, yeah. My dream, my vision of the basement is going to be sick. It's going to be so cool. >> Yeah. >> I'm not doing a man cave. I'm doing a fan cave. I want everyone down there. >> Next month for September, um I'm attending FinCon. First time. >> What is FinCon? >> First time in two years. Fin Con is a personal finance conference for content creators primarily and brands to get together to talk about money, talk about the state of money in our country um and the world. We have an international presence attendees that come to FinCon and this year it's in Portland. I'm excited about that. I've never been to Portland. Can check off Oregon on my state that I've not visited yet. Um and you're going on a work trip. >> Yeah. >> Maybe not as exciting as Portland, but you do get to meet up with some of your colleagues that you haven't seen in a while that you like to have fun with. So, >> yeah. That that is the that'll be fun. >> Yeah. The fun part. So September is going to be a little busy between work trips and football season >> and what have you. So >> I'm so excited for football to start. Just something to cheer for be check your mind out a little bit of the daily stressors. >> Yeah. >> So >> I'm I'm I'm a football fan. Are you a football fan? More importantly, are you a football Chiefs fan? Come on. Yeah, clearly. >> Oops. >> Okay, >> that's it. >> I think that's it. Sweet. Short and sweet. >> All right, back to our champagne beers. >> Back to our champagne beers on a beer budget. Champagne taste. >> What? >> Champagne taste. >> Something something. See you next month. Anyway, we'll see you next month. That's what he said. [Music]