Our family budget on two paychecks: the April numbers

Harper leaned over my shoulder Thursday night, read the grocery line off my laptop and said, "A thousand dollars? We don't even eat that much." She was holding a cheese stick at the time.

She's ten, so I let it go. But it's a fair question, and it's why this post exists. I've kept a household budget spreadsheet since 2018, one tab per month, and April is about as ordinary as our months get. No birthdays, no Christmas, no car repairs. Just two working parents, a fourth grader, a beagle mix and a 1956 brick ranch in southeast Decatur.

How two paychecks become one budget

I make $88,000 as a project manager in Huntsville. Ben makes $78,000 as a physical therapist here in Decatur. We're both paid every other Friday, and our retirement contributions and health insurance come out before either check lands, so you won't see them below.

We build each month on four regular paychecks, two of mine and two of Ben's. Twice a year each of us gets a third paycheck in a month, and those never go into the budget. They go straight to savings, along with whatever is left in checking on the last day of the month.

In 14 years of HR, the money question I heard most wasn't about raises. It was "Why is my check smaller than my salary divided by 26?" Most people know their salary to the dollar and their take-home pay only roughly, and I was one of them until I started the spreadsheet.

Here's the April tab. The actual column runs through Friday, with one last grocery run and a tank of gas penciled in. The emergency fund line is $300 from each of my paychecks, and it has been running since last June.

Where April went over, and where it didn't

Groceries, $92 over. A Costco run in Huntsville after work ($286), Harper's turn to bring class snacks and two weeks of full-price strawberries. Our pattern is boring and reliable: weeks I hit Aldi first and fill in at Publix or Kroger land around $210. Weeks I skip Aldi don't.

Eating out, $58 over. Two Tuesday lunches with coworkers near the office and a Friday pizza after a long week. None of it was regrettable. It just wasn't in the plan.

House and yard, $118 over. Mulch for the front beds, a new hose and someone to clean the gutters under the big oak. Ben handles the yard, and his position is that mulch is a house expense, not a fun one. Fair, and the line was still too small for April.

Household, $53 over, and Moose, $11 over. A shower curtain liner, a restock of everything under the bathroom sink and a new harness for Moose, who chewed through the old one in a single afternoon.

On the other side, the city utility came in $19 under because April in Decatur barely needs the AC, and gas was $16 under. Clothes and haircuts were $58 under. Nobody got sick, so copays were $50 under, and weekends were $54 under because Point Mallard hasn't opened yet.

All in, we're $135 over a $5,830 plan. The under lines absorbed most of the damage, and the end-of-month sweep to savings will be $135 lighter. That's the whole consequence.

What changes for May

• Groceries stay at $920, and Aldi goes first every week.
• Office lunches get their own $40 inside the eating-out line, so they're planned instead of a surprise.
• The $275 summer childcare savings line finishes in May, right when the day camp fees are due.
• The $150 sinking-fund line is doing a lot of pretending, and I know it. That's a project for later this year.

That's our April, in our town, on our two paychecks. It isn't a template, just one real month, and your numbers will look like your life, not ours.