$20K Savings Challenge.....June Update

In our family we save money. It is important to us to put money aside for "rainy days".  You know.....those unexpected days when things happen in your life that you can't plan on, but that DO happen and they cost you money you didn't know you'd need to pay out.

Our income is mainly the salary my Hubs draws from his job.  We have money taken off each paycheck from the top to put into savings, before we even get our hands on it.  This money that's taken goes into various pots....life insurance, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.
Once the automatic savings, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision payments are taken out, it leaves what we get to "live on".  From this amount we budget for bills, both monthly and irregular bills(semi-annual, etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2013 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am going to keep the Goal amount at $20,000 again this year.

On to the June report.....

I have posted my June 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 June in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of June with?.......$844.79

Income
We had $629.95 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted. 

Add in 2 per diem expense reimbursement check, 2 stock dividend checks, a tow reimbursement and a refund on our car insurance(from removing daughter from the policy)and we have another $214.84 not spent this month.  This brought our gain to $844.79 for June.

 

Frankly, I am shocked that we had this much leftover from June's income because it seemed we experienced way higher than normal outgo.  But looking over the Good/Bad bullet points, besides the credit card bill, everything else wasn't so bad compared to last month.

Outgo

As for the expenses this June, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Music lesson bill was half of it's usual amount due to teacher being away for half the month.

*  The electric bill was almost $56 less.
*  The food/toiletries bill was less than my budgeted $400 each month.

*  The cost of our prescriptions was half of what it was in May.

*  Cash withdrawals were $20 less than last month.

*  The doctor bill co-pays were under $80 this month.(Last month was over $1500.)

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  Quarterly garbage bill due.
*  The phone bill was up by $2+.

*  The water bill doubled, as predicted in last month's report.  This was mainly due to the repair and refilling the pool and is expected every May or June.

*  The credit card bill....OH!, the credit card bill....lol  It was $1857+ MORE than last month.  This will be going down to $1409.21 more than last month when the freezer gets returned.  Still too high. 8-(

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

We came in under budget by $119.26 last month.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 6 month behind us, half the year, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $12,571.63.  Only $7,438.37 left to save and 6 months left to accomplish this.

That comes out to $1,238.06 per month for the next 6 months to reach the goal.

Looking ahead for July......

*  Still waiting for medical bills to come in.  I don't know what the hold up is, but since we switched doctors to our insurance/health provider affiliated doctors, we haven't had to pay any co-pays at visits.  This is something new for us. 
 

*  I suspect once we get the new a/c system installed this month and the heat ratchets up the electric bill will increase moderately.

*  Last July we had a $1500 car repair bill.  Hubs car needs some maintenance work so it will go in for that this July.  I hope the bill is not anywhere near last July's total though.
  

*  The annual homeowner's insurance is due in July.  Last year it was $596.  Will be curious to see  how much it goes up this year.  Between that bill and the semi-annual car insurance bill which comes due in August, we need to stay as frugal as possible(outside of the planned home renovations/repairs we are paying for in July/August)with the bills.

So how was your June financially?  It was pretty much a wash for us in terms of getting ahead.
 

Did you put ordinary living expenses on a credit card last month and not pay it off in full when due?
Did you spend less than the income you had in June?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in June like a tax refund, a dividend or bonus at work, and what did you do with those funds?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle?

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out your progress too and celebrate with you!

Sluggy