Layout:
Home > Snowflakes & Savings 30-11-16

Snowflakes & Savings 30-11-16

November 30th, 2016 at 10:21 am

Challenge starting balance: $8,898.75
Plus:
- weekly EF savings x 2 $71.38
- digital change $7.01
- Safeway everyday rewards $10.00
- B's credit card repayment $180.00
- B's tax savings $463.33
- Phuket holiday savings $250.00
Challenge closing balance: $9,880.47

What a month! Thank you for your well wishes for my exam everyone. Last week I was lost in a cocoon of economics related subjects but all in all I think I did ok on the exam. I did some revision, did a practice exam, found out where I was deficient and studied on that. When I was doing the exam paper, while I don't think I'll pass with flying colours I felt like I had enough of an idea to pass in any case; nothing was foreign to me.

Economics was actually an interesting subject; I learned all about productivity (there is no such thing as a free lunch), market equilibrium (balance - one of my favourite subjects) and many other business things. I did feel guilty about how much time I was spending away from B though. Even with the best time management, it's still hard to avoid having to shut yourself away for 5-10 hours per week (or 15 like last week). Anyway now it's time to focus on other areas of my life, like Christmas - I've spent a couple of days getting things back into order ie washing, tidying up.

***

The challenge keeps on clicking along! I do believe that we will comfortably save over $10k. If the only thing we do is save the weekly EF savings and the monthly holiday savings, make the $180 payment on B's card and save the $463.33 for his tax the closing result will be $10,925.

In reflection, I'm happy with the EF savings and the debt repayment (ok really happy with the debt repayment! SO happy!), but the mortgage repayments and the new car fund have taken hits thanks to having to save $463.33 per month towards B's tax which is due to be paid in March next year.

The other thing stopping me from saving more is that we have a big insurance payment due in March also, which is around $2000 (this is for both cars) and while we have been saving an averaged amount of $4041 to cover all bills and loans, for the last few months all bills and loans have roughly been this amount. I just checked what is left over in the bills account towards future bill savings and it is $283. Not wonderful.

I've been spending a little bit of time doing some cash flow forecasting for the next few months and there are a couple of low bill months ahead. I think if bills are roughly the same by the time it hits March we will have $1690 leaving around $400-$500 to be paid out of pocket. I just have to remember to be mindful of the insurance savings and what the monthly bills are in case we need to save a bit extra.

The final $124 in the study unit has been repaid and we added $250 to the holiday fund. My coworker went on a trip to Thailand just last week with her new partner and loved it so that was good to hear great reviews about the place we are planning on going to.

The EF has been looking much healthier lately, thanks to the market going up. For so long it has kind of been stuck at around $6500, now it is around $7900 since the shares value has now risen plus the final part of the study unit got repaid and we've added more to holiday savings.

The Mini EF is $3,923.16 (I still need to repay that $80 from the UK!!! I might actually upload some pictures to here when I do it) and the Maxi EF is $3,970.50.

One of my goals next year will be to sort out our bank accounts. The Mini EF is sitting in an account which earns next to no interest, so I will be on the lookout for a high interest account. We have a bunch of bank accounts which we pay a package fee per month of $15 for (four bank accounts) plus we have a bank account for B's now closed down business which we pay $10 per month for. After his tax is paid we will close down the business account and look at restructuring the accounts and try to avoid paying fees.

Must try and wind down a bit before bed after this long entry! (Has been great to jot everything down though and touch base with you guys)

4 Responses to “Snowflakes & Savings 30-11-16”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1480509228

    You have done great this year!!

  2. scottish girl Says:
    1480517168

    I agree, you've done brilliant!

  3. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1480574878

    Thanks guys!!

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1480733884

    Good job!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]