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Are you feeling frustrated with your finances; mainly that you never seem to build up any savings?
I felt the same way. I knew I was really good at saving money, but there wasn’t much to show for my effort.
Yes, there is the small minor detail that I am paying cash for my husband’s education which accounts for a large chunk of money every few months.
As a way to see just how much I could save, I started tracking every penny put aside in my monthly savings reports.
And you know what? An interesting thing started to happen. My savings soon took a huge leap. I became more motivated to get out there and hustle on all the extra work God has provided. Opportunities to add more work kept coming. I took on a part time job.
I started trimming regular expenses to save even more. My frustration disappeared. I was actually making visible progress and was not just fruitlessly spinning my wheels day in and day out.
While I have built up the accounts to pay for annual expenses again and have slowly increased my savings goals of putting money into a 3 month emergency fund and to replace my vehicle, most of the money has gone towards tuition. You know what, that is ok. I’ve really learned this past year how much more you can accomplish when you focus on just one financial goal at at time.
Not to mention that all the money I put towards my husband’s education will pay off eventually with a huge return on investment.
Ya’ll, I was able to put $3,732.70 into savings this month. I know I’ve been working a lot of hours… and I am so thankful.
Here’s the breakdown and where the extra money went.
 Extra money | |
Cash back from bank Skimmed money from budget | $4.01 $30.28 |
Trimmed monthly expenses | $92.26 |
Money saved for annual bills Extra Hustle | $599.00 $1,894.50 |
Second job | $1,100.00 |
Blog Income | $12.65 |
Total Saved | $3,732.70 |
Where the savings will be going:
Account | Amount | Running Total |
|---|---|---|
Emergency | $11.54 | $1,428.83 |
Car Repair | $150.00 | $721.26 |
School | $1,800.00 | $3,605.00 |
Bills/Expenses Blog Taxes | $1,758.51 $12.65 $500.00 | N/A N/A N/A |
Notes
- My income sources vary drastically from month to month. This month I was paid for a lot of freelance work I had done in October.
- My main priority this month was school tuition. Projecting ahead for December, I will easily be able to have all of the tuition money in hand before it’s due, thanks in part to some financial aid my husband received. What a blessing! It has been several semesters since there has been enough money laid aside ahead of time; without needing to drain all the other savings accounts!
- I took some time off from my second job in November over Thanksgiving, and honestly, I needed a bit of a break from working so much. I will be working less in December as well and have decided to take December 19-31st off from posting on the blog.
- With all the free lance work I have been doing, I got a little nervous and put an extra $500 into saving for taxes. I need to run a preliminary close out of my books to see where the numbers are to know how much more remaining taxes I need to send in.
If you are doing any type of freelance or contract work, or you are bringing in additional income from side hustles, you need to be putting 20-30% aside for taxes. I like to put more in savings than I will need, which means there will be additional funds to disperse later.
- My blog brought in some money this month! This will be my third month of earning some money off of Cook With a Shoe. Now I just need the income coming in each month to actually pay for the expenses of running this blog.
- This source of blogging income came from being an affiliate for Amazon, so thank you for making purchases through my links.
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Hi! I’m Charissa. I’m on a mission to help hardworking women overcome money struggles and gain financial peace with a Biblical perspective so they can have the freedom to impact their families and communities. Ready to make some changes that will impact your finances in 2020? Click here to get a free worksheet to help you make it happen!
You guys are making amazing progress, I completely agree with focusing on one financial goal at a time being the way to go. Otherwise things become too overwhelming.
Thank you Rebecca, God has provided the work and the strength to do it. It is overwhelming to work on multiple goals at once and then frustrating to not make much progress in all of them!
I love reading other bloggers monthly/yearly reports.
Thank you RAnn, for stopping by and commenting. I always wonder if posting a monthly report is too much or if people are interested.
Wow, Charissa! You are on fire.
I’m so proud of you. I’m excited for you and I’m happy to read that you took some time off as well.
We need all need those breaks.
I cannot wait to see your growth in 2016!
Have a fabulous New Year’s Eve and all the best!
Happy New Year’s to you too Debbie. Thank you for your encouragement! My word of 2016 is Rest, so I will be taking more time off in the upcoming months than I normally do. Rest is going to be something that I need to learn as I am not very good at it.
You are so amazing! I love your blog posts and inspiration in personal finances. I am wondering if you could choose two of your ‘evergreen’ posts that I can add to my Personal Finances Resource page. Your description can be 100 characters long, and of course I will link it back to you.
Thanks,
Kathleen
Oh thank you Kathleen! I would be honored to include two of my posts into your resource page. Do you have any that specific ones you would like or do you just want me to pick them? I will get them to you.
Yes, you can pick them.
Thanks, Kathleen
Charissa
I do appreciate your willingness to share your income report. It’s inspiring and also shows how energetic you are. Now you have me looking into freelance writing! Thanks for the article.
Thank you Patty! It means a lot to hear that my monthly reports are inspiring. You should do freelance writing, that would be awesome! My freelance work is all from my day job as a Sign Language Interpreter. At some point, I would like to get into freelance writing. Thank you for stopping by!
I loved reading this. I really need some extra help in saving money. Thanks for linking up at the Blogger’s Pit Stop.
Thanks Debbie! I would recommend two things to help you with saving money. Pick one goal to focus on (a specific amount or purchase or event) that you can save for and make it visual. Second, track every single dollar you are able to put away for your savings goal. All the best, and stop in to let me know how you are doing with your savings goal.