Income & Spending 2020....the December Report

 Now that we are living on an annuity and 401K$ withdrawals(some months), 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.

  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 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 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 2020.

I can report that we finished up December in the black.
The amount we ended the month of December with?.....$1,942.36

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in December---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3,222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1,883.76
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $430.32

* Dividend income of $18.27

* Grocery Rebates for the year of $1,473.27

* Deposit from my WAM to cover a gift to someone

Total "Income" for December.....$7127.86

Expenses in December---

* Healthcare Premium for December was $1,883.76(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Irregular bills in December were $555.41
* Variable Expenses in December came to $2,746.33
Total Expenses....$5185.50

$7127.86-$5185.50=$1942.36
Slush into December of $32,365.78 in that Fund, add the $1,942.36 December overage and this brings the Slush to $34,308.14 going into January 2021.
The Slush Fund on it's Page(tab at the top of the blog)shows an addition of $1,942.36 for December.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Internet and cell phone were the same as in November.

*  The WAM was the same amount taken as last month.

*  The Mastercard bill was $946.00 lower than in November

HERE are the BAD THINGS

* The water bill was $1.22 higher than November's bill.

* The electric bill was $89.17 higher than last month's bill. This one will continue to rise as Winter deepens.

* The gas bill was $14.19 higher than in November.

*  My Amazon card was $330.23 higher than last month.  Our Mastercard was compromised so I had to put food shopping on the Amazon c/c.

* There was an irregular bill due in December, the long term care quarterly premiums which came to $555.41.

* We had $250 in spending on cash gifts for Christmas and Birthday for my Daughter.  It doesn't make sense to mail her "things" as the postage is so high to LA from PA so I just mail her a check for both and she's happy to get what she wants herself.

* We also had a kennel bill for $60 to board our dogs for 2 days so we could visit our son in NJ.  He and his GF have 2 cats so we can't take the dogs with us obviously as it would lead to mayhem. lol

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

FINAL THOUGHTS on December---
It was a good month overall financially.  Adding all those small economies pots of money back into the checking account to cover a large chunk of food spending gave us a much bigger overage last month to add to the Slush Fund, otherwise it would have been around a $500 addition to that Fund which still in my book would have been fine and dandy.

THOUGHTS going forward into January 2021----Hubs and I have yet to sit down and talk finances and the game plan for 2021.  Obviously extensive travel is off the table until the world stabilizes from this pandemic.  Vaccines are coming which will raise herd immunity but who knows when that will be achieved.  Maybe another short trip to NJ in the next 3 months but otherwise, I'm not seeing any travel.

We'll pay the garbage fees in a lump sum for the year in January to reap the discount there.  Our health insurance deductible has reset for 2021 so there will be $4K in spending on medical necessities(OVs, meds, etc.)up front, then normal co-pays by March(or earlier unfortunately).  March sees three different irregular bills due-long term care quarterly premiums, the real estate taxes and the annual sewage bill so we can't get complacent with frivolous spending early in 2021.  More later after we set the budgets at Chez Sluggy for the year.

The Slush Fund grew by $15,869.51 in 2020.  That Fund started the year at $18,438.63 and ended 2020 at $34,306.14.  Now we just have to decided which home improvement/repair project to spend that on-the main bath redo or new windows on the front of the house.  Both need doing.

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!


Sluggy