Lofty Savings Plan

[babymakes5]

In order to reach our goal of saving $30,000 by August 2009 we need save $1214.48 a month . I think we can do it, it will be hard, but I think we can! Before groceries, gas, charitable donatations, DH's tabacco, entertainment, clothing, and medical expenses that are varying, we have $2421.56. Right now we are blowing money left and right...time to buckle down, I want my dreamhouse!!!

[FrugalMomof3]

Wow that's great, that's a nice sum of leftover money at the end of each month, wish we had that or even half that

[britbunny]

Wow, what a goal, still it's not forever, keep your eyes on the prize and it makes it easier!

[Cricket1]

Good for you for having that savings goal!

[mommy4ever]

Good for you!

We are kinda doing that too, or getting back on track, but it is to payoff debts(including mortgage). If we can FOCUS, we'll be able to do most of it within 3 years!!

[sdrjeolsen]

Great Goal! We just bought our dream home and it is so wonderful to achieve a biggie goal. It helped us to put up pitures on the fridge and to break down the goal to baby steps and track progress, that way when we started to slip we recovered before much ground was lost. I'm cheering you on !!

[Early Bird]

In order to reach our goal of saving $30,000 by August 2009 we need save $1214.48 a month . I think we can do it, it will be hard, but I think we can! Before groceries, gas, charitable donatations, DH's tabacco, entertainment, clothing, and medical expenses that are varying, we have $2421.56. Right now we are blowing money left and right...time to buckle down, I want my dreamhouse!!!

CAN you do groceries, gas, charitable donations, tobacco, clothing, and medical on $1200/month?

Is that a realistic goal? Is your DH on board? Where will you cut?

I don't know how much tobacco, charities, and medical will set you back, but entertainment, clothing, and groceries are expenses that you have a lot of control over. Would you consider thrift stores for clothes? How many times a month do you eat out? [Eating at home is almost always less expensive.]

BTW, kudos for thinking of charities in your plan.

[babymakes5]

We did a financial journal last month so we could get an idea of where all of our money was going....OMG, we are SO wasteful.

Dh is totally on board. It will be a life adjustment but we can do it. This is the breakdown of what we found out from our journal.

Money bills $2884.44
Including mortage and utilities, which do not fluctuate much, childcare, car payment, newspaper service, satellite radio service, major league baseball service, insurance, gym memberships, credit card debt, student loans and Netflix...we are going to get rid of some of the monthly memberships starting with Netflix, that will save $16 The great thing is that all of the credit card debt and car payments will be gone by 2009 as well, we will just have a mortage and a student loan.

Now for the fluctuating expenses...this just made me nauseous

Groceries $660.24, we will budget $250.
Eating out $531.27, we can't cut that completely because dh has reserve drill once a month out of town, we will budget $80.
Gas $295.95, not much we can do about this, but we won't be driving around shopping and eating out as much so maybe that will help
Clothing and H&B $221.46, budget $100.
Pets $12.40, budget $15
Entertainment $117.67, budget $50
Tabacco and convience purchases $92.41 (this includes coffee and cokes), we are going to adjust this to $50, he averaged $36 on tabacco so most of the cut wil come from coffee and cokes...this one is all dh, it will be hard for him!
Gifts $225.26 this was Father's Day, we don't normally spend quite so much, budget $100
Medical and Rx $69.72, don't know what to budget, but we are going to start getting all monthly Rx through mail order to save $$.

We also had some one-time vacation expenses of $399.59...will not occur again until next year, will start setting money aside $33 a month.

Charitable donations are varing, but we average $100 a month.

Bottom line...
Net Income $5306
Monthly Bills $2884.44
Remaining $2421.56
Variable expenses budgeted $1143.95
Remaining $1277.61
Savings $1214.48
Remaining $63.13

It can be done, we will just have to buckle down...also the savings amount was figured based on 10 month savings plan, we will use the other 2 months to set aside for emergency fund and Xmas Fund...plus Dh gets two bonuses a year, those will be saved as well!

[Early Bird]

Ambitious, and, if your DH wasn't convinced, it would be very difficult. As is, you can do it.

I wouldn't be surprised if it takes some time to get down to the grocery level and eating out level you'd like. So, count any progress as a positive!