Our money went where? June 2016 Update

 

Well, another month has come and gone and we are now halfway through the year. So far tracking how our our “real” budget numbers compare to our anticipated Fully Funded Lifestyle Change costs we seem to be pretty close. We have been averaging $4035/month spending and that’s assuming no mortgage, which ends up being ~$48420/year needed. We like to add in a little slush/cushion to round up to $55k, which is what we are generally assuming our year to year costs to be and we’re right on track. Heck, we’re even under budget, which I will never complain about. So what were the big hits and little misses that we saw this month?Time to get into some details!

First off, we did end up signing back up for flood insurance so that set us back $370 for a years worth. Something about a month straight of rain (27″ total) and seeing the water in our street reach the sidewalk 3 times and we figured, we’re idiots for not having insurance. So, we now sleep peacefully again, and could care if the water gets up the sidewalk or even into the house. Bring it on rain! Kidding, that would still suck. If I forgot to mention it last month, I finally added an umbrella insurance policy as well. I had been forgetting about it until I got the new car and was on the phone with insurance and they asked if they could help with anything else, and I thought, why yes, yes you can… Umbrella policy – activate!

Beyond that, our spending was relatively low this month, and our June compared to 2015 average is looking nice on the chart below.

Numbers and bars, so many bars...
Numbers and bars, so many bars…

Now for the little wins. Mrs. SSC got an extra $2k for her vacation getting paid out, so that was nice. We switched utility companies and went with Energy Ogre – a no contract brokerage of utilities you might say. Thanks for the recommendation Jacob! Since Texas is deregulated, you get to choose who you buy energy from, and while I had perused a lot of plans, one of our readers turned me onto this company. They analyze your past usage and choose whatever company has the best deal for your house. Then they set up your account, and you get billed from whomever they choose and they can shop you around every 6 months as deals expire and new ones come available. They charge $10/month for this and have no contract so we can cancel at any time. Pretty sweet and saves me hours down a rabbit hole comparing plans, rates, contracts, etc…

The “scary” news for this month is that we are now officially down to one income until October, GASP!! Based on our average spending and the income from one salary, we will have a whopping surplus of… wait for it…. $75/month! Eeeeek!!!!

Much like our 6 extra weeks of unpaid maternity leave for Mrs. SSC with both kids, we planned on this and should be sitting pretty. We had upped our cash reserve quite a bit (although most of you may think it’s still fairly anemic) on the off chance we both got laid off. Thank goodness that didn’t happen, but we’re still sitting on a bigger than usual cash reserve, and we have set aside even more cash to buffer this period. Fingers crossed Mrs. SSC gets enough students signed up for her classes or her pay will get cut even more, and then we’ll really be making some cuts. Ack!!!

Speaking of cuts, what about the cable TV, as that was supposed to get cut this month. Sigh — I called up to cancel and after 5 minutes of jibber jabber about what channels we watch, our favorite features of our dvr (there are none), and more, the rep informed me that’s fine, we’ll cut your service, but since there is a year on the contract it will be $225 or so to cancel. After a brief heated discussion regarding timing and contracts, we realized whomever I had spoken with before that informed me I could cancel at the end of June penalty free was mistaken. Bastards! And stupid Mr. SSC always signing contracts. Looking back, I now vaguely remember that when we switched we were of the mindset that A) we don’t mind having that bill as long as we’re working and can cut the cord when we enact our Lifestyle Change and B) even after the discounts, the bill was still ~$60/mo cheaper than ATT. So, yeah… One of those things where our mindset has changed yet again over the past year and we don’t want to afford it. On the plus side, I did get another year of all the discounts, so except for this month, our bill will be the same. This was when I started discussing with the rep that the cancellation fee would pay out in 2 months, so, yeah I think I’ll just go ahead and cancel. 🙂 Granted, it only takes 3 months now for the payout, and I did discuss that with Mrs. SSC, but we’re sticking with it and will drop it next year. Unless her income drops because noone signed up for her classes, yipe!!

Well that was it for our month, nothing major, no big changes, except losing a sizeable income, and no unexpected surprises. Whew…

How was your year so far? Good, Bad, or Ugly?