It’s the end of a month, and as I did in my January Budget Recap, I find it helpful to check in at the end of the month to see how the month went and if there is any tweaking I need to do before a new month is underway.

If you don’t have a budget, then you probably will want to start there. See my post on how to start a budget!

If you do have a budget, then here are some things to think about as February comes to a close. Consider this post your sign to do a February budget recap and help you get some perspective so you can stay on track for the rest of the year.

End of the Month Budget Questions | February Budget Recap

Did you actually track your spending?

A budget isn’t meant to keep you in a prison. It’s meant to help you figure out how you want to spend your money, and then keep track of whether you’re sticking to your plan. Think back to January as well. If you haven’t been tracking your spending, what barriers are keeping you from doing that? Do you need to change your method by using a different app, making a spreadsheet, or switching to pencil and paper?

How much did you spend last month?

If you did track your spending, great job! Now you can zoom out and look at your overall spending. You can also look at individual categories and see what your spending was. I failed to think about the potential spending we would do on Valentine’s Day. I had budgeted for a special dinner for my husband and me, but I didn’t think about some Valentine’s parties my kids were invited to. I’m happy to say I stuck to my goal for grocery spending in February! If you start to see a pattern of spending more in a category and you don’t really have a good reason why, it might be time to think about what needs to change.

Will you be planning to spend more or less on a certain category in the coming month?

Next month I know I will need to do a big Costco run to stock up on toilet paper and some other bulk items, so I’m going to add a little extra to that category. In our coffee budget, I can actually plan to spend nothing because our favorite local coffee shop let me have a bunch of coffee that was about to expire for FREE. I put it in the freezer and we’ll pull it out as needed.

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