Moneystepper’s 2015 Savings Challenge Update #4
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Now that May has begun it's time for an update on the MoneyStepper’s 2015 Savings Challenge.
The two main goals of the challenge are:
- Grow Your Net Worth
- Save % of Your Net Income
For 2015 our family will do our best to increase our net worth by 30% and have a 20% savings rate.
We pushed up from our original goals of 25% and 15% since things were looking good first quarter. (Thanks Graham for nudging us :P)
April Net Worth and Savings Results
We saw more hospital bills come up last month. Surprised I called the hospital to find out why and ask for an itemized bill.
The customer service representative told me that when they were switching over systems not all charges were properly entered.
Once we confirmed that the charges were legit we scheduled them to be paid in April and this month. Hopefully that will be the end of the baby bills.
With work I hadn't taken up any new projects in April and given how busy my schedule has been, I don't think I'll pick up any this month. Juggling work from home and taking care of the kids has used most of my energy.
Many days I've settled on a split shift – I work early in the mornings, spend time with the girls, and then finish up assignments when my husband gets home. I'm handling project fine, but I'd like to have more time working on the podcast and content here on Couple Money.
As for family events last month, we had a spring break trip to Wilmington that was very much needed and enjoyed. We went down as a family and then my mom took the girls to her place, giving us time to relax alone.
I got a deal on our hotel with some bidding on Priceline and used a portion of the tax refund to pay for it.
As an added bonus, besides breakfast, the hotel had free dinner downstairs for guests one of the nights.
Now that you have an idea about what happened, here are our numbers for April:
- YTD Net Worth Improvement: 9%
- YTD Savings Rate: 22%
To help boost our progress, I'm going over each of our monthly bill and looking for ways to eliminate or reduce them. We managed to cut our internet bill by 15% last month.
Thoughts on Our MoneyStepper Progress
I’d like to hear from you and your family about your goals and progress so far. Have things been going well? Have you had to deal with any setbacks?
