$20K Savings Challenge.......March Update

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, 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 March report.....

I have posted my MARCh 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 March in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of March with?.......$1,352.60

Income
We had $1280.04 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted. 

Add in 2 quarterly dividends, some bank interest and a rebate check, and we get another $122.56.  This brought our gain to $1,352.60 for March.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill was $13.18 lower than Feb.

* The electric bill was $99.82 lower than Feb.(Our heat is electric.)

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The credit card bill went up $98.91(but was still paid off at month's end.)

*  The cash withdrawals were up $200 over last month.
*  The doctor bills were up $67.05 from last month.
*  The long distance phone bill was up $4.01 from last month.
*  We owed $44 in state taxes.
*  The yearly sewage bill was paid this month.

*  The yearly local taxes were due this month.(I received a discount from paying them before April 1.)

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

We managed to stay well within our $400 food budget in March.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 3 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $5,489.63.  Only $14,510.37 left to save and 9 months left to accomplish it.

We just missed our $1,666.67 target goal for the month, but not by much.  Considering the yearly taxes and the yearly sewage bills paid, I'd call March. a WIN for us on the money front.

Looking ahead for April......

*  We don't have any quarterly or yearly bills due this month.
*  Since #2 Son got his driver's license, we have an additional car insurance bill due this month, to the tune of almost $400. sigh.

*  Due to my health scare and visit to the ER and hospital, the bills will start to roll in this month, so I can't even hazard a guess if we'll be able to make our monthly savings target of $1666.67 in April.  We shall see in the fullness of time.

So how was your March financially?

Have you finished paying off those presents from last Christmas you put on credit?
Did you spend less than the income you made in March?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in March and what did you do with it?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debt or put extra toward your mortgage principle?
Did you receive a tax refund and what did you do with that money?

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

Be Prepared for Unemployment.....Have a Plan to Reduce Spending

Do you see it?
Over there, in the corner.....that quite large pachyderm?
The elephant called Economic Recession.
Even when no one is talking about it, it's presence is always felt.  I see less people in the stores buying. More 'for sale' signs going up on people's houses and condos.   Fewer car lots still open.  Restaurants closing up.

In these uncertain economic times, it is wise to have a plan to reduce your expenses if income loss ever happens to you.
Unemployment percentages and lay-offs are at record highs for this generation.  While your job may be a sure thing today, no one knows what tomorrow may bring.  Don't be blindsided when and if a loss of employment and income happens to you!
This is especially important if your household runs on one income and not two.  If that one income leaves, you don't have the safety net of that second source of money.

Plan Ahead When Your Income is Good
Even before the thought of a job loss there are two things you should be working on well before you encounter an economic crisis--paying off/down debt and piling up cash.
If you have debt(anything except a mortgage)get serious on paying off that debt.  That's a good plan no matter the economy or your income!  The less bills you have sucking your limited income up in unemployment, the better.  And make sure you have a hefty Emergency Fund. This would be a pile of money in an account somewhere(heck, even in a coffee can buried in your backyard!)that you can use to cover expenses if you ever lose your source of income until you go back to work. 
When unemployment happens, the better shape your finances are in the better you can ride out the "laid-off storm". 

Have a Plan to Reduce Expenses
Beyond eliminating/reducing debt, make an emergency budget plan for your family.   When a job loss strikes, you need to take immediate steps to reduce your spending and preserve what money you have and make it last until the paychecks come rolling in again.

That point was brought home this week in my family.  Hubs came home with glum news that his company, which had let go a handful of employees last month, was about to announce a much larger round of lay-offs that would affect many areas of the business.

Hubs is fairly certain that he isn't at any risk of losing his job at this point.  But the facts are that A--many companies are "lay-off happy" lately,  and B--that he is nearing retirement age and C-- that he has a larger than some at his level salary due to his many years of service.
These 3 things may put him in the "firing squad's" crosshairs in the future.

So in my copious free time....lol....I sat down earlier this week and contemplated a "Lay-Off" Budget for my family...just in case it's ever needed.

While we are pretty frugal here already and have no debt currently and live on a budget, there are 'wants' we can cut and 'needs' we can reduce if we had to. 

Here is my list of what I'd change in my budget if a job loss happened tomorrow.

*Cable TV--Since we have a bundled service that includes high-speed internet too, we would shop around to either unbundle and drop cable altogether or reduce the cable component to bare bones.  We could realize a small savings doing this.  While not a 'need', Internet is the one thing that would go as a last resort, but for now it would stay.
Potential savings of $50 a month.

*Telephones--We don't pay for our kids cell phones and never have.  If they want one, they find the money through work or allowance to pay for it so we can't save anything there.  But we do have 2 pay-as-you-go cell phones between Hubs and myself, as well as a landline.  We would drop the landline as I have a long distance pay-per-month plan on my cell.  With #1 son away at school, some form of long distance service is a need.  Dropping the landline would save us approx. $30 a month.

*Eating Out--This would be stopped immediately....ALL OF IT!  While we would probably save $200 a month here(between the dinners out, the fast food for #2 son, and the hot school lunches) we would probably spend more on groceries to make up for it so I'm saying a savings of approx. $150 per month.

*Entertainment--This item could also be eliminated from our budget.  We can find free things to do to amuse ourselves if there is a personal financial crisis. Savings of approx. $25 a month.  Yes, we are TOTAL Party Animals anyway, huh?! lolol

*Groceries & Toiletries--While I spend basically zero on toiletries now anyway, I could cut some fat from the food budget.  I'd plan more meatless meals and try to reduce grocery expenses by using cheaper ingredients, much to the chagrin of Hubs.  Daughter gets free food at her current job so those nights would help because I don't have to feed her. If the cost cutting had to be extended for a long period of time, I'd expand the size of the garden next Spring, in order to grow more of our own produce, which would bring down grocery costs over the course of the year.  Short term, we could cut to a $150 a month food budget for a reduction of $50 to $100 a month as I spend $250 now.

*Laundry--Once I run out of almost free detergent, I'd make my own to save money. I'd wash only in cold water(I do use warm water some loads now).  I'd figure out a way to string clotheslines somewhere in the house or garage to dry clothes in the winter so no using the dryer at all.  Not sure how much that would save but it would be something.
Potential savings of  $15 a month.

*Water Usage--I'd set a stricter limit of the teens shower lengths.  Maybe a timer with a loud bell to get them out of the shower faster.  If this period stretched into next year, we'd not open the pool, as it is a water hog.
We would also utilize rain barrels(if we could source them for cheap)to water the garden next year.
 Potential savings of $10 a month.

*Electricity--We would eat down the freezer and then unplug it and make due without stockpiling the bulk of our frozen foods.  We would still have the small freezer compartment over the fridge and the makeshift root cellar in the garage(during cold weather).  Light bulbs would be replaced with lower wattage models.  Some bulbs would be removed if the area only needs 'mood' lighting and not task lighting.  I'd get all up in the teens faces more when they leave on lights and the tv when they leave a room......the teens would add that I couldn't possibly get more up in their faces about this. ;-)
Potential savings of $8 a month.

*Heating/Cooling--By far the largest component of our Electric bill.  Turning down the thermostats another degree or two in the cold weather and make everyone bundle up more.  I'd also add insulation by jerry-rigging heavy drapes or quilts over the back windows in the house.  The back of the house gets the evening sun only so they are pretty useless for passive solar efforts, so I'd cover them with padded fabric to retain heat.  Any of those rooms that I need sunlight in during the day for illumination, I'd made the drape removable.  In terms of cooling/air conditioning, we only have window a/c units now and I don't find we need the a/c very often.  I attempt now to keep the units off and utilize the ceiling fans as much as possible in the hot weather.  The a/c would be used for emergencies only.
Summer months savings of $15 a month, Winter months savings of $50 a month.

*Home/Car Insurance--We would revisit our policies and see if there was a way to cut the premiums down without putting anything at risk with this coverage.  The car insurance on the car for the teens use would either be discontinued(and they would drive my car when needed)or they would be asked to help pay for that part of the insurance from their part time jobs.
Potential savings of $80 a month.

Miscellaneous Expenses--Mostly this includes things Hubs spends on with the cash he withdraws every month(except what he spends on eating out and gasoline)...food at work(which he would no longer need to spend), dry cleaning(which he would no longer need to spend), coffee on the way to work(ditto), other incidentals and WAM(walking around money).  It's hard to know for sure but I think this could be a $100 a month savings if he didn't need to spend for these items.

With just these items, we could potentially reduce our expenses between an additional $528 to $613 per month!

With the small amount of money we spend compared to many people I know, I am floored at how much I could still pull out of the budget if I had to!  Yes, doing some of it would inconvenience us and would impact the lifestyle we are used to, but I feel all of this is still highly do-able and wouldn't cause undue strain on anyone in our family.
The teens would probably disagree vehemently with me though.... ;-)

So this Emergency Budget would be my first step if Hubs ever comes home with 'the bad news'.   I feel a sense of relief just having something written up.  I know what to do now instead of panicking!

Have you thought about making an Emergency Spending Plan with your partner?
I highly recommend having some idea of how to proceed, in writing, if the unemployment blues land on your doorstep.  Having a plan beforehand is key to surviving periods of economic distress.

Sluggy