2016 $38K Savings Challenge.....March 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 2016 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount to $38,000 this year, $10K more than my goal for last year.

I have reconsidered and changed my Goal from $40K to $38K for 2016.  With some things coming down the pike this year I thought it prudent to back up my Goal a couple of thousand.  8-)

On to the March report.....

I have posted my March End of Month $38K $AVING$ 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 $3,166.66.

I have to report that we finished up March with a large amount leftover exceeding my target amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of March with?.......$4947.49

Income

We had $2,803.42 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in March totaled $2389.61.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, a tax refund and 2 stock dividends.

This brought us to our gain of $4947.49
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Phone charges, water bill, and internet were approximately the same as last month.
*  The March electric bill was actually down $63.66 from February's bill.  With electric heat this is an amazing total for heat and lights, etc. in northern, mountainous PA. February and March are generally our highest electric bill months in the year.  I will be glad to see the electric start to slowing decrease even more for the next 7 months.
*  The credit card bill was down $474.99 from last month.  No travel and little shopping=not much spending on that card, other than gas purchases.
*  The gas card bill was down $46.67 as Hubs put more gas purchases on the Mastercard.
*  We received a tax refund this month.
*  The monthly medical bills were down $1,150.29 from February's total.  Yep, we paid off all those high deductibles now for the year.
rah.
go
me.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  Of course we had Real Estate taxes due in March and a sewage bill to offset all that medical bill we didn't have this month.
It's always something, isn't it? 8-(

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

March was a pretty expensive month for us.  The regular bills were very low this month coming in at under $1800, but we had taxes and a yearly sewer bill to offset that.  Still we were able to save quite a bit even with those expenses.

With 3 month accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2016 is $9414.82.

Final thoughts on March---
I am happy with what we socked away in March given the irregular expenses.
And compared to March 2015 we put $1150.37 more into savings this March
.
We have $9K+ saved so far in 2016, and we are only $8.185 behind at this point in the year.
We will be catching up for sure with the financial goals in April when the first 3 paycheck month of the year rolls around.
Yay 3 paycheck months!

THOUGHTS going forward into April----

I happily await April, the first tree paycheck of the year month for us. In addition I should receive a check for blogging in April which is a happy extra.  8-)

We do have a big car insurance bill due in April(under $1K though)but even so we will be able to catch-up(and even get a bit ahead)with where we should be with our savings goal for the year in this month.
May and June we have no irregular large bills so we should gain traction if we can keep the credit card bill under control.  I can do that IF we don't travel and we are suppose to travel in May so the bills will roll in from travel in the May and June c/c statements. sigh.

Again, it's so hard to save when you want to "live" life too because that means spending something.  ;-)

So how was your March financially?
  

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

As we go forward into 2016 why not make this new year the one were you clean up your finances and pay off your debts.
Plan to set something aside if you don't already now or increase what you bank now for your future self.
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

$24K Savings Challenge.....January 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.

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, 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 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the January report.....

I have posted my January End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up January with very little spare money to put aside.
The extra cash amount we ended the month of January with?.......$205.32.

Income
We had $142.78 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in January totaled $62.54.  This brought us to our gain of $205.32 for January.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Water and Phone were the same as December's totals.

*  I spent under $300 for food/toiletries in January.
*  The credit card bill was $300 less than December's bill.
*  The Cash withdrawals were $531.50 less than December.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The cable bill went up $5 per mo. after having been reduced by $5 for the last 6 months of 2013.
I believe they need to be called up and talked to.

*  The electric bill was $67 MORE than December's bill.  Ok, it's a Polar Vortex thing.

*  The garbage bill(which I pay quarterly)was paid.
*  An unexpected car repair bill of $982.59 paid in January.
*  Some extra credit card charges(store card & Hub's Discover) of approx. $94.

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 1 month accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $205.32. 
Not a very auspicious start to the new year and nowhere near the $2,000 I need to put back each month.
Usually we do better in January and have at least $1,000 extra income after the bills are all paid.

In other financial news--
I figured out how much of my Savings Challenge from 2012 is left now(since in 2014 it is no longer being used as an emergency fund, like it was in 2013)and can be put into "permanent savings" mode.
Of the $28,907.08 we saved in 2012, $23,611.66 was spent in 2013, leaving us $5,295.42 to throw into our permanent savings.  Not very much savings realized at the end of it all.

Our new emergency fund is the amount we saved in 2013, which totaled $24,033.60.
So we are off to 2014 with a nice sized fund for all those nasty surprises that might happen during this year.
 

 

Looking ahead for February......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.
 

*  Hubs and I still need to sit down and go over how we did with the bills/savings in 2013 and see if there are any areas we need to cut back.

*  The car insurance is due in February and the bill is here already.  It's over $1600 for 6 months.
bleh.  We have been paying our oldest son's car insurance bill for the last 6 months(as he transitioned into the workforce full time and being on his own).  He was suppose to start picking up the tab on his share in February.  This might not be happening as he is looking for a new job and he may be unemployed very soon or even more underemployed than he is now.
If anyone wants to tell me that the economy is improving, just go tell someone else because I don't want to hear it! 8-(

*  February, historically, has been a higher expense month for us.  Besides 6 month's of car insurance being due, we usually have a fairly large credit card bill(that gets paid off) and of course, paying out of pocket for all medical bills still, since the deductible hasn't been met for the year.  And our deductible went up $1K this year so I am not very hopeful that February will end with us still holding much cash.  But there is always March and a new month to do better if February bombs out.

 

So how was your January financially?
  

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

$32K Savings Challenge for 2011.....April Totals

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

I have posted my APRIL 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 April in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of April with.......$6500.35.

Income
We had $1823.86 left over from our income after our expenses were deducted.
Add in $62.99 of Rebates applied against the food expenses and the Tax Refund of $4613.50 you have a deposit of $6,500.35 toward the Savings Challenge!

Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal.  We came in well over that amount due to the tax refund mostly.  Since we've been short of our monthly goal for all 3 of the previous months, this month's total sure helps to boost our yearly total so far!

Outgo
As for the expenses in April....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS
*The credit card bill was just over $600.
*The electric bill went down another $73.
*We ONLY spent $244 on car repairs/maintenance.  Unfortunately, this amount is great for us. ugh
*Dr. and test copays were only $13.83 this month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS
*Hubs took out way more WAM than normal this month.
*The real estate taxes were due this month(municipal and county).
*We had a vet visit for the beagle with the bad back.  She cost $77 for that one visit.
*We had a dental payment of $82.

Mostly the cash withdrawals and the annual taxes paid this month were the worst "bad things".


The Food Budget costs for April are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in April was more than $140 under budget.

What's ahead for May.......
Unless something comes up(and doesn't it always seem to!lol), it's just the usual suspects this month--electric, water, phone, cable, food, prescriptions, dr. visits, etc.
We do have the yearly dogs' vet visit this month but it shouldn't be as bad as it has been in the past because we are down to 2 dogs now and we kept them on heartworm meds all year so there won't be any re-testing fees for that this year.

So If I can keep the food spending on budget(in the face of having all 3 teens home in May), we should be able to put away a good sized amount into savings this month.

YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL.....
With 4 months behind us, our Savings total to-date for 2011 is $11,636.88.
We finally are ahead of schedule with the Savings goal for the year!
Before April's addition we were running about half of what we need to save to this point, to meet our goal for the year.

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 April 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