October $20K Savings Challenge 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, 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 October report.....

I have posted my October 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.

I have to report that we finished up October with a really big number!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of October with?.......$4,623.32.

Income
We had $4,417.91 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in October totaled $205.41.  This brought us to our gain of $4,623.32 for October.

 

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Evidently I overpaid(again!)the long distance phone last month so our bill was only .65¢ in Oct.

*  The electric bill was about $1 LESS than September's bill.  October's bill has ALWAYS been at least $50 more than September's bill before this year(due to the heat getting turned on).
*  The credit card bill was about half of what it was in September.

* And the BEST Good Thing.....October was a third paycheck month!, so we socked that away into the Savings Challenge.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  I overspent on the food budget by $19.

*  Spending on prescriptions increased due to the blood clot issue.

*  We had pet related spending of $237(kennel and vet bills)because of trips.
*  Cash withdrawals were about double September's amount but some of this was due to trips taken.

 

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

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 10 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $20,926.27. 
 

We surpassed our goal by almost $1000 AND we still have 2 months left in the year to save some more money!
 

Looking ahead for November......
 

*  No special Holiday spending this month.  We aren't traveling for Thanksgiving and the meal will be modest because it's just Hubs and I this year.  And if I can scare up a Turkey Day invite from someone, then we won't need to buy/cook anything special that day. lolz

*  No big annual or semi-annual bills come due in November(the next one is in February)but I do plan on buying some furniture this month as the living room is bare except for a rug.

 

*  We put the bulk of the Ocean City trip from October on the credit card so that will have to be paid off in full from November's paychecks.

Between paying for the October trip and purchasing furniture for the living room I don't think we'll have much leftover during November to throw into the Savings Challenge.  I'll keep the Challenge up until the end of 2013 just in case we have some spare funds the next 2 months.

 

So how was your October financially?
  

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

The $20K Savings Challenge of 2013....April Update

$20K Savings Challenge.......April 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 April report.....

I have posted my April 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 April in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of April with?.......$3,108.15

Income
We had $1497.65 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted. 

Add in a per diem expense reimbursement check and our federal tax refund and we get another $1,610.50.  This brought our gain to $3108.15 for April.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The long distance phone bill was $4.04 lower.

*  The cash withdrawals were $225 less than in March.

* The electric bill was $54.53 lower than March.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The water bill was $4.05 higher than March.

*  The credit card bill went up $892.261(but was still paid off at month's end.)

*  The music lessons were $60 more.
*  The doctor bills were up $185.30 from last month.
*  We had an additional prorated bill for $200.01 for car insurance since #2 Son has his license now.  I'm not complaining though as it was suppose to be $400, but with taking Daughter off(sort of)the increase was less than expected.

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

We overshot the food budget by $35.49 last month.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 4 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $8,597.78.  Only $11,402.22 left to save and 8 months left to accomplish this.

 

Looking ahead for May......

*  We don't have any quarterly or yearly bills due this month. Yay us! ;-)
 

*  Due to my visit to the ER and hospital stay and all the new doctor appointments and tests, we will have bills starting 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 May.  We shall see in the fullness of time.

*  Gas and eating out spending will be higher this month due to a trip to see our oldest son graduate from college.  sniff, sniff

So how was your April financially?
 

Did you put ordinary living expenses on a credit card last month and not pay it off in full when due?
Did you spend less than the income you had in April?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in April, like a tax refund or bonus at work,
and what did you do with those funds?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debt 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