March 2023 Budget Update CBB Family

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Welcome to my March Budget 2023 Update, where I share with you our family finances.

For anyone new to Canadian Budget Binder, we are a family of three living in the Greater Toronto area.

We are two adults and an eight-year-old boy on a journey continuing to live a debt-free life.

Enjoy the read.

Discussions: March 2023 Budget

Today, I will discuss many things that happened in March with our budget and investments.

• Grocery Discount Savings Jar update for March
• Rogers bill promo and changes
• Diet change and grocery budget
• Three new Canadian Budget Binder Printables
• Our New Family Member
• Broken Blinds
• Extra expenses in March

Three New Budget Binder Printables

• 2023 Monthly Budget Printable
• Goal Action Plan Printable
• 2023 12-page Printable Calendar

Be on the lookout for many more to be posted on the Free Finance Printables Page, or subscribe to Canadian Budget Binder, as I’ll include the info in my monthly newsletter.

Percentages For March 2023 Budget

Year To Date Household Budget Percentages 2023

Our savings of 46.62% includes investments and monthly savings based on our net income.

Equally important is saving money for our projected expenses due throughout the year.

All categories took 100% of our income, showing that we accounted for all the revenue in March 2023.

Our Life Ratio category is more than the projected 25% or less, at 27.60%.

Life contains everything from groceries, entertainment, miscellaneous, health/beauty, clothing, etc.

Now I’m wondering if the suggested 25% or less is still reasonable given the rise in inflation.

I’d love your feedback about household percentages in the comments below.

Our Canadian Banks

• Chequing– This is the bank account from which we pay our household bills. We use Simplii Financial, TD Canada Trust, and Tangerine Bank. Join Simplii Financial today! Read more about the best Canadian online virtual banks.
• Emergency Savings Account– This money is in a high-interest savings account (HISA)
• Regular Savings Account– This savings account holds our projected expenses.

Grocery Discounts March 2023 Budget

Soon, I will be writing a detailed blog post about why we will track our grocery discounts.

Update: 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.

For March 2023, we saved $35.62 by purchasing food that was reduced in price.

So far, in 2023, purchasing discounted food has saved us $138.83

March 2023 Budget and Actual Budget

Below are two tables: Our March 2023 Budget and our Actual Budget.

Our March 2023 monthly budget represents two adults and an 8-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 renovations.

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

Estimated March 2023 Budget

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

Actual February 2023 Budget

Happenings For Our March 2023 Budget

If you got a chance to read my last newsletter, then you’ll know we rescued another kitten.

Our pet category for March is far over budget due to a few purchases.

• We gifted $50 to the rescue
• New litter box and floor mat to capture any litter.
• Food, water bowls, and a new mat
• Extra litter from Costco
• New metal poop scooper from Canadian Tire
• Microchip memberships for both cats that came with personalized tags.
• Extra cat food and snacks

The new kitten has not been to the vet yet but is scheduled for July.

Owning a cat is expensive and will increase our pet expenditures but seeing them enjoying the company is nice.

For more info, read, How much does raising a cat in Canada cost?

Telecommunications March 2023 Budget

It was time to renew our Rogers unlimited data plan, and of course, the promo price increased.

Rogers sent us a new box, and we had to return our older model as they updated.

I’m not sure if you are aware, but as a Rogers customer, they have a service guarantee.

30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee

Choose Rogers with confidence thanks to our 30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee.

Enjoy your new service or get a refund on your setup and monthly fees, if you cancel within the first 30 days^**

Rogers Canada

Now Rogers is offering us a promo for the internet, which we’re not sure about yet.

We currently pay $84.99 /mo for unlimited internet, but they offer an Ignite Smartstream promo for $89.99.

The discount is $40 a month, but honestly, I’m not sure if we care as our internet is fine the way it is.

For our Rogers plan, we did upgrade to the promo for $45 a month for 25 GB.

It was hard to pass up as we paid $35 for 5GB and constantly worried about going over.

With the blog being a business, it’s essential always to be connected, and the upgrade helps.

When we do have the option for free Wi-Fi, we do take it, but mostly when grocery shopping.

Our telecommunications budget category covers Freedom Mobile, Rogers, and Spotify.

Car and Home Insurance

There’s a spike in this budget category as our annual CAA membership was due.

We save monthly for this as a projected expense, so it wasn’t a surprise for us.

Grocery Budget

We went over budget by $275 because we went to Costco and did stock up.

Although we visit Costco once a month, we don’t always buy extras such as doubles of items on sale.

Lastly, Mrs. CBB is no longer on keto, so we are back to a protein and veggies diet, although she eats low carb.

Home Maintenance

Mrs. CBB broke the blinds in our kitchen, and the garage needed a new one, so I bought them from Home Depot.

I also picked up new outside vents, electrical outlets, and a furnace vent that needed replacing.

Entertainment

We splurged on concert tickets as we hadn’t been for a long while.

The concert wasn’t until August, and the seat price, ticket insurance, and parking were reasonable.

We will attend the concert with friends and split the gas and parking costs.

Other expenses relate to weekly Tuesday night pizza from the shop and McDonald’s ice cream.

Clothing March 2023 Budget

For 2023 we are working to reduce our clothing expenses where possible.

Although we buy second-hand, we often find great deals online, then pair them with Rakuten and credit card rewards.

An example would be our latest online pants purchase for our son, who doesn’t know how to use buttons.

I paid $20 a pair, which was fantastic, along with a North Face winter jacket and pants for the 2023-2024 winter.

Do any of you buy items off-season to save money? We do this all the time.

Maybe I should blog about what we do.

Reply to this email and let me know if you want me to share this info.

2023 CBB Net Worth Update

Monthly I will share the difference and percent change in our investment portfolio.

Since our house is paid in full and we have zero debt, I didn’t think it was necessary to share our net worth any longer.

However, for those of you interested in seeing our investment fluctuations, I will share them.

If you want to know more about our investments, reply to this email to let me know what you’d like to see next month.

As the investment market goes up, it can go down, and that’s precisely what we got in March.

That’s all for our March 2023 Monthly Budget update, although I may change things as I go along.

If there’s something you’d like to see in our monthly update, hit reply to this email and let me know.

Thanks for stopping by, and please subscribe if you are new to CBB.

Mr. CBB

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