Spring Forward to a New Savings Rate

I never remember when we move the clocks forward if that means daylight savings ends, or begins. Either way, it is time for my household to spring forward a new spending and savings plan.  I figured out that to maintain our short term savings rate, I need to shave $267 from our regular and semi regular expenses, on average, each month.  Part of the reason my take home pay is lower with the new position is that we are participating to the max in the voluntary tax deferred retirement account, plus the mandatory pension match.  Where as before my long term savings rate was about 19%, this coming year it will actually be 25%.  That is a good thing, and hopefully means we will be in even better position come retirement time.  There still though are expenses now, both planned and the unexpected hat have to be maintained.  We also have some home investment needs, college savings which will be here before we know it, and not to be on the bottom of the list, some travel. Unfortunately the timing of this reduced cash flow on my end is coinciding with a particularly rough time income wise for DH, who is 100% commission.  

The plan then is to ensure all the bills can be covered by my salary, and use his for that short term savings and the unexpected items. Thus, I calculated out a modest, though not impoverished budget. I'm going to try and break the reduction into 6 buckets of controllable expenses, and develop strategies for each. That comes out to a targeted reduction of  $44.50 in each bucket. I might come up with better strategies in some groupings over others, so will be accept higher reductions in some, but still aim for the $44.50 in each overall. It probably looks like there is a lot of fat, but this is about what I have estimated we've averaged this year.  We were not gregarious by any means, but probably short sighted and wasteful a lot, and that is where I hope the savings will be found.  
$375              Groceries and household
$250              Utilities-including gas, electric,water and garbage 
$300              Telecommunications-cell phone, house phone, internet satellite
$450              Gas, car maintenance, insurance
$275              School, sports, work, clothing 
$240              Gifts and entertainment

I was so good at tracking and not over reaching when we were just starting out as a family.  I had to be as there was no savings built up yet to draw upon in a lean month.  When the checkbook was close to $0, the spending stopped cold. After a short number of years we had an emergency reserve of six months, the minimum suggested all families should have access to.  We were doing better but still very little in long term savings. As our salaries grew and we had opportunities to participate in 401 K's at work, we would put our incremental increases into that, and continue to stretch our take home pay to also start building a savings account beyond the emergency fund. We were  the slow turtle, gradually making it through the race. 

Our goals,dreams, and aspirations have not changed, though the timing has shifted and some have already materialized. My 49 year old self needs to take some lessons from twenty-something Sam. She was a smart cookie. 

Remember to set your clock ahead one hour.