Income & Spending.....the January 2025 Edition

Now that we are living on an annuity, 401K$ withdrawals, personal savings and social security payments, 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.

We went into retirement in June of 2017 with no debt, no mortgage nor a car payment.

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 January report--

I have 2 goals for January....

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 fund may be applied 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 2025.

*  I do not include/report on our retirement accounts here, just the non-retirement ones.

I'm happy to report that we finished up January in the black.

The amount extra we ended the month of January with?....$10,512.86

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in January---

*  Monthly annuity payment of $2,530.11

*  SS income of $3,906.60

*  Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $1,468.17

* 401K Withdrawal of $6,215.06

* Rebating Cash-out  $100.00

* NCL Refund  $1,762.62

* Blog Revenue  $142.75

Total "Income" for January....$16,125.31

Expenses in January---

*  Irregular bills in January were $1,645.98

*  Variable expenses in January came to $3,453.20

*  Medical Premiums in January were $634.41

Total Expenses....$5,733.59

$16,125.31-$5,733.59=$10,391.72.

Slush Fund coming into January of $73,512.86 and the addition of $10,391.72 in January, our end of January 2025 Slush Fund comes to $83,904.58. 

The Slush Fund, on it's own page(tab at the top of the blog), shows an addition of $10,391.75.

Outgo

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

Here are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill is the same as the previous month.
*  The WAM was $23.00 lower than in December.
*  Mastercard bill was $81.32 lower than the previous month.
*  Hubs Amazon bill was $137.66 less than in December.
*  My Aviator card was $437.36 lower than the previous month.
*  Hubs Aviator card was $15,640.85 less than in December.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The electric bill was $105.30 higher than the previous month.
*  My Amazon card was $184.20 higher than in December.

And we had some one off bills in December--

*  Long Term Care Premiums of $1,244.02
*  Property Taxes of $168.33
*  Dr. Co-Pays of $37.11
*  Vet Bill of $196.52

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post HERE. Food costs are included in my credit card payments(mainly because I buy the food but sometimes these costs come out of our WAM cash too).

FINAL THOUGHTS for January 2025---Low spend other than credit card charges from the Xmas trip.  We had such a large overage because of the NCL refund and the 401K quarterly withdrawal.

GOING FORWARD INTO February 2025--I am hoping for a low spend February, basically just groceries and maybe 1 lunch out.  There will be some medical stuff but not sure if those bills will show up in February or March. ;-)

Here's hoping 2025 treats us all even better financially! 8-))

So how was your January financially?

Did you spend less than the income you had in January?

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 down/off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings, in an emergency fund or retirement account?

Or did you blow all your excess monies after bills were paid on a "want"?

If you post 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