$60K Savings Challenge OCTOBER Totals.....Amazing Progress!

I have posted my OCTOBER End of Month 60K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right(near the bottom) for the specific numbers.


Reversely, as badly as September's numbers were, October's totals are amazingly incredible!


Unlike September, I have to report that we finished up October in the Black.

The amount we ended the month of September with was......sit down for this......$4,099.02!
Woot!


The electric bill went up $7+ from Sept.'s bill.  Not bad considering that the heat went on(now & again) halfway into the month.

The water bill saw a decrease of $10+.   Don't know what's up with that but I'll take it!lol
All other regular bills...Cable, Internet, Phone, etc. are the same each month.

The Food Budget costs for October are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food/Toiletries spending in October was my lowest monthly total for the year, once you figure in the flea market money I earmarked for Food/Toiletries Budget and the rebates that arrived.
With Thanksgiving fast approaching and Christmas shortly after it, plus a pretty good Catalina Deal at Acme and Weis this week, I hold no grand illusions of staying out of the grocery stores this month.lolol
Face it, I am a Catalina Deal 'ho. ;-)
If things go as planned(and they never do in my world), I will come out of this week with mega Food Bank donation material....and a detailed blog post to follow.   This shopping trip(s) will take a piece of my food budget however since the coupon coverage on the deals is spotty, so I'll be using some $$ to get it rolling and there will be costs on each transaction, albeit small.  But the end result will be so worth the cash spent. 8-))

So, what did I do right in October to come out of it with over $4K extra?

Firstly, I spent more in September because I paid some bills quarterly, so garbage and sewage are done for the year.  No October payments on those...$200 saved for the month.

Secondly, we stayed out of restaurants and I didn't do as much running around in the car, saving gas and shopping expenditures.  That was reflected in the low credit card bill in October.  We also didn't have any large charges on the cc bill.  The cc bill(which is paid off every month-NO BALANCE)went from $2333+ in September to $845.49 in October.  That's a BIG difference!  About a third of that $845 was for a bed for my son who outgrew his old bed.  Savings difference from last month of $1488.

Thirdly, we had no local/state/school taxes due in October, like the $1800+ we paid in September.
We did have some non-regular monthly bills, like a $160.80 car repair and a $72 vet bill but nothing big enough to put much of a dent into the savings for the month.

Fourthly, Hubby tried very hard and was able to keep his Cash withdrawals lower in October.  I guess he read my September rundown.lol  He's been taking his lunch to work more and not spending so much on incidentals and impulse purchases.  I am so proud of him! 8-))

Even though saving a dollar here, a dollar there may not seem like it helps you save any substantial amount of cash, in the long run, when you add those pennies and dimes up, they turn into dollars...and when the dollars start piling up, it can turn into a HEAP of $$!

We are Ten Months into this $AVING$ Challenge, and we have a Savings Total of $18,571.08 for the year.

What's ahead for November....

I keep handy my previous year's check register.
Why?
Because by referring to what checks were written last year in November, it gives me an idea of what expenses we will be seeing this November.  I see that there are no large recurring quarterly/yearly charges coming due this month, so if we can keep the current spending/bills low & no unexpected bills pop up, I see the potential for another good savings month.

The variable expenses need to be monitored carefully though....the cash withdrawals,  the food spending,  and the credit card usage.  We are under $500 on the cc bill with only 6 days until the statement closes for 'our' month(which runs from the 10thish to the 10thish), so that expense should be low.  The food spending(with my dealaholic tendencies)is my Achilles heel here.

Besides hubby's paychecks, I'm jumping back into eBay this month, and I am waiting on over $300 in rebate checks and expect at least $250 worth of them to arrive this month, so we have a good potential on the income side.

Income up, expenses down....it's looking promising.  Cross your fingers we can all get through November financially advantageously!  December will be a whole other hedonistic holiday ballgame....

Be sure and check out how others are doing with their finances this month at Money Saving Mom.

So how was your October financially?  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!

And what are your plans for your money in November? 


Sluggy