May/June monthly check-in.

als1982 · June 2015

How is it June already?!

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

3. What were your greatest achievements?

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

June

1. What are your goals for this month?

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories?

Xstatic3333 · June 2015

als1982 said:

How is it June already?!

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?
We did well! Over budget in a few categories but staying on track overall.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?
We created a more realistic budget to account for what we are really spending on groceries, "fun", and household goods.

3. What were your greatest achievements?
Giving to our e-fund every paycheck after mostly taking from it from the last few months between H's car, our tax bill, and some inflated lifestyle choices that kept us from rebuilding it promptly (veggie CSA, booking summer travel, etc.)

4. What were your biggest downfalls?
Again we overspent on lawn and garden. Soil is expensive! I also bought Book of Mormon tickets when I heard they were coming to Boston again. This was not budgeted and sadly will come out of savings contributions, but it's something we've wanted for years. Finally, I'm starting to make some summer wedding purchases (shower gift, dress, etc.) and while I'm happy with my bargain shopping it has taken away from our other goals.

June

1. What are your goals for this month?
Starting next paycheck (it's 3-paycheck month for us both) I will be putting over 10% of each paycheck into my Roth IRA and about 8% or more into my emergency fund.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?
Continue realistic budgeting, even though it hurts sometimes to budget for things like "paper towels" and "hair cuts" when I'd rather spend that money on something goal oriented (or at least fun!)

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?
Though it falls under the category of fun and we don't tend to go over, I'd like to decrease our spending on beer. This will just come down to willpower since it's something we both enjoy.

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories?

I have really fond memories of days when I'd go to the office with my mom, run errands with her, go to lunch, etc. It's a simple memory but the first thing that popped into my head. Certain songs from the 90s always bring back to that time.

jessica490 · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

Overall pretty good!

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Just kept saving away and cutting back on spending

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Out of the blue Verizon gave us a $10 discount off our monthly bill from now on. Due to the condo sale we didnt have to pay June mortgage or condo fees. We cancelled Comcast and will be getting a $57 credit. We cancelled our newspaper and will be getting a credit for that as well. We also got most of our moving supplies for free so it was a cheap move!

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Not much other than having to get my trunk and brakes fixed on my car

June

1. What are your goals for this month?

To get through our condo closing. Save up a lot of money without having to pay 4 large bills. House hunting!

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

The usual, hoard cash, spend less, take advantage of free fun activities

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

Nothing different for now

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories?

Riding bikes around the neighborhood constantly and playing outside in the yard until dark. Living at my parents right now is bringing back all those memories and we did bring our bikes so we can ride them there!

als1982 · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Fair. A big chunk of the month we were on vacation. We did okay though, coming back with only a few hundred dollars spent more than we budgeted, and that'll all get paid off tomorrow.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? n/a

3. What were your greatest achievements? Again, we really did well with our vacation budget, and didn't feel like we held back at all, even in some of the world's most expensive destinations (including London and Paris).

Also, we paid off my student loan! It's SO great to have that gone!

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Eating out. Always. Though now that we're now TTC, I've pretty much cut out all alcohol, which helps significantly.

June

1. What are your goals for this month? We'll put the final $2,000 in our bathroom remodel fund, topping it off at $10,000. I'd love to also start construction this month!

Since my student loan is gone, we'll start on H's now. It's currently at $58,000. With the help of a nice bonus and an extra paycheck, this month we'll be able to knock it down by $11,000. Our goal going forward is $3,500 a month plus anything extra we can throw at it. The hope is to have it gone in 14-16 months.

We'll also be reallocating the $1,000 vacation line item in our budget to baby savings.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Just have to buckle down!

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? Still need to work on eating out, also the "miscellaneous" little stuff like hardware and grocery store runs under $20 that add up over the month.

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories? Visiting my grandparents on their farm, playing outside and exploring the barn, and then sitting around for a meal and ice cream with them and my parents. As a teenager, I also have great memories of lifeguarding during the summers.

abrewer5 · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Not too bad. We didn't spend as much as we usually do which is a win for us. Other than boat gas and the usual we had not major expenses.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Just cut back in a few areas and planned meals better. I'm cash flowing a few things currently. I'll be taking the debt pay off and savings light this summer due to vacations and my cousin's wedding that I'm in.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Stopped carrying my credit cards with me to force me to stick to a cash budget. It really does help cut unncessary spending. I also set up all my bills to do auto-pay, so I now have an allotment every paycheck going to my joint checking to cover bills. This month might be a little shaky while I work out the kinks, but I have a good buffer.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? We turned our A/C on. Ugh, I was hoping to wait until June but the humidity and heat in MD is just awful. This week it's chilly and rainy thou so we're saving some money.

June

1. What are your goals for this month? Finish cash flowing credit cards purchases from last month and keep cutting unncessary spending. Also, address a roof leak we recently discovered due to the heavy rain in our area. It's always something. We've figured out what/where it is now it's just a matter of getting up there to fix it. We live in a town house so it's easier said than done.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Keep the credit cards locked away. I wish I had the will power of some of the others on this board to use them for points, but I really don't.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? Savings for upcoming vacations. I already have my allowance planned out for my two upcoming vacations 12-17 Jun and 20-23 Jun, so I should be good there!

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories? Playing soccer. I used to play year round for the most part and I LOVED it. I think about it often and wish I could find an adult team to play on for fun. There are some in my area but games start as late as 10PM during the week and I just can't do it with my work schedule.

ETA: I also doubled my school payment starting this month! Hoping to get that paid off within the next year.

kmurphy2131 · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

It wasn't our best month but it wasn't horrific.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Hah! Nothing helped this month

3. What were your greatest achievements?

well, we didn't spend more than we made!

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Just a collision of a couple different events maxed our our budget so we broke even but were unable to save. For starters, I manually paid my student loans because I wanted to pay $1000 towards them instead of $598. For some reason I assumed that my autopay wouldn't also happen, but it did so we paid twice for them this month. I overspent in the grocery budget by about $200 PLUS I paid $450 for our CSA share (which will hopefully amount to lower groceries Jun-Oct) We hosted friends for dinner twice, and had low inventory in the pantry after vacation in late April. My parents had their 30th anniversary and we budgeted to take them our to dinner but it ended up being more expensive then I planned. H had a week that he had to pay for parking everyday at work and also couldn't bring a lunch that week so he had to eat out; that added up to almost $75. Basically, a couple little things added up and the $1000 I planned to save went out the window.

June

1. What are your goals for this month?

To hopefully not have any unexpected expenses, to stay on budget, and to not accidently double pay my student loans.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

Once I knew we were having an expensive month, I stopped tracking. Such a bad plan. it made more work for me in the end and probably amounted to spending more than I would have.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

Just overall focusing on the budget. The goal is to get $2000 into savings this month.

hoffse · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

We did pretty well. Nothing super unexpected, and we were able to cash flow everything we needed to.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Does getting paid 3x count?

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Staying under in every category except for "slush."

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Overspending in "slush." But we ended the month net positive and put a little extra into savings over what we had planned.

June

1. What are your goals for this month?

Stick to buying only the things we really need to buy this month - father's day gifts and kitchen stuff. The goal is to cash flow some of the smaller kitchen purchases (tile, faucet, light fixture, etc.) instead of paying for them out of savings. Those things we buy on our own will be removed from our invoice with the contractor, and it should save us a few hundred bucks when all is said and done.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

Track carefully - also, H and I both have some business trips this month so we're going to cash flow the gas expense and then use the mileage reimbursements for some of these kitchen items.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

Slush - trying really hard to keep that within budget, even with the extra kitchen purchases.

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories?

My dad is a psychologist, but his research area is in primatology. He studies gorillas. I used to love going back "behind the scenes" at the zoo to watch the animals be fed and to get up close and personal with them (or as close as I was allowed). I went to zoo camp every summer. I also loved it when my dad would hold the baby gorillas and let me interact with them. Before I was born he got to take home a lion cub from the zoo one night because they needed somebody to board the baby for a couple days while moving the mother to a new exhibit - my mom says it was like a giant kitten! Super playful and cuddly, and they had fun letting the cub chase them (and a piece of string) around the house. But yeah, I've always been into animals.

cbee817 · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Pretty good- saved $1750.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Not much different- stuck to our usual budget.

3. What were your greatest achievements? n/a

4. What were your biggest downfalls? We bought a new laptop- even though we use it every day at home, it still stings a bit. Won't be paying for it until July though when DH's credit card bill is due.

June

1. What are your goals for this month? Continue to save and figure out what repairs we're making to the house this summer while DH is home.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? not much different- stick to usual budget.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? n/a

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories? When I was young, it was spending the summers at my grandma's house for a few weeks. Got to see my cousins, go swimming all day, and my grandpa would make breakfast for me if I woke up early enough. From high school/college, it was going to my friend's cottage in Canada- the beach there is really nice and her parents/neighbors would cook all of the Italian food and have a big dinner. It was a lot of fun.

simplyelise · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

Good. We are both pretty nerdy about sticking to the budget and staying on target with goals.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Nothing different. Just didn't give ourselves any wiggle room.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

We put over 3000 to debt, built up a half paycheck buffer so we could move H's last May paycheck to treat it as his first June paycheck, put $100 toward car fund

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Just from a frustration standpoint, we keep forgetting to bring our groceries envelope to the store then we have to figure it all out and deposit cash back into our account. Meh.

June

1. What are your goals for this month?

Cashing in ALL the savings bonds. We should get about 1400 from that to put with our 2400 budgeted for a big debt payment month. We'll get under 35k which means we'll have paid over 20,000 in 8 months. Pretty freaking excited.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

Same old same old with the budget. It's nice because we used to have $8 in interest added to the SLs each day, but now we're down to $6.90/day, so that's awesome.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

I think it's been hard trying to budget around last minute events that our friends think up. I think we're going to try to self-regulate our own blow money stashes so we can figure this out better. It's hard saying no, but we also don't want to just allow last-minute changes to the plan.

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories?

My siblings and I were really close growing up, so it was fun just to play in the sprinkler and have water gun fights.

lifeonthehill · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Accomplished everything we set out to.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Same as we always do. Just don't spend any money.

3. What were your greatest achievements? The new car! It was much needed!

4. What were your biggest downfalls? The new car! It was about $2,500 over budget

June

1. What are your goals for this month? Our goal this summer is FUN! We are treating the summer as a break after our crazy two year saving/debt payoff plan.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? HAVE FUN!

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? We don't have the school providing food for the next three months so we need to be careful with the food budget while also maintaining a healthier diet than last year.

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories? Camping with my family

Mustard76 · June 2015

May
1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Fair. We saved what we planned on, and only spent within budget for vacation. But I had car problems last week and had to get towed from a customer'so place of business. I hate having to spend money on stuff like that, but keep reminding myself this is what we save money for. And I was at least in a parking lot, not on the side of the road. The worst part was I work 30 miles away from home. Someone brought me home the night it happened, but I had to take H's truck the next day, drive home and pay $50 for a cab back down to work to pick up my car. Usually I don't mind being so far away from friends and family, but when this stuff happens and H is out of town, it's rough.
2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Nothing, really. We're just plugging away.
3. What were your greatest achievements? H has been out of town for two weeks, so I haven't spent as much in groceries. Also, our dog is at my IL's so no doggie daycare the last two weeks.
4. What were your biggest downfalls? Just the car problems.
June
1. What are your goals for this month? My SL should be paid off on Friday. Also, we should be adding close to $1000 to our move money account.
2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Just keep trying to spend less and keep saving to our move money account.
3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? Move money. The more the better at this point. Our spending has been okay, but doggie daycare expenses are going up next week, so we've got to work on saving more to move.
GTKY Bonus What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories? My parents bought a summer house when I was 10. Every summer we would go for two full weeks and on most weekends all summer. It was the WORST. Until the year they bought a boat. We would spend full days on the lake tubing and knee boarding. The town was (is) so small, my parents used to let us drive on the country roads. My uncle also had a house in the same town, two miles away, so we loved riding our bikes over to his house.
ETA: formatting

csuave · June 2015

1. How good were you at keeping goals for the month?

Good. We went on vacation and spent a bit extra but it was covered in the budget.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Nothing different, kept to the same budget.

June

1. What are your goals for this month?

When I asked DH the other month he told me he would contribute one payment in June to the family account before stopping payments due to his severance running out. When I checked in with him on June 1 he said he miscalculated and couldn't do any more payments, so nothing for June. We are now immediately moving into low spend mode. We have a comfortable amount in savings and the goal is to keep savings as is and not use it for monthly expenses.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

We will spend as little as possible in June. We already have a lot of free activities planned and do not have any travel plans for the month so that will help. We also signed up to rent our guest bed and bath on Air BnB. We got the listing up during Memorial Day weekend and we alrady have bookings for every weekend in June. The extra rental income will help make up for the anticipated small gap I'm forecasting for June and give us some cushion and/or funds for non-budgeted purchases like the new grill that we want.

3. What area of you budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

We like to eat out and previously it was built into the budget. The plan for June is to eat at home and make sure low cost meals are in the mix. With the meal plan I have worked out we will be meatless at least once a week as we eat low cost salads, Kraft Mac, and pasta (all things we like anyway).

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer childhood memories? Now that summer is here I am thinking about the family vacations we took to the lakes of Northern Michigan. Kid Rock's song does a good job of describing the joy and simplicity of those vacations from my youth.

AprilZ81 · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Overall pretty good. Our monthly budget items are all at/under budget. We took DH's 3rd paycheck to get a new tv and equipment. We did pull about $600 out of savings to purchase a new entertainment stand.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Our food and entertainment budget felt tight this month due to having an extra weekend. I did end up pulling $15 from our gas budget to make up our groceries budget shortfall.

3. What were your greatest achievements? We didn't do anything different and I don't feel like we accomplished anything special except didn't go into debt for anything.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? We had a pretty spendy month, flowers for the garden, DH needed new clothes, and our tv (planned purchase) made us pull more money out of savings than I would have liked. The good news is that it made me realize that I need to update the budget to include a few line items to our budget (sinking fund for memberships and a line item for "house stuff" like mulch, flowers and small home improvements). As soon as I get back to work the budget will get updated.

June

1. What are your goals for this month? Hopefully I will be working full time before the end of the month! If so we will update the budget. Our first two priorities will be to cut down a dead tree in our back yard and start getting firm plans on our master bath remodel while making sure we can still afford to have a baby (currently TTC).

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Reworking the budget to be more realistic (sinking funds, clothing budget and a line item for small house purchases). The good news is that the tightened budget we've been using has allowed me to see all the fluff we had built in to our old budget. We can loosen up the fun money and entertainment budget and still put a lot of my new salary to savings and other goals.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? Taking less money out of savings. The outside yard work is done and we have the summer clothes we need (outside of me possibly needing work clothes with a new job) so this should be a fairly easy goal to meet.

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories? I **LOVED** to read as a kid (and still do really). In the summer Dad would take me to work with him (he owned the business) and I would hang out there until lunch. He would take me to lunch and then drop me off a the library for a few hours where I would return my books, get new ones and then make myself comfortable and read for a few hours before Dad picked me up. It was awesome. I always met the summer reading goals super fast and the librarians doubted I was reading 10-15 books in a week but I read fast and it was my favorite thing to do.

Wulfgar · June 2015

May

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Not too bad, I think at the end of May everything came out even.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Nothing.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Breaking even.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Groceries, it finally dawned on me how much the small price increases have finally added up.

June

1. What are your goals for this month? To get my credit card paid down more, just had to spend $400 on car repairs.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Need to stop some spending on eating out/ order in.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? Need to be more careful with eating out/ order in. It is hard when I tend to work close to 10 hours (11 with lunch) and MW doesn't usually finish work until around 6pm. We have found out that we are eating dinner closer to 8 pm each night which makes it harder for us at times to not just go out or order out.

GTKY Bonus

What is one of your favorite summer/childhood memories? I always loved going to both of my grandparents farms and helping out on them. A few summers when I was around 11 to 14, I spent most of my summers between the two. This got me and sometimes my brother out of my parent's hair.

May/June monthly check-in.

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