$28K 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 or these other categories.

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 2015 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $28,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the November report.....

I have posted my November End of Month $28K $AVING$ 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 $2,333.33.

I have to report that we finished up November with a Large amount leftover.
The extra amount we ended the month of November with?.......$4362.03

Income

We had $4085.11 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in November totaled $276.92.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts and blogging revenue.

This brought us to our gain of $4,362.03
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

*  Phone charges and internet were approximately the same as last month.
*  The cash withdrawals were the same amount as in October.
*  The water bill was down another $8.38 from October.
*  The electric bill was only up $39.97 from last month.  With electric heat this is an amazing total for heat and lights, etc. for November in northern, mountainous PA.
*  The credit card was only up $38.05.  Seeing as it's the Holidays that practically being the same as last month.  ;-)
*  The medical co-pay bills went down by $718.64 in November.

HERE are the BAD THINGS(and the not so bad)
.
*  The gas card bill went up $49.03 from last month.
*  There were two irregular bill expenses--two store credit card bills totaling $185.35 which were paid in full.

The Bad List was nice and short this month.  8-)

The Food Budget costs for November are in another post, which is located  HERE.  I stayed under my $300 budgeted amount(on this report grocery money comes out of "Cash")on that expense.
Plus I included some spending for the Food Bank donation in those monies so a Win/Win.

November was a fairly inexpensive month for us, but not the least expensive for 2015. Cheapest bill month's for us so far in 2015 are July, November, February and April from 1st to 4th respectively. These are typically the months we don't pay the irregular expenses in so that makes perfect sense, right? ;-)

The 2015 TOTAL.....
With 11 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2015 is $38,451.79.
That savings amount averages $3,495.61 a month put into savings so far. 

We have well surpassed our $28K Savings Goal by $10K+ at this point in the year.
And there is one more month left to save some more though I don't expect to be able to shove much more into my goal for 2015 since we need to keep some of the December savings in reserve to put toward high medical deductibles which reset in January.  8-(
It would be "nice" however to be able to sock away another $1,548.21 into the 2015 Savings Challenge in December.  That would give us a total of $40 Thousand saved this year.
I like nice round figures, don't you? 8-)

Final thoughts on November---
More monthly bills were down rather than up this month and we kept our usual monthly costs fairly low.  Not bare bones low but still pretty low.

THOUGHTS going forward into December----

I'll have a $467+ co-pay from my first cataract surgery to pay as the insurance company finally sent the dr. a payment leaving me on the hook for another $467+. sigh.  But this is the last of the cataract surgery bills and I am NOT looking back! lolz
Same eye doctor's office screwed up Hubs bill which came last week to the tune of a $185 overcharge.  It is suppose to be about $31. Yikes!  The billing department was contacted and they are sending out a new invoice with the correct amount.  But still that's almost $500 more in medical co-pays(over and above our usual prescription & DME co-pays for a month)that are due in December plus about $40 in Physical Therapy co-pays which the bill for the PT should be arriving soon too.

As for the holidays, most everything is already bought and paid for, from gifts to traveling arrangements and will appear on the December c/c statement and then I need to write a few checks.
The credit card bill is paid in full each cycle so there will be no January c/c hangover nor any interest paid on any Holiday gifts.

With 11 months behind us we have surpassed our savings goal in 2015 by a wide margin!
Even so, I am NOT letting up on socking cash away for the last 1 month of the year.  Expenses in December should be about average for us so we will have some leftover money come Dec. 31st.

But with the 2016 high medical deductibles kicking in Jan. 1st I am unsure how much we'll be able to put toward the Savings Challenge in December.  I like to carryover at least $1K of any leftover $ from December into January to put toward those insurance costs.  I am guessing I'll have about $1000? more to put toward the Savings Challenge next month.  Not sure but come back next month to see how it turned out.

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?
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

$30K Savings Challenge...November 2010 Totals

I have posted my NOVEMBER End of Month $30K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have to report that we finished up November in the black....with a nice healthy addition!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of November with was.......$3,984.99.

Income
We had $3,954.49 left over of DH's salary after expenses were deducted. Add in $3 of Rebates applied to the food expenses, along with $27.50 in rolled Coins and you have a deposit of $3,984.99 toward the Savings Challenge!

Our monthly target is an average of $2,500.00 to reach our Year End Goal.

Outgo
As for the expenses in November.....it was pretty much a 'normal bills' type month.   The credit card bill(which is paid off each month)was under $450.  There was a vet bill for the beagle this month and some smallish school related bills that are out of the ordinary but otherwise, it was a low spending month here.

The Food Budget costs for November are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in November was right on target, unlike October's out of control spending....egads, that was bad.lol

Looking Ahead to December....

As like most people who celebrate a Holiday in December, we will have some larger than normal expenses this month.
Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice....no matter which you celebrate, the extra spending will raise your monthly costs this month....unless your surname is Scrooge.
Since I operate on a budget for Christmas, our spending is planned & budgeted for months ahead so we have no surprises coming up with the cash to cover those expenses.
You know December is coming every year.....so make sure you figure how to pay for things in advance of it's arrival.  It just makes prudent financial sense, right?

The problem for us this December is the unexpected expenses that are coming up.  My car needed repair work done on it last month and the bill will be coming in sometime this month.  That will be in the neighborhood of $600.  Plus Daughter destroyed her orthodontic mouth guard and we need to pay $300+ this month for the new one that was made.  To add to the spending rampage, my computer died a few days ago and can't be fixed.  Since the monitor, etc. are fine still, we had to buy a new processor to the tune of $400(including back-up storage).  Then my machine was not compatible with my ancient printer so we purchased a new laser printer at a bargain price.  Not only was the price good but this printer will continue to save us money since the cartridges for it last a whole lot longer than the ones for inkjet printers....but I digress.
So just those 4 items will result in over $1400 in unexpected/not planned spending in December.
Even with those expenses, we should still be able to eek out a small savings for the Challenge in December though because of that 2nd extra paycheck for the year.  December has 3 pay periods for us since Hubs is paid on a biweekly schedule, so an extra paycheck this month....yippee!
And it's a very good month to have an extra paycheck coming in if I do say so myself!lol

I am just glad at this point that we have an ample income and can cover all our bills, no matter if they are expected or not....plus, we have enough to put some money away!
It's a very good feeling knowing you are solvent and living well below your means, especially in this economy.

YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $30,232.62 in Savings. 
With one month of savings to go, we have hit our goal of $30 Thousand Saved in November!
I am thrilled to pieces!!
Even though we reached our goal early I will still keep tracking our progress to see how far over our goal we can reach in December.

So how was your November financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!


Sluggy

$60K Savings Challenge NOVEMBER Totals.....More Great Progress!

I have posted my NOVEMBER End of Month 60K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right(near the bottom) for the specific numbers.

We had another Excellent month growing our Savings in November!

I have to report that we finished up November in the Black again.

The amount we ended the month of November with was......sit down for this......$3,189.49!
Woot!


The electric bill went up less than $20 from Oct.'s bill.  Not bad considering that the heat was on fulltime this month while Oct's bill saw the heat just being put on occasionally. 

The water bill went down again in Nov. another $3.  I guess the kids are getting a couple more wears of out their clothes before putting them into the hamper.lol
All other regular bills...Cable, Internet, Phone, etc. are the same each month.

The Food Budget costs for November are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food/Toiletries spending in November was low after rebate income was figured in and compared to the value of the items bought we saved over 93%.

So, what did I do right in November to come out of it with over $3K extra?

First, we have no mortgage payment or car payments.  Those are the 2 big Bugaboos that suck down your income.  Having bought a modest house and having paid if off asap combined with paying cash for cars(which means we always buy cars we can AFFORD and don't finance), means we have been able to cut our living expenses dramatically.  It didn't happen over night though and there were many years of living well below our means and socking every penny into savings.  But knowing that those lean years wouldn't last forever and that there was a shining Goal of being debt-free at the end of it all made it so worth it.

Secondly, we had no other large bills....taxes, sewage, insurance, etc. this month.  These are paid quarterly or semi-annually and not due in November.

Thirdly, we stayed out of restaurants and I didn't do as much running around in the car, saving gas and shopping expenditures.  That was reflected in the lower credit card bill in November.  The cc bill(which is paid off every month-NO BALANCE)went from $845.49 in October to $536.51 in November. While not a big difference, there was less gas needed for the car since I didn't travel far last month(except to Acme)& we didn't dine out much. 

We are Eleven Months into this $AVING$ Challenge, and we have a Savings Total of $21,760.57 for the year.

What's ahead for December....
Looking at my check register from last December I see that we have some quarterly bills coming due this month.  Nothing large but they add up before you know it.

We do have ALOT of out of the ordinary expenses for December....
an additional amount toward car insurance(daughter has been added as a licensed driver)
a vet bill for a very sick dog
clothes for 2 of the kids
possible holiday travel expenses(gas, hotels, eating, kennel boarding-budgeting at least $800)
oral surgery bill for daughter(insurance covers some of this)
orthodontist bill for son(we pay upfront for the discount and insurance covers some)
holiday gifts (mostly for our 3 kids, we are considering not exchanging gifts with the adults this year)

Besides hubby's paychecks, I've opened up my eBay store this month(though it's been slow selling so far), and I am waiting on over $200 in rebates, so we have a good potential on the income side.

Income up, expenses way up.....we'll be lucky to NOT go negative in December.
I am hoping for the best, but bracing for the worst.  If we have any money leftover at the end of December I will count myself extremely lucky!

Be sure and check out how others are doing with their finances this month at Money Saving Mom.

So how was your November financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?  Let us know!

And what are your plans for your money in 2010?  It's time to start thinking about how to get a fresh start to Financial Freedom next year!


Sluggy