May 2026 was a pretty crazy month for the budget. We had two big events, a house project and a vacation, that created some unusually high spending. Also, a couple of annual bills came due, further inflating May's total spend.
That's just how personal finance, and life I suppose, goes. You'd like a clean and average month, but reality has other plans.
Let's start off with the budget report, and then I'll explain the unusual spending in more detail.
Budget Report
C:\FINANCE> RUN MAY2026.EXE
Analyzing transactions...
Generating report...
[REPORT GENERATED]
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| MAY 2026 HOUSEHOLD EXPENSE REPORT |
| C:\BUDGET\REPORTS\MAY2026.EXE |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
TOTAL SPENDING: $21,926.68
CATEGORY BREAKDOWN
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Maintenance [##############################] 13,445
Mortgage [####..........................] 1,798
Groceries & Supplies [###...........................] 1,381
Fuel [##............................] 951
Healthcare Services [##............................] 911
Eating Out [##............................] 783
Travel & Recreation [#.............................] 648
Kelsey Discretionary [#.............................] 565
Cell Phone [#.............................] 370
Vehicle Insurance [#.............................] 340
Pet Supplies & Healthcare [#.............................] 269
Colby Discretionary [..............................] 145
Electricity [..............................] 124
Water & Trash [..............................] 102
Natural Gas [..............................] 54
Life Insurance [..............................] 29
Vehicle Maintenance [..............................] 11
--------------------------------------------------------------
TOP CATEGORY : HOME MAINTENANCE (61.3%)
GRAND TOTAL : $21,926.68
--------------------------------------------------------------
END OF REPORT
Fence and Vacation
The big one this month... Home Maintenance. We put in a new fence around the yard for our dog. Juniper loves to run, and we have a little under an acre of land. It was a lot of fence. In fact, you're only seeing half the project in May's budget report. The other half was spent in April. Oh the joy's of owning a home...
The good news? The fence should last 20 years, probably more. It's a western cedar split-rail fence, so there is no maintenance. The wood weathers over time until it needs to be replaced. Cedar is naturally rot resistant, and has a great color even when weathered. We dog-proofed it with some black wire mesh that becomes almost invisible from a distance. Our yard now looks like a state park or something. We love it.
The second big event of May was our camping trip. We took 2 weeks and drove our Scamp travel trailer a few thousand miles to the Southwest, hitting the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Zion National Park in Utah, and more. Fuel was the biggest expense of this trip. Most of the campgrounds we stayed at were already paid for from previous months, so that cost isn't reflected here. But gas spending for May was almost $1,000, about 10x what we normally spend. Food was another big one for this trip, pushing up our Groceries and Eating Out categories well above normal.
Annual Services Due
Another thing that made this month so expensive: Annual services coming due. Our car insurance and cell phone bill were paid in May. Although relatively cheap if you look at it monthly, it always sucks when you pay the big chuck at once. The insurance was paid in full for a 6 month premium. The cell phone bill of $340 is for 12 months of service. Not bad!
Healthcare was another exception for this month. I had a minor procedure which was over $700.
Time To Cool The Spending
I'm ready to cut back all the Home Maintenance stuff in June. Actually, I'm ready to cut back on almost everything. After a big spending month I like to try to reset by making the next month go below average. Might be hard, I have another camping trip and some more healthcare stuff to take care of. But we shall see.
Net Worth Update
C:\FINANCE> NETWORTH.EXE
│ ╭● $838,195
│ │
$800K ┤ ●────╯
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
MAY JUNE
MAY 2026 GAIN : +$38,917.57
The net worth is doing great because the stock market is doing really great. At this point, my retirmenet investments do all the heavy lifting. It's pretty insane how compound gains work. Early on, when I only had $10,000 or so invested, my retirement contributions were the thing that made the number go up. But now, my contributions are a drop in the bucket when the market goes up. My portfolio has gone up almost $100,000 in the last 2 months, simply because of the stock market.
Kind of insane, and kind of scary. After all, if it can go up that much in a short period of time, it can also go back down!
Final Thoughts
Crazy spending, but crazy net worth gain. I suppose neither is very common, so this month remains an outlier. I'm hoping to get my spending back under control as the projects wind down.
Thanks for reading, I'm going to head out into my newly fenced yard and play some frisbee with Juni!