2016 $38K Savings Challenge.....November 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, $8K more than my goal for last year.

On to the November report.....

I have posted my November 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 November with a yummy amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of November with?.......$2,792.51

Income

We had $2,645.68 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in November totaled $146.83.  This was solely interest made on non-retirement accounts.

This brought us to our gain of $2792.51
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

As for the 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 $1 or so).
*  The electric bill was up $41.15 from October's total.  This is a "good" thing since the weather was warmer this year than in past years and very little heat was used/needed.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The credit card bill was up $972.60 from October's amount. Half of that was for groceries(and paying it in full each cycle)and the other half was mostly car repairs, and medical bills.
*  The water bill was $9.86 more than last month.
*  The gas bill was $57.29 higher than last month(more purchases for gas put on the c/c rather than the gas card.)
*  Semi-annual car insurance was due this month so there is $938.84 out the door.
*  Hubs had a dental bill for work done last month so there is $145.00 of irregular bills due.
*  Cash withdrawals were $50 higher(I took $200 rather than $150 this month, though I didn't spend it all.).

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

With 11 month accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2016 is $36,039.72.

FINAL THOUGHTS on November---

Compared to November 2015 we put $1,569.52 LESS into savings this November. 8-(
.
We have $36039.72 saved so far in 2016, and we have only $1960.28 left to save over the next month at this point to reach our goal of $38K saved.    We have higher everything bills now with 2 extra adults in the house plus can I mention that Christmas is coming!?!?

THOUGHTS going forward into December----

It's a two paycheck month here.  The credit card bill will be high again as there is over $1K in medical charges on it(co-pays, rxs, DMEs)as well as all the grocery charges. Other than a Kohl's charge bill there are no other irregular bills due in December.  But there is having to keep half of whatever we have leftover this month in hand to put toward offsetting the medical high deductible that kicks in Jan. 1st.  So all income leftover at month's end can't go into the Savings Challenge kitty, only roughly half of it.  It would be nice to have expenses in December come in at $3K or less as November's turned out to be just shy of $4K.  My personal "sweet spot" is $2K but with the added expenses that one isn't happening again anytime soon.  But we soldier on and do what we can to reduce costs.

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!

As we go forward into the last half of 2016 why not make this 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.
Or pay extra on the principle of your mortgage if your house isn't already paid off.

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

2016 $38K Savings Challenge.....February 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 February report.....

I have posted my February 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 $3,333.33.

I have to report that we finished up February with a goodly amount leftover but not my target amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of February with?.......$2004.57

Income

We had $1,848.87 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in February totaled $155.70.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts.

This brought us to our gain of $2004.57
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

As for the expenses this February, 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 water bill was down $4.26 from Jan.  Of course with College Boy home for a week in March that bill will be going right back up. lolz
*  The February electric bill was only up $36.96 from January's bill.  With electric heat this is an amazing total for heat and lights, etc. in northern, mountainous PA. February is generally our highest electric bill month in the year.  I will be glad to see the electric start to slowing decrease for the next 8 months.
*  The credit card bill was down $642 from last month.  No travel=not much spending on that other than gas.
*  The cash withdrawals were down $500 from January's totals.
*  Hubs received a bonus(which is a VERY good thing!)but we won't be counting that into the regular income until we decided where to allocate those monies.  At this point it might go to more home improvements/repairs or to other issues I haven't brought up on the blog yet with medical and our kids.  I'll talk about this more fully in the months to come as decisions are made.

HERE are the BAD THINGS(and the not so bad)

*  The gas card was up by $7.39 in February.
*  Medical payments were up $854.62 from January due to satisfying our deductible for the year and paying out of pocket for many bills.
*  There was a 6 month car insurance payment due on one of the cars for $433.47
*  College Boy got a birthday check this month from us.

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

February was a fairly expensive month for us.  The regular bills were decently low but we had a lot of medical expenses, an irregular car insurance bill and birthday money to dole out.

With 2 month accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2016 is $4467.33.

Final thoughts on February---
We hit our insurance deductible this month so it was a less than stellar month for saving any cash.  If I didn't have that $1,700+ carried over from savings in December it would have been almost a zero sum game month in Feb.
And compared to February 2015 we put $1400+/- less into savings this February.
Even though we have $4K+ saved so far in 2016, we are over $2100 behind at this point in the year.
We won't be catching up with the financial goals until April I fear when the first 3 paycheck month of the year rolls around.

THOUGHTS going forward into March----

We have a small amount to pay on our state taxes and some medical payments due but the bad thing is a big irregular bill due in March-real estate taxes. ugh.
There is no travel or planned extra spending so far for March so I hope we can stash away at least $1K this month given the tax bill.
Only time will tell though.....

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!

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