CBB August 2024 Budget Update, Life in canada

Estimated reading time: 17 minutes

Gain valuable insights from our August 2024 CBB budget update. Learn how we use tools to manage our finances and achieve savings.

Why I Share Our Monthly Budget

For anyone new to CBB, this briefly explains our monthly budget update.

I look forward to putting this post together as it lets us see where we spend our money.

A budget also acts as a diary for your expenses so you can look back to see success and failure.

Our budget update also lets readers know that we are not perfect and must make changes like everyone else.

We use the tools (Free budget Binder), and I hope you have downloaded your free copy.

Alright, let’s get into this.

Percentages For Our August 2024 Budget

Our year-to-date percentage chart is another way to chart our household budget.

August 2024 Household Budget Percentages

Savings of  50.55% include investments and savings based on our net income.

Our life ratio is 22.81% and contains everything from groceries, entertainment, miscellaneous items, health/beauty, clothing, etc., all variable expenses.

Transportation is 2.03%, which covers gas, insurance, and maintenance for our vehicle, which is paid.

Our house and vehicle are paid for, and we have zero consumer debt; however, we still pay property taxes and maintenance fees. In August, this cost was 11.87%.

The projected expenses of 9.48% can change based on what we encounter monthly, such as a new item we need to save for.

Jr. CBB’s 52-Week Savings Challenge

In December 2023, I started a 52-week Savings Challenge for 2024 and asked my readers if they wanted to participate.

Below is the jar we created to save the money for twelve months.

Our son wanted to participate, so he decided to save his allowance or any other money he earned.

He’s saving $5 weekly from his allowance in the savings jar.

In August, he saved $20 to put into his savings jar.

52-Week Savings Challenge Update

As of August 2024, the yearly total is $170 in savings, which means he’s more than 50% to meet his goal of $300.

He created a Moolah Jar label for his money savings jar, which I thought was funny.

52-Week Savings Challenger Update

Below is the report from a CBB fan participating in the year-long savings challenge.

Hello Mr. CBB, it’s me, TFSA saver.

I had a much better month of savings than last month when I missed my mark of $62 in savings. 

This month, I used the $3.10 remainder on a gift card (transferred the equivalent amount to savings)

I also used $30 of PC points and $10 of Rexall Bewell points towards my purchases ($40 right to savings acct).

• I found a total of .60 in my walks through the neighborhood
• Sold an item for $10 on Facebook Marketplace. 
• I sold another item for $16 in a buy-and-sell group.
• A gift card was used for a large purchase of $75 (and put the equivalent money into savings) 

Total saved: $144.70. 

I have scraped up all the partially used gift cards in my car and home and intend to use them more consistently in the fall as I’m unorganized in keeping track of them.

Maybe I must create a printable gift card tracker for the Budget Binder. Great idea. – Mr. CBB

Grocery Food Savings Jar August 2024 Update

Why will we track our grocery discounts for the entire year? 

Tracking Our Grocery Discounts For One Year + Free Printable

I will tally it at the end of the year to see how much we saved buying reduced food products.

Read the 2023 End of Year Grocery Food Savings Jar Review.

We saved $145.57 for August using coupons, rewards apps, and Flashfood.

So far, in 2024, purchasing discounted food has saved our family $1222.14.

August 2024 Budget Estimation and Actual Budget

Below are two tables: Our August 2024 Budget and our Actual Budget.

Our August 2024 budget represents two adults and a 9-year-old boy.

Budget Colour Key: It is a projected expense when highlighted in blue.   

Since May 2014, we’ve been mortgage-free, redirecting our money into investments and home improvement projects.

Spending less than we earn and budgeting has been the easiest way to pay off our debt and save money.

This type of budget is a zero-based budget where all the money has a home.

Estimated August 2024 Budget

We may not need all the money we budgeted for in each category; however, remember the number is only an estimate from the previous year.

Don’t forget to budget for projected expenses because your entire month can fail due to not planning.

Actual August 2024 Budget

Our Canadian Banks

Breakdown Of Our August 2024 Budget Categories

Below are some of our variable expenses from August that I will discuss.

I forgot to add $45.00 for our son’s new Canadian passport to the August budget expenses.

He was going to come to England with me to the funeral, but my stepdad didn’t want me to bring him.

It’s a long story, and yes, I was upset, but at least his passport is updated.

Clothing For Family

In August, I purchased some clothes for our son from Sportchek for back to school.

Mrs. CBB purchased a few items on Amazon, such as compression socks for walking.

At Costco, we purchased new socks for our son and Mrs. CBB.

Grocery Budget August 2024 Budget

Our monthly grocery budget is $900 plus a $25 stockpile budget.

I forgot to add Just Proats $51.96 and Good Protein $95.86, which were both missed on the Visa.

That total of $147.82 should go into the grocery budget, which will be added in September.

We spent $1688.33, or $788.33, over budget for our August groceries.

Costco Grocery Purchases

Going to Costco in August pushed our grocery budget up over $522 as we stocked up for back-to-school and other items we were out of.

Some of the bulk food purchases included;

• 2.2kg Salerno Mozarella
• Bran Buds
• Organic Pumpkin Seeds
• Nano yogurt drinks
• Starbucks coffee beans
• Sugar 4kg
• 9 packs of Pillers German salami
• Parmesan brick
• 2x Cottage cheese
• 2 bags of Salmon
• Watermelon
• 6 cans of Tasters Choice Instant coffee
• Peanuts
• Peas and Fava beans
• 2 x B Free Tortilla
• 2x Bavarian Rye bread
• Bananas
• Rodelle Cocoa powder
• Dill Pickles
• 2 x Milk
• 3 x cream 10%
• Kraft Peanut Butter
• Kirkland 3-pack Greek Yogurt

Amazon Grocery Purchases

Also, there were a few items purchased on Amazon, such as sugar-free coffee syrup, Dare veggie crisps, unsweetened coconut chips, coconut oil, Italian Pistachio cream, kataffi, spicy chili crisp, Bragg liquid soy seasoning, Crystal Light, and milk nut bags for oat milk.

We also found a large international grocery store in our city that we weren’t unaware of.

Upon visiting, it took 2 hours to get through the store, and we spent around $50.

Also, Mrs. CBB’s sister visited every weekend, which increased the amount of food we purchased, including snacks and drinks.

Consistently, we are seeing higher prices on everything, which we feel has been attributed to pushing the limits of our grocery budget.

Of course, we can put the brakes on spending over budget, but 90% of what we buy is on sale, and we stockpile if we find a good deal.

However, since we are debt-free, we let the extras slide into the cart without worry, even if the products are on sale.

Does that make sense? It’s not budget-smart since we are supposed to follow a grocery budget, but on the other hand, if we save money, it’s neither here nor there.

We will increase our grocery budget for 2025 to accommodate increased pricing and four trips to Costco.

Truthfully, this is probably our worst month for 2024, as there was too much we needed to stock up on.

We could have done without some impulse in-store purchases for 50% off.

Over the years, the low grocery expenses months often balanced out the higher ones.

It will be interesting to see the year-end numbers in a few months. I can’t believe how fast 2024 has flown by.

You can find all the online groceries we purchase in the CBB Amazon Storefront.

Flashfood Orders August 2024

Please use the CBB code (see photo below) when you sign up for Flashfood!

A little bit of free bonus cash for you and my little family.

Every person who signs up gets a $5 credit, a freebie Flashfood offers for new app customers.

Also, Flashfood has added a small service fee to every order, which I feel is acceptable.

Use my referral code, MOCD28ZN4, for a $5 credit.  

Your first purchase must be over $15.

Sports

I’m on a roll for August, forgetting to add expenses, so here’s another one. I paid $425 for fall and winter soccer for our son.

I missed this on the Visa, but here’s why reading everything is so important.

I’m not perfect and make mistakes, so I’m transparent when I blog about our finances.

Health And Beauty

Our health and beauty budget was $358.78 for August 2024, significantly less than we spent in July.

Going to Costco in August was attributed to this budget category being over budget.

We purchased bulk items such as toilet paper, paper towels, Ziploc, collagen, toothpaste, and baby wipes.

Two bottles of iron pills for Mrs. CBB cost $109 from Shoppers Drugmart, which sounds outrageous, but they are what she has to take.

From Amazon, there were lots of vitamin purchases from liquid vitamin syrup, prebiotic gummies, rosehip oil, Refill bottle hypochlorous acid, liquid vit D3, melatonin, magnesium glycinate powder, magnesium L-threonate, creatine monohydrate, and Palmolive dish soap.

Mrs. CBB also purchased a 2-pack mattress protector for our twin king bed, a shredded memory foam pillow to replace her old one, and a hair bonnet.

Home Maintenance

I picked up sealant from Canadian Tire to finish sealing the outside of the sunroom.

There was a great sale on Amazon for blackout curtains for our sunroom in August.

I purchased 4 curtains and rods, and now we can get some relief if the sunroom gets too hot.

Our upstairs bathroom needed new shower hooks, as the ones I purchased were horrible.

The rings were too tight and dragged across the rod, making a horrible noise.

The new ring set and fabric shower curtain make everything better again.

Also, we forgot our son’s water bottle while on a road trip.

A stop at Canadian Tire to buy a new Contigo bottle cost us $19.99.

Lastly, I purchased two electric bug killers at Home Depot since they were on sale.

I’ve been watching them for a price drop and grabbed them while the price was good.

I have one hanging in the garage to catch bugs in the summer and wanted one for the sunroom and in the backyard once I build the new deck.

Pets

The pet expenses go to food, snacks, litter, and a visit to the vet for shots and an oil change, haha.

All was well with the cats. Our ginger is a whopping 18lbs, and the black cat is 12lbs.

Canadian Tire Rewards Points

Whenever Mrs. CBB sees my Canadian Tire points balance, she asks me what I bought.

In August, I stocked up on oil for my truck as it was on sale, and typically, when, I will buy a couple of jugs.

Other purchases were small items to finish projects around the house, such as spray paint,

All homeowners know it’s easy to earn reward points when buying housing materials and vehicle parts.

It all adds up, so we squeeze every bit of the extras out of these programs, including when ordering online.

All Canadians Who Shop Online Please Use Rakuten

Do it if you order anything online and haven’t subscribed to Rakuten Canada.

Not only do you get $30 cash free from Rakuten when you use the CBB link, but you also get cash back from thousands of online stores.

I would never tell you to sign up for something we didn’t believe in.

You can read my full review of Rakuten Canada if you are still unconvinced.

We regularly receive cheques in the mail from Rakuten, which further earns us money.

For In August 2024, we received a check for just over $18 in the mail.

PC Optimum Rewards Points August 2024

Since 2018, we have earned 8,768,000 PC Optimum Points or $8,768.

Over the last 45 days, we earned the following amounts in August 2024.

We started 2024 with under 7 million PC Optimum Points, currently have $7514, and are working towards $8000.

What would you do with the points? Share your ideas in the comment section below.

The process of saving them started after our son was born in 2014.

Between diapers and formula, we amassed points faster than we could spend them.

Yes, we have redeemed many times, but only during their Mega Bonus Event at Christmas.

Below are blog posts for anyone wanting to learn how we earn PC Optimum Points.

TD Rewards Credit Card August 2024

Our TD Visa has a cash-back balance of $491.25, and I know I’ve said I would take it out, but I haven’t.

I pledge that when the number hits $500, I’ll move it to the bank account.

It might be odd for someone to read that because where others would need that cash back, we do not, so we let it sit and grow.

I’m unsure what we are waiting for; perhaps I’m lazy.

Dream Air Miles August 2024

Most points are from our house and car insurance, which offers Air Miles.

There was a point where we had to choose Cash Miles or Dream Miles.

Since my family lives in the UK, we felt the Dream Miles would have worked best for us.

August 2024 CBB Net Worth Update

Overall CBB August 2024 Budget + Net Worth Update

I’ve had a few people email me about our mortgage and why we don’t have one in the chart.

After purchasing our home in 2009, we paid it in full by 2014, which was not easy, but we did it.

Today, we have $ in rewards points from TD Visa, Canadian Tire, and Shoppers Drug Mart.

In August 2024, our net worth increased by $28,204.71, whereas in July, we realized a decrease of ($21,956.92).

It went down and back up again, plus what was invested in August, which is typical.

Our cash and emergency savings nosedived at -4.36% ($8736.52).

Lastly, our son’s RDSP has been sorted out, and we moved over $5000 to the investment account, which the government will match.

I hope to see you again to read my September 2024 budget update in October.

Please drop me a question or comment below.

If you’re new, don’t forget to subscribe.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. CBB

You can find all the CBB monthly budget updates from 2012-present in our library.

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