Showing posts with label put money into savings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label put money into savings. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

$32K Savings Challenge of 2011......February Totals

Since I foresee food prices, as well as other expenses/costs/taxes to rise in 2011, I am only upping my Savings Challenge Goal by $2,000.  While I hope to bring in more income this year, I feel we will be spending more on necessities in 2011, thus the small increase in goals.

So I present to you February of the 2011 $32K Savings Challenge!

I have posted my FEBRUARY End of Month $32K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals really 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 $2,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up January in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of January with was a meager.......$374.00.

Income
We had $328.00 left over of DH's salary after our expenses were deducted.
Add in $46.00 of Rebates applied against the food expenses and you have a deposit of $374.00 toward the Savings Challenge!

Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal so we didn't even come close to our 2nd monthly goal in Feb.

Outgo
As for the expenses in February....we always seem to hemorrhage money in this month.
*The credit card bill(which is paid off each month)was over $1100 because Hubs replaced his dead computer. 
*Then the electric bill is a killer in the winter at $419.19. 
*The cable company raised our rate this month. 
*The semi-annual car insurance bill of $1486.37 was due. 
*We had a $676.85 AND a $110.35 car repair. 
*We paid our state income tax bill. 
*2 dental bills,
*A marching band payment(for #2 son's trip in the Spring),
*3 Dr. bills
*And the other usual water, phone, cash withdrawals for eating out and food purchases, gasoline, and Hubs WAM, etc. and we are left with $374. 
Most February's however, we end up going into the RED so I am NOT complaining that we're only left with a few hundred bucks!

The Food Budget costs for February are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in February was very low!  It figures....I go off of my self-imposed Spending Diet at the end of Jan.(which was a flop)and I actually was able to slice the food budget in half.

What's ahead for March.....
Looking back at last year's check register, I see we may have less $ outgo in March.
A quarterly sewage bill and the balance of #2 son's marching band trip to pay out, but otherwise nothing beyond the usual monthly bills. Knock on wood it stays that way and "Murphy" doesn't show up on my doorstep. ;-)



YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL.....
With 2 months behind us, our Savings total to-date for 2011 is $2,667.97.

And if you need to start putting money into savings......What's that you say?  You don't have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses!!??....consider playing along in 2011 with me and Challenging Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal!
Not everyone can shoot for $32K, I fully get that!
But everyone can shoot for some number, right!?

Find a money goal that works for you and put that number out there for everyone to see.  It will help keep you accountable to your goal if other eyes are on you.
Ooo, that sounded kind of creepy didn't it? ;-)

So how was your February financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!

Sluggy

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

$30K Savings Challenge JANUARY 2010 Totals....a Slow Start

I have posted my JANUARY End of Month 30K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have to report that we finished up January in the Black.

The amount we ended the month of January with was.......$755.65

Income
Besides Hubby salary we had a small amount in Rebates and some rolled Coins under the Income Heading.

Outgo
As for the expenses in January.....
The electric bill doubled!  This was not unexpected as our electric rates increased 30% on the 1st plus January was colder than December so more energy was used.
The water bill jumped $15 from last month. Extra showers and laundry to do with extra people in the house in Jan.
All other regular bills...Cable, Internet, Phone, etc. are the same each month. 

The Food Budget costs for January are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food/Toiletries spending in January was high but compared to the value of the items bought we still saved just over 84%. 

Jan. and Feb. are heavy expense months for us, as some quarterly and semi-annual bills come due.
The credit card bill,which is paid off EVERY MONTH,($643.14)wasn't too bad considering it's mostly gas purchases, 1 grocery store purchase and some Birthday/Relative visiting eating out.

The out-of-the-ordinary expenses in January halved our savings for the month.
It was a bad month for this family's teeth.
3 Wisdom Teeth, 4 Regular Teeth and a set of Braces later, we saw a big chunks of cash leave our account.  We do have dental insurance(thankfully!)so these expenses won't be as bad as they could have been.  The braces are paid for, out of savings we put aside for this expense a couple of years ago but the 7 teeth that were pulled WERE paid for out of our Jan. income.  At the moment that expense stands at $1,780.  We have to pay for these services but get reimbursed with our dental benefit later.  I am still waiting on one of the reimbursements. This payment will go into the income column and be applied against the expenses in February.

So how was your January financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?  Let us know!


Sluggy