$60K $AVING$ CHALLENGE-March Update

I have posted my March End of Month 60K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals already. I know it's not April yet(1.5 days to go) but I'm trying to be on top of things so cut me some slack, ok?
If I happen to spend any money between now and April, I'll shake down #1 son for some cash since he has a real job. All those months of puking up everything I ate and carrying his lardass fetus around should be good for a 20 spot, right?lolol

Down to business.....
After the disasterous February Total(negative gain), I am happy to report that we finished March in THE BLACK!
Yah!!!
We lowered our MasterCard bill(which is paid off each month-NO BALANCE EVER!) to under $1K(last month it was over $2.3K). Usually when the MC bill goes down, hubby's Cash Withdrawals go up. We did Not see an increase in Cash Withdrawals this time.
We had a bit of rolled coins as usual, but you will notice there is NO eBay income for March. I have been so preoccupied with getting a food/toiletries stockpile up and organized, along with other stuff related to the kids that I let my eBay store sit vacant for almost the entire month. I am kicking myself because of the waste of money paying a store fee to eBay & an auction managemnt/photo storage fee to InkFrog for the month for NOTHING. But I find it difficult to keep myself on task w/eBay lately, since the sales when I was keeping up with it this winter were so disappointing. The economic crunch is hitting even eBay shoppers and the sellers there are feeling it. It figures in a recession-like economy I would see a large falling off of sales, since I don't sell 'needs' type items.
Back on point....
A large part of the glorious NET GAIN for March you see is the Income Tax Refund we received last week. Without that added into our Income column, we still eeked out a Gain for March of about $1K.
This $AVING$ CHALLENGE is 'my thing'.
Only 1/2 the refund is mine technically.
Hubby needs to be consulted about any potential plans for his part of that money. For now, I'm leaving it all in the $aving$ Column. I'll update after a final decision on the refund.

I was happy to see that we could still $ave this month, even though we had approx. $1400 in unusual expenses-Municipal taxes, state taxes due & Dental bills out of the ordinary.

Next month I am looking for the electric bill to decrease(less heating costs)& I'm going to look into lowering the cable costs and consolidating phone services.
I'm still spending too much on the food/household budget. I'll be updating those costs for March in an upcoming post.

It's the End of the 1st Quarter of 2009. So far we have a Savings Total of $7409.53 for the year. If we keep this up, we'll be able to $ave ALMOST $30K this year! It's not $60K like I had planned, but I'll consider it a very good result.
March had a positive outcome & I'm planning some changes to give us a better gain in April.....unless MURPHY shows up on the doorstep while my back is turned!

Sluggy