$28K Savings Challenge......July 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 or these other categories.

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 an interest bearing Savings Challenge account. 

For 2015 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $28,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the July report.....

I have posted my July End of Month $28K $AVING$ 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 $2,333.33.

I have to report that we finished up July with a lovely amount of $.
The extra amount we ended the month of July with?.......$4,089.56

Income

We had $3933.47 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in July totaled $156.09.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts and a per diem from Hub's work.

This brought us to our gain of $4089.56
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

As for the expenses this July, 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.
*  The gas credit card went down $85.41.  Hubs didn't buy gas at the Sunoco station because it was so high last month there, even with his .5¢ discount.  He put most gas charges on the reg. credit card and bought at a non-Sunoco station.  This credit card earns us point we can cash in for gift card.
*  The credit card charges went down by $2873.  There was no vacation spending on it plus we put very few charges on it before it closed mid July.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS(and the not so bad)
.
*  Water bill went up by $10.63.
*  Electricity bill went up by $11.51(A bit more a/c used and the washer/dryer were run more with an extra person here.).
*  The cash withdrawals went up $326.52 due to using cash for some of the apartment hunting trip expenses and I bought a $100 Rite-Aid gift card this month.

 

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

July has been out "cheapest" month so far in 2015.  Our expenses in July came to only $2200.00.
And that was even with a few out of the ordinary expenses(a Sam's club c/c charge, some medical co-pays, buying a gift card and paying the garbage bill ahead for the last 6 months of 2015.  These all came out to about $700+/- beyond our normal monthly costs.
 

The 2015 TOTAL.....
With 7 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2015 is $22,886.92.
That averages $3269.56 a month put into savings so far. 
We have left $5,113.08 to put away this year to reach our $28K Goal.

With $22886.92 saved already we only need to put away $1,022.62 each of the next 5 months to reach the $28K goal for the year and that's very doable for us.  ;-)

Finally thoughts on July---

I am amazed at how fast we've been able to pile up the extra/unspent $ this year!  It helped that in April we had that third paycheck.....this always builds our momentum and when it comes early in the year it gets me revved up to keep going.
July was NOT a third paycheck month but even so by not putting charges from mid May to mid July on the c/c we were able to keep the bills somewhat low.  Not having any car repairs last month also helped in that regard.
I am stoked to only be $5K+ away from reaching this savings goal for 2015.


THOUGHTS going forward into August----

As for irregular expenses.....
We have both the house insurance and $695 of car insurance due the end of August.
There are no trips planned this month, except for a one day trek to take College Boy back to school.  We will be renting a van for that trip so there is some expense for that.
The credit card bill is going to top out at around $1900 by the time it closes next Tuesday.  Yikes!  I blame eating out(both traveling and having kids home to visit in July expenses)plus a little retail therapy(mostly Hubs and getting a few things for College Boy before he heads back to school).

The last big irregular expenses coming is end of September and that is the school tax bill(local property taxes here are broken up into a school tax bill and a local tax bill).  I pay one in March and the other in September.  If we can keep the c/c spending down for the rest of the year we are golden for making our savings goal this year. 8-)

With 7 months behind us we have $22,886.92 down and $5,113.08 left to save in 2015. 

 

So how was your July financially?
  

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

Inflation, Financial Suicide & Being Henny Penny

*  Some of you may want to go 'fortify' yourselves with some adult beverages before reading this.
It's a rambling missive in which I reflect on economic things and I do a fairly good impersonation of Henny Penny.   I will try to be perkier on Friday.  *

As we go into a brand new world after this election cycle I foresee things changing in this country.....but only changing for the worse for the average citizen no matter which "party" takes control.

 
I see lots of people struggling.....struggling everyday just to hang onto the life they have now.  More people swiping Access Cards(food stamp cards)at the grocery store or putting things back after they run out of cash at the register......people not filling their gas tanks fully at the gas station......store parking lots seem a bit emptier.....the number of cars in the parking lot at the food bank when it's open is noticeably higher, et cetera.
With the growing rate of inflation, and the hyperinflation that's sure to come eventually if the course in this country isn't changed, it will be getting harder and harder to just maintain our lifestyle as it is.  Doing better financially is just not something that most of us can even hope for anymore!

As prices rise, more and more families are slipping off the cliff and falling into not being able to sustain themselves.  The wise ones are downsizing from their unaffordable ways, buying less and buying cheaper(though buying cheaper isn't always wise in the long run).  The ones who saw it coming put their heads down and braced themselves for austerity.  Hard times had forced many into trying on the frugal lifestyle.
While the rise of frugality in 2008 was an anomaly of the time that marked the beginning of the Great Recession of the 21st Century, the level of frugality we have now 4 years later indicates that it is NOT just a passing fade and that it has become the "New Normal" in this country.

Families are falling off the financial cliff due to several factors, but these people boil down to 2 financially fragile groups in this country......those who are not being able to change their lifestyles even if they want to and those who are unwilling to change their lifestyles even when it's clear that financial change is needed.

Now I can understand the group of people who want to change their lifestyle but are unable.....I mean those who, due to a lack of education or resources can't do anything beyond the same stuff to improve their standing in the economic world.  Then there are the people who can't work due to age or disability or mental illness mostly.  Granted this is a very small group.  Even some who are disabled or old or mentally unstable can find ways to bring in money if they put their minds to it.  I've seen it.  These folks are going to have a hard time getting some national chain business to hire them for a 40 hr. a week gig, but there are ways to bring in money.  You just have to be open to different ideas of what employment means and what an acceptable lifestyle is and embrace an opportunity when it comes along.

Notice that I didn't include the economically oppressed in this first group of the financially fragile.  While most of the poor have few economic options they do have their mental and their physical faculties going for them.  How else does one explain the success of many of our ancestors, who came here as poor immigrants, with nothing but a sack of belongings and some not even being able to speak the language of the land?  If someone with all that going against them could survive and thrive in a mostly hostile environment, don't tell me that an able bodied young economically challenged person can't find a way to support themselves now. 
But I digress.....

What I don't get are the people who refuse to change their lifestyles even when the reasons are staring them in the face!
If you were holding an anchor in your hands and standing on a ship that is taking on water......why are you not throwing that anchor overboard and using your hands to frantically bail the boat out?

That's what I see that the families who are unwilling to change their lifestyles are doing.  Continuing to hold onto the ways and lifestyle they use to have, even though their brain tells them that is NOT what they should be doing. 

An example of this is people who can't afford the car or the house that they own.  At some point in the past, they bought a house or a car and could afford the payments/mortgage but due to economic factors(income loss, price of gas, property taxes, insurance, etc.), paying for that car or house means they live above their income each month.  The house or car is unsustainable in their life.  No matter what they juggle financially, they just can't afford to pay all the bills and pay for that car or home too.

They may try to cut something else down or out, like food.  This may only be a short term solution because if their life is suffering in some other category because they are using  their economic resources to support a house or car payment that is unrealistic for their income level, eventually their solution will fail and they'll still have to face that crisis again.
We had a family member recently who went through this exact scenario.  They had a car repossessed and needed $2K+ to get it back, which they didn't have.  Come to find out they couldn't afford the payments on this car due to their income and other lifestyle choices.  But they were insistent on getting this car back.  It was pointed out to them that maybe getting the car back was NOT something they should do, since because of the lack of resources, they would not be able to make the payments yet again down the road,  and would lose said car again....thus having to find another $2K+ to get it back, which they wouldn't have in their budget obviously to do so.
Why was this person holding onto this car so desperately?.....a car that was unsustainable in their life?
This person was so emotionally attached to a C-A-R, they couldn't see how financially toxic is was to their life!
I am happy to report that the family member ultimately decided to let the bank take the car back and used some unexpected cash funds to buy a used car that they CAN afford.

When folks realize they need to cut an item out of their life, why do people not do it?

--Is it because of the lust for the item?  They have talked themselves into believing that in order to be happy they NEED that item no matter the cost to their financial well being?

--Is it the "what will everyone else think of me?" syndrome, where our image in the world is so important that we'll put our financial well being at risk?  "If I lose my car or house, my peers will think something negative about me?"  How they appear to the world is more important than being solvent?

--Is is denial that a problem exists?  They are so deluded about reality that they don't even see there is a problem here?

--Is is fear of the unknown?  They know they have to get rid of the car or home but they are so petrified of what will happen when they do so?

--Or is is combination of any or all of these reasons that people make insensible choices in their lives with money?

* Tell me what YOU think!  Are you downsizing your life?  Do you need to downsize your life?  Do you see more financial mayhem coming toward us after this election cycle?

* Tell me I'm wrong and why.  Got another opinion?....Tell me!

* Do we need to lower our economic expectations in this country?

* Tell me how you stay financially sustainable....give me examples.  Maybe you'll inspire someone!

* Tell me your personal story about being financially fragile and what you have done/are doing to get yourself out of that state.

Sluggy