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About Me:

terri77

I am 46, single, no kids. I am a health care professional. I feel that I'm generally a very good saver and a not so good budgeter - hence the credit card debt payoff I worked through in 2020.

My personal finance goals for 2024:

1. Contribute maximum to Thrift Savings Plan. This is a recurring goal that I’ve accomplished every year since 2008.

2. Contribute maximum to Roth IRA. This is a recurring goal that I’ve accomplished every year since 2001.

3. Pay off credit cards. Completed January 2021. Now the strategy is to pay off my credit cards monthly with no balance carryover.

4. Build up emergency & long-term savings. I completed my initial goal in April 2021. I have 3-6 months of expenses saved at this time & I continue to save for my next car purchase, which is hopefully many years away. I use high yield savings and CDs.

5. Invest in brokerage account. I started with the proceeds from selling my condo & have added monthly. This account is for a future down payment when I purchase a home again.

6. Give to church monthly. I attend two churches right now so I alternate my monthly offerings.

7. Give to charity monthly. Food banks are my preferred charity to give to. I have automated my charitable donations at work to give with my biweekly paychecks.

8. Apply for promotions as they become available. Right now I’m very happy in my current position, so this isn’t much of a goal currently. I have received several raises, I enjoy the work I do, & the people I work with…I’m very happy to stay where I am.

9. New goal for 2024! Build new home with $100k down. This will be funded from my brokerage account & cash savings. 🏡

My Monthly Budget

May 10th, 2023 at 01:23 am

I enjoy following your budgets so much that I thought I'd give it a go at sharing mine. I know that I put more on credit cards than this budget accounts for, so I really need to get better at actually accounting for my expenses. Now that I write that, I realize that I had nothing in my budget for travel or shopping, which is definitely not correct. In fact I just spend $800 on booking ballet & plane tickets for NYC in July. 🩰 ✈️ 🚖

rent $1712

utilities $100

auto insurance $143

cell phone & internet $143

food $400

travel $300

shopping $300

church $100

charities $100

Apple $1

IRA $500

savings $500

brokerage $500

Expenses $3399

Savings $1500

Total $4899

I now realize that in posting a budget how vulnerable you feel opening yourself up to others' scrutiny.

Posted in Food fiend, Retirement readings, Savings stories, General musings, Spending stuff, Travel Tales, Budgeting, Food / Groceries, Personal Finance, Retirement, Saving Money, Shopping | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “My Monthly Budget”

Petunia 100 Says:
May 12th, 2023 at 03:58 am 1683863924
1683863924

Yes, it can make you feel vulnerable. But, most people realize that this is your real life, not a hypothetical situation for their critique.

It takes most people several months to work all of the kinks out of their budgets. Don't let forgetting something discourage you from keeping on.
Thank you for sharing, I enjoy reading other people's budgets, too.
Wink Says:
May 12th, 2023 at 12:15 pm 1683893722
1683893722

I learn a lot when others share their budgets. One thing early on was that there is a big difference between tracking what you spend and save, and actually budgeting every month.

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Firefly's Personal Finance Blog

Working out my spending impulses.

My Monthly Budget

2 Responses to “My Monthly Budget”

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