$30K Savings Challenge AUGUST 2010 Totals.....Full Steam Ahead!

I have posted my AUGUST 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 August in the black....with another healthy addition!

The extra cash amount we ended the month of August with was.......$3,138.45.

Income
We had $3,132.45 left over of DH's salary after expenses were deducted. Add in a whole $6.00 of Rebates applied to the food expenses and you have a deposit of $3,138.45 toward the Savings Challenge!

Seeing as our monthly target is $2,500.00 to reach our Year End Goal, this month will go a long way to keep us ahead of schedule.

Outgo
As for the expenses in August.....it was pretty much a 'normal bills' type month.  Since the vacation money came out of the vacation funds set aside and not from the monthly income, we had just a few unusual/non-repeating bills. 

The Food Budget costs for August are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in August was about $17 less than I had budgeted for so we are right on target there.

Looking Ahead to September....

Looking at last September as a guideline,the only non-monthly bills I see are the quarterly sewage fee and the school taxes, which is a big one! 8-(  And it looks like at this point we will be purchasing a new refrigerator....which will cost a pretty penny!
Otherwise, it's just the usual monthlies plus some smaller school related fees(photos, club fees, band stuff, etc.).   No other big expenditures and no heating bill in September so it's usually a fairly good month to stash some cash away for us. 8-))

YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $22,921.36 in Savings.  To save $30K for the year, we need to put away $2,500 per month average, at this point in the year we need to have $20,000 saved.  Currently, we are an entire month's worth of savings ahead of schedule.  It would be so awesome to finish the year with more than $30K saved!  I don't want to get my hopes up but I can dream. ;-)

So how was your August 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

$30K Savings Challenge FEBRUARY 2010 Totals....a Great Month!

I have posted my FEBRUARY 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 February in the Black.

The amount we ended the month of February with was.......$4,094.60

Income
Besides Hubby salary we had a hefty amount in Rebates and some rolled Coins under the Income Heading. Hubby also got a Bonus check from work...yay!
Not sure where the Bonus $ will end up but I'm putting it into the Savings Challenge for now. Without it, we are at $966.20 in savings for Feb.

Outgo
As for the expenses in February.....

The electric bill was $399.10, just a few dollars more than January's bill. Since Feb. is the most expensive month here for heating, I am good with that number.

 The credit card bill seemed also a bit high(over $1K) but was paid off(like every month)so no interest charges at least.  On second thought, the cc bill wasn't too bad, since hubby didn't make as many Cash Withdrawals this month.  He used the cc more for gas and such instead of cash.  When you combine the cash withdrawals and the cc charges this month against those charges combined in previous months, they average about the same per month.

We had some large out-of-the-ordinary expenses in Feb. 
The car insurance is due then, so that was almost $1300.
The other BIG expense was our part of #2 son's dental extractions, $475.00, after the insurance paid their part.

All other regular bills...Cable, Internet, Phone, etc. are the same each month. 

The Food Budget costs for February are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food/Toiletries spending in February was under the budgeted $250(due to the rebate money that came in last month)and our Savings percentage was a whopping 91.12%!

Looking Ahead to March....
The cc bill is on track to being under $500 this month, which is always good. ;-)
There are three non-monthly charges this month--the quarterly sewage bill(not very much), the County/Municipal Tax Bill and our State Tax Bill.
One tax bill is over $1K, one is under $100, so that's approx. $1200 in extra expenses for March.

YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $4,850.25 in Savings.  To save $30K for the year, we need to put away $2,500 per month average.  We are almost on target after 2 months....Jan. was dismal but Feb. was great due to the bonus.  I'm looking to only put away $1400 in March due to the Tax bills since it's a high bill month.

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!


Sluggy

My 2010 Savings Goals

Ok, so it's a new year and I need a new set of Savings Goals for it.
But which goals.....and how much?

First, where we stand financially.

We have no mortgage, so no mortgage to pay toward or pay off.  We did that in March of 2006. 8-))
We have no car loans, so nothing to pay toward or pay off there either. 8-)
We have a credit card but it's paid off every month.  Nothing is put on it unless it can be paid that billing cycle.  We don't fritter the money away on making banks richer.  ;-)
We have a fully funded 6 month Emergency Fund(the reason we don't have to put emergency purchases on the credit card), so we don't need to throw money into that fund.  We could put some extra into that though and make it a 9 month or 1 year EF I suppose.

There are 3 Savings Goals I do see we should fund.

First is throwing additional money into the Kid's College Fund.  We have a plan that will allow us to Cash Flow each child's undergraduate college career(4 years to complete the degree). We have told each of them how much they are getting from us and they need to find a school that can be paid for with it or if they want to go somewhere more expensive, they need to come up with the money for the difference through either grants, scholarships, work study, loans or working while attending school.
Graduate school?....that's on their dime, not ours.
We had ESAs for each child but when the stock market fell, those took a hit.  I am hopeful they will recover enough in time before we need the cash so that I can take the money out without a net loss.
We had a cash flow plan with this College Fund but we may come up a bit short between how we are funding it and the exploding costs of schooling.  At any rate, this Fund could use a bit more moolah.

Second we are going to have to replace a car very soon.  Not a new car but a 'new to us' car.  And we will pay cash of course.

Third is paying for a new heating system for our house.  This house was built in the late 1980's.  At the time, the builder got a tax incentive to put a thermal storage heating unit in his homes here.  The electric company had a special lower off-peak/on-peak rate for these systems that helped homeowners have a lower electric bill than the regular electric customers.
This year, the electric company is phasing out this special rate(thank you cap and trade) and in 2011, they are doing away with it completely.  Also, these thermal storage systems were only expected to last 20-30 yrs.  2 of our heating receptables have already died, one at the beginning of last winter and the other at the end of it.  Replacing 1 electric thermal unit was in the ballpark of 5 Thousand Dollars!  There are 5 in the house, along with regular baseboard electrical units in the smaller rooms.   It makes no sense to replace the dead units since the special rate is going away and we'll be a totally electric home with incredibly high electric rates after this year.
So we need a new heating system before next fall when the heat gets turned on again!
Replacing your heating system is NOT cheap....especially if you aren't set up for gas and you have no ductwork in your house already.
Ugh.

I had wanted to put solar panels on the house but that will have to wait as the heating system is more critical.  And heating with solar just wouldn't be realistic at this location or within our financial scope.
At this point I am leaning toward a GeoThermal Heating System.  We may have a problem however, since you need to excavate and lay underground piping next to your house for this type of system and we have buried/underground utility lines here on the property.  We may not have the room for the pipes.

Since I was able to sock away $23K+ last year, I don't feel I should settle for less than that this year.
Tentatively, I am going to set a $30K Savings Goal for 2010.
That's $2500 a month.
I still need to go through the bills for last year and get some final numbers together so I can set a realistic Budget.
Then I need to research more on the heating system options and get some estimates.  How much this bill will cost may help determine what the Savings Goal will be for this year.....or then again, it might not.lol

More later on the Savings Goals after I get a final Budget together.
Have you set your family Budget for the year yet?
Do you have any savings goals for 2010?
Do you have a plan to reach those goals?
Please leave a comment and tell us!
 
Sluggy