Now that we are living on an annuity and 401K$ withdrawals(some months), 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.
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 February report---
I had 2 goals for February.......
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 2021.
I can report that we finished up February in the black.
The amount we ended the month of February with?.....$12,326.90
Income or Funds We Can Access
The "income" in February---
* Monthly annuity payment of $3,222.24(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1,971.99
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $393.51
* Blog Revenue check of $118.67
* A 401K withdrawal of $10,441.79(after taxes taken out)
Total "Income" for February.....$16,148.20
Expenses in February---
* Healthcare Premium for February was $1,971.99(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)
* Irregular bills in February were $0.00
* Variable Expenses in February came to $1,849.31
Total Expenses....$3,821.30
$16,148.20-$3,821.30=$12,326.90
Slush into February of $34,645.48 in that Fund, add the $12,326.90 February overage and this brings the Slush to $46,972.38 going into March 2021.
The Slush Fund on it's Page(tab at the top of the blog)shows an addition of $12,326.90 for February.
Outgo
As for the variable expenses this February, here are the good and the bad side of things....
HERE are the GOOD THINGS
* Internet and cell phone were the same as in January.
* The WAM was the same amount taken as last month.
* The Amazon card was $1,243.61 lower than in January.
* The water bill was $4.72 less than last month.
* We took a 401K withdrawal of over $10K at the end of February even though we didn't need it to cover any bills. This in advance of our property tax bill coming due on April 15th(I'll probably pay it in March just to get that over with)and the bulk of that withdrawal is for having work done on the house so it's earmarked. Instead of allocating a portion of it each month for the next quarter and reporting that chunk of it as "income" each month I'm just getting it accounted for in one fell swoop in 2021. '-)
HERE are the BAD THINGS
* The electric bill was $36.81 higher than last month's bill. Considering how much colder and snowier February was over January I am ok with that amount.
* The gas bill was $9.76 higher than in January.
* The Mastercard was higher by $447.96 than last month's bill. But that was because we had to use the Amazon Chase card when our credit info got stolen in December. The Amazon card this month was over $1200 less than January's bill so we are down on c/c spending by $1,121.72 between all three c/cs(our joint, mine and Hubs).
The Food Budget costs for February are in another post, which is located
HERE. Food costs are included in the credit card payment(mainly but sometimes our WAM cash too).
FINAL THOUGHTS on February---
It was a good month overall financially. Our expenses were VERY low with no irregular bills coming due and no surprise bills. I like boring finances. 8-)
We sat down in February and figured out some of our financial game plan for 2021, thus the 401K withdrawal. Even without that withdrawal we had $1,885.11 leftover in income after paying February's bills.
THOUGHTS going forward into March 2021----Hubs did a draft of the taxes and since he sold stock in 2020 we took a bit of a hit on the preliminary Federal return and will only get back $200+(and as always we'll owe the state a hundred or so). We may do another post 2020 HSA deposit which will bring our taxable income down a bit and we can always use more $$ in our HSA. We'll run the numbers and decide in the coming weeks before we send off the tax return.
We do have an irregular bill due in March-the sewage bill which we pay annually to get the 3% discount. That bill amount didn't go up from 2020's bill amount which is always a good thing. The long term care premiums are due as well in March but between those and the sewage bill the total amount is under $1K so not a big concern within the monthly budget and income.
If I can spend another month staying away from the grocery spending in March that will help keep the spending for the month pretty low again so I am crossing my fingers. lol
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!
Sluggy
