Who: me - a single 45 year old woman - and my cat
What: live within my (voluntarily) limited paycheck
When: Sept 18 - Dec 20 (this is when my daughter is away at uni)
Why: in order to save $$$ on after tax basis through the end of the year
Here are the details:
I have decided to contribute approximately $10K on after tax basis to my 401k this year (after I max out the tax deductible contributions - I am currently at $17,200 or so and am contributing $2,457 monthly for the rest of the year. Because it will be on after tax basis for the year, my paycheck will suffer due to higher taxes). In addition, I have decided to save $4,000 per month on after tax basis and invest it through Fidelity. I set up a direct deposit of $2K bi-monthly into my Fidelity brokerage account last month (so August is now done and will be automatically invested next Tue!). This will leave me with approximately $3,750 net available each month through the end of the year (this takes into account the higher taxes I am expecting to kick in in September).
My mortgage, tax and HOA are $2,500 per month. The rest of my "austerity budget" is:
Groceries, toiletries, cat food, etc. $300
Gas $150
Utilities $150
Cable/internet $100
Phone $160 (this is for 3 lines (me, my ex and my daughter) and should be going down by $40 while daughter is away)
Netflix $8
Cash $50
I don't need to buy any clothes for the next 4 months and I don't eat out. Medical expenses will come out from the HSA account and I have a well funded emergency fund that will cover any unanticipated expenses. I have no debt other than my mortgage. Insurance (house, car, life, umbrella) is paid for the next 6 month to a year. However, I do spend quite a lot on food so the $300 per month will be a challenge. Also, keeping my utilities to $150 will require some work. The biggest challenge will be to stop random spending on clothes, yarn and other stuff that I tend to do....
The only two expenses that I haven't budgeted for but I know will come up in the next 4 months is a couple of haircuts and one scheduled car maintenance. Typically, I spend quite a lot for these ($60 plus tip for a haircut and probably $300 for the car at the dealer). Any ideas on how to reduce these costs would be welcome. Also, do you see any other categories that I am missing and other things that could trip me up in the next 4 months?