$24K Savings Challenge Updates & 2015's Savings Challenge Goal

So this Savings Challenge I do every year, well, since 2009 at least........I use the previous year's SC $ saved as an emergency fund for the following year.

IE-the money saved in 2012 was used to fund emergencies & irregular expenses in 2013 when regular income didn't cover everything.
Then at the end of following year, when all the emergencies that were going to take place had, I took whatever was left in that SC and put it into an interest bearing non-retirement account of some sort and it became "permanent". And hopefully when we retire it will be added to our sack o' money/retirement funds.

I started my personal Savings Challenge in 2009 when I was on a Yahoo group called "The Compact".  I was younger and pretty naïve about how much I could save from our income then and challenged myself to put away 60 THOUSAND DOLLARS!  Yes, 6 with 4 Zeroes after it. lolz
I didn't even get halfway there.
But you know what?
It didn't matter that I failed at my goal.
What mattered is that I saved something, right?!?

In 2009 I saved $23,865.36
We used $13,460.81 of that money in 2010 for unexpected expenses, sending the remaining $10,404.55 to permanent savings.

In 2010 I saved $34,019.88
We used $427.81 of that money in 2011, sending the remaining $33,592.07 to permanent savings.

In 2011 I saved $34,461.31
We used $2,627.16 of that money in 2012, sending the remaining $31,834.15 to permanent savings.

In 2012 I saved $28,907.08
We used $23,611.66 of that money in 2013, sending the remaining $5,295.42 to permanent savings.

In 2013 I saved $24,033.60
We used $0.00 of that money in 2014, sending the remaining $24,033.60 to permanent savings.

In 2014 I saved $27,427.06 and this will be the pot of money we draw from for any emergencies/irregular expenses in 2015, before sending whatever remains to permanent savings.

You can see from above that some years we had many unexpected expenses and most years we had few.....what we spent from the previous year's savings varied from $23,611.66 in 2012 to using $0 in 2014.
I am just thankful I DID save money because if there hadn't been that pot of money sitting in the bank in 2012, we would have had to delay or worse, put some of those expenses on a credit card!

So with 5 full years of my Savings Challenges(2009-2013) tucked away for our retirement years my total is sitting at $105,159.79.

But..........you knew there had to be a but somewhere, right?........Hubs got a generous Bonus in 2014 as well.
He gets a bonus most year's but last year's was waaaay awesomer.

We had 3 large irregular expenses last year--having our driveway re-asphalted, my road trip to the Midwest and oh yeah, we bought a new car in May.
Instead of funding these purchases with our 2013 Savings Challenge monies we used part of the bonus. 
This means we didn't spend down any of the money saved in 2013's savings Challenge.
Go us!

And after paying for these expenses with the bonus we still have $18+K leftover from that hunk of bonus money.
So I am adding it to what I saved in the 2014 Savings Challenge, which boosts our 2014 total saved to $46,193.93. 8-)))))))

Again when 2015 is over and everything is paid for, whatever is left from that $46+K will go into permanent savings for our retirement years.

Now I need to settle on a savings goal amount for 2015.
Since we actually saved $27+K in 2014(without the bonus $), I think I'll inch the bar up a bit to $28K for 2015.

$28K is very doable, given our income level.   If I keep my frugal nose to the grindstone and no big expenses wallop us this year we should make that number.

We will have some extra expenses in 2015 with home repairs(getting things ready to sell in a couple of years) and the ever present car issues....plus 1 child still in college and dependent on us(IE $$$) and another child still on our medical insurance.

I plan to keep our living expenses as low as possible without having to go into "financial desperation mode".  We won't be turning off the lights or heat or eating just rice and beans but we won't be splurging on lobster and filet mignon out at restaurants every night, lighting up the neighborhood like the Vegas strip or spending on extravagances like luxury goods and world cruises either.

So who wants to play along and save some of their income in 2015?
Figure out what you can reasonably live on and put the rest away for your retirement....or if you still have debt(and why do you still have debt at this point in your life?!?)put something extra this year toward that goal and get yourself DEBT-FREE and/or MORTGAGE-FREE.

Set whatever goal feels right for your life.  Experts have said that people who set goals do better with their money overall.  Set a goal to keep yourself accountable.  Better yet, post a goal on your blog or in a community forum online and let other people's eyes help keep you more accountable.  8-)

Yah, it might not be fun to track your expenses but if you don't know where your money is going(and with most folks the money DOES GO!)how can you know if you keep any?

Tell us your savings goal for this year and how you plan to go about achieving that number.


Sluggy


 

$24K Savings Challenge.....December Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into an interest bearing Savings Challenge account. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the December report.....

I have posted my December End of Month $24K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up December .
The extra amount we ended the month of  December with?.......$2,147.75.

Income

We had $1,908.85 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in December totaled $238.90.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, stock dividends, a per diem for Hubs' work and a bank deposit from my electronic coupon account.

This brought us to our gain of $2147.75.
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Usually goes into savings.......except we have already surpassed our $24K savings goal for 2014 AND we have a $4K insurance deductible that kicked in on Jan 1st.
Because of this, I am only sending half of December's savings amount toward the $24K Savings Challenge.  Half of what we saved in December is $1,073.87.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The cable/internet was $39.95.  This is slightly more than November's bill but we had a credit last month.

*  Phone charges were approximately the same as last month.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS
.
*  The electric bill was up $126.13 over November due to heating.  This cost will continue to increase for the next 2 months and then start decreasing again.

*  The water bill was up $8.17 from last month, mostly due to College Boy being home in Dec.

*  Cash spending increased by $530 from last month, mostly due to Christmas and traveling.
*  The credit card bill(paid off each month)was up $267.16, mostly due to a car repair.
*  We had some irregular spending too in December--birthday monies, charity donations and driver's license renewal costs, all came to $279.50.

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 12 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2014 is $27,427.06.

 Even with only sending half of December's leftover cash into the Savings Challenge we were able to surpass our $24,000.00 goal by $3,427.06.
Yeah us!!! 8-)))

THOUGHTS going forward---
In 2013 we were able to save $24,033.60 in our Savings Challenge.  Our 2014 amount saved was $3,393.46 more than the previous year.  I guess it was due to a slight pay increase for Hubs and a few lower costs/bills throughout the year.
I am still considering what $ goal to shoot for in 2015.  I don't see our income changing much this year and so far our expenses look to be stable so I may increase the goal a bit from last year's of $24K since we surpassed that one.
$28K perhaps???
More on this later in the month.
 

 

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?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

How much were you able to save in 2014?
Do you have a regular savings goal?

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 with you or commiserate with you!

Sluggy

$24K Savings Challenge.......November Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the November report.....

I have posted my November End of Month $24K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up November with a large chunk of change.
The extra amount we ended the month of  November with?.......$2,877.50.

Income

We had $2753.83 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
The lower utility bills with College Boy away at school have helped us keep more of our income.
 

Other monies received in November totaled $123.67.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts.

This brought us to our gain of $2,877.50.
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The cable/internet was $89.68 lower than our new normal of about $40 because of a refund on a portion of October's bill when we got rid of cable.

*  The water bill went down another $5.10 from October's bill.  That's a total decrease of $37.79 since July's bill, the last bill with College Boy home fulltime.
*  Phone charges were approx. the same as last month.
 *  Electric bill was up $57.77 because the heat was on all of November, where it was only on sporadically in October.  We had our new heating unit repaired and didn't have to rely on the other electric heating system in the house.  I think the mini-split system is more efficient as we've never had a November heating/electricity bill under $200 before this month! 8-)))  Even though the electric bill was higher this month from last, I am putting this item under the "Good Things".

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  Cash spending increased by $70. 
*  The credit card bill(paid off each month)was up $574.34 from last month's bill.  Mostly due to some Xmas shopping and our OC mini-vacation.
*  We had some irregular spending too--a charitable $ donation, Kohl's Xmas shopping cc bill and final Vet expenses for our doggie.   Yeah, that last one was bad in more than the financial way. 8-(

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 11 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $26,353.19.
 

We have surpassed our goal for the year and there is one more month to save even more $!
Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!

I will be curious to see how much we can sock away in December.  I am hoping at least $1K.  With Christmas and traveling plans(expenses)I don't want to get my hopes up any higher than that.  Last December we put away just over $1,200.
It would be nice to have that kind of a cushion going into January as our medical high deductible resets and I'll be paying retail for some pricey drugs. 8-(
  

 

Looking ahead for December......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  We have no irregular bills due in December.

 

So how was your November financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in November?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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 with you or commiserate with you!

Sluggy

$24K Savings Challenge.......October Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the October report.....

I have posted my October End of Month $24K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up October with a really large chunk of change.
The extra amount we ended the month of  October with?.......$6,451.86.

Income

We had $6019.72 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
This large amount was mostly due to a third paycheck in October.
 

Other monies received in October totaled $432.14.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, a refund on our car insurance and a Conference dinner.

This brought us to our gain of $6,451.86.
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The water bill went down another $5.10 from September.
*  Cable and phone charges were approx. the same as last month.
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  Car insurance due on my car.
*  The quarterly garbage bill was due.
*  Dental bill due.
*  The credit card bill(paid off each month)was up $295 from last month due to our family reunions trip and the OC mini-vacay.
*  Electric bill was up $24.44 because the heat got turned on.
 

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 10 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $23,475.69.
 

Only $524.31 Total left to meet the yearly goal and 2 months left to dig this up out of our income.
That comes out to an average of $262.16 for each of the next 2 months. 
As our Nov. and Dec. overages average about $1000 each month I don't think we'll have any trouble finding a spare $524.31 ;-)

I will be curious to see how much we have leftover for the last 2 months of the year above and beyond the $524.31 we need to reach our goal of $24K.
  

 

Looking ahead for November......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  We have no irregular bills due in November.

*  We have 2 trips to #2 Son's school to get/return him for Thanksgiving break so gas(thus the c/c bill)will be higher in November.

 

So how was your October financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in October?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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 with you or commiserate with you!

Sluggy

$24K Savings Challenge......September Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the September report.....

I have posted my September End of Month $24K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up September with a good chunk of change.
The extra amount we ended the month of  September with?.......$2606.55.

Income

We had $2200.26 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in September totaled $406.29.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, a per diem, 2 dividends and a refund on our car insurance after getting rid of the car early in September(the car insurance refund for the minivan will probably arrive sometime in October).

This brought us to our gain of $2,606.55.
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The water bill went down by $20.43 from August.
*  Cash spent went down by $170 from August.
*  The electric bill went down by $60.89 from August.
*  Cable and phone charges were approx. the same as last month.
*  The credit card bill(paid off in full each month) was low for us(under $1K).
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The school taxes(part of the property taxes)were due.
*  The quarterly garbage bill was due.

Clearly the Good outweighed the Bad this month.  Having all the kids out of the house helped our bottom line.

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 9 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $17,023.83.

Our monthly average is $1,891.53 saved at this point in the year.
 

Only $6,976.17 Total left to meet the yearly goal and 3 months left to dig this up out of our income.
That comes out to an average of $2,325.39 for each of the next 3 months. 

Since I shoot for $2K savings per month and there are only 3 months left, we are $976.17 behind the eight ball, as we should have a full $18,000 saved to this point.  Not quite on schedule but REAL close!
October is our 2nd 2 paycheck month for 2014 so unless something runs off the tracks totally, we should be able to eek out enough savings in October to get a bit ahead of schedule.
  

 

Looking ahead for October......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  We have no irregular bills due in October.

*  We will have our Reunion trip c/c bills due in October.  They came to $593.19. The current c/c bill is at $1189.91 and unless Hubs puts more gas charges on the c/c that will be the total owed since the bill closes in 4 days time from now.
 We will also incur more traveling bills this month but they won't be due until November's c/c bill(outside of the one night the hotel has already charged our card).

 

So how was your September financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in September?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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 with you or commiserate with you!

Sluggy

$24K Savings Challenge.....August Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the August report.....

I have posted my August End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up August with a tiny bit extra for savings.
The extra amount we ended the month of  August with?.......$323.64.

Income
In order to cover all the expenses in August I took $500 from Hub's bonus this year and added to our account from which all the expenses are paid.  Our bills were that high in August.
We had $115.75 left over from our income(and bonus money)after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in August totaled $207.89.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts and blog writing income.

This brought us to our gain of $323.64.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Flute lesson bill was only $80.....and this is the last one ever!
*  The water bill went down by $20.43 from July.
*  Cash spent went down by $170 from July.
*  The electric bill went down by $60.89 from July due to cooler Summer weather.
*  Our car insurance(though due this month)went down about $400 because of policy changes.  We expect it to go down again next month because we get rid of 1 of our cars late August.
*  Cable and phone charges were approx. the same as last month.
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The credit card bill was very high at $3,831.68 due to furniture purchase, trip expenses and laptop purchase for #2 Son.  This was approx. $2,600 more than July's bill.
*  The homeowner's insurance was due and paid in August.
*  The semi-annual car insurance was due in August.

 

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

I was going to dip into last year's Savings Challenge monies as we didn't have enough income in August to cover all the expenses.
I use the previous year's total saved to cover any unexpected expenses in the following year, then I send whatever is left after that following year ends into permanent savings.  But I didn't need to this month since I still have some of Hub's Bonus, he received earlier this year, left and held in reserve.(I haven't counted that yet toward our income/expenses in 2014 or the Savings Challenge.  I have only taken my new car purchase from this Bonus check in May to this point in the year.)

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 8 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $14,417.28

Our monthly average is $1,802.16 saved.
 

Only $9,582.72 left to meet the yearly goal and 4 months left to dig this up out of our income.
That comes out to an average of $2,395.68 for the next 4 months. 

Since I shoot for $2K savings per month and there are only 4 months left, we are $1,582.72 behind the eight ball.  That means besides $2K a month, we also need to come up with $1582.72 as well in the next 4 months.

Thankfully we still have a 3 paycheck month this year, so I feel we'll be able to catch up and still meet the goal for the year.

We typically have at least 2 months in any given year where we have very little leftover at the end of the month's bills to tuck away into savings or even go into the red for a month or two.  Take last year--In September we saved a whole $40.12 and in August we didn't do much better with $263.62.  Even in June of 2013 we only saved $844.79 when all was accounted for.  So we don't always have 4 figures of cash leftover each month.  The year before that we actually went into the red one month.

Life is like that.  Things happen.  That's why I like to save cash each month whenever possible, to help out in those months that aren't so great financially.  Some months are good some months are bad but overall, over the long run, if you have money leftover more months than you are in deficit, you can get ahead and win with money.
  

 

Looking ahead for September......


*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  The school/real estate taxes are due the end of September.  There goes another $2K.  This is the last "irregular expenses" bill for the year, except for the garbage bill which is paid quarterly(Oct. 1st).

*  I am excited to see how much the water, electric and food bills will go down in September, since this is the first FULL month without the kids living here.

*  We've got some traveling to do the end of September but those bills won't come due until October so our planned spending this month will remain fairly low for us.

 

So how was your August financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in August?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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 with you or commiserate with you!

Sluggy

$24K Savings Challenge.....JULY Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the July report.....

I have posted my July End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up July with a greater than needed amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of  July with?.......$2,421.10.

Income
We had $2317.04 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in July totaled $100.56.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts and a per diem from Hubs' work.

This brought us to our gain of $2,421.10.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Flute lesson bill was $80 less than in June(3 less lessons in July).
*  Both cash spent and credit card bill were about the same as last month's bills respectively.
*  Many of our regular monthly expenses were the same as in June or just a little more and we didn't have any non-monthly expenses which was good for our bottom line.
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  We paid $55 fee for #2Son to be in marching band at his college.
*  The water bill went up by almost 25%.  This was most probably due to extra laundry and showers because of 2 extra people in the house.
*  The electric bill was up $59 due to a/c use.
*  We paid a medical bill of $704 for #1Son.
*  I spent money on my vacation, checks of $160.22 and $420 in cash.

 (The rest was put on the c/c so will show up and be paid in August.)
 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 7 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $14,093.64
Super excited that we are on target now to save $24K, since we have saved an amount equal to $2K a month now for 7 months.  Let's hope this trend continues. 8-)
Our monthly average is $2013.37 saved.

Only $9,906.36 left to meet the yearly goal and 5 months left to dig this up out of our income.
  

 

Looking ahead for August......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  Both the semi-annual car insurance bill and the house insurance bill are due this month, totaling $1,903.20 combined.

*  The credit card is already up to $3,425.95 and we have 10 days until it closes and we get our August statement.  $1,304.32 of that is for #2 Son's new laptop and software for college.  $309.26 is from gas purchases on my trip.  I've still to break down all my trip costs at some later date.  I will need to dip into our savings challenge monies from last year to pay for at least a part of my trip costs so we don't go into the red in August.  We usually pay for vacations(at least a part of them)with our ersatz EF/last year's savings challenge funds so I was fully expecting to do this anyway.
 

 

So how was your July financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in July?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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

$24K Challenge.......JUNE Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the June report.....

I have posted my June End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up June with a greater than needed amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of  June with?.......$2,302.33

Income
We had $2143.78 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in June totaled $158.55.  This included interest made on accounts, a allergy med rebate and 2 dividend checks.

This brought us to our gain of $2302.33.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The electric bill went down $47.21 from May's bill.
*  The credit card bill was $2196.18 less than in May.  Some of the spending(for the car and sofa)on it came out of the Bonus money received earlier this year so didn't affect this Challenge(good) but did affect our Net Worth(bad).

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The cash withdrawals were $50 more than May.
*  Quarterly Garbage bill was due.
*  Private music lessons were $40 more than May.
*  We had a vet bill for the dog....her annual check-up and shots.
*  We had 2 dental bills to pay.

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 6 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $11,672.54
That's only $327.46 short at this point of the $12,000.00 I should have put aside after 6 months.
I was $629.79 behind in May, I am less behind in June.

Yay!
  

 

Looking ahead for July......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  The lime green chair purchase will be due on July's credit/card bill but so far we don't have massive amounts charged to the card....yet. lolz
 

 

So how was your June financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in June?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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

$24K Challenge.....May Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the May report.....

I have posted my May End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up May with a greater than needed amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of  May with?.......$3,299.61.

Income
We had $3217.59 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in May totaled $78.52.  This included interest made on accounts and a per diem from Hub's work.

This brought us to our gain of $3299.61.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The electric bill went down $ 151.72, almost half of what it was in April.
*  The water bill went down $4 and change.
*  The cash withdrawals were $900 less than last month.
*  Private music lessons were $40 less in May(fewer lessons).
*  May was an extra paycheck month which helped our bottom line greatly!
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The c/c bill was $1886.33 more than April's bill.  Most of this was vacation spending from April
*  The food bill went up $54.06 from April's food spending and April's spending was too high.

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 5 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $9,370.21
That's only $629.79 short at this point of the $10,000.00 I should have put aside after 5 months.
The extra paycheck in May almost got me caught up on where I need to be at this point and I am less behind than I was last month.

Yay!
  

 

Looking ahead for June......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  The furniture purchases in May and accompanying Hubs to his conference in DC expenses will be due on the credit card bill in June.

*  Back to 2 paychecks this month.

*  The graduation party for #2 Son and #1 Son is visiting in June so expenses will be going up.
 

*  The food budget will be full blown out of control this month with all the family coming and the party.  I'll keep all my receipts and when it's all over I'll tally it up.  I'm not going to torture myself and look at them until the month is over. lolz
  

 

So how was your May financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in May?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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

$24K Savings Challenge.....March Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the March report.....

I have posted my March End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up March with a larger than targeted amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of March with?.......$3,192.73.

Income
We had -$738.52 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Bad bad month for bills....between unexpected car repairs, yearly bills being paid in this month and a "higher than I like to see" credit card bill, the income outpaced the bills. 
 

Other monies received in March totaled $3,931.25.  This included interest made on accounts, stock dividends, a per diem from Hub's work and a federal tax refund.  Most of this was the tax refund.

This brought us to our gain of $3,192.73
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The electric bill went down almost $100 from Feb's bill.

*  I spent under $345 for food/toiletries in March.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  Another unexpected car repair bill over $1K. ugh
*  2 extra flute lessons in March.

*  The yearly local taxes are due end of April but I paid them in March.
*  The c/c bill was $300 more than Feb's bill.
*  $310 MORE in cash withdrawals.
*  Sewage bill was paid for the whole year this month.
*  The local taxes were paid for the year this month.
 

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 3 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $4,757.20
$1,242.80 short at this point of the $6,000.00 I should have put aside after 3 months.
 

 

Looking ahead for April......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  I have a road trip to go visit my daughter scheduled this month so lodging, gas & food expenses will happen.

*  The electric bill should continue to go down as the weather warms and we turn down/off the heat.
 

 

So how was your March financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in March?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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

$24K Savings Challenge....February Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the February report.....

I have posted my February End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up February with a nice hunk of cash but not the target amount.
The extra cash amount we ended the month of February with?.......$1,359.15.

Income
We had $856.52 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in February totaled $502.63.  This included interest made on accounts, blog revenue and our son began paying his own portion on the car insurance. 8-))

This brought us to our gain of $1,359.15 for February.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Water and Phone were the same as January's totals.

*  I spent under $400 for food/toiletries in February.
*  The credit card bill was $1100 less than January's bill.
*  The Cash withdrawals were $98.50 less than in January.
*  The music lessons were $40 less(1 less lesson this month.)
*  No expensive car repairs in February.(Just a small one.)
*  Eldest son started paying his portion of the car insurance bill.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The electric bill was $62.09 MORE than January's bill.  March's bill should be less.

*  The semi-annual car insurance was due and paid in February.
*  There are 5 Mondays in March so we need to pay for an extra music lesson this month.
 

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 2 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $1,564.47. 
Far short at this point of the $2,000 I need to put back each month.
February is historically a lean month for savings in our house because of car insurance being due this month.

In other financial news--Hubs received a nice sized bonus this month for his work last year.  I used part of it to finish funding #2 Son's college fund but have not "officially" accounted for the rest of the money yet.....meaning it's part of our Net Worth statement but no decision has been made about whether any of it will be put into this Savings Challenge.  We still have to decide where to put the rest of the funds.  I know some of it will go toward purchasing a car to replace the one Hubs now drives.  Perhaps I'll be able to put what's left toward the Savings Challenge but it's too soon to know.
 

 

Looking ahead for March......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  We have yearly municipal taxes due this month. (They aren't actually DUE until 30 June but if I pay them before 30 April we get a discount on the rate.)  I usually pay it in April but I may pay it in March instead, just to get it outta the way.  ;-)

*  I am going on a quick trip to Delaware this month so lodging, gas & food expenses will happen.

*  No extra/3rd paychecks this month so no extra income in March.

*  And the annual Sewage payment is due. It is billed quarterly but if I pay it in full before 31 March I get a 3% discount and this is what I generally do so there's another irregular expense for March.

*  With 2 annual bills being paid in March and no extra paycheck in the month(that won't happen until May and again in October) we won't see much extra savings going toward this Challenge.  Perhaps our savings rate will pick up in April....
 

 

So how was your February financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in February?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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

$24K Savings Challenge.....January Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the January report.....

I have posted my January End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up January with very little spare money to put aside.
The extra cash amount we ended the month of January with?.......$205.32.

Income
We had $142.78 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in January totaled $62.54.  This brought us to our gain of $205.32 for January.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Water and Phone were the same as December's totals.

*  I spent under $300 for food/toiletries in January.
*  The credit card bill was $300 less than December's bill.
*  The Cash withdrawals were $531.50 less than December.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The cable bill went up $5 per mo. after having been reduced by $5 for the last 6 months of 2013.
I believe they need to be called up and talked to.

*  The electric bill was $67 MORE than December's bill.  Ok, it's a Polar Vortex thing.

*  The garbage bill(which I pay quarterly)was paid.
*  An unexpected car repair bill of $982.59 paid in January.
*  Some extra credit card charges(store card & Hub's Discover) of approx. $94.

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 1 month accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $205.32. 
Not a very auspicious start to the new year and nowhere near the $2,000 I need to put back each month.
Usually we do better in January and have at least $1,000 extra income after the bills are all paid.

In other financial news--
I figured out how much of my Savings Challenge from 2012 is left now(since in 2014 it is no longer being used as an emergency fund, like it was in 2013)and can be put into "permanent savings" mode.
Of the $28,907.08 we saved in 2012, $23,611.66 was spent in 2013, leaving us $5,295.42 to throw into our permanent savings.  Not very much savings realized at the end of it all.

Our new emergency fund is the amount we saved in 2013, which totaled $24,033.60.
So we are off to 2014 with a nice sized fund for all those nasty surprises that might happen during this year.
 

 

Looking ahead for February......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.
 

*  Hubs and I still need to sit down and go over how we did with the bills/savings in 2013 and see if there are any areas we need to cut back.

*  The car insurance is due in February and the bill is here already.  It's over $1600 for 6 months.
bleh.  We have been paying our oldest son's car insurance bill for the last 6 months(as he transitioned into the workforce full time and being on his own).  He was suppose to start picking up the tab on his share in February.  This might not be happening as he is looking for a new job and he may be unemployed very soon or even more underemployed than he is now.
If anyone wants to tell me that the economy is improving, just go tell someone else because I don't want to hear it! 8-(

*  February, historically, has been a higher expense month for us.  Besides 6 month's of car insurance being due, we usually have a fairly large credit card bill(that gets paid off) and of course, paying out of pocket for all medical bills still, since the deductible hasn't been met for the year.  And our deductible went up $1K this year so I am not very hopeful that February will end with us still holding much cash.  But there is always March and a new month to do better if February bombs out.

 

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?
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