$20K Savings Challenge.....August 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 August report.....

I have posted my August End of Month $20K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog 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 August in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of August with?.......$263.62

Income
We had $182.41 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in August was some bank account interest totaling $81.21.  This brought our gain to $263.62 for August.

 

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The water bill went down by almost HALF because we shut down the pool.

*  The food/toiletries bill was approx. $8 less than my budgeted $400 each month.

*  Electricity bill was about $20 lower than July's bill.

*  No quarterly garbage bill this month.

*  No doctor co-pays this month....woohoo!

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The cash withdrawals were $340 higher due to vacation spending.
*  The music lessons bill was $30 higher.

*  Semi-annual car insurance bill was due.

*  School photos for #2 Son paid for.
*  Wisdom teeth removal bill.

*  Wedding present check to sister in-law came out of monthly income.

*  Credit card bill was $1300 higher than last month's bill.

 

Credit card had a $500 car repair on it from July plus $350 in dna testing costs(3 tests for 3 different people) plus my yearly subscription to Ancestry dotcom was due(ouch).  I spent $80 on some new clothing which is also on that month's bill.  The other $400 or so was usual gas and eating out spending.

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

We came in under budget by $8.14 last month.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 8 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $16,262.84.  Only $3,818.37 left to save and 4 months left to accomplish this.

That comes out to $934.29 per month for the next 4 months to reach the goal.
 

Looking ahead for September......
 

*  The credit card bill will be large again, due to miscellaneous vacation spending.  The gas/tolls/car rental/meals/lodging costs will be paid for out of savings from our vacation fund.  But the other spending/shopping will be coming out of regular income from this month. 

*  Now that the semi-annual car insurance is paid, September has me paying the yearly school taxes bill.  I pay it early to get the 2% discount.  It's not much of a savings but it's something.
  

*  The weekly music lessons are going up as we are going from a 45 min. lesson to a 1 hour lesson this month.  This adds $10 per lesson onto that bill, so most months it will increase that bill from $120 to $160 per month.  This bill will continue for another year, until #2 Son leaves for college.

 

*  Hopefully the temperatures in September will be moderate so we won't need to run the a/c(WHEN it gets fixed!argh) or the heat, bringing our electricity costs down for the month.

 

*  We have another long weekend trip the end of September, so whatever we pay cash for, those costs will come out of Sept's. pay.  If we put charges on the credit card instead, the October spending will be higher.   It's either pay the charges with September's money or pay it later with October's income.

Decisions, decisions....lol  In the end, as long as we have the cash to cover the costs(and we do), it's all good.

 

So how was your August financially?  It wasn't a great month for us.  While we had enough income in August to cover all our costs, we spent ALOT of money(for us)and ended up with only a couple hundred dollars leftover after paying all the bills.
  

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 July?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in July 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