Happy Holidays!
November was, to be honest, an ass kicker on the full-time job front. I had even started a slight rant post that I’m not sure I’ll finish. Regardless, it makes the sound of financial freedom even more appealing and I was exceptionally thankful for a few days of downtime over the Thanksgiving break.
The week leading up to the holiday I was traveling for work to Ireland. It was my first trip out of the country and while I didn’t have a whole lot of time for tourism, I did get to see the Jameson distillery in Middleton. Of course, that lead to a little extra personal expense as I purchased a few gifts for family. I’ll use some of these as Christmas gifts, so it won’t be a huge overage as I’d be spending the money anyway.
Other than the travel expense on gifts, there wasn’t anything unexpected this month. Groceries, restaurants, and entertainment/alcohol were back up this month due to holiday events. We still managed to keep it under control and none of the categories were the highest of the year.
Current Goal Status:
- Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 10%.
- At the end of November, overall debt reduction is 9.15%. We put extra towards the Vet bill to help recover. Year-end projection is currently 10.03% so it look like we’re back on track.
- Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 10% of salary.
- Combined saving in investment accounts is now at 10.19% which is still below the 10.71% high in September. I’m still on track but may be able to bump this a little at year end.
- Eliminate any monthly interest payments due to credit cards.
- November broke the streak and I paid $38.03 in interest on the card holding the Vet balance. This brings total credit card interest to $386 for the year. I don’t anticipate any interest in December.
- Of the $3200 balance increase from veterinary surgery, ~$2200 remains on the card. I have an RSU vesting today that will eliminate this balance.
Total expenses for November rose to $8031 which was still the second lowest of the year. Net cash flow was slightly positive at $423.
Looking forward to the gift-giving season, we’re working on setting a budget for gifts and making sure we have a checklist of each person before we start buying. We’re also looking at using the points on our Chase Sapphire card on Amazon to offset purchase costs. I don’t believe we’ll use them all and we don’t have any travel planned for first half of next year where we could use the points.
-cb3
In 2015, I embarked on a minimalist project which allowed me to save more money than I thought possible! Good luck, you can do it too. 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement Julie! I can’t believe how much progress we’ve made in 2015. I’m looking forward to taking everything we’ve learned and setting new goals for 2016.