2019 Income & Spending Report.......the April Edition

Now that we are living on an annuity and 401K$ withdrawals, 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.

Two changes we implemented for 2019 at our financial meeting in Jan.--

* Hubs wants to take $150 per person WAM(aka Walking Around Money)in 2019.  I found last year's $100 per month adequate but Hubs chafed at that little so we are upping it this year to $150 per person per month.
                                                                                                                                                       
*As for our 2018 Slush Fund, this is how we are going to handle it in 2019......
We won't be taking a quarterly 401K withdrawal in 2019 until we "need" to, instead of taking one each quarter as we had planned back in 2017 when Hubs retired.  Why pull 401K monies out when they are earning more than our other regular bank funds?  Use those instead for now!

Since the Slush Fund ended 2018 with $23,164.17 in it and the Sinking Fund ended 2018 with $468.37 in it, we are, for now at least, not taking any more 401K withdrawals and using what is in the Sinking Fund and/or Slush Fund to cover all irregular bills that come up in 2019.

I have set up a page to track the Slush Fund.  Click on the tab marked "Slush Fund 2018-2019" at the top of the blog.

  I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how much is coming in and how much is going out.  8-)

On to the April report---

I had 2 goals for April......
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 tuck back into a slush fund.  This slush fun may be to apply toward unforeseen bills that are coming due in subsequent months, to spend on "extras/wants" during the year or to just sit there and grow until the end of 2019.

I can report that we finished up April in the BLACK!
The amount we ended the month of April with?.....$414.19

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in April---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1848.67
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $573.85
* Blogging Revenue of $100.51
* Deposit into checking for M/C charges reimbursed of $100.82
Total "Income" for April....$5846.07


Expenses in April---

* Healthcare Premium for April was $1,848.67(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Variable Expenses in April came to $2611.31
* Irregular Expenses in April came to $971.90
Total Expenses....$5431.88

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Phone charges and internet were approximately the same as in March.(Within $2 or so).
*  The water bill was $7.83 lower than last month.
* The c/c bill was $286.76 less than in March.
*  The electric bill was $87.60 lower than last month.
*  The health insurance premium was the same as in March.
*  The WAM/cash withdrawals were $185 lower than the previous month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

* There was a $14.21 higher charge on the gasoline credit card.
*  Hubs had $641.16 doctor bill(we have now met the deductible for 2019).
*  I had $223.07 in charges on my Amazon card.
*  I had a $31.67 fat lady clothing company bill.
*  I had a $76.00 dental bill for a filling repair.

The Food Budget costs for April are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food costs are included in the credit card payment(mainly but sometimes our WAM cash too).

So we end April in the black with a $414.19.  Added to the Slush Fund going into April at $20,673.38 makes it go into May at $21,087.57.

The Sinking Fund goes into May 2019 standing at $468.37 since nothing was paid out of it in April.

FINAL THOUGHTS on April---
It was a good, lower spending month.  We mostly sat home and didn't spend out of the ordinary this month.  No irregular bills were due.  We finally hit our healthcare deductible OOP so lower medical charges going forward.

THOUGHTS going forward into May 2019----
May should be pretty low in the spending department too.
Electric will be lower as the heat is off.
No more big eye doc bills for the rest of 2019.
The c/c bill should be much lower than in April.
The only "ugly" bill is the semi-annual car insurance bill is due in May and Ex-College Boy pays his cut which is about 1/3 of that bill.
The daughter graduates and moves out so electric/water/food consumption will go down going forward.
We still have not needed to make a 401K withdrawal in 2019 to this point.  We still have a nice cushion of Slush Funding so 401K can sit and make us interest. 8-)))

So how was your April financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in April?
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!


Sluggy