***Sluggy's Boring Blog Giveaway ends soon! It ends Monday, April 7th at 11:59pm Central time Go HERE to enter.***
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 March report--
I have 2 goals for March....
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 have to report that we finished up March in the red.
The amount extra we ended the month of March with?....-$10,184.04
Income or Fund in March We Can Access
The "income" in March---
* Monthly annuity payment of $2,530.11
* SS income of $4,104.00
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $1,460.21
* Rebating Cash-out $28.99
* Stock Dividend $20.79
Total "Income" for March....$8,150.77
Expenses in March---
* Irregular bills in March were $13,694.87
* Variable expenses in March came to $4,005.53
* Medical Premiums in March were $634.41
Total Expenses....$
$8,150.77-$18,334.81=-$10,184.04
Slush Fund coming into February of $83,904.58 and the subtraction of -$10,184.04 in March, the end of March 2025 Slush Fund comes to $77,145.15.
The Slush Fund, on it's own page(tab at the top of the blog), shows a subtraction of $10,184.04.
Outgo
As for the variable expenses this February, here are the good and bad side of things.....
Here are the GOOD THINGS
* The water bill and the WAM were the same as last month.
* The electric bill went down $26.92 in March.
* The cell phone went down $9.08 from las month.
* The Mastercard went down $26.23 in March.
* Hubs Amazon c/c went down $272.16 from the previous month.
* My Amazon c/c went down $118.90 in March.
* Hubs Aviator c/c went down $1,697.07 from last month.
HERE are the BAD THINGS
* My Aviator c/c went up $1,865.20
And we had some "one off" bills in March--
* Doc Co-Pay of $20.00
* Long Term Care Premiums of $1,244.02
* Security Deposit for the new rental $2,102.49
* I paid for the June cruise $10,328.36(ouch)
The Food Budget costs for March 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 March 2025--The cruise payment is due in March. ouch The cruise payment put us in the negative for the month but we planned for that. Other than that the rest of the bills were about the same, except the heat may be off more days than on because March is deep Spring here in the deep South so the electric bill should be less. 8-)
THOUGHTS GONG FORWARD INTO APRIL--We'll have more bills associated with moving(2nd payment to the moving company, paying first month's rent on the house, setting up utilities, getting renter's insurance, etc.) Plus my car died the end of last week so that's going to be a pricey repair. My car needs to make it 1,350 miles to PA without any issues.
On the flip side food expenses should be way down as we empty the freezer. I foresee only buying fresh produce until we leave.
Here's hoping 2025 treats us all even better financially! 8-))
Sluggy
