Checking In With My Savings Plan: July 2017 Edition

In July, I received $7,400 in freelance earnings. Here’s what I put in my sub-savings accounts:

Taxes got 25 percent, or $1,850.

Savings got 15 percent, or $1,110.

That left $4,440 for my checking account. $2,488.48 of that went towards paying off the $2,535.15 balance on my Chase Ink business credit card (the $46.87 I had earned in credit card rewards covered the rest), which left me with $1,951.52 in spending money for the month. Technically $2,011.18, since I got that $59.66 “windfall” from my Discover credit card rewards.

I began the month with $963.34 in checking and my current checking account balance is $599.39. This means I spent $2,375.13 on overhead and personal items this month, so… considering that my monthly rent+bills+food costs run at about $2,000 and I overspent on groceries, I did pretty well at not spending too much money in July.

Let’s see how August goes. I’m expecting between $7,500 and $7,900 in income, depending on when exactly the checks arrive, and although that would give me a little over $4,500 for my checking account, I still need to pay back the $3,000 checking account buffer that I drew from earlier this year.

Which means August could be another “don’t spend a lot of money” month. Or, as I noted earlier today, I could give myself a little more spending room and finish paying back that buffer in September.

I’ll let you know what happens.

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