Income & Spending.....the January 2025 Edition

Now that we are living on an annuity, 401K$ withdrawals, personal savings and social security payments, I am still going to keep track of our monthly spending and income, and hopefully we'll still be able to live BELOW our means and I'll have some leftover monies each month to tuck aside.

We went into retirement in June of 2017 with no debt, no mortgage nor a car payment.

I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how much is coming in and how much is going out. 8-)

On to the January report--

I have 2 goals for January....

The 1st is to actually finish the month in the black and not the red.

The 2nd is to try to have a little cash leftover at the end of the previous month to tuck back into a slush fund.  This slush fund may be applied toward unforeseen bills that are coming due in subsequent months, to spend on "extras/wants" during the year or to just sit there and grow until the end of 2025.

*  I do not include/report on our retirement accounts here, just the non-retirement ones.

I'm happy to report that we finished up January in the black.

The amount extra we ended the month of January with?....$10,512.86

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in January---

*  Monthly annuity payment of $2,530.11

*  SS income of $3,906.60

*  Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $1,468.17

* 401K Withdrawal of $6,215.06

* Rebating Cash-out  $100.00

* NCL Refund  $1,762.62

* Blog Revenue  $142.75

Total "Income" for January....$16,125.31

Expenses in January---

*  Irregular bills in January were $1,645.98

*  Variable expenses in January came to $3,453.20

*  Medical Premiums in January were $634.41

Total Expenses....$5,733.59

$16,125.31-$5,733.59=$10,391.72.

Slush Fund coming into January of $73,512.86 and the addition of $10,391.72 in January, our end of January 2025 Slush Fund comes to $83,904.58. 

The Slush Fund, on it's own page(tab at the top of the blog), shows an addition of $10,391.75.

Outgo

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

Here are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill is the same as the previous month.
*  The WAM was $23.00 lower than in December.
*  Mastercard bill was $81.32 lower than the previous month.
*  Hubs Amazon bill was $137.66 less than in December.
*  My Aviator card was $437.36 lower than the previous month.
*  Hubs Aviator card was $15,640.85 less than in December.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The electric bill was $105.30 higher than the previous month.
*  My Amazon card was $184.20 higher than in December.

And we had some one off bills in December--

*  Long Term Care Premiums of $1,244.02
*  Property Taxes of $168.33
*  Dr. Co-Pays of $37.11
*  Vet Bill of $196.52

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post HERE. Food costs are included in my credit card payments(mainly because I buy the food but sometimes these costs come out of our WAM cash too).

FINAL THOUGHTS for January 2025---Low spend other than credit card charges from the Xmas trip.  We had such a large overage because of the NCL refund and the 401K quarterly withdrawal.

GOING FORWARD INTO February 2025--I am hoping for a low spend February, basically just groceries and maybe 1 lunch out.  There will be some medical stuff but not sure if those bills will show up in February or March. ;-)

Here's hoping 2025 treats us all even better financially! 8-))

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?

What did you do with any money leftover at the end of the month?

Did you pay down/off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings, in an emergency fund or retirement account?

Or did you blow all your excess monies after bills were paid on a "want"?

If you post 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

Coupon Inserts Crap--Rant of The Week

*This post is in no way meant to malign anyone reading who actually buys the stuff discussed below.  Think of it instead as a wake up call about being frivolous with your money.
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I want to talk about Coupon Inserts this morning.
Specifically those pages of garbage, companies advertise to sell to the public in those inserts.

All I can say is what a waste of your good money if you buy that stuff.
Now I'm not talking about necessities sold via those insert ads.
Granted now and again there might be a true need offered for sale there, like an article of clothing(though the style is questionable) or footwear or wiper blades for your car or something similar.
Those things are money well spent if you need it and it's a good deal(for the quality).

What I'm talking about is the tchotchkes, collectibles, and other pointless wastes of money offered to get you separated from your cash.
I know, I know.......some of it is cute and irresistible but seriously......how many dust collectors does one need in their lifetime?

Let's have a look at this week's crop of drek......

First up, we have kitties.....

"An heirloom treasure is yours to claim!"
Oooo!
For the low LOW price of $2.95 get the 1st Captivating Cat figurine.
Then every month they'll send you another one, for which you only pay $15, for the next 23 months.
You also get as a BONUS a flimsy wooden cat holder shadowbox thingy to hold them all.
They are 1.5" tall.
In the end, you will be out approx. $347......$347!
But with an aDOREable set of miniature dust collectors to show for your money.

Then there is this one.....one of my favorites......

Designer Checks.
Ugh.

Nobody cares what your checks look like.....not the electric company, the grocery store cashiers nor the mortgage company.  Heck, you can take any piece of paper and write your own check technically and the bank is suppose to honor it.
Designer checks are a waste of ink and your money.

Seriously, you can't get checks for free or cheap at your bank or credit union?   Then you need to find a better bank......or maybe it's a matter of having more of your money IN the bank to get the free check perks, etc.  If you are wasting your money buying designer checks and cat figurines, maybe that's why you don't have enough money in your account to be a valued customer of your financial institution.
Not hating on anyone, just raising a valid point here. 8-)

I LOVE the part in this ad where they tell you the 1st box is $5.50 and if you buy 2 boxes it's only $11(which is 2 x $5.50, right?).  Then they tell you that you only pay $16.50 for 4 boxes, which means your 4th box is free.  But at $16.50, that comes out to $4.12(& 1/2¢)per box.
Wouldn't that $16.50 be much better spent on a donation to a local food bank or some  real world need?

And here's another one.....

A "Mystical Feline Fairy"
Yah......

What's with all the cat crap?
Where is the equal time for dog crap?? lol

For the low price of $29.99(plus $8.99), you too can be out $38.98 for this 5" tall ceramic cat tchotchke worth about 1.50¢ and produced in China.
OOoo!  But, but it's got a REAL Swarovski crystal on the collar!  And it's limited to 95 firing days and a Hamilton Collection collectible.
Do you know how many of these they can churn out in 95 days?  Billions!

But this is the biggest scam of the week......

The Official U.S. Presidential Coin Set.
Your 1st set is a mere $14.95.  Each subsequent coin set in the series will cost you $29.95(+ $2 shipping & service) and at the end of it all, IF you buy the full set, they send you a FREE display chest.
Ooooo!

Do you know how many presidents there have been?
If they are only making coins for the dead ones, that is 40 coins at the moment.
If you get all 40, you will be out $1,183 for that set.
A set of 3 $1 coins worth $3.... x 40 sets equals $120.
Yes, these are worth face value only.
You are spending just short of 10 TIMES what these are worth.
Does this kind of spending make any sense for anyone, short of a die-hard coin collector??

For a coin that the money spending public didn't want.  The Federal Reserve has BILLIONS of these things sitting in vaults taking up space because when they were produced no one who uses money wanted to use them in circulation.
So the Feds suspended production of this really wasteful idea and are only going to produce the rest of the presidential $1 coins for collectors who pre-order them(so there will be less of them from Grover Cleveland on down).

The PCS Stamps and Coins company(who bring you this fine offer)are betting on you not knowing the lack of rarity of these coins and the fact that you can't or don't care to do the math and see the crazy amount of coin you will be dropping on this item!
In the ad, they try to create a demand for the items harping on the "severe(ly) restricted inventories". LOLZ
Yes!
Act now!!.....before someone stops you on the street and tries to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

So to recap, if we fell for all these coupon insert offers this week, how much poorer would we each be after paying for all these complete sets?

$1,585.48

$1,585.48

And you'd have a handful of ceramic doo-dads, 4 boxes of checks you can get at the bank for free and $40 worth of legal tender cash monies(plus a flimsy wooden shelf and a plastic display chest to put in your next garage sale) in return for draining your savings account of over $1500.

So the next time you reach for your credit card or the phone to buy this kind of stuff, think about what meaningful things you can do for your family or community for this kind of money.
It's a nice vacation.
It's a new couple of appliances in your kitchen.
It's a new wardrobe.
It's a house payment.
It's emergency dental work if you don't have insurance(and even sometimes when you do!)
It's season tickets to some artistic group or cultural activity.
It's enough to dig a new well and install a pump and filtration system for a third world impoverished village.
It's a nice deposit into your kid's 529 college plan.

I am sure you can think of more ways to better use that kind of cash, rather than buying unnecessary
stuff from a coupon insert.

Sluggy