Budget Report
a month in the life of the Cruz family
Family and Occupation
My name is Ashley Portillo Cruz and my husband's name is Jeon Cruz, we have a baby girl named Selena Maralyn who was born on January 24, 2016. We also have one cat named
Molly to entertain our daughter. I work as an Insurance sales agent. Each month I get paid 2,750 dollars while my husband gets 1,250 dollars a month, together we have 4,000 dollars each month as our beginning balance.
Car and Apartment
To find a car I had to make sure it was in good conditions had at least four seats and had a price that my husband and I could afford . I knew my car had to cost 11,424 dollars or less in total. In addition, the monthly payment had to be of 190.40 dollars of less per month. Since my family isn't the richest we were trying to save as much money, so we decided to go for a blue Chevy Cruze LS (2012) that costs 10,263 dollars in total, we will be paying 171.05 dollars as our monthly payment. As the total price, we saved 1,161 dollars, which is a big help for our family, because it will allow us to save or spend the money on other important utilities or needs.
Apartment
To find a house or apartment I had to make sure It was something I could afford and also save money. My home value had to be between 80K-115K and had to have a monthly payment of $714.00 or less.
Save Money
My family's goal is to always save money, so I tried to find the cheapest and nicest place to stay in, which is why I was mainly looking for an apartment. My apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a pool as well as a playground.
Monthly Payment and Total Payment
Each month my husband and I will pay $580.00 for my rent, and my total price will be $81,200.00. As I observe my check register I realize that my apartment monthly payment is what dropped our beginning balance the most. But on the other hand, we did save 134 dollars as our monthly payment.
Paying Bills
Paying bills were very hard because it wasn't something I could control and find the "cheapest" of. I had to pay house rent, my car payment, utilities, insurance, and my cell phone bill. For my house, the monthly payment I paid $580 and for my car I paid $171.05. After paying the two bills I had $3,248.95 dollars left for my monthly balance, but I wasn't done I still had to pay utilities and Insurence, for utilities I paid $418, and for my insurance I paid $450, which then left me with 2,380.95 dollars as my balance. And finally, I payed my cell phone bill, which was $59.99. After paying all my bills I was left with 2,320.96 dollars, I then realized how much bills affected my monthly balance and finally understood why my parents complained so much about bills.
Grocery List
Grocery shopping was one the most difficult tasks during the project because I had a budget, of $150.00 I could spend less but not more, which was very hard and difficult for me. As I was shopping I made sure I did not go for the first product I saw and instead kept looking for a cheaper price. I also subtracted the amount paid each time I bought something, from my budget. This helped a lot because as my budget lowered I had more caution with what I bought and could see how much money I had left. I also realized how expensive name brands are compared store brand, even though they are the same product. After grocery shopping, my grand total was $108.98, wich means I saved $41.02.