Income & Spending Report.....July Update

* As Hubs retired effective July 1, I am no longer doing my 2017 Savings Challenge.
We ended that on June 30th.  The goal was $17.5K saved for the half of 2017 that Hubs was working.
We actually saved $21,100.42 all totaled, so $3600.42 over goal!

Now that we are living on savings and an annuity(no annuity until October)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.
But this money leftover at the end of each month, at least for now(as we find our new financial "normal")won't be saved toward a yearly Savings Challenge.

The issue now is to cover all the bills with just the annuity payment each month plus some liquid savings(checking account cash)until October.
October is when Hubs turns 59.5 and then we can access the 401K retirement savings.  Until then things will be tight here at Chez Sluggy, so all the leftover monthly cash will get tucked aside to pay irregular bills that will be popping up in August and September.

Got it?
OK, let's move on.

Though nothing will be put toward it the rest of 2017, the 2017 $17.5K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals are still available
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

On to the July report--
I have 2 goals for July.....
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 July to apply toward irregular bills that are coming due the next two months.

I have to report that we finished up July in the black.....barely.
The extra amount we ended the month of July with?.......$154.88

Income

The income in July was the monthly annuity payment and Hubs' last paycheck(which was only for 1 week of work, his last).
We had -$17.60 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in July totaled $172.48.  This was interest made on non-retirement accounts.
I am thankful for the small crumbs of interest in July.  If not for that little bit we'd have been negative at the end of July.

This brought us to our gain of $154.88
Since we have no debt, this will get put aside to apply to the irregular bill coming due in August--the homeowners insurance.

Outgo

As for the expenses this July, 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(Within $1 or so).
*  The water bill was $7.62 less than in June.
*  The gas card bill was $40.88 lower than last month.
*  The cash withdrawals were $220 lower than in June.

HERE are the BAD THING

*  The electric bill was $17.46 more than last month's mostly due to the washer/dryer running more and the kids having the a/c units in their rooms turned on all month.
*  The credit card bill was $43.94 higher in July compared to June.
*  The medical bills were $5.72 higher this month over last month's bills.
*  We had to pay deposits to have the electric and water put in our name at the LA house which came to $600.
*  I have a c/c charge for $153.41 for replacement clothing for me(mostly underthings and a Winter coat).
*  We had to pay the July health insurance premium of $1577.66(this use to come out of Hubs' paycheck automatically).  We haven't set up using the health insurance account through his employer yet to pay this bill so it came out of our monthly income.
*  I sent a birthday check to our eldest son for his July birthday.
*  We had a small bill for electric at the LA house.

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

So we end July in the black with $154.88 to apply to the house insurance bill due in August.  That bill amounts to $668, so I just have to eek out another $513.12 from our August income to cover that along with all the regular monthly bills.


FINAL THOUGHTS on July---July kicked our asses mostly.
Between a high credit card bill, the utility deposits in LA and having to pay the health insurance premium OOP there were lots of irregular/variable bills last month.  These combined cost us $2100 or so over our usual "nut".  Making some interest on our accounts made the difference between making enough this month to cover all the bills.


THOUGHTS going forward into August of 2017----
August will be tight this year, I won't lie.
Between still paying the health insurance premium out of regular income and the yearly house insurance premium being due this month AND having a reduced income(just the annuity payment), August will be a "squeaker".  I am SO glad I have that $154.88 leftover after paying July's expenses to put toward the August bills!  That just might mean the difference between staying in the black for August.

The one good thing about August and September bills will be that all the Road Trip expenses put on the credit card(some due on August's bill and some due on September's bill)will be paid out of our savings and NOT our August income.  We planned and saved for this trip so it won't impact our regular bills/income.

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?
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!

I hope this year was the one were you cleaned up your finances and paid off your debts.
That you planned to set something aside if you didn't already or increased what you banked now for your future self.
Or paid extra on the principle of your mortgage if your house isn't already paid off.

Live below your means and keep some change for a rainy day....because no matter how sunny it is in your life now, dark clouds come along and you'll be glad you have that umbrella to keep you dry.

Sluggy

Living Your Financial Life Responding or Reacting

As I start adding all the numbers for the month,  it looks like February will be a good savings month for us this year.
I am still waiting for the interest to post on our accounts but as of now we are over $2K saved out of our regular income.  And that's on a reduced income for the month since part of February ]was with disability pay.  Some substantial bills were down in February from January's amounts....water, electric and groceries.  Even with a lower paycheck we we still have "leftover" pay.

But March is not going to be so good for savings as we hit our $3K medical high deductible for the year by February 10th due to expensive prescriptions and the Daughter had her back injections on that date.  And Hubs had another eye injection late January too so we have paid/been billed OOP $3K + at this point for all medical charges to date.

Remember the $1690.34 I had saved in December 2016 but reserved to put toward medical in 2017?
$920.73 was spent this month toward medical bills, so there is $769.61 left to put toward medical bills in March.
At this date we have $1865.98 in medical charges that haven't been billed yet(but have been submitted to insurance so I have EOBs on them). The bills for these will be arriving in March.  After I apply that $920.73 I need to find $1096.37 more in our March income to cover these bills.

Usually I'd just pay irregular bills like these medical ones as income comes in.
But we also have property taxes due the end of March(I pay them early to get the discount on them.  I could wait and pay more later.).

Between this total of $2468.22 in irregular bills that will be due in March AND what I have estimated our normal/regular bills will come to for March applied against the estimated regular income in March it's going to cut things very close.   "Less than $200 between income and outgo for March" close.

So I am going to hold back about $500 of the leftover income that would go into the Savings Challenge for February to use toward irregular bills in March.

I know that if I pay the bills now or later really doesn't matter for us.  I could just take the Feb. excess to savings now and then maybe go negative for March, or hold back $500 for Feb. so we don't go negative in savings for March.  It would be just a temporary setback on paper vs. juggling the money for a bit.

It's not like it will mean having to pay interest or having overdraft fees because we went negative in the bank accounts because we have a cushion of extra cash in those accounts anyway.  I can handily cover any overages in our accounts.

Hubs doesn't get why I get so worked up and track everything so closely. This coming from the man who NEVER balanced an account before we got married and use to write checks for cups of coffee at school. ;-)

I just like to know where everything stands at any given time.
OCD, anal retentive?  Maybe.

I just like the way it feels month to month when I can cash flow things and not have to pull from savings for bills one month and then replenish those accounts the following month.
Just thinking ahead I can see where trouble might happen and deal with it rather than reacting to what life throws at me.
I guess it's a difference between RESPONDING to life events rather than having to REACT to life events?

Peace of mind maybe.
My financial life flowing smoothly.....not three steps forward, one step back.
Are you that way too?

Most people live a life of reaction.  Reacting to crises, waiting for something to happen and then dealing with it.  Life runs smoothly for a bit longer until the next crisis.....and the next and the next.

I find this type of living exhausting.  Being organized no matter the arena(your job, your money, your home, etc.)makes your life run smoother.

Maybe THIS POST or THIS ONE might explain what I am talking about better.

Overall, everything will get paid and savings will happen at Chez Sluggy.
And I'll continue to respond with my money and not react to it.

Sluggy