I present to you April of the 2011 $32K Savings Challenge!
I have posted my APRIL End of Month $32K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.
I have 2 goals really 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 $2,666.67.
I have to report that we finished up April in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of April with.......$6500.35.
Income
We had $1823.86 left over from our income after our expenses were deducted.
Add in $62.99 of Rebates applied against the food expenses and the Tax Refund of $4613.50 you have a deposit of $6,500.35 toward the Savings Challenge!
Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal. We came in well over that amount due to the tax refund mostly. Since we've been short of our monthly goal for all 3 of the previous months, this month's total sure helps to boost our yearly total so far!
Outgo
As for the expenses in April....
HERE are the GOOD THINGS
*The credit card bill was just over $600.
*The electric bill went down another $73.
*We ONLY spent $244 on car repairs/maintenance. Unfortunately, this amount is great for us. ugh
*Dr. and test copays were only $13.83 this month.
HERE are the BAD THINGS
*Hubs took out way more WAM than normal this month.
*The real estate taxes were due this month(municipal and county).
*We had a vet visit for the beagle with the bad back. She cost $77 for that one visit.
*We had a dental payment of $82.
Mostly the cash withdrawals and the annual taxes paid this month were the worst "bad things".
The Food Budget costs for April are in another post, which is located HERE. The actual Food/Toiletries spending in April was more than $140 under budget.
What's ahead for May.......
Unless something comes up(and doesn't it always seem to!lol), it's just the usual suspects this month--electric, water, phone, cable, food, prescriptions, dr. visits, etc.
We do have the yearly dogs' vet visit this month but it shouldn't be as bad as it has been in the past because we are down to 2 dogs now and we kept them on heartworm meds all year so there won't be any re-testing fees for that this year.
So If I can keep the food spending on budget(in the face of having all 3 teens home in May), we should be able to put away a good sized amount into savings this month.
YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL.....
With 4 months behind us, our Savings total to-date for 2011 is $11,636.88.
We finally are ahead of schedule with the Savings goal for the year!
Before April's addition we were running about half of what we need to save to this point, to meet our goal for the year.
And if you need to start putting money into savings......What's that you say? You don't have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses!!??....consider playing along in 2011 with me and Challenging Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal!
Not everyone can shoot for $32K, 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. It will help keep you accountable to your goal if other eyes are on you.
Ooo, that sounded kind of creepy didn't it? ;-)
So how was your April 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!
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
I have posted my APRIL End of Month $32K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.
I have 2 goals really 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 $2,666.67.
I have to report that we finished up April in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of April with.......$6500.35.
Income
We had $1823.86 left over from our income after our expenses were deducted.
Add in $62.99 of Rebates applied against the food expenses and the Tax Refund of $4613.50 you have a deposit of $6,500.35 toward the Savings Challenge!
Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal. We came in well over that amount due to the tax refund mostly. Since we've been short of our monthly goal for all 3 of the previous months, this month's total sure helps to boost our yearly total so far!
Outgo
As for the expenses in April....
HERE are the GOOD THINGS
*The credit card bill was just over $600.
*The electric bill went down another $73.
*We ONLY spent $244 on car repairs/maintenance. Unfortunately, this amount is great for us. ugh
*Dr. and test copays were only $13.83 this month.
HERE are the BAD THINGS
*Hubs took out way more WAM than normal this month.
*The real estate taxes were due this month(municipal and county).
*We had a vet visit for the beagle with the bad back. She cost $77 for that one visit.
*We had a dental payment of $82.
Mostly the cash withdrawals and the annual taxes paid this month were the worst "bad things".
The Food Budget costs for April are in another post, which is located HERE. The actual Food/Toiletries spending in April was more than $140 under budget.
What's ahead for May.......
Unless something comes up(and doesn't it always seem to!lol), it's just the usual suspects this month--electric, water, phone, cable, food, prescriptions, dr. visits, etc.
We do have the yearly dogs' vet visit this month but it shouldn't be as bad as it has been in the past because we are down to 2 dogs now and we kept them on heartworm meds all year so there won't be any re-testing fees for that this year.
So If I can keep the food spending on budget(in the face of having all 3 teens home in May), we should be able to put away a good sized amount into savings this month.
YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL.....
With 4 months behind us, our Savings total to-date for 2011 is $11,636.88.
We finally are ahead of schedule with the Savings goal for the year!
Before April's addition we were running about half of what we need to save to this point, to meet our goal for the year.
And if you need to start putting money into savings......What's that you say? You don't have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses!!??....consider playing along in 2011 with me and Challenging Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal!
Not everyone can shoot for $32K, 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. It will help keep you accountable to your goal if other eyes are on you.
Ooo, that sounded kind of creepy didn't it? ;-)
So how was your April 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!
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
Somehow we ended up in the black this month, too, despite spending $400 on 3 pair of glasses. One for me and one regular and a free pair of reading glasses for Hubby. We have really good vision insurance, but my glasses are expensive!
ReplyDeleteWe also had to spend about $300 for Hubby's crown when one of his teeth broke.
I tell the vet the dog is on HW all year and I buy enough meds for it. Then I give them every 45 days, stop in the dead of winter, and will start again on June 1st. Since our yearly visit is in November (I got six doses then), I'll have enough HW to get through summer without the test. Then I'll pull the same thing in November.
ReplyDeleteYou can space HW out to 45 days. They just instruct monthly because it's easier to remember!
You probably already figured that my April budget went in the toilet (along with my marriage - LOL!), but I shall strive to start anew with May.
ReplyDeleteMany congrats on a fabulous savings month!!!!!
Great job saving! Good tax refund too. We had our biggest yet this year, but only because we paid $35,000 out of pocket in medical costs last year that weren't covered by insurance! Thankfully we won't be having that again this year, and have been able to set aside the tax refund to use toward hard wood floors in our house.
ReplyDelete