Checking In With My Savings Plan: January Edition

In January, I received $4,884.30 in freelance payments. Here’s what I put into my sub-savings accounts:

Taxes got 20 percent, or $976.86.

Debt also got 20 percent, or $976.86.

Savings got 10 percent, or $488.43.

This left $2,442.15 for my checking account.

I used to call this my “new savings plan,” but that was in 2015. At this point, it’s just my “savings plan.”

It’s also working.

I currently have $4,094.94 in my savings account. I only have $1,305.06 left to go before I have that all-important three-month emergency fund. After that, we start saving for the Roth IRA.

At some point, probably around September, I’ll be out of debt. Then I can start putting that extra 20 percent towards savings, or holiday travel, or a new bookshelf. I love thinking about what my life could be like with 20 percent more income in it.

Of course, as I have mentioned more than once on The Billfold, the only reason I’m able to save 50 percent of my income is because I am earning more than enough to live comfortably. How comfortably? Here’s how the $2,445 in my checking account broke down, using my new favorite app Level for the calculations:

• $995 to rent
• $306 to groceries
• $190 to bills
• $60 to transportation in Seattle (I include both metro and taxis/rideshare in this category)
• $725 to discretionary spending

That all adds up to $2,276, by the way, so I ended the month with a little bit left over.

I also put $975 worth of upcoming travel expenses on a zero-interest credit card, trusting that I would be able to pay it off before the end of the year—just like I paid off a bunch of travel expenses on a zero-interest card last month. I always feel a little embarrassed mentioning that yes, I still use zero-interest credit cards like year-long loans, but I have good faith that I’ll be able to pay it off before the interest rate expires. (If something happens to decimate my savings or render me unable to earn money, I’m going to have bigger problems to solve than whether I’m earning interest on a few plane tickets.)

How about you? Did you tally up your spending and saving this month? Anyone trying out a new savings plan?

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