May 2016 FrugalMaster Results

May was mostly quiet here in the DFG household.  My daughter was baptized and we celebrated that.  My older daughter had a birthday slumber party.  That is always interesting to see how teenage girls act these days.  They were all good kids and even went to bed at a reasonable hour.  Even on the finance side it was mostly quiet.  I will write about some of changes in another article that in the long run will benefit my family and I.  Now let's get on with the show and see if I came out ahead this month.

Income

I posted my dividend income already.  It was lower compared to last year due to some changes and dividend cuts.  Nevertheless it was still income I did not have to work for.

On my paycheck side it was steady Eddy.  The only difference was I started my investment in my company's employee stock purchase program.  It is a great deal as long as you hold the stocks long enough to avoid short term capital gains taxes. 

First they take out a percentage of your income from each paycheck.  At the end of a fixed period of time they take your money and buy company stock at a 15% discount.  The best part is they take the lower of the 2 stock prices that are measured at the start and end of this time period.

For example, May 1st starts the period and it ends on August 30th.  If the stock on the 1st is $20/share and in August it ends at $40/share you get it for $20*.85=$17.00 per share.

You can't beat that so I am currently sinking 1% of my pay into this program and may increase it the next period if I think the company is heading in the right direction. 

Expenses

This month was pretty good.  I came in under budget on all my "needs" categories.  However my wants category was about double what I had budgeted.  First of all I didn't plan on (oops) the expenses related to the celebration from my daughter's baptism.  That was ~$150 dollar expense I categorized under wants.  Sure I could have just sent the family home with no lunch but it was the least I could do for having them travel the distance to our church.

Again I just want to point out to everyone that my house is still the largest monthly expense I have.  Especially when you factor in maintenance and utilities for the beast of a large home.  I am still working on aligning my simple lifestyle goal with my wife.  I hope once we are on the same page it will lead to a downsize in possessions and home but NOT the quality of life.

If we look at my cost of living over time versus my income the downward trend YOY continues.  I attribute that to my salary increase this year as well as continuing to life a frugal life.  My goal is to get that down to 50% one day.  I highly recommend to any of you who are just starting out in life to set that goal as well.  It will teach to live well within your means and allow you to invest early and often.

Summary

Well we did it.  Another month of savings.  Not as kick butt as last months but still double digits.  In the end it was a cool 28% saved.  Lower than last years's 36% mostly due to going over budget in my wants category and a decrease in taxable dividend income.  Still this makes 4/5 months of being in the green. 

With that said I was able to funnel the full amount into my emergency fund and vacation and holiday funds.  I didn't purchase any new stocks this month as I continue to build up my emergency fund.  At this time those 3 savings goals consume all free cash after my expenses.

Next month will be different though as I shift my money around.  This will cause me to have to pick some new companies to invest in which is always fun.  I look forward to sharing what I have done and what I will buy soon.

Until next time,

Dividend Family Guy.