Income & Spending Report 2022.....the June Edition

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

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 June report---

I had 2 goals for June.......
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 2022.

I can report that we finished up June in the Red.

The amount we ended the month of June with?...-$3,538.09

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in June---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3,235.81(after tax withholding)
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $160.97

* 1/3 of Quarterly 401K withdrawal=$1,733.36

*  SS of $2,432.00

*  Dividend of $18.48

*  Cash Deposit of $360.00(Hubs sold a gun and put some $$ into the household funds)

Total "Income" for June.....$7,940.62

Expenses in June---

* Irregular bills in June were $5,333.82

* Variable Expenses in June came to $3,918.76

* Health insurance premiums totaling $2,226.13

Total Expenses....$11,478.71

$7,940.62-$11,478.71= -$3,538.09

Slush into June of $44,108.86 in that Fund, subtract $3,538.09 and we get $40,570.77 going into July's 2022's Slush Fund.
The Slush Fund on it's Page(tab at the top of the blog)shows a subtraction of $3,538.09

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this June here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The Internet, cell phone and WAM was the same as last month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The water bill went up by $5.17 compared to last month.

*  The electric bill was $2.75 more than in May.

*  The gas bill was $48.55 last month.

*  The Mastercard bill was $147.51 higher in May.

*  The Amazon card bill was $296.18 last month.

*  We had 5 irregular bills due in June--

  *  The quarterly LTC premiums were due for $2,226.13

  *  The doggies had vet visits and shots for $218.00  

  *  A/C repair for $2,962.00

  *  6 Window replacements came to $3500.00

  *  A month of storage for $95.40

The a/c and windows are non recurring bills.

The storage is a short term bill for now.

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

FINAL THOUGHTS on June 2022---It was a high spending month what with the $6,557.40 in home repairs and moving costs.   We were able to cover all but $3,538.09 of these abnormally high bills in June with our regular income streams.  The rest of the overage in spending came out of the Slush Fund which is why we have one. ;-)

The interest income on  the non-retirement funds was very low in June which wasn't expected.  Though the water, electric and gas were higher in June it was all small amounts.  The c/c bills were higher in June due mostly to Hubs purchasing painting supplies.

THOUGHTS going forward into July 2022--The only irregular bills due in July are the short term storage bill and my Ancestry membership renews in July.  We also have decided to take another quarterly 401K withdrawal in the 3rd quarter which nets us an additional $1,733.36 each of the next 3 months in 2022.  We should be well below our income this coming month.

So how was your June financially? 

Did you spend less than the income you had in June?
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 2021.....The February Report

 Now that we are living on an annuity and 401K$ withdrawals(some months), 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.

  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 February report---

I had 2 goals for February.......
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 2021.

I can report that we finished up February in the black.
The amount we ended the month of February with?.....$12,326.90

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in February---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3,222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1,971.99
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $393.51

* Blog Revenue check of $118.67

* A 401K withdrawal of $10,441.79(after taxes taken out)

Total "Income" for February.....$16,148.20

Expenses in February---

* Healthcare Premium for February was $1,971.99(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Irregular bills in February were $0.00
* Variable Expenses in February came to $1,849.31
Total Expenses....$3,821.30

$16,148.20-$3,821.30=$12,326.90

Slush into February of $34,645.48 in that Fund, add the $12,326.90 February overage and this brings the Slush to $46,972.38 going into March 2021.
The Slush Fund on it's Page(tab at the top of the blog)shows an addition of $12,326.90 for February.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Internet and cell phone were the same as in January.

*  The WAM was the same amount taken as last month.

*  The Amazon card was $1,243.61 lower than in January.

*  The water bill was $4.72 less than last month.

*  We took a 401K withdrawal of over $10K at the end of February even though we didn't need it to cover any bills.  This in advance of our property tax bill coming due on April 15th(I'll probably pay it in March just to get that over with)and the bulk of that withdrawal is for having work done on the house so it's earmarked.  Instead of allocating a portion of it each month for the next quarter and reporting that chunk of it as "income" each month I'm just getting it accounted for in one fell swoop in 2021. '-)

HERE are the BAD THINGS

* The electric bill was $36.81 higher than last month's bill. Considering how much colder and snowier February was over January I am ok with that amount.

* The gas bill was $9.76 higher than in January.

*  The Mastercard was higher by $447.96 than last month's bill.  But that was because we had to use the Amazon Chase card when our credit info got stolen in December.  The Amazon card this month was over $1200 less than January's bill so we are down on c/c spending by $1,121.72 between all three c/cs(our joint, mine and Hubs).

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

FINAL THOUGHTS on February---
It was a good month overall financially.  Our expenses were VERY low with no irregular bills coming due and no surprise bills.  I like boring finances. 8-)

We sat down in February and figured out some of our financial game plan for 2021, thus the 401K withdrawal.  Even without that withdrawal we had $1,885.11 leftover in income after paying February's bills.

THOUGHTS going forward into March 2021----Hubs did a draft of the taxes and since he sold stock in 2020 we took a bit of a hit on the preliminary Federal return and will only get back $200+(and as always we'll owe the state a hundred or so).  We may do another post 2020 HSA deposit which will bring our taxable income down a bit and we can always use more $$ in our HSA. We'll run the numbers and decide in the coming weeks before we send off the tax return.

We do have an irregular bill due in March-the sewage bill which we pay annually to get the 3% discount.  That bill amount didn't go up from 2020's bill amount which is always a good thing.  The long term care premiums are due as well in March but between those and the sewage bill the total amount is under $1K so not a big concern within the monthly budget and income.

If I can spend another month staying away from the grocery spending in March that will help keep the spending for the month pretty low again so I am crossing my fingers. lol

So how was your February financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in February?
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 2019.....the November Edition

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 November report---

I had 2 goals for November.......
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 November in the black.
The amount we ended the month of November with?.....$1087.56

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in November---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1848.67
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $635.84
* Blogging Revenue of $133.73
Total "Income" for November.....$5916.91

Expenses in November---

* Healthcare Premium for November was $1,848.67(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Variable Expenses in November came to $2980.68
Total Expenses....$4829.95

$5916.91-$4829.35=$1087.56

Slush into November $17,496.43+ $1,087.56 addition=$18,583.99

Then the hot water heater died in November so we had to take $1076..00 out of the Slush Fund to pay for that.....
$18,583.99-$1076.00=$17,507.99 in the Slush Fund heading into December.

The Slush Fund on it's Page(tab at the top of the blog)shows an addition of $11.56 for November.
That's how much overage in November we had after paying for the water heater, $11.56.
So basically November was a wash in terms of putting any money aside.  I am glad we didn't have to touch savings. ;-)

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this November,  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 water bill was $15.38 lower than in September.
*  The WAM was the same as in October.
*  The health insurance premium was the same as last month.
*  The Amazon and M/C bills were less than October's bills($41.64 and $79.99 less respectively)

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The electric bill was $74.83 higher than October.  It's that time of year folks. ;-)
*  The gas card bill was $23.88 higher than last month.
*  The water bill was $5.80 higher than in October.
*  The semi-annual car insurance was due to the tune of $717.28.**
*  There was a vet bill for Chester's neutering of $477.28

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

**The Sinking Fund was emptied in November of it's $468.37 to put toward the car insurance.  Using that we only had to use $248.95 of income to cover this irregular bill. 8-)

FINAL THOUGHTS on November----

It was pretty uneventful financially.  Except for paying for a broken water heat, the car insurance premium(which we knew was happening)and paying for Chester's surgery things were monetarily boring which is how I like it. ;-)


THOUGHTS going forward into December 2019----

The only irregular bill due in December are the Long Term Care premiums.
There is Xmas spending on the credit card coming up in December(amazingly Xmas comes every year!!), the electric bill will continue to rise with Winter here.
There will be some medical bills coming due as well in December for appointments in November.

On the bright side I'll be using my "small economies" cash to cover the food bill this month.
If we can have bills and income balance about even and not have to pull cash from the Slush Fund in December I'll be a very happy camper.

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?
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

2019 Income & Spending Report.....the May Edition

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.

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 May report---

I had 2 goals for May......
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 May in the BLACK!
The amount we ended the month of May with?.....$788.85

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in May---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1848.67
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $595.77
Total "Income" for May....$5666.68

Expenses in May---

* Healthcare Premium for May was $1,848.67(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Variable Expenses in May came to $2356.00
* Irregular Expenses in May came to $673.16(car insurance)
Total Expenses....$4877.83

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this May, 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 c/c bill was $951.93 less than in April.
*  The electric bill was $61.54 lower than last month.
*  The health insurance premium was the same as in April.
*  The WAM/cash withdrawals were the same as last month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The water bill was $10.27 higher than in April.
*  There was a $13.11 higher charge on the gasoline credit card.
*  We paid semi-annual car insurance of $673.16.
*  I had $78.23 in charges on my Amazon card(filters and such).
*  I had a $122.41 charge paid on my Kohl's card(luggage).
*  I had a $37.00 charge for Chester's heartworm pills(6 mos. worth).
*  We gifted the Daughter a fat check for her graduation.

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

So we end May in the black with a $788.85 leftover.  Added to the Slush Fund going into May at $21,087.57 makes it go into June at $21, 876.42.

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

FINAL THOUGHTS on May---
It was a good, lower spending month.  We mostly sat home(other than Graduation)and didn't spend out of the ordinary this month.  Sort of stayed on budget for food/toiletries and didn't put a ton of charges on the credit card.

THOUGHTS going forward into June 2019----
We have the Long Term Care quarterly premiums to pay in June but that's the only irregular bill coming due this month.
We'll have some other not-normal bills too; boarding for Chester, a dental bill, trip bills(though most of those bills will be on the c/c due in July). I suspect the electric bill will go up a tad as a/c use begins.

On the good side of things, there will also be more on the income side in June; two dividend checks and I hear rumors of an eye doctor refund due us. ;-)

So how was your May financially?
  

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