Wednesday, June 6, 2012

$20K Savings Challenge Report for May 2012

Ok, here is my May Savings Challenge Update post for 2012.
This post is NOT about bragging or showing off.  It's just what we are able to save given our income and being able to hang tough against "unconscious" spending.
Just to update, My Savings Goal for the Year in 2012 is $20,000.  It's well below what I've saved in previous years I know.  But we also have a goal of paying for 4 home improvement projects at Chez Sluggy this year.  We plan on cash-flowing these projects with the additional money we save and/or our income tax refund.

On to the May report.....

I have posted my MAY End of Month $20K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $1,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up May in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of May with?.......$2,832.03!

Income
We had $2728.26 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $2.00 in Rebates applied against the food expenses, $101.31 in blog ad revenue & $.46 in interest(HAHAHAHAHA!) and  you get a total of $2,832.03.

Outgo
Traditionally May has been a fairly normal month as far as spending goes.  No big tax bills or lump payments. 
As for the expenses this May......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS
*  The water bill was boringly the same.
*  The mild winter temps continued, which decreased our heating/electric bill by about $25.  The second consecutive month for a decrease....yay!
*   The credit card was $400 less than last month's bill.  It was still over $1K though. bleh!
*  No car maintenance/repairs bills this month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  Credit card bill was fairly high at $1000+.
*  We bought a new dishwasher.
*  The new dishwasher meant hiring a plumber to install it(our house is weird)....that was $265!!!
*  Another vet bill for 1 of the dogs.  Not large but it's still unusual spending.
*  Cash spending(my food money and Hub's WAM money)was WAY HIGH!  I'm going to have a talk with him about reigning it in this weekend.

The Food Budget costs for May are in another post, which is located HERE.

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 4 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is $9,422.83.
We hit our monthly goal in May and then some, so now we are ahead of where we need to be
With 5 months done, we should be at $8,333.35 saved for the year, so $1,089.48 ahead for the year!

As for a look ahead at JUNE.....
* There will be another vet bill for surgery the beagle had this week.(It was put on the credit card.)
* The quarterly garbage bill will be due.
* Mini-vacation will cost money but most charges will be put on credit card so not due until July.(Good for June's figures but not for July's.)
* A 3rd paycheck in JUNE!!!  We will NOT use it toward our saving challenge goal however.  This check will go toward paying the home improvement projects that NEED to begin soon.

I figure I should be able to meet the monthly savings goal for this Challenge in June, barring any money fiascoes.

So how much did YOU save in May?  Did you spend all your income or did you put something aside?

Do you have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses?
Do you have debt?

Start living below your means NOW and put some money away for emergencies and/or start paying down your debt.
And once you get debt-free, continue to throw that debt repayment money into savings.  You won't believe how fast you can accumulate wealth once you have no debt!

It is NEVER too early or too late to SAVE SOMETHING.
And the amount you save is NEVER too small!
Anything you can spare will go a long way to make you more financially secure in this crazy unstable world we live in.
So come along and Challenge Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal or Debt Goal!
Not everyone can shoot for $20K, I fully get that!
But everyone can shoot for some number, right!?

Find a money goal that works for you and put that number out there for everyone to see.  Put it into paying down your debt, put it into savings, invest it or put it toward the principle in your home mortgage....just get busy and do this!

It will help keep you accountable to your goal if other eyes are on you.
Put it out there online and let us all stalk your money too. ;-)

So how was your May financially?
Did you spend less than you made?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
How much did you save in May?

Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!

Sluggy

8 comments:

  1. Woohoo! 46 cents revenue!! That would make or break us probably...
    Good for you!

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  2. You are doing very well! At a time when people have having difficulty saving, you are making it happen. Posting your progress is sure to give others hope that they can do it, too. It's all about working with the money you have and making it work for you. Good luck with your savings goals.

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  3. You are doing awesome on your goals!

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  4. Good job!
    So what are the home improvements you are doing?
    How did you manage to make over $100 with ads on your site? I'm making about $.87 a month!

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  5. My May was rather disastrous. Semi-expected events laid waste to my budget, but although it is VERY tight, I'm still within my extended budget.

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  6. May was a bit of a continued disaster, so let's leave it at that. Expected events that I had no control over (wedding + graduation) sent me over budget within days. In debt-repayment terms? I'm quite solid. My EF is non-existant, but I'm still paying down debt. (Sorry if this posts twice, having issues with my blogger)

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  7. McVal--I feel silly putting that interest earnings in but hey!, it's something, right?lol

    Anne--Thanks for coming to see me today. 8-)

    Lena--Thanks for the support! ;-)

    SonyaAnn--Let's see....fixing the walls in the living/dining room, fixing the ceiling in the dining room/kitchen, putting down hardwood floors in the living/dining rooms, finishing the crown moulding in the living/dining rooms, repainting the downstairs and the upstairs hallway.
    Is that enough projects for ya?lol
    We'll see what actually gets done tho....I am not opptomistic.

    As for the ads-I just do Google AdSense thru Blogger. It is highly profitable.....*rolls eyes*....they cut a check when you hit $100 of earnings....I hit that about every 1.5 YEARS!LOLOLOL In 3 years this is my 2nd check.

    Tanner--Thanks for coming to see me today. Glad you could hold something together in May. Doesn't it worry you not to have an EF?

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  8. May should have sucked, since we had some hefty care expenses, but it didn't. We were able to pay for those without pulling anything out of savings. The only debt we have is our car loan, which could easily be paid off if we did not have a a great interest rate and I liked to keep that money in the bank. LOL! And we have a comfortable emergency fund. Once again, we are good.

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