Author Topic: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?  (Read 8012 times)

TheAnonOne

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Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« on: May 20, 2016, 01:55:32 PM »
Has this ever happened to you....?

We usually save between 40 and 60 percent of our income. Some months even more!

However in April and May we had...
Car 1 needed new Alternator
Car 1 needed new tie rods
Car 1 needed new tires
Car 1 needed new front brake rotors
Car 2 needed new rear calipers
Car 2 needed new rear brake rotors
Plus a few purchases related to a trip we are taking later in the year.....
Probably a few things I am forgetting....

So I think we probably spent most of our money or only saved 10% (at most) this month.

Bummer.... Oh well! Life goes on! (I can't be the only one...)
« Last Edit: May 20, 2016, 01:57:50 PM by TheAnonOne »

andy85

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2016, 02:00:36 PM »
I saw this in another thread a few months back:

Quote
...I'm so thankful that my money problems are "will my savings rate drop below 70% next month" and not "will I be able to pay for this."...

its a nice problem to have and probably something more of us need to remember.

but yea...shit happens. you are not alone.

Zikoris

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2016, 02:15:42 PM »
We get those when we book vacations. We don't really spend large sums outside of travel, so it's only a few times a year, luckily. I actually only calculate savings rate annually because of that, as well as three paycheck months - it seems kind of inaccurate to say I had a 90% savings rate for two months a year and a 10% savings rate for two months a year.

Guesl982374

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2016, 02:16:38 PM »
Similar to andy85, I always think to myself that it's really nice to be able to "cashflow" those kinds of expenses. I will typically use the "bad month" as motivation to delay other purchases/tighten the belt for the next few months.

Trudie

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2016, 02:18:48 PM »
This is why you track savings over the long term.  It's the long haul that matters.  When I track our expenses I total them up "as is" but then down below back out extraordinary expenses (like those related to discretionary travel) which gives me a truer picture of what we'd live on if we really had to and didn't have large discretionary items in our budget.

Anyway, this is about saving to do the things you want to do and if travel experiences are something you value it's important to remember that.

forummm

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2016, 02:21:00 PM »
Had an AC die. Repainted the house. Took a vacation. Sure, those things happen. But being able to still save money even when they do is fantastic.

Metric Mouse

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2016, 02:24:53 PM »
$35k house expenses last year. Hard to save when paying for that on a retirement income. Hoping to not have that every year though. Some months you just feel you can't get ahead, especially when you're young and don't have ten or 15 years of discretionary purchases already taken care of...

Warlord1986

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2016, 02:29:18 PM »
Yeah. The time I got hit with a huge dental bill I saved zero that month. But I had the money to cover the bill, my rent, and food because of mustachianism. Stuff does happen, but I can prepare for it.

Frs1661

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2016, 12:01:07 PM »
I have an account for home/car repairs and car replacement that I add to every month. I consider that money 'spent' and don't include it in my savings rate. Then when a big repair comes up, or I replace a car, I just deduct it from the car account and it doesn't change my savings rate at all.

This is perhaps just a mental game, but it helps me see how these large costs are amortized over time, and operate with a more realistic monthly expenses number for estimating my FI number.

I keep about 5k liquid for a repair buffer and invest the rest until I need it.

EnjoyIt

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2016, 12:35:46 PM »
Isn't that the point of having an emergency fund?  I keep cash on hand for such repairs so that it does not cut into my savings rate.  Then, over the next several months I replenish it.

Dicey

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2016, 12:44:45 PM »
Methinks you're looking at this wrong. All those things happened and you didn't have to borrow money to pay for them? And you presumably had the luxury of shopping around to make sure you didn't overpay for the repairs? You didn't have to skip meals this month? Count yourself lucky and move on.

Sailor Sam

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2016, 01:13:42 PM »
Yup! I reliably have 2 months a year in which outflow exceeds income. It used to upset me, then I created a slush fund to be used for these one-off things. It's all head games, but the game worked perfectly for me.

neophyte

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2016, 01:58:05 PM »
Yep, happens to everyone.  Whether it's dental work or an ER trip or something else, it seems about once a year I have a month where $ out exceeds $ in.  That's why I'm always flabbergasted how many people don't have an emergency fund and couldn't cover even a $500 emergency.  $500 emergencies seem so commonplace it seems like you should plan for one or tw0 a year.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2016, 09:06:25 PM by neophyte »

Paul der Krake

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2016, 02:14:20 PM »
All the time. Bad stuff happens. Unexpected money falls into your lap too.

The long term trend is what ultimately matters, not the monthly noise.

PAstash

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2016, 09:00:40 PM »
Has this ever happened to you....?

We usually save between 40 and 60 percent of our income. Some months even more!

However in April and May we had...
Car 1 needed new Alternator
Car 1 needed new tie rods
Car 1 needed new tires
Car 1 needed new front brake rotors
Car 2 needed new rear calipers
Car 2 needed new rear brake rotors
Plus a few purchases related to a trip we are taking later in the year.....
Probably a few things I am forgetting....

So I think we probably spent most of our money or only saved 10% (at most) this month.

Bummer.... Oh well! Life goes on! (I can't be the only one...)

Yea man! my car from 1981 broke down and so did my car from 1986. So i decided it was time to go get a new car. I settled on a 00 Honda civic for 3k. It only had 94k miles on it! That was a big hit that month. So i decded to sell my old cars to a junk yard and pick up a few extra shifts to make up for the loss in cash.

mpg350

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #15 on: May 22, 2016, 07:12:35 AM »
Yeah life happens and this this past month I had some things come up for repair on rental home
and booked our july vacation.

Thats alot of money spent on car repairs sometimes a car reaches the point where it makes sense to just get rid of it
and not have to replace things all the time.

As long as you didn't have to get into debt to pay for some repairs and vacation your doing better than like 75% of the nation I would guess.

dude

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #16 on: May 24, 2016, 06:47:26 AM »
This month has been pretty brutal.  Was in pretty dire need of a new car.  Bought used (2012), but still spent a pretty good chunk of money (more than $20k). Decided to leave the cash equivalent fund (invested in GNMA Fund) alone and take on a car payment because of the 0.99% interest rate.  Plunked $5k down.  Then we go the bad news about our dog -- lymphoma.  But treatable in the short-term, so we went that route.  @$4k.  Additional insurance to cover the new car, $317 for the year. Then we bailed on our vacation to Mexico because of the dog; I had bought the travel insurance when I booked months ago, an uncharacteristic move for me, based on the wife's insistence largely because of her parents' age and infirmities, so didn't directly lose money out of pocket, but wound up with vouchers for the airfare that we have to use before March 2017.  For the first time in a long, long time, I tallied up my credit card bills for the past two weeks, and the total exceeded my bi-weekly paycheck.  Not a good feeling.  And even though we have plenty of money  available, living beyond what's left of my paycheck after savings, taxes and other deductions still leaves me with a feeling that I'm back on the living paycheck to paycheck train of my 20's.

sleepyguy

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2016, 07:54:02 AM »
For sure, probably in the next 6-9 months we'll need to do the following, it just comes with the territory.  We feel pretty fortunate to have the savings and income to not even be hassled much by it to be honest.  Anyway here is the list.

1. new tires for our Forester ($700-900)
2. new roof for our rental home (ouch), I personally don't have the time and patience to do roofing... i'm not the best with heights either.  we will have trusted contractor doing the work so we won't be screwed. ($5000 or so if i recall)
3. kids summer daycare/camps... with school out it can get a bit pricey.  ($300/wk)

Those are the 3 bigger ones, smaller ones are.

1. impreza needs timing belt at change soon, it's a SOHC so supposedly kinda easy and quite DIY... we'll see :)
2. couple of doors/locks in the rental probably need to be replaced
3. rental needs a bit of lawncare TLC... probably hire out some students to do the work (it's too far from me)

Looking further ahead we'll probably need a new  (used) car soon (2-3yrs)... but we'll see how it goes.


sam

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2016, 08:53:36 AM »
Agree with the other responses, don't beat yourself up! This is why you have an emergency fund!

Sam

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #19 on: May 24, 2016, 09:14:16 AM »
Yep, we definitely have.

We usually save 50+% of our income. Last year we had a $15k emergency medical bill to cover.  Not so good on the savings rate then; but was I ever so thankful we were in a situation where paying it was barely a blip.

Guava

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #20 on: May 24, 2016, 09:48:55 AM »
Yes, happens to me at least 3 times a year when tuition comes due. To some extent it bums me out because it would be awesome to be able to save something those months but when the bill is 2/3 of your gross income for the month, it just won't happen. But I know tuition won't last forever (nor will some of the pricey remodelling I have done) and next month can be better. It makes me want to scrimp a bit the next month, usually.

Dezrah

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #21 on: May 24, 2016, 11:09:27 AM »
My sister and her husband's car broke down on their way to visit us. The cost wasn't too bad though. He and I (the money nerds in our respective marriages) agreed that there's something strangely satisfying about using the Emergency Fund. "Screw you, Murphy. You're not bringing me down."

neo von retorch

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #22 on: May 24, 2016, 11:22:32 AM »
In my custom software, the important number to me is "net worth." It went down two months ago... because we wrote a big check for a second deposit on a house. (I don't count that "floating money" because it would be a PITA to account for in my software.) Last month, we wrote a much, much bigger check. We also added real estate to our list of accounts. Net worth went up :)

Savings rate is a good goal, and often an actionable one. But you don't beat yourself up for having to pay your annual property tax bill or repairing your (otherwise reasonable and economical) automobile. You only beat yourself up for wasting money, spending it on things you don't value in the long run.

druth

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #23 on: May 24, 2016, 12:42:37 PM »
I'm there right now.  Boyfriend just switched jobs so he's going to be late on rent until his first paycheck comes in, and I just had to pay in advance for some school that my work won't pay me back for until September.  NW will probably go DOWN this month as a result, but fortunately both will result in a higher savings in another month.  I still hate looking at my spreadsheets right now.

Greenback Reproduction Specialist

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #24 on: May 24, 2016, 04:12:45 PM »
Glad I'm not the only one, this month our car died, engine is shot, so had to bite the bullet and pickup another vehicle.

We try to keep an emergency fund topped off for things like this, and then we have monthly goals to hit for deposits into our retirement fund and paying down the house. As long as we hit those monthly goals for our retirement and paying down the house, we will be FIRE in 2021.

We treat our FIRE fund as a purchase, we make regular monthly payments.

« Last Edit: May 24, 2016, 04:16:57 PM by Greenback Reproduction Specialist »

SaskyStache

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #25 on: May 24, 2016, 04:47:18 PM »
Yep, at least a couple months a year. Shit happens.

I try to keep my savings automated and pretty aggressive (for me), so when large expenses come in they may put me in the red, but this will trigger a batten-down-the-hatches type of response in my spending.

If I really needed to, I could dip into my savings, but seeing the main account in the red or close to zero still causes a knee-jerk belt-tightening reaction which helps me get back on track.*




*I think I have a greater section in my budget for stupid spending than most on this forum, so the small fee from the dip into the red is offset by my frugality kicking into overdrive. This won't be the case for everyone.

BlueMR2

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #26 on: May 24, 2016, 05:02:49 PM »
Yeah, last year it was "surprise, we need a $7000 HVAC system" in July.  Big chunk of change up front, but we were prepared.  We buckled down, cut expenses, and still made our yearly budget!

This year it was our "new" (2002) car getting some rust work done (before it allowed water to seep further in and due structural damage).  The deposit fit in one month's budget with everything else, but the rest of the work was the whole next month's budget by itself...  We'll make it up though.  Got another car with a threatening engine knock that I've been babying since about a year ago this time when we first heard the knock.  That's a $10k engine build we're trying to defer as long as possible...

FausseBourgeoise

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #27 on: May 24, 2016, 05:44:59 PM »
I stress about savings being too low every month, but then I realize that I'm still saving more than I'm spending, and my income isn't that high. My shift in net worth has been significant in the last 6 months.

Not too long ago I realized that every month was going to be "special" and there would always be something unusual that required financial attention. But all in all, if the savings percentage stays decent then it's okay. Fluctuation within categories doesn't worry me as much any more, although I pay attention to it.

Mrs. D.

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #28 on: May 26, 2016, 09:01:47 AM »
A down month? Talk about a down few years. Husband and I were simultaneously in grad school on one income (paid for in cash with no loans), then moved and bought a house that needed some A/C repair, then had a baby. I stopped working to stay home with our son so we're still on one income. We're contributing to husband's 401K and receiving company match, plus putting some into Roth IRA's but overall savings rate is probably pretty low. Not sure of the exact number. However, I have no fear. We are spending this time flexing our Mustachian muscles and we already have a sizable stash (about 100K) invested which is working hard all of its own accord. Plus we built 20% equity in our house through down payment. So despite the modest income we are still watching our stash increase while I spend every day with my precious son. No regrets!

BlueMR2

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #29 on: May 26, 2016, 10:16:05 AM »
I guess we qualify for down years as well.  Kind of forget about it since we're still able to save so well.  However, we are down for a number of years as my wife lost her full-time job about 3 years ago now and has only recently (she was totally out of work for long enough to fall off of even the huge extended length unemployment that was available back then) been able to scrape up part-time work paying 1/4 to 1/2 what she was making.

I guess it's technically even worse than that...  Back in 2005/6 I made more money by myself than both of us make put together today...  Cutting costs has more than made up the difference though!  :-)

zephyr911

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #30 on: May 26, 2016, 12:03:11 PM »
Do this long enough, and this will happen to you whether it's bad decisions or just bad luck. Long-term habits and patterns are what matters.

FIRE me

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #31 on: May 26, 2016, 08:49:23 PM »
2. new roof for our rental home (ouch), I personally don't have the time and patience to do roofing... i'm not the best with heights either.  we will have trusted contractor doing the work so we won't be screwed. ($5000 or so if i recall)

You could pray for hail. That's how I got my last roof for free. Well, not by praying, but rather by hail actually falling on the shingles.

scipsy

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #32 on: May 26, 2016, 09:10:47 PM »
Yup, definitely this month was a down month.  I am guessing my net worth only increase a little bit (rough life, I know).  I recently relocated and I am still trying to sell my house in another state so I have 2 of every bill.  I also splurged on a legitimate mountain bike to upgrade my crappy $80 craigslist wal-mart bike.  I have since wrecked on it twice and broke my clavicle last weekend.  Hooray for helmets!

I am hoping to sell my house quickly and be back on track for those big gains.  Luckily, it doesn't look like anyone on this forum needed to take out a high interest loan to cover the unexpected expenses.

Keep on doing what you are doing and a down month or even a whole year won't impact your goals in the long run.


Davids

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #33 on: May 27, 2016, 04:27:22 PM »
With savings rate calculation I think you should be looking at it over a course of a 12 month period and not necessarily one month to the next as there can be fluctuations. Like for me I know August will always be very low because a large portion of my Property Tax Bill is paid and that is when I renew my home and auto insurance premium. I posted a thread in another forum about how I achieved a 71.70% savings rate over 12 months from May 2015 - Apr 2016 (May 2015 I started calculating my savings rate for the first time) however month-month this is what it looked like

May 2015: 73.55%
June 2015: 77.47%
July 2015: 77.30%
Aug 2015: 20.24% (due to reasons mentioned above)
Sept 2015: 75.34%
Oct 2015: 68.49%
Nov 2015: 73.80%
Dec 2015: 82.79%
Jan 2016: 70.85%
Feb 2016: 81.99%
Mar 2016: 82.46%
Apr 2016: 65.80%

everinprogress

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Re: Ever have a down(bad) savings month?
« Reply #34 on: May 30, 2016, 09:04:49 PM »
Both our income and our expenses can vary greatly from month to month, so sometimes we save thousands, and sometimes not much- but as long as it averages out to something we're happy with, not too concerned about a few highs or lows
Most recently has some flooring put in our house, as the old stuff was in very bad shape. Saved, and waited for it to go on sale, but still made the numbers for the time we actually purchased it look pretty bad. Oh well :)