December Budget

With all the spending surrounding the thanksgiving holiday and black Friday, I thought it best to post our monthly budget for December and update you all on our annual goals as we look to wrap up 2011.

Roth IRA:
We took the refund from the dental payment and dropped it into our Roth IRA savings account (when we get $5000 were opening the account at Vanguard). When we added that with the planned savings we had in our budget last year, it now stands at $3,850.20. December is a three paycheck month for us so i'll be depositing the $1150.00 more we need on the last day of the year. The Roth will be maxed out by years end!!!!!!!!!

Missing Paycheck:
Since the hubby is taking 2 weeks off without pay, we won't get one of his paychecks in January. Since we can finish the Roth IRA off with my extra paycheck, we are diverting the money we had earmarked for the Roth to keep to replace the paycheck we won't get in January.

Auto Savings Account:
We are actually coming up with extra money this year that we don't have a plan for... and while it was tempting to toss it on the mortgage, we decided to do something different. We decided to ear mark it towards replacing SCB's car or fixing it up. We know we won't be able to keep it much longer without tossing money into it so instead of tossing it on the house, we'll be tucking it away for safe keeping.

The December Budget:

Paycheck 1: $1,371.00

• Mortgage: $808.18
• HOA: $262.50
• Savings for missing paycheck in January: $300.32

Paycheck 2: $647.00

• 2 Date Nights: $60.00
• Birthday Savings Fund: $50.00
• Gasoline: $60.00
• Savings for missing paycheck in January: $225
• Car Savings account: $252.00

Paycheck 3: $1,371.00

• Christmas Savings Account: $50.00
• Gasoline: $235.00
• Groceries: $250.00
• Insurance Premiums: $143.00
• Car Savings Account: $463.00
• Utility Bills: $230.00

Paycheck 4: $647.00

• Vacation money for Utah- Gas to drive out there & spending money. Anything leftover is going back into our vacation fund to help cover the expenses of going out there in February. 

Paycheck 5: $1200.00

• Roth IRA Fund

Starting in January we'll have a completely different budget. We'll be paying for SCB's health insurance, funding 2 Roth IRA's, and attempting to make 2 additional mortgage payments a year... and add money to our emergency fund. Assuming we both stay employed for 2012, we might just have an awesome financial plan... assuming we can stick with it.