Income & Spending Report.....December Update

* As Hubs retired effective July 1, I am no longer doing my 2017 Savings Challenge.
We ended that on June 30th.  The goal was $17.5K saved for the half of 2017 that Hubs was working.
We actually saved $21,100.42 all totaled, so $3600.42 over goal!

Now that we are living on an annuity and 401K$(no 401K$ until October)I am still going to keep track of our monthly spending and income, and hopefully we'll still be able to live BELOW our means and I'll have some leftover monies each month to tuck aside.
But this money leftover at the end of each month, at least for now(as we find our new financial "normal")won't be saved toward a yearly Savings Challenge.

The issue now is to cover all the bills with just the annuity payment each month plus some liquid savings(checking account cash)until October.
October is when Hubs turns 59.5 and then we can access the 401K retirement savings.  Until then things will be tight here at Chez Sluggy, so all the leftover monthly cash will get tucked aside to pay irregular bills that will be popping up for the rest of the year.

Got it?
OK, let's move on.

Though nothing will be put toward it the rest of 2017(probably), the 2017 $17.5K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals are still available
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

On to the December report--
I had 2 goals for December......
The 1st is to actually finish the month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to try to have a little cash leftover at the end of the previous month to apply toward irregular bills that are coming due in subsequent months.

I have to report that we finished up December in the black.
The extra amount we ended the month of December with?.......$4754.49

Income

The income in December was the monthly annuity payment,the healthcare account reimbursement and the November overage of $4007.15 that carried over.  I also had interest on non-retirement accounts, 2 small stock dividend checks and grocery rebates which brought us to $7931.52 of total income.  Expenses in December(including funding the Sinking Fund)came to $3177.03.
* We didn't include the portion of the c/c Hubs used to pay for the "rescue mission"in our spending for the month because it wasn't "our" spending on things we benefited from.  That $1443.64 was paid out of savings.  It reduces our savings a bit but I'd rather do it this way than have it come out of our monthly income.*

This brought us to our gain of $4754.49  If you deduct the overage from previous months that carried over into December and the Healthcare payment and reimbursement from the equation, this means we spent $3.09 MORE than what we brought in in December for the annuity payment only and December spending included some Xmas spending.  So far we are doing ok without accessing the 401K account.

Since we have no debt, this December overage will get put aside to apply to the $3K in high deductible insurance payments we will need to pay in January for my prescriptions and Daughter's chronic pain injection.  That should eat up $3K+ of that overage we have been carrying forward each month lately.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Phone charges and internet were approximately the same as last month(Within $1 or so).
*  The LA house electric bill was $42.04 lower since we didn't have to have the A/C on there now.
*  The medical payments were $51.92 less than in November
*  The credit card bill was $445.52 lower than last month.  This accounts for only our regular type charges we put on the c/c, not the rescue mission charges.
*  The cash WAM withdrawals were the same as in November.

*  The Sinking Fund carries over at $1016.74 into December.  No irregular bills were due this month so the SF just sat and grew a bit. 8-)

HERE are the BAD THING

*  The water bill was $7.62 higher than in November.
*  The electric bill was $109.84 higher than last month's bill.
*  The gas card charges were $85.09 higher than in November.
*  I had $72.67 due on store cards for Xmas spending due.
*  There was $400 in Christmas and Birthday cash given out to the kids.
*  We had to pay the December health insurance premium of $1771.94.

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

So we end December in the black with $4754.49 to apply to a new year of High Medical Deductible Payments going into 2018.
Plus the Sinking Fund goes into January standing at $1016.74.

FINAL THOUGHTS on December---It was an ok month financially, even with a big fat electric bill(!!!) and Holiday spending.  I separated the "rescue mission" costs put on the credit card($1443.64)and used some savings account funds to pay this off, and not use our regular income for that.  This will take a small chunk out of our net worth going forward into 2018.
We were successful in holding the line on the bills and not accessing the 401K account in 2017.
Yay us!
As the c/c bill came in it made us grateful(and I hope the sister in-law was grateful as well)that we have saved for emergencies in our married life as soon as we had the extra cash to do so.  Nobody likes to think about tomorrow and being old or disabled or unemployable or having disasters that money can help alleviate.  But it does and will happen to everyone.  It's best to take stock of your finances as soon as you can and plan for those dark days that WILL happen.
Don't spend money you don't have on things you don't need.  Pay off your credit cards(If you use them)every month and never carry a balance.  Tuck money aside for emergencies.

THOUGHTS going forward into January 2018----

Electric usage(and thus costs)will rise this month.
Food spending shouldn't be over $400 as I plan to eat down the freezer and not leave the house much.
Most of the usual bills(besides heating-electric)will be about what December's levels were.
Besides seeing some high medical bills due to the deductibles resetting on Jan. 1st, I am planning and hoping for a financially boring January.  As little money as possible going out and as much money as possible coming in or staying put where it is in our accounts.

So how was your December financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in December?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
What did you do with any money leftover at the end of the month?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings, in an emergency fund or a retirement account?
Or did you blow it on a want?

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

I hope this year was the one were you cleaned up your finances and paid off your debts.
That you planned to set something aside if you didn't already or increased what you banked now for your future self.
Or paid extra on the principle of your mortgage if your house isn't already paid off.

Live below your means and keep some change for a rainy day....because no matter how sunny it is in your life now, dark clouds come along and you'll be glad you have that umbrella to keep you dry.

Sluggy