January Wrap-Up and a New Fiscal Tracking Plan

     

     Sorry about the formatting-I could not get the white back gorund off no matter what I tried. January was supposed to have been a cautious month for spending. It was not in the Household and Grocery budget, where I easily hit $500. Now some of this is countered with DH not eating out any lunches, and he easily was spending $15-$20 a week. There just seemed to be s much more from December that creeped not January, leaving the check book screaming a bit. February will be the same as a few large expenses like car insurance and the house insurance and umbrella rider were due. While the house insurance is prorated and deposited monthly in a separate account, the multiple months of car insurance will hit the February VISA.

     My new tracking will just show what we deposited in savings or borrowed if that is the case, and the major expenses for 2020. This will include just three things:

• Annual Roth
• Household Improvement
• Travel/vacation

plus

• Any other expense that arise outside the basic household monthly budget

     Overall, the goal will be that cash savings/major expense spending is $34,000., with by years end, any borrowing for savings is repaid. With that, both the bathroom and deck/pato projects are done. The push goal would be that both projects are complete and we have a cash balance of at least $6,000 to put in savings, making the overall massive goal after regular living expenses, $40,000. That's $4,000 more than we ended 2019. While at some point we may be cash flowing parts of college, its not going to factor into the major expenses for my 2020 tracking purposes. We know we have the expense for college and we can't control what that expense will be, unlike the other, except any unknown. It's a nonnegotiable, so supercedess any other spending beyond basic living expenses.

     January will be easy to sum up. We put $0 in savings. This isn't as woe as it sounds. While part income, since DH had missed so many days of work in December that leaked into his January net pay, it was as much a timing thing. We actually ended January with $3,000 in the check book, greatly helped by a third paycheck month for me. However, it was on the 31st and I won't get paid again until February 14th. Whenever there is a 3rd paycheck month, the hump until payday is always a little bigger. Almost all of our bills, minus the VISA are due by the 10th. Without knowing how much DH's first check will be, we decided to just let the whole balance sit, let him get paid, and then make a savings deposit once the bills are paid. Most likely we'll need to do this in March and April as well because my first paycheck hits after or on the 10th. By May, we should be back on a payday timing track, so April we will be able to make two savings deposits, making up for the missed one in January.

     If DH has any banner months, we will tuck more away, but of course in commission world, the opposite can happen. We definitely do not count our pennies before they are in the bank. DH's January was only 53% of his 2019 monthly average, but he had a very strong 2nd half of the year in 2019, which is the industry trend. However, if this should continues, we will be about $6,000 shy of the yearly goal of $34,000, and we'll need to debate completing both the house projects once again. IT was asked in comments about whether we have considered a hoe equity loan. The answer is yes, we have considered, but ruled it out. We own our home free and clear so the thought of another home loan lingering, even if just for a short period is just not appetizing. Since the money , technically is available, we could just tap into savings and get both do, basically borrow to ourselves.

     So with that, we are ending January as we started January financially, at least on the savings spread sheet. How was your January? Are you juggling timing on bills and cash flow as well? If you get third paycheck months, do you use to beef up savings, invest, or use towards something else?