August is in the books. As we thought, we had a successful month for savings, mostly due to the timing of late checks from July and a third paycheck month for me. It makes it a little deceiving as to whether or not we are on track or not-I think mostly not. As I said on Friday. September will feel the brunt of a weighty use of the Visa. We do have points to cash in on the card, so that should offset some of it, but fingers are heavily crossed that DH has a positive month in his earnings.
Here was our annual plan.
College $21,000
Show Choir Trips $ 1,970
Graduation Party $ 900
Move In Weekend $ 175
Parents Weekend $ 175
Choir Concert Trips $ 350
Home Improvements $ 5,430
Total $30,000
DH had an average August. If he has a slightly better than average September, we should be able to cash flow when the credit card payment is due. I wanted to put an even $5,000 back into savings, but DH was tired of not having walking around money. The Visa is clear indication that it is too easy to pull it out instead of delaying or skipping a purchase. Maybe this will be our new strategy going forward. I have about $50 in cash currently, though am working at the State Fair today, so will spend too much on a pronto pup, a beverage of some sort before my shift, then my boss and I might just have to stop at the beer garden for a night cap. Even with what I spend later today, with no teen in the house constantly needing $10 here, and $20 there, we perhaps can make cash stretch farther.
College $21,000
Show Choir Trips $ 1,970
Graduation Party $ 900
Move In Weekend $ 175
Parents Weekend $ 175
Choir Concert Trips $ 350
Home Improvements $ 5,430
Total $30,000
DH had an average August. If he has a slightly better than average September, we should be able to cash flow when the credit card payment is due. I wanted to put an even $5,000 back into savings, but DH was tired of not having walking around money. The Visa is clear indication that it is too easy to pull it out instead of delaying or skipping a purchase. Maybe this will be our new strategy going forward. I have about $50 in cash currently, though am working at the State Fair today, so will spend too much on a pronto pup, a beverage of some sort before my shift, then my boss and I might just have to stop at the beer garden for a night cap. Even with what I spend later today, with no teen in the house constantly needing $10 here, and $20 there, we perhaps can make cash stretch farther.
($0) Borrowed from Savings
$ 5,7800 Cash Deposit
$ 2,910 Show Choir Trip #1,#2, #3 + Nashville (we are over in this category by $940)
$ 100 College Deposit
$ 73 Parents weekend prepayment on hotel
$8,600 Home Improvement (Over in this category by $3,170)
$17,383 Net Result
Since we paid ourselves back from the loan from the old savings account, what we have saved this year is actually a bit more than this looks towards our priorities. Of course, that is off set by spending more ont he home improvements. To meet our savings target, we need to save $12,617 by the end of December, or $3,154.25 a month. Ignoring the $3,170 self loan, $2,362.75 is the target average, but I really am aiming for the more aggressive number. Besides September, and some extra towards Christmas, we don't have any other big expenses, and the opportunity to save more since I will max out my 401K contributions by mid October. Still, I want to skinny down our spending in all optional areas. With just the two of us, some costs naturally go down like household and groceries, gas for the car, and no allowance. No doubt I'll be giving myself some little challenges along the way.
If you are tracking your annual progress, how did you wrap up the month? do you feel you are on track with your goals, and if not what strategies will you be doing to better meet targets in the last 1/3 of the year?
We are hoping to end the year slightly positive, as I did take 3 months of unpaid time off, and traveled extensively during that time period. I also used the schedule flexibility to tackle a bunch of house projects, which means we spent a lot on our house budget. So, overall, spendy year, 3 less months without salary/bonus, hoping to end with a slight savings increase year on year.
ReplyDeleteYou planned so well the timing of your leave. t is pretty incredible with the investments in travel, home, and your time without work that you still will ad to your savings. I hope your time back at work will be able to be better balanced so you aren't as stretched as before.
DeletePat yourself on the back. You made it through the high expense month and with a little September clean up things will be headed in a different direction. An empty nest is not a bad thing!
ReplyDeletejust wish August costs hadn't landed so heavily into September. October will be our true start to an empty nest budget-oh yeah, then we need to start thinking about Christmas.
DeleteI seem to be doing well but it is mostly due to USD's appreciation against TL. I am changing my method come New Year.
ReplyDeleteIs your trip coming up or did I miss it? The dollar is strong right now. I wish I had the fuds to travel. I always wish I had more funds to travel.
DeleteYes hopefully you'll be able to save more easily now you are empty-nesters. You made me laugh when you said about your daughter needing $10 and $20 there. When my kids were younger I always made sure to change 100 Swiss franc notes into smaller notes because when they come asking "have you got any money" you don't want to be handing over 100 franc notes do you!
ReplyDeleteOh and forget about getting any change back. If the kids needed a $10, but I only had a $20, funny how the expenses suddenly was closer to that $20!
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