Checking In With My Savings Plan: March Edition

In March, I received $6,307.33 in freelance payments. Here’s what I put in my sub-savings accounts:

Taxes got 20 percent, or $1,261.47.

Debt also got 20 percent, or $1,261.47.

Savings got 15 percent, or $946.10. (I’m putting 15 percent into checking instead of 10 percent to make up for the month I had to take $1000 out of savings because a few big freelance payments weren’t going to arrive for another few weeks.)

This left for $2,838.30 for my checking account.

However, my checking account balance is $15.25 as of today. How did I spend that $2,838.30?

According to finance-tracking app Level, it looks like I spent:

$995 on rent

$504 on groceries (that seems much higher than usual)

$438.18 on bills (utilities, renters insurance, health insurance)

$749.12 on business expenses (nearly all of it related either to Norwescon or the upcoming Mini-Con in April)

$660.10 on discretionary expenses ($76.94 at Old Navy, $19.95 for a new pair of shoes, the $43.98 curtains, $36.11 for streaming media services, $279.50 for tickets to various shows—although I’m going to get $148 of that reimbursed because I bought tickets for other people—and so on)

This is why I’m very glad I am automatically transferring cash to sub-savings accounts; if I didn’t, I would probably spend it all without thinking. I do think about my money—I think about it a lot—but I still seem to end up with very little in my checking account at the beginning of the month, even when I put off buying a bookshelf until May, decide to check out a book from the library instead of buying it from the bookstore, and buy the $19.99 shoes instead of the $49.99 shoes, which are all decisions I made in March, and which all turned out to be smart financial moves.

My savings account balance is currently $4,378.79, by the way. $1,021.21 to go until I have a three-month emergency fund. I keep hoping I can make that happen in April, but it probably won’t happen until May—a full year after I started saving 10 percent of my income.

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