Income & Spending Report 2019....the September Report

Now that we are living on an annuity and 401K$ withdrawals, 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.

Two changes we implemented for 2019 at our financial meeting in Jan.--

* Hubs wants to take $150 per person WAM(aka Walking Around Money)in 2019.  I found last year's $100 per month adequate but Hubs chafed at that little so we are upping it this year to $150 per person per month.
                                                                                                                                             
*As for our 2018 Slush Fund, this is how we are going to handle it in 2019......
We won't be taking a quarterly 401K withdrawal in 2019 until we "need" to, instead of taking one each quarter as we had planned back in 2017 when Hubs retired.  Why pull 401K monies out when they are earning more than our other regular bank funds?  Use those instead for now!

Since the Slush Fund ended 2018 with $23,164.17 in it and the Sinking Fund ended 2018 with $468.37 in it, we are, for now at least, not taking any more 401K withdrawals and using what is in the Sinking Fund and/or Slush Fund to cover all irregular bills that come up in 2019 plus a few projects around the house.

I have set up a page to track the Slush Fund.  Click on the tab marked "Slush Fund 2018-2019" at the top of the blog.

  I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how much is coming in and how much is going out.  8-)

On to the September report---

I had 2 goals for Septmber.......
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 the previous month to tuck back into a slush fund.  This slush fun may be to apply toward unforeseen bills that are coming due in subsequent months, to spend on "extras/wants" during the year or to just sit there and grow until the end of 2019.

I can report that we finished up September in the black.
The amount we ended the month of September with?.....$2,246.26

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in September---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1848.67
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $618.74
* Two dividend checks totaling $109.27
Total "Income" for September.....$5,798.92

Expenses in September---

* Healthcare Premium for September was $1,848.67(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Variable Expenses in September came to $1703.99
Total Expenses....$3,552.66

$5,798.74-$3,552.66=$2,246.26

Slush into September $17,998.65+ $2,246.26 addition=$20,244.91

This would be great news except..........

We also had more expenses we planned to be paid out of the Slush Fund instead of regular "income" in September--The Annual School taxes(half of our yearly property taxes in PA), the two new mattresses and adjustable bed frame from Wayfair, and our Long Term Care quarterly premiums. These four bills came to $4,030.51 and were taken out of the Slush Fund.

$20,244.91 after overage of "income" applied-$4030.51=$16,214.40 in the Slush Fund going into October.
So the Slush Fund went down by $1,784.25 after all income overage added and then $4030.51 in extra bills were subtracted from it.

The Slush Fund on it's Page(tab at the top of the blog)shows a reduction of $1,784.25 for September.

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this September,  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 $2 or so).
*  The electric bill was $15.02 lower than last month.
*  The c/c bill was $1,381.267 lower than in August.
*  The gas card bill was $101.61 lower than last month.
*  The health insurance premium was the same as in August.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The water bill was $4.59 higher than last month.
*  The WAM was $39.50 higher than in August(to cover cash taken for farm produce and a vet charge Hubs covered with his WAM).
*  The Chase/Amazon c/c was $25.84 higher than last month's bill.
*  I had a $23.71 Kohl's charge bill.
*  Hubs  had a $12.15 Discover card bill.
*  There was $87.50 in vet charges(a year's worth of heartworm meds, and a test).

The Food Budget costs for September are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food costs are included in the credit card payment(mainly but sometimes our WAM cash too).

The Sinking Fund goes into October 2019 standing at $468.37 since nothing was paid out of it in September.

FINAL THOUGHTS on September----

Though we had a couple thousand bucks in income overage last month, we also had four large of "out of the ordinary" expenses in September(all 4 planned)which gave a "hit" to the Slush Fund.
It's all good though as the Slush Fund is for using for these extras and irregular bills.

THOUGHTS going forward into October 2019----

We have no irregular bills due this month.

Hopefully the electric will be low due to not needing much heat yet(but I won't be home and Hubs will jack the heat up too high  I can guarantee that! lolz).

The credit card bill will be higher again in October.....there will be trip charges--motel stay, extra gas, food out, etc

But no worries here on going over the "income".  We have over $16K in overage left from last year when we were withdrawing from the 401K so we just use that overage to absorb extra costs until that is gone and then we'll sit down and re-evaluate the spending, probably at the end of 2019 if any monies are left in the Slush Fund by then.

So how was your September financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in September?
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!


Sluggy

Income & Spending Report.....September 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 an annuity and 401K$(no 401K$ 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(probably), 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 September report--
I had 2 goals for September......
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 the previous month to apply toward irregular bills that are coming due in the next month.

I have to report that we finished up September in the black.
The extra amount we ended the month of September with?.......$3145.15

Income

The income in September was the monthly annuity payment and the August overage of $562.41.

Other monies received in September totaled $5198.61.  This was interest made on non-retirement accounts, two stock dividend checks and almost $5K of that gain was a reimbursement of 3 months of healthcare premiums(paid back from our RMSA account).  (Going forward I won't include the healthcare premium paid each month on our monthly bills as it will be automatically reimbursed now.)

This brought us to our gain of $3145.15  Thank goodness that healthcare premium reimbursement came in when it did!  Had it not, we would have been in the negative and would  have had to dip into regular savings to pay all the bills that came due in September.

Since we have no debt, this will get put aside to apply to the irregular bills coming due in October--a quarterly bill for long term care insurance and a quarterly garbage collection bill and then carry over into 2018 if it's not needed to pay bills before 2017 is over.

Outgo

As for the expenses this September, 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).

HERE are the BAD THING

*  The water bill was $6.54 higher than in August.
*  The gas card bill was $50.59 higher than last month.
*  The cash withdrawals were $220 higher than in August(because no cash was withdrawn in Aug.)
*  The electric bill was $9.77 higher than last month's bill.
*  The credit card bill was $807.79 higher in September compared to August
*  The medical bills were $1.79 higher this month over last month's bills.
*  School taxes were due.
*  We had a small dental bill to pay in September.
*  We had to pay the September health insurance premium of $1771.94.
*  We made two donations to charity(Houston Food Bank and Americares for Puerto Rico relief).  While these aren't "bad" things, having received our RMSA reimbursement meant we could cut two checks this month to these charities rather than having to wait until better cash flow in October to do so.

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

So we end September in the black with $3145.15 to apply to the two irregular bills due in October.
This will be more than enough to cover those two bills.


FINAL THOUGHTS on September---Lots of bills both regular and irregular were due in September.  And most of the regular bills were all a bit higher than the previous month. 

I have to keep stopping myself from freaking out when I pay bills and remind myself that no, our bills aren't higher.  It's just that some bills were paid out of Hub's paycheck(before he retired)automatically from his gross pay, before I got his take home pay.  Now those bills are needing to be physically paid by me.  They aren't NEW bills.  They are just getting paid differently.  Maybe in a month or two I can get that through my thick head. lolz

THOUGHTS going forward into October of 2017----

I'll be setting up a sinking fund to cover our irregular costs for 2018, meaning I'll set aside a specific amount each month in 2018($650)from the annuity payment so that when these irregulars come due I have cash enough in that account to pay those bills without dipping into regular savings.

There is one more big irregular bill in 2017 coming in November--the semi-annual car insurance premium of approx. $900.  I should be able to cover that with regular income this year but I think I'll begin the Sinking Fund in October of this year anyway and get a jump on the 2018 irregular expenses so we can cash flow all the irregulars in 2018.
Other than this, all the regular bills should be about the same in October as they were in September.

So how was your September financially?
  

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