I have posted my OCTOBER 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 October in the black....with another healthy addition!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of October with was.......$3,326.27.
Income
We had $3,253.45 left over of DH's salary after expenses were deducted. Add in $72.82 of Rebates applied to the food expenses and you have a deposit of $3,326.27 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. Keep in mind that we are able to save so much of our income because of 2 things--we have low living expenses(no mortgage payment)and we are not in a personal debt hole with monthly payments sucking up any money we have leftover after paying bills. Once you pay off your house you free up a big chunk of money each month to put other places in your life. The average monthly mortgage payment in the US is $1,500. Over the course of a year, that's $18,000 you are paying out and alot of that is interest on your loan. Getting a mortgage does take monetary sacrifice and it's not fun, but when you get that house loan paid off, your financial life gets so much better! ;-)
Outgo
As for the expenses in October.....it was pretty much a 'normal bills' type month. Since the vacation money came out of the Savings Challenge 2009 monies set aside and not from the monthly income, we had just a few unusual/non-repeating bills....a college application fee for Daughter, a charity cash donation, a couple of prescriptions refill copays and my driver's license renewal fee. The credit card bill other than the trip costs put on it was under $800. Generally we put gas and eating out on the credit card, along with miscellaneous costs, like house repair or kid shoe/clothing purchases.
The Food Budget costs for October are in another post, which is located HERE. The actual Food/Toiletries spending in October was way over budget, proving that even if you are frugal or try your hardest to be, sometimes you can/will bust things wide open anyway.lol
Looking Ahead to November....
Wow....I can't believe we are already into November!
Looking at last November as a guideline, I see no out-of-the-ordinary expenses.
It's just the usual monthlies plus some small Marching Band related expenses. The credit card bill so far is looking lowish(it closes for this upcoming statement this week)which is always a good thing. 3 items will be costing us more this month....The gas expenses will be going up this month as Hubs is taking Daughter to visit one of the 3 schools that has accepted her for next fall, so there is a road trip in our future. The electric bill will be increasing in Nov. due to the cold weather setting in. Finally, one of the dogs is having a flare up of her chronic back problem now so we'll have some vet bills in November. But none of these things looks like it will wreck havoc with the budget thankfully.
YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $26,247.63 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 $22,500 saved. Currently, we are only $3,752.37 from the yearly goal! Unless something catastrophic happens, we will reach $30K. That makes me pretty darn excited....8-))
So how was your October 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
