$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

Happenings at Chez Sluggy Lately

Let's see what's going on around here this week, other than hitting up Rite-Aid for almost freebies and going to the grocery store.
Boy, do I lead a dull, dull life.......

Here's the biggest news this week.

Going......

Going......

GONE!

Another vehicle bites the dust.

We'll save approx. another $800 a year on our car insurance having this van gone.
Yay!

From a high of about $2,800 a year for insurance to $1,340 a year now.
Sweet.
My van insurance was roughly the same I now pay for the Sonic(since it's new) but unloading the Hyundai Elantra and Dodge Minivan will save us $1,460 a year going forward.
Plus all the repairs, gas and taxes/fees.
Plus we'll get a small partial refund on the car insurance bill I paid last month.

#2 Son will either have to be happy to drive the purple car when he is home for breaks or he will get a lot of exercise walking places. lolz

In other news........

I didn't sleep well yesterday because I am stressing out over--

A.  The repairman coming back today to fix the a/c and heating units.  He left here 2 weeks back and couldn't tell me what was wrong with them.  He had to call for technical support to a guy in India...WTF?!?  I have little confidence that this will be fixed today.  At least we aren't paying for a service call or parts as we got an extended warranty on the thing.

B.  Someone bought a boatload of fabric from me on Etsy 2 days ago.  She didn't pay me enough so I am waiting on more shipping $ at Paypal to come through.  This stuff doesn't leave until I am FULLY paid.

The daughter paid us the first installment of the loan we floated her to buy her house.
Yay!
Only 119 more to go.
I hope I live long enough to get all this $ back. lolz


Not feeling so great this week, besides the not sleeping.  I have some naggy ailments happening, things that pop-up every so often.  Annoying and make me grouchy.

I also have to schedule a mammogram, a CT scan(for a final check on a scar on my lung to make sure it isn't a tumor)and I need to get to the eye doctor before the end of the year.  That "baby cataract" that wasn't even large enough to mention really last Fall is now causing me eyesight problems.  I dread having a surgery but I need to get this taken care of before I head off on any more driving trips.  I just don't feel confident driving long stretches with my vision as it is now.

Speaking of trips........

                         photo credit S Walker


Next Friday we head out for the Vassar/Baker Reunion down in VA.  This is a shot of last year's attendees taken by my 1st cousin's(once removed) wife.  I'll be more mobile this year since at last year's event I was still recovering from a blood clot in my ankle.

I hope people hang around longer this year and don't just eat and run like last year.  Between that and not getting around well I didn't get to talk to/get to know hardly anyone there. 

I also want to go visit a cemetery while we are down there and take some photos of my 2x Great Grand headstones.
Later on the evening of the Reunion we'll have dinner with my mother's cousin & her husband, from her father's side of the family.

I hope to stop at Berky's Restaurant outside of Lexington for early dinner or late lunch on the way down.  Never been, always wanted to go there.  The fried chicken is to DIE FOR!
I haven't had fried chicken in ages.......

What else--

*   I got an old ragged nightgown ripped up with the seam ripper so now I can use it as a pattern to make some more gowns.  I loved that gown and it hurt to have to let it go....sniff, sniff......

*  Paid bills.  It looks like we are going to end September with $2K+ for the Savings Challenge so we are on track for this month.  We are, however, behind for the year at this point in the game.
But never fear because October is our 3 paycheck month. 8-))

*  I mostly piddled around and didn't get much done besides canning the relish.  Now I have to find a place to put it all! 8-)

Not much else going on here.
How about you?
What are y'all up to?

Sluggy