Now that we are living on an annuity and 401K$ withdrawals, 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.
Two changes we implemented for 2019 at our financial meeting in Jan.--
* Hubs wants to take $150 per person WAM(aka Walking Around Money)in 2019. I found last year's $100 per month adequate but Hubs chafed at that little so we are upping it this year to $150 per person per month.
*As for our 2018 Slush Fund, this is how we are going to handle it in 2019......
We won't be taking a quarterly 401K withdrawal in 2019 until we "need" to, instead of taking one each quarter as we had planned back in 2017 when Hubs retired. Why pull 401K monies out when they are earning more than our other regular bank funds? Use those instead for now!
Since the Slush Fund ended 2018 with $23,164.17 in it and the Sinking Fund ended 2018 with $468.37 in it, we are, for now at least, not taking any more 401K withdrawals and using what is in the Sinking Fund and/or Slush Fund to cover all irregular bills that come up in 2019 plus a few projects around the house.
I have set up a page to track the Slush Fund. Click on the tab marked "Slush Fund 2018-2019" at the top of the blog.
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 August report---
I had 2 goals for August......
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 fun may be to apply 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 2019.
I can report that we finished up August in the black.
The amount we ended the month of August with?.....$286.13
Income or Funds We Can Access
The "income" in August---
* Monthly annuity payment of $3222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1848.67
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $601.16
Total "Income" for August.....$5672.07
Expenses in August---
* Healthcare Premium for August was $1,848.67(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Variable Expenses in August came to $3537.27
Total Expenses....$5,385.94
$5672.07-$5,385.94=$286.13
Slush into August $19,971.81+ $286.13=$20,257.94
We also had more expenses we planned to be paid out of the Slush Fund instead of regular "income" in August--the carpet and installation in the second bedroom(aka the Hubs' room), a chunk of $$ Hubs' wanted to spend on "his fun" and a large ER bill. The carpeting was one of the big expenses/improvements we are paying for in 2019 from Slush Fund monies but the other two expenses we decided to take from the Slush Fund too. These three bills cost $2,259.29 out of the Slush Fund.
Outgo
As for the variable expenses this August, 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 $2 or so).
* The electric bill was .23¢ lower than last month.
* The c/c bill was $1,314.67 lower than in July.
* The WAM was the same as in July.
* The health insurance premium was the same as last month.
* The Chase/Amazon c/c was $112.08 lower than July's bill.
HERE are the BAD THINGS
* The water bill was $17.20 higher than last month.
* The gas card bill was $20.67 more than in July.
* Had a $44.98 on store card paid for new "drawers".
* Annual House Insurance was paid this month out of reg. income.
The Food Budget costs for August are in another post, which is located
HERE. Food costs are included in the credit card payment(mainly but sometimes our WAM cash too).
So we end August "income" in the black with $286.13.
Then we deducted $524.37 for the carpeting, $749.45 for the ER bill and $985.47 for Hubs' "fun" purchases equaling $2,259.29 from the Slush Fund.
We added $286.13 to the Slush from August income overage and then deducted $2,259.29 from the Slush which leaves the August Slush Fund ending at $17,998.65 going into September.
The Sinking Fund goes into September 2019 standing at $468.37 since nothing was paid out of it in July.
FINAL THOUGHTS on August----
Though we had a couple hundred bucks in income overage last month, we also had three large of "out of the ordinary" expenses in August(1 planned, 2 not).
Luckily we could tap the Slush Fund for those expenses as $286.13 overage in income didn't go far to cover that $2,259.29 in expenses. ;-)
THOUGHTS going forward into September 2019----
We have 2 irregular bills due this month; long term care and the annual school tax(which is a property tax). Both of these will be drawn from the Slush Fund as planned.
Electric will be lower due to less a/c usage and not needing heat yet.
The credit card bill will be higher again in Sept.....besides the usual stuff we put on the card(and pay off each month), we bought a new mattress, adjustable base for it, and a twin mattress for the daybed in Hubs' room. I shopped around, got free shipping and used a discount code but this still comes in at $1108.23 total and will be on the September c/c billing cycle. Might be able to fully cover this on regular "income", might not. It all depends on how the monthly bills play out in September(and if Hubs goes rogue again spending money for his fun lol).
But no worries here on going over the "income". We have almost $18K in overage left from last year when we were withdrawing from the 401K so we just use that overage to absorb extra costs until that is gone and then we'll sit down and re-evaluate the spending, probably at the end of 2019 if any monies are left in the Slush Fund by then.
So how was your August financially?
Did you spend less than the income you had in August?
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!
Sluggy
