2017 Savings Challenge......April 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 savings 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 2017 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.
I have decided to lower the goal amount to save for the year to $35K.
Then Hubs decided to retire the end of June 2017, so this changes my goal again.

* I'm going to half my goal now, since I've got 6 months to get to the Savings Challenge Goal this year since Hubs is retiring effective June 30th.
This means the new revised goal is $17.5K for 2017 which was half of $35K.

On to the April report.....

I have posted my April End of Month $35K $AVING$ 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 $2,9916.66.

I have to report that we finished up April with a goodly sum.
The extra amount we ended the month of April with?.......$4617.30

Income

We had $2637.41 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted which was almost my targeted amount to save per month.

Other monies received in April totaled $1979.89.  This was interest made on non-retirement accounts and our federal tax refund.

This brought us to our gain of $4617.30
Since we have no debt, this all goes into savings.

Outgo

As for the expenses this April, 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 electric bill was $131.31 lower than last month's bill due to less cold weather.
*  The cash withdrawals were $330.00 lower than in March.
*  The medical bills(paid directly by check)were $36.90 lower than last month.
*  I had a Kohl's payment due again in April but it was $175.90 lower than March's payment.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The credit card bill was $732.59 higher this month, mostly due to medical charges and drug refills.
*  The water bill was $9.80 higher than in March.  Not "bad" but still higher than last month.
*  The gas card bill was $98.21 higher mostly because we had no gas card bill last month.
*  The landline phone bill was $5.35 higher than March because Hubs made a long distance call when he was working from home.
*  We had to pay state taxes to PA and LA that totaled $222.00.  While not a huge payment they did put a dent into what we got back from the feds.

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

With 4 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2017 is $14,751.88.

FINAL THOUGHTS on April---
We had a fairly low expense month, not great but acceptable, and we were able to tuck away over the monthly goal of $29916.66.

Compared to April 2016 we saved $1573.23 LESS to put into savings this April.  This was mostly due to last April being a third paycheck month.  Had it not been, we would have put $1400+ MORE away this April.

THOUGHTS going forward into May of 2017----
The regular bills will be on autopilot with me traveling this month.  So far the credit card bill is low but travel expenses will be on the bill we get in June.  We do have the semi-annual car insurance due in May so there's about $900 of our income automatically gone for that.

Four months into the year and we have put $14,751.88 into savings.
There is $2748.12 left to hit our $17.5K Saving Challenge target for the year.  This averages out to $1,374.06 per month for the next 2 months.  I think that this one is in the bag unless a disaster befalls us.

So how was your April financially?
  

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

$28K 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 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 March report.....

I have posted my March 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 March with a good amount saved.
The extra amount we ended the month of  March with?.......$3,797.12

Income

We had $2,296.14 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in March totaled $1,500.98.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, dividend checks from stocks held plus a partial refund on the money we paid out for our daughter's wisdom teeth surgery.  Also included is the 2014 Tax Refund we received.

This brought us to our gain of $3,797.12.
Since we have no debt, 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

 

*  Phone charges, internet and  were approximately the same as last month.
*  Water bill went down $2.04 from February's bill.
*  Credit Card bill went down $283.70 from February's bill. 
*  Gas charge card went down $37.66 from February's bill.
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS
.
*  Cash withdrawals went up $130.48 from February's withdrawals.
*  The electric bill was up $22.24 over Febuary's bill due to more heating.  Actually maybe this should be under GOOD Things since only using $22.24 more in energy in the middle of Winter is a "win".  This new efficient heating system is killing it! in terms of lowering our electricity usage.

*  We had a LOT of irregular spending too in March--we paid the sewage bill for the entire year in one chunk, additional tax was owned to the State, there were 2 small charges on store credit cards which were paid in full, and the local property taxes which was by far the largest amount paid out.I
In all there was $1809.34 in irregular bill spending this month.
 

The Food Budget costs for March are in another post, which is located HERE.  I actually came in under budget on food/toiletries for March.
 

The 2015 TOTAL.....
With 3 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2015 is $8,695.38.
That averages $2800+ a month so far and is about $500 more than we need to put away every month to reach the $28K goal for the year.

THOUGHTS going forward into April----

Irregular bills coming in April.... The only non-regular bill may be 2 dental bills as Hubs and I went to the dentist in Feb. and March so I am figuring at least one of those bills will come in during April.
There will be a cataract surgery bill(if I go with an upgrade)and we may have to foot that one instead of taking it out of the HSA fund as it's quite low after paying all those high deductibles for the year recently.

We will also be receiving an insurance bill in April for the "new- used" car we just bought.
If all the "regular" bills stay about the same as they were in March, those should amount to $1800.
Add in about $450 for the new car insurance charges and $300 or so for the dental bills and our nut in April will run about $2,500(not counting any cataract surgery costs).  April is a 3 paycheck month for us so next month's amount saved should be awesome!


With 3 months behind us we have $8,695.38 down and $19,304.62 left to save in 20015.  That breaks down into $2,144.96 per month for the next 9 months of the year. I think we can easily do this number each month.
 

 

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?
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 something you wanted?
 

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

$20K Savings Challenge.....December Update & GRAND TOTAL for 2013

In our family we save money. It is important to us to put money aside for "rainy days".  You know.....those unexpected days when things happen in your life that you can't plan on, but that DO happen and they cost you money you didn't know you'd need to pay out.

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, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision payments 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 2013 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am going to keep the Goal amount at $20,000 again this year.

On to the December report.....

I have posted my December End of Month $20K $AVING$ 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 $1,666.67.
But seeing as I hit the $20K goal in October, we'll just see how much more I can sock away in December.

I have to report that we finished up December with a little pile of cash to tuck away.
The extra cash amount we ended the month of December with?.......$1,281.68.

Income
We had $1,157.18 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in December totaled $124.50.  This brought us to our gain of $1281.68 for December.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Cable, Phone, Water were all approx. the same amounts as in November.

*  I spent under $300 for food/toiletries in December.  (This almost makes up for overshooting that budget by $180 last month).
*  I didn't buy any living room furniture yet so no spending there. 

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  $310 more was spent in cash over November's total of cash spending.  I blame Hubs paying cash for Christmas stuff.

*  The electric bill was $100 MORE than November's bill.  I blame the cold weather/turning the heat up.

*  We had unexpected pet related spending of $104 due to the dog having ear infections.
*  The credit card bill was almost $500 MORE than November's bill. I blame Christmas again.

 

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

The 2013 GRAND TOTAL.....
With all 12 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 is $24,033.60. 
 

We surpassed our goal by $4,033.60!  8-)))
 

Looking ahead for January and all of 2014......

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

*  I need to sit down with Hubs and have our Yearly Financial Meeting to go over how and what we spent on in 2013 and see where we need to cut back, change or expand the spending for 2014.  We'll break down the monthly spending and analyze how we did financially in each category.  Then we'll look ahead into 2014 and try to anticipate where we'll need to put our money toward and how much we can hope to save.

*  Figure out how much of the money saved in the year before's 2012 Savings Challenge didn't get spent in 2013, so it can now be tucked away permanently into a savings/investment instrument.  Going forward into 2014, any funds saved in 2013's Savings Challenge now become our mini-emergency fund for 2014.  Any emergencies that can't be paid for using extra income each month after the bills are all paid will be paid for out of this $24,033.60 Savings Fund.(Then when 2015 rolls around whatever was saved in 2013 and not spent on emergencies/extras in 2014 gets tucked away permanently into savings.)

*  January credit card bill will once again be large like December's(due to Christmas and travel expenses)but will be paid off this month.  No interest paid evah! ;-)

*  The quarterly garbage bill is due this month.

*  Semi-annual car insurance will be due in February so I need to keep an eye on credit card spending in January so we don't have to dip into the Savings Challenge funds to pay the insurance.  It's just a matter of watching WHEN we spent not so much NOT spending on something.

 

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?

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

$20K Savings Challenge Report for JUNE 2012

Ok, here is my JUNE Savings Challenge Update post for 2012.
This post is NOT about bragging or showing off.  It's just what we are able to save given our income and being able to hang tough against "unconscious" spending.

Just to update, My Savings Goal for the Year in 2012 is $20,000.  It's well below what I've saved in previous years I know.  But we also have a goal of paying for 4 home improvement projects at Chez Sluggy this year.  We plan on cash-flowing these projects with the additional money we save and/or our income tax refund.

On to the June report.....

I have posted my JUNE End of Month $20K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right 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 $1,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up June in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of June with?.......$4548.57!

Income
We had $4534.74 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $11.97 in Dividend revenue & $1.86 in interest(HAHAHAHAHA!) and  you get a total of $4548.57.

Outgo
Traditionally June has been a fairly normal month as far as spending goes.  No big tax bills or lump payments.  Just a higher water bill(due to opening the pool)and some costs associated with getting the kids off to summer camp.

As for the expenses this June......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

* A third paycheck this month!

* The electric stayed about the same as May's bill.  It's still too high for me....

*  No car maintenance/repairs bills TO PAY this month.....we've got a whopper coming up in July however. 8-(

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The quarterly garbage bill was due....due but not expected.

*  Credit card bill was fairly high at $1300+.

*  The beagle needed surgery to remove a toe with a tumor.  It was not cancer(thankfully)but was cutting off blood flow to part of the foot, so had to be removed.  $400 of unexpected spending.

*  Cash spending(my food money and Hub's WAM money)was WAY HIGH again this month.  We need to sit down and talk about why this continues to be a problem.

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

I know I said in May that the 3rd paycheck would NOT go into the Savings Challenge pot, but would instead go toward the home improvement projects this year.  But we have an unexpected $1500+ car repair bill(which will be due in July) and our mini-vacation expenses(which was suppose to go onto the credit card-to be paid off in July) were paid for in cash instead in June, so we will put the extra check into the savings and then pull out of last year's Savings Challenge amount, the actual costs of the mini-vacation.  We also kept our income tax refund separate from the savings challenge monies, so we still have that to tap into for the home improvement projects.

Basically, it's all from the same big pile of money in the end so not a big deal.  This way, we put more into savings than we use from the old savings.  I know this makes no sense but trust me.....lol

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 6 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is $13,971.40.

We hit our monthly goal in June and then some.  After falling behind what our monthly amount needed to be during the first 5 months of the year, now we are ahead of where we need to be.

With 6 months done, we should be at $10,000  saved for the year, so $3,971.40 ahead for the year!


I am so glad that June was a 3 paycheck month and we could put extra into the Savings Challenge and get a little ahead of my goal.  This extra paycheck in the cycle is the ONLY REASON we were able to put that much aside in June.....well "that" and we didn't go out and splurge on crap when we saw how much we had leftover at the end of June. ;-)

It's good because in the next 3 months we have largish irregular expenses coming due.
July is a car repair and homeowner's insurance.
August is semi-annual car insurance.
September is school taxes.

They are irregular because they don't come every month....like the water or electric bill.  But two things about irregular bills--
1.They are usually for large amounts(due to the fact that they don't come round every month).
2. You KNOW THEY ARE COMING!  Yep, every year....so don't stick your head in the sand and ignore them.  Plan for them.

Here is my plan for handling these 3 bills in the next few months.....

While the car repair bills in July, combined with the homeowner's insurance will top $2K, I will be able to pay them out of the reg. paycheck income.  The 2 variables in our budget, the food spending and the credit card bill will be less than anticipated/planned for in July, which will allow me to pay these irregular bills and the regular bills AND still have money to put into the Savings Challenge.

We get another extra paycheck month in August, so I'll split that check between paying the car insurance in August and the school taxes in September, leaving the regular paychecks those two months to pay regular bills and enough left over to put toward the Savings Challenge.

At this point, I only need to come up with $6028.60 for the rest of the year to make my $20K goal.  This breaks down to $1004.77 per month for the next 6 months.  I am confident I can find $1005 per month to set aside for savings.....barring some untoward event.


As for a look ahead at JULY.....
* Big car repair due.
* House insurance due.
* No trips planned other than maybe going to get #2 Son from camp this month.
* No celebrations here, no parties, just Boring McBorington at Chez Sluggy.

So how was your June financially?
Did you spend less than you made?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
How much did you save in June? 

 Even if it doesn't look like a lot of money, figure out what percentage of your income you saved.  You might feel that it's a more substantial amount in those terms!

We saved 47% of our take home income in June.  My goal is to shoot for 50% each month.  Even with that extra paycheck last month however, I couldn't make 50%, as our expenses were just too high.

Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.
Did you have debt you were able to pay on?
Did you pay off a car, a house or a credit card?
Did something financial blow up on you last month?
What are you doing financially to change your life?

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