Checking In With My Savings Plan: June Edition

In June, I received $4,119.11 in freelance payments. Here’s what I put in my sub-savings accounts:

Taxes got 22 percent, or $906.19.

Debt got 20 percent, or $823.81.

Savings got 10 percent, or $411.90.

That left $1,977.21 for my checking account. This is just barely enough to pay my overhead expenses, but I had a forward balance of $699.81 in my checking account from May, since I got a bunch of big checks that month. (I’m also anticipating a bunch of big checks in July.)

So that gave me $2,677.02 in spending money for June, to cover overhead (rent+bills+food+etc.), business, and discretionary expenses.

I ended up spending $3,293.43.

$1,917.80 of that was overhead. (Groceries were higher than usual this month.)

$556.42 was discretionary spending: Netflix, my haircut, that shopping spree I took at the beginning of the month, and so on.

What I Bought on My Long-Awaited Shopping Spree

$819.21 was business spending, most of which came right at the end of the month when I got invited to be part of Marian Call’s sixth annual Space Time show in San Diego over Comic-Con weekend. (If you’re around San Diego on July 22, come say hi!)

Space Time 2016! | Marian Call

I’ll be able to pay back this spending—which I put on the zero-interest credit card—with the checks I get this month and still have about $500 in discretionary cash left over, at least half of which I need to earmark for food/drink/rideshares in San Diego. The other half I should probably earmark for food/drink/rideshares at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference at the end of the month.

Basically what I’m saying is that I need to be very careful not to overspend this month. We’ll see what happens. I just came off a zero-spend long weekend (minus the HBO Now subscription fee deducted from my account, and I need to cancel that subscription this month) so that’s a good start.

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