I've apparently worked my budget down to an "exact science."
I hesitate to use the word "budget" because I am not really into the whole tradiitonal budget thing. I would drive myself nuts accounting for all those overages/underages every month. & you might be surprised, but I do not care for a strict budget. I like that if I spent no money on gas or food, that I can go splurge on something else. I do not carry things over month to month. I guess I like flexibility and ease, over rigidity and complication.
So anyway, we had a good month and for whatever reason it popped into my mind that we really could save another $50/month. I just felt it would be very reasonable.
I opened my "budget" spreadsheet on a whim and looked it over.
Lo and behold - when LM started his new preschool I guess I rounded way up and allocated $200/month to that. Thing is, most months it's barely $150.
So subconsciously I am thinking I have $50 per month to spare, and in reality - I really do.
My goal for maxing out first ROTH was to put away $350/month and "wing it" on the rest - scrounge it up somehow.
This officially puts me to $5k per year, just based on $400 monthly contributions (well, the additional $200 will be easy to scrounge).
So, I am very pleased.
I would like to build up more cash savings, but I also think it's important to contribute heavily to retirement in this market. So I am kind of doing $400/month to each, for now. I certainly am tempted to put my spare $50 to cash, but I know we have had a good year and with a little patience will probably reach my cash goals within the year. So I will stay the course!
I whipped this up sometime when we were in preschool limbo and we had a few hundred dollars to spare every month. It's worked out well:
As a recap:
short-term "savings" are to be spent within the year (vacation, car repairs, property taxes, insurance, dental, swim lessoms, misc., etc. - everything that is not a regular monthly expense).
mid-term savings - larger expenses expected in more than one year - car replacement and house maintenance, orthodontia, etc. Car repairs for more than I "budgeted" would fall here too, as well as unexpected large bills, etc.
medical savings - we switched to a HDHP and save $250/month on premiums. We save the difference for deductibles and future rate increases.
I've kind of been honing this system for a while, and I am very pleased with it. Once honed, it's been a rather simple and effective savings system. Though we are saving much less than when we both worked, there is much more thought to the big picture. I think the thought makes up for the decrease in savings, in many regards.
Anyway, yes, I already increased my automatic ROTH contributions - starting with July!
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ETA: I do put everything possible on the credit card (for rewards, etc.). It is paid monthly, of course!
Everything not on the card can not be paid with credit cards - bah.
BUT I also worked on this spreadsheet to get an idea what my monthly credit card bills should be - since we recently switched some utilities over to the card, etc. IT can get kind of confusing though since I can put a lot of short-term expenses on the card. It usually runs closer to $2k, BUT I can simply subtract all the short-term items (they tend to be larger/obvious items) and just make sure the rest never tops $1500.
I am good!
June 30th, 2009 at 08:38 pm
June 30th, 2009 at 09:36 pm 1246397790
June 30th, 2009 at 10:06 pm 1246399590
June 30th, 2009 at 11:51 pm 1246405886
You seem to have a natural flair for this stuff !
July 1st, 2009 at 02:41 am 1246416065
July 1st, 2009 at 02:06 pm 1246457185
We only have one or 2 savings accounts, so we track the different categories of saving in excel. We just invest for the best return, but I use excel for tracking savings balances, by type, more than anything.