I've seen some talk on the internet about a 2020 Savings Challenge. The idea is to save up $2,020 next year, by setting aside $38.85 per payday, assuming you are paid weekly. I'm primarily sharing, in case you were wanting to find a way to challenge yourself to save more money in 2020.

I'm pondering some sort of challenge to save more. I'm not sure yet what that would be. In this scenario, my husband is paid twice per month, so that would be $84.17 per pay period.I 'think' we could technically do this, but I need to run numbers.

We have added a new expense this year...health insurance premium for our oldest daughter. She can stay on current plan, but because as of next week she will not be full time at school, AND in March she turns 23 which ages her out of the option to stay on the plan without a premium. Fingers crossed she gets a job with health insurance, so we can cut that expense. We are happy to provide it, just not excited about paying it...who ever really is right?

The exciting thing about 2020 for us is that we expect my husband to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, which is a very nice raise of nearly 18%! We do not expect that to happen until May or June.

Generally, we save what we save. But it can be easy to become complacent and not save as much as possible. Are saving challenges helpful to you? Are you planning to do one in 2020?

USAA returns portions of our insurance premium every year, as member owners. Last year was around $80 if memory serves me correct. This year, and likely be how much more insurance we pay them our return is $193.20.

I just went to the email from USAA, and it says "this year the amount includes a portion of the proceeds from the sale of our Asset Management Company to Victory Capital". So not just because our premiums are higher due to our riskier location.

We will take it and save it towards the Big Goal, of course!

I also redeemed $13 in rewards from US Bank this morning, too.

We are paying ourselves back for money we put down on our daughter's car in May. I am putting all sources of extra funds towards that goal. Here's what I found in November:

US Bank $13.00
Chase Rewards $1.80
Amex Rewards $55.26
Electric Rebates $82.99
Extra travel funds $105.34
USAA Reward $1.62
Total $260.01

Prior Payback Balance: $1,559.76
New Payback Balance: $1,299.75

At one time I thought we could get this paid back by the end of the year, but it seems we had expenses I hadn't accounted for. But I feel confident we can get this paid back by the end of next year...hopefully much sooner!

While we continue to pay ourselves back for the car down payment we continue to send money to our savings goal. As of last month we are 35.5% complete.

November Big Goal Additions
Paycheck 11/1 $175.00
Paycheck 11/15 $175.00
Total Interest $181.23
Total $531.23
New YTD Big Goal Total $8,563.45
New Big Goal Total $71,548.90

November's tally brings us 35.77% of goal. Still heading in the right direction!

If December is similar, then we will top $9K towards our goal this year. Not too shabby!

Here's the interest we earned on our cash savings last month:

FNBO $60.16
NFCU $121.04
USAA $0.03
Total $181.23

This money is saved towards our Big Goal. I noticed it was down by $7 from last month, despite the same balances. More noticeable I guess when there is one less day in the month!

Are you tracking your interest? Do you save it or spend it?

While we continue to pay ourselves back for the car down payment we continue to send money to our savings goal. As of last month we are 35.2% complete.

October Big Goal Additions
Paycheck 10/1 $175.00
Paycheck 10/15 $175.00
Total Interest $188.52
Total $538.52
New YTD Big Goal Total $8,032.22
New Big Goal Total $71,017.67

October brings us to 35.5% of goal. Still heading in the right direction!

Well, it seems the site may be up, but posts only updated through mid April 2019. I haven't looked around much to see what is missing.

I had about given up! Some of us have been connecting by email and Facebook to figure out a new plan. More work to do to figure out where our rendezvous point is if the site goes down permanently.

I had made a financial blog on Blogger quite a while back, called Our Money Blog. I put some posts up that may have even been duplicates from here. But over time I stopped. Today, I posted a revival post.

I'm just going to send you

there for an update on our interest, big goal and down payment repayment goals...check out how I was able to recreate the starting points without this blog available to help!

My husband has been out of town for work this week so I made a goal to eat primarily out of the fridge and not buy too many new groceries.

I've been eating green smoothies for breakfast consisting of 1c water, 2 c spinach, 1/2 mixed berries, and 1 TBS of chia seeds. Lunch and dinner have consisted of some sort of salad, a turkey sandwich, soup or some raw veggies. I'm not eating all of these in at one meal but two or three of them.

Today, I'm actually skipping breakfast to allow for a longer fast since I ate dinner last night.

In the past I've listed what I have in my fridge, freezer and pantry and then explained what I used up. This time I'll just explain what I have used and what I had to purchase.

I bought a small loaf of bread, four bananas, three small heads of broccoli, a red onion, green onion and spinach. These were bought on two different trips, so I think the cost had to be under $15, maybe even under $10.

I made broccoli salad which I was able to add two boxes of raisins from the cupboard and use up five slices of turkey bacon. This also used up the last in a jar of mayo. I ate this along with sandwich or soup for four meals.

I used up a slice of cheese on one sandwich, added three small slices of chicken to a salad, and ate some raw cabbage as a snack. Last night I put together a

Smoky Quinoa and Black Bean Salad which used up the quinoa in the pantry, the mini peppers in the fridge and some cooked kidney beans I had in the freezer. So tasty! I will eat that for lunch later.

There was a Vegan Lentil Stew in the freezer so I thawed that Tuesday night to have with my lunches and dinner. So that is used up!

I still have fresh produce to use up. I'm putting the last of the ginger root in my water for flavor. I also have some orange slices I could do the same with. I have two apples, two bananas a few celery sticks and carrots along with spinach. Oh, I did use up all the spring greens and half a tomato. I was putting these on my turkey sandwiches.

While I love the green smoothies I think the bananas are too much sugar. I will use them up, but I will not buy any more for awhile.

I basically have five meals left to make for myself. I feel like I still have plenty even though the pantry consists only of almonds, spices, nutritional yeast, pearled barley and lentils! I will keep my focus mainly on the fridge and fill in from the freezer if needed since there is a burrito and veggie burgers in there.

It feels good to not have to go shopping for almost a week and find that there is plenty in my house to keep me full and satisfied.

If you are eating it up this week or month, how is it going? Do you feel you have saved some money?

Yay! Three months in a row I have remembered to update you on our Big Savings Goal progress.

$350.00 ($175 from each paycheck, two per month)
_$38.90 American Express CC Rewards
_$38.47 Discover Cash Back
__$5.33 Chase Freedom Rewards
__$8.55 US Bank Cash Bank
_$58.31 FNBO Interest Earned
$122.01 NFCU Interest Earned
__$5.61 USAA Interest and ATM rebates
__$20.00 Cash
$1,968.00 US Treasury Refund

$2,615.18 March Big Goal Total
$4,191.22 2019 YTD

$63,178.18 Previous Big Goal Balance
$67,369.40 New Big Goal Balance

33.68% of $200,000 Goal

We are very pleased with this progress! An unexpected tax refund is appreciated and makes a big difference. There is still a chance I will pull the refund (or part of it) back out depending on some upcoming expenses. However, I decided to go ahead and try to make it work without. I did not add any fuel savings this month, because we had $1800 in travel expenses in the last two months to cover. I simply needed that money to help make that happen. And finally, I marked $20 cash in my notes, so I'm not exactly sure where that money came from, but apparently I decided to add it to the goal.

Grateful for higher interest rates! The amount we earn each month keeps growing.

FNBO $58.51
NFCU $122.01
Total $180.52

Our interest earned funds our Big Goal each month!

My husband will be traveling next week. So I have a plan, just as I did earlier this year to eat up what we have in the fridge, freezer and cupboard. I have yet to decide exactly what my meals will be as we have several days until he leaves.

To be honest we don't have a lot in fridge or pantry. We really don't stock up ever. But as you know, if you buy a bag of rice you often don't eat it in one meal. So then you have a partial bag of rice.

My first goal will be to focus on using any perishables from the refrigerator. My second goal will be to use some things from the freezer. I know there is a lentil soup in there. I also have the equivalent of a can of kidney beans and some peas. The final goal would be to incorporate any items from the pantry. I have two small boxes of raisins, so I'd really like to make broccoli salad, but that would definitely require buying broccoli.

I'll report in next week and let you know how it's going. I figure I'll save some money buy limiting my grocery purchases for a week. Do you have food you could use up and sustain you for a few days before you go to the store again?

We have renter's insurance and have ever since we started renting. It is very expensive in our new location. I'm not sure now if we changed our coverages significantly. Our policy covers $50,000 replacement coverage. I think this is plenty as we are very pared down with our things compared to most people. I'm starting to question if it would be worth my time to actually inventory all of our belongings. The policy we have now also includes $100,000 personal liability coverage, with $5000 in medical payments. I'm wondering if our old policy even included this. I guess I need to go looking to see! Not sure if personal liability is worth having, as it appears to be nearly doubling our premium, which is $1,051 per year with a $1000 deductible. I did notice it includes flood insurance (which now that I have seen how easily that can happens is a very good thing).

Have you ever done a home inventory and included the replacement costs to figure your coverage needs? Any tips? If you didn't do an inventory, how did you decide on the amount to cover?

I know it seems like I should be savvy on this, but honestly, insurance has always been the last financial thing I tend to consider. We have always had auto and home/renter's. We have life and medical, but I'm no expert.

I'm currently reaching out to an agent to see if they can do better than our auto and renters policies with USAA. We have heard over the years that many insurance companies cannot compete with USAA. Although I do have one friend who did switch from USAA and found a much cheaper premium elsewhere on auto and home. So there is some hope.

Tax refund is pending in our second checking account right now. Somewhere I saw that it would arrive March 12. It's arrival is about a week sooner than I expected.

I really, really want to add this to the Big Goal. And I probably can, but then just back it out later if needed.

Another part of me thinks I should put it towards college tuition expenses since the refund can be directly attributed to taking the American Opportunity Tax credit.

I also know that I could send it various places too.

I think I'm conflicted about where to allocate it because of some bigger outflows happening right now. Spent over $800 on plane tickets for our daughters to come home for spring break. We need to pay the VA for the overpayment they sent the University (and University sent to us). I think there is something else too.

Once I work through my emotions and review our budget in YNAB a bit more, I think I can eventually make a decision. It's been several years since we had a refund and I wasn't expecting one...so I wasn't making plans on what to do with it!

I'll be back to let you know once I decide for sure!

In January, I wrote that I would try to update our Big Goal progress each month. I nearly forgot until I went looking for our interest earned in January because I needed it for my previous post. We'll see if I can remember all year long!

$350.00 ($175 from each paycheck, two per month)
_$66.71 American Express CC Rewards
_$48.94 Discover Cash Back
_$51.06 FNBO Interest Earned
$113.87 NFCU Interest Earned
__$0.01 USAA Interest
__$5.00 Class Action Rebate
_$25.00 Swagbucks
__$6.00 Pinecone Surveys
$200.00 Fuel Savings*

_$866.59 February Big Goal Total
$1,576.04 2019 YTD

$62,311.59 Previous Big Goal Balance
$63,178.18 New Big Goal Balance

31.59% of $200,000 Goal

*I'm calling this fuel savings as we are not using nearly as much fuel in our vehicles while living on base. In our last place we could easily have spent $200 more per month.

February was the first full month that our 3.25% CD was in effect. The interest earned is reflected in the total.

FNBO $51.06
NFCU $113.87
Total $164.93

To compare, in January we earned $147.20. Higher interest rates do make a difference!

All interest earned is added to our Big Goal.

When you are a saver you cheer when your interest rate goes up! Some of our savings was earning 2.10% and is now going up to 2.25%. It seems like a small difference, but I have enjoyed seeing the rates rise a little at a time after years of very low interest.

I was also notified of a CD maturing in March. This money will go to savings initially, but I think we will end up adding it to another certificate currently earning 3.25% until June of 2020.

Have you noticed the market has bounced back quite a bit since the drop in December? The S&P 500 is up over 11% for the year so far.

What is the highest interest you are earning on your savings?

We finally received a bill from the government. Not many people say that! We were aware of and notified of VA overpayment of tuition benefits in early December because our daughter added then dropped a one hour class last semester. The school was overpaid, and they refunded us some money in October or November. So now the government is asking us for the cash to the tune of $487.

We are going to pay it at the beginning of March. I do have a little problem with the amount. My guess is it is right, but I am just not clear on how they figured the amount of the overpayment. It is not equal to what the school refunded us, which was around $400. I'll probably send an email to the school to see if they can explain. I think getting an answer from them would be faster!

I earned $3 for doing a Pinecone Survey. I found a penny on the ground when I went to the store. I've actually found quite a few coins on my walks here!

I've arranged for our cat to be boarded while we are on a three night trip in March. She will spend five nights at the kennel for a total of $75. They provide food and litter. I wish I didn't have to do board here, but our housing won't let us leave a pet overnight even if someone is watching her. She sleeps a lot anyway, so she will be fine!

It's about time to make flight reservations for our daughter's to come here for their spring breaks. More money out, but we will look forward to seeing them and doing some more exploring of our new town.

I've been watching Living on A Dime on YouTube. I've watched some of their videos before, but it had been awhile. Jill, the mother, has a series on the channel called Penny Pinching Mama, that explains her life when she was first diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and how she lived on $500 a month with two kids in late 1980s. She still only lives on $750 for social security. They are fantastic example of how people really can make it on low income. They don't deny that it's hard, but that it can be done! The are very conservative with what they use. Anyone else seen these ladies on YouTube?

I've mentioned before that we are living on a military installation for the first time ever. One of the pros this time around was how much we would save on fuel for our vehicles with his commute being 4 minutes rather than 40 minutes. I'm trying to convince him to ride his bike to work, but so far a no go! He would rather buy a motorcycle if he was going to do that. Ha, ha,

We expect to save at least $200 a month. I'm still testing it. I'm purposely not budgeting $200 each pay period to see if that money is really extra due to the fuel savings. So far things seem promising, but this time of year tends to be low in all costs for us, so it's not entirely clear. And yes, $200 per pay period is $400 a month, which would be the higher end of fuel costs.

I guess I find it a bit of a game by holding that money out of the budget, not categorizing it in YNAB. Not sure it make sense to anyone but me.

I received a $5 settlement from some class action lawsuit, Olive oil I think. I like getting those in the mail. Always a surprise when they come to fruition! I've funneled that to our Big Goal, since small amounts add up.

"Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell, believe in Santa Clause. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. If you don't, who will?" - Jon Bon Jovi

Yes, I'm a big fan of Bon Jovi...probably tells you when I grew up. Fault me, I'm living on a prayer!

I'm going to try to post about the amount we added to our Big Goal each month, with a year to date total as well. This will help me a year end know the final tally. I do a pretty good job in YNAB marking what we add, but this will help reinforce and be a backup to that information.

$108.00 1/1 paycheck
$175.00 1/15 paycheck
_$10.00 2 Hulu $5 credit offers Amex
__$1.89 Starbucks Amex offer
__$2.91 Cell phone bill Amex offer
_$50.90 Amex Rewards
_$81.13 NFCU Interest
_$66.07 FNBO Direct Interest
__$0.06 USAA Interest
$213.50 Extra contribution

$709.45 January Total Big Goal
$709.45 2019 YTD

$61,602.14 Previous Big Goal Balance
$62,311.59 New Big Goal Balance

31.15% of $200,000 Goal

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

In January we earned a nice amount of interest on our savings. We always save all interest, even when we were paying on debt. Although back then our interest earned was piddly!

$66.07 FNBO Direct
$81.13 Navy Federal CU
$147.20 Total interest earned

In December our total was $118.73. We have increased our monthly interest by $28.47 because we moved a large amount of cash from one bank earning 2.15% to a CD at the other bank earning 3.2%. At about $150/month, we are on schedule to save $1,800 in interest this year.

We did a great job with extra savings this month. We only spent $31 on fuel for our vehicles. I think we both need to fill up soon! We saved toward the Big Goal as planned, but also since we were under budget we have added $545.05 to our emergency fund.

I've decided for 2019, continue the Big Goal saving with $350 a month ($175 each paycheck), add in credit card rewards and other snowflake money and interest earned. Any extra we save is going to our emergency fund. I think there are some expense we will incur in 2019 that are hard to anticipate the amount, so any extra cash saved will be helpful. I'd rather money from those come from what we have stashed and marked as EF money, than from our BIg Goal money.

Here's to a great year of saving!

I thought of another of my money saving tips! And I'm sure one of you mentioned this or something similar, but from personal experience it is one of my top tips. DIY, do it yourself!

I have replaced a disposal, installed ceiling fans, painted walls and ceilings, replaced toilet parts, replaced water pump on dishwasher, learned how to replace the air filters on our Honda (tricky, secretive spot), repaired a dryer (had DH's help) and replaced a tablet screen. When we owned our home we also did our own fertilizing and lawn mowing.

With the invention of YouTube it really is possible to troubleshoot issues in order to repair something. And parts can be bought online and shipped to you if not found locally.

Now I'm not saying everyone should repair everything themselves every time. Some of us know what our limitations and abilities are. Professionals are important and helpful. However, it doesn't hurt to at least try or inquire what it would take to fix something before automatically calling/hiring a professional or buying something new. First consider if you could do it yourself for less than the cost of the alternatives.

We don't do our own oil changes, or vehicle repairs (usually) for example as we don't feel that we have the ability nor do we want to cause more damage. And that is a factor that should always be considered when deciding whether to pursue a DIY project.

Do you consider DIY one of your money saving tips? What project have you taken on that most would not?

The underlying assumption for saving anything at all is that you must live beneath your means; spend less than you have in after tax income.

Here are my (our) top money saving tips in no particular order:

1) Know how to do your own taxes. You don't actually have to do them yourself, but it's important to know how taxes are figured in order to know what deductions and credits you might qualify for that could lower your tax liability. The less you send the government, the more money that stays in your pocket to save. This also goes hand in hand with understanding how to figure your withholding for your paycheck so that don't send more to the government each month resulting in a large refund. That was your money all year long and you could have been saving it!

2) Understand how compound interest works. Know how it can earn you money on your savings and how it can cost you money on your debt. No one wants to pay more for things, yet keeping debt, particularly on a credit card is very costly. It's probably the number one reason we haven't ever paid interest on a credit card, because I know how it works and I don't want to pay more!

3) Evaluate all ongoing purchases. This can be anything from your mortgage payment (rent) to, a regular service such as a manicure or hair coloring to a magazine subscription. I actually think it's good to think about this before you commit to the purchase. Often we think it's only $X (say $30), but $30 every month is $360 of your income for the year. Is that valuable to continue to spend or more valuable to give up and save?

4) Eat at home. We eat out occasionally and more often when traveling, but our general plan for eating is to buy groceries, and make our meals to eat at home. Our daughter's took their lunch to school EVERY day the entire time they attended public school. My husband also takes his lunch to work everyday, although now he is just four minutes down the road, so he comes home for lunch!

5) Eliminate the consumable products and reuse. Our culture is full of things that we use once and throw away and then feel the need to buy again because we ran out. Many of these items have a reusable option that works just as well. A few examples are: cloth napkins, menstrual products and diapers, cleaning sprays and rags vs wipes, plates vs paper plates. Be on the lookout for reusable options, that yes are a small investment initially, but will save money in time.

6) Research the big expenses. The purchase of a home, the costs of the taxes and insurance involved, the purchase of a vehicle, construction work, and even appliances. This doesn't mean you will always get the best deal, but you are going to have more information in making a good decision if you research before you buy and give yourself as much time as possible to do so.

7) Watch the small expenses. No one gets rich only by using coupons at the store, however, they are part of the bigger picture of evaluating the cost of items and paying the lowest cost possible. So yes, use coupons, but only if you need that item, want that particular brand or would be buying that item anyway. But also, compare prices on the shelves or between stores. Pick up the nickel on the street. Change banks, if they are offering a lower rate on debt or a higher rate on savings. Lower your thermostat in the winter and increase it in the summer. Combine trips to save on fuel.

8) Have a goal and automate if possible. If you don't even know what your goal is for saving it's hard to reach where you want to go. Having a goal to strive for with saving and continually working towards it helps motivate you and set your mind towards how to reach the goal. It's even better if the goal can be automated, such as contributions to your retirement plan or sending money each pay period to your savings account.

9) Watch lifestyle expenses. Our culture is one of consumerism. Companies are marketing to us constantly to buy their product, often with the idea that we will feel better if we buy their product. So we have people who shop to buy the next decor item, the trendy new clothing styles, technology or beauty treatment. Almost all of it was completely unnecessary and only a want, not a need. Those new subscription boxes for make at home meals and pet treats are easily part of the lifestyle creep I'm thinking of that can cost us a lot of money over time. I'm not saying you can't have any of it, just that each one of those new types of items adds up and can keep you from saving as much as possible.

10) Look for the snowflakes! You know I had to mention this one. Keep an eye out for money coming in that isn't income. It could be a cash birthday gift, a rebate, or cash from something you sold. Those small amounts of money, if saved can add up! Keep your eyes peeled for that money or ways to make snowflake money appear and save it! (Snowflakes come from debt snowball method. The debt payment amount snowball's as you pay off more and more debt. Snowflakes originally were coined as a small amounts of found money to add to the debt snowball payment for a particular month)

There you have it my money saving tips. It's not to late to participate and list your tips. (Try to post by month end).

Did you know stamp prices are increasing? As of this Sunday, the price of a first class stamp will cost $0.55, which is a 10% increase. Some other package pricing has also increased. Sometime last week I went over to the local credit union and picked up stamps from their ATM. I purchased two sets of 18 stamps for $18.00. I don't send a lot of mail, and likely won't use all 36 before the year is out, but I would expect yearly increases to be common in the foreseeable future.

I earned a reward through Verizon for our cell phone bill. I picked an $8 Amazon movie credit. We plan to watch Robert Redford's latest (and I think last) movie The Old Man and the Gun, which is based on a true story. The cost of the movie is less than the credit, so we'll have some to put towards a future movie.

Hulu has increased their prices. You may have heard the opposite that the lowered prices to be competitive with Netflix. They did on their lower subscription plans, but on their live tv version they increased it. Instead of $39.99/mo, the new price will be $44.99. Every increase in prices makes me want to evaluate if we need to continue the service, or if we need to adjust. I will need to discuss with my husband. We primarily got it so we could watch our college football teams live. That season is over for now. I think our new location may have better options for over the air reception. I've seen a few people that seem to have those type of antennas in their window. We can always get the live subscription again for football season. I'll try to remember to update you on our decision.

My husband commented last night that he hasn't added fuel to his truck in quite awhile. We last purchased fuel on 12/28 for $35.17 and on 1/4 $25.22. I still have almost half a tank in my van. Not sure what he has, but his commute is 4 minutes from our home on base. We expect that unless we are traveling our fuel costs are going to be significantly less living in our new location. In December for example, our costs for fuel were $117.50. We did travel around the our new city with our girls when they were home, so it's very likely this is still slightly inflated. For reference in December 2017, we spent $295 on fuel, yes higher prices, but much more driving.

I finished the photo book for my Dad earlier this week. I used Snapfish and was able to get $30 off the book. With shipping I spent $23.61 for an 8x11 Hardcover book. It was really fun to put together. It's all pictures of him, many with his daughters (my sister and I with our husbands), my mother, and grandchildren. It is not all inclusive, as I only had a few from our childhood, but quite a few with my girls and some recent vacations. This was a gift I wanted to put together around Memorial Day when he and my mother visited for my youngest daughter's graduation. It was to be a combined birthday and father's day gift. At the time, I was able to compile some printed photos (maybe 15 or so) into a $1 plastic album, but promised I would make a book. With summer, moving our youngest to her college, our move and then the holidays I just wasn't able to keep my focus to get it done until now.

I had planned to do some sewing last week, but the photo project took most of my time. And once I had the book done, I wasn't in the mood for sewing. I have spent time this week going through paper piles. The move caused an accumulation that needed to be reviewed. When I went to go file some of those today, I found a folder with receipts and manuals. I quickly went through it and found about 25 items that could be tossed because we sold the items prior to our move! This paper progress has helped me to get a bit more organized to file taxes this year.

Oh, another positive financially was receiving notification from a company that an item I bought in December wasn't truly organic and not up to their standards. They shipped me a new bottle with organic certification, a $60 value! I hadn't yet decided if I would reorder when the time came, but this give me longer to try the product to make a decision.

Stay warm and frugal this weekend!

It's time for another collaboration fellow bloggers!

Let's list our money saving tips! YouTube currently has vloggers listing their top ten money saving tips. I won't hold you to ten, but let's see what we can come up with to share with our readers!

Please post before the end of January and title your post, My Top Money Saving Tips. Thanks for participating!

Thanks to BAWW commenting on my last post, I am now aware of a new CD at Navy Federal Credit Union paying 3.25% for 17 months. I knew there would be some good rates coming up soon!

I'm in the process of transferring money from a couple of different accounts so that we can fund this new CD. One bank will only allow $5,000 transfer per day. I need to move $13,000, so it will take THREE transfers. I'm sure a wire could have been done, but that requires a fee. I'm nearly positive this is a new thing for this bank. A little frustrating.

The most interest we are earning on some of our money is a CD that will come due in March. That CD is earning 2.25%, so this increase of 1% is significant.

So the contribution limits for Roth IRAs have increased for 2019. The limits have increased for other accounts too, but I'm only discussing Roth IRAs since that is where we put about half of our retirement contributions.

The limit in 2018 was $5,500 per person. The new limit is $6,000. That's a monthly increase of $41.66/mo per person. Or in our case $83.33/mo.

This is the year my husband will turn 50 (late 2019) so he is eligible for the catch up contribution limit which is $7,000 for the year. This additional $1000 would increase our contributions another $83.33/mo.

If we choose to max out that will increase our monthly contributions to $166.66/mo.

As noted in my previous blog post my husband did get a raise. The monthly net increase to his paycheck is $115.49. I originally planned to save this money towards our Big Goal.

Now I could count it as Big Goal money but put it in our Roth IRAs knowing we could redeem some money from them for our downpayment if needed. But it also seems better to keep it all separate.

We've been maximizing our Roth IRAs for quite awhile, but this is just a bigger bump I wasn't really tracking! I have more work to do to figure out the best plan of action. I need to see what the budget can actually absorb.

We should have lower expenses her on base, far less fuel for our vehicles and no utility expenses. But we also have more airline tickets to pay for with two daughters away at college.

Back to the budget...

Are you maximizing your retirement contributions in 2019.

I used the Paycheck City website yesterday to determine my husband's net paycheck. His base pay has increased by $204.43 per month. The housing allowance (BAH) has also increased by $117 per month. I would be really thrilled about this, but because we live on a military installation, the property management company gets the full increase for housing. This isn't a surprise, but a bit of an annoyance. We are committed here for 12 months, and we are open to looking into other options after that.

All the taxes went up accordingly ($29.90/mo), we added a family vision plan ($36.55/mo), and my husband's retirement plan contribution increased ($22.49/mo). This means of the $204.43 increase the remaining $115.49 is ours to keep when the paycheck is deposited. This will end up being split evenly each pay period, about $57.75 twice per month.

For the last two years I have literally saved my husband's pay increases for the Big Goal. In 2017, the amount was $131. I had that money sent directly from his paycheck to our Navy Federal CU account. In 2018, the amount was $216, which I manually set aside in our checking account toward the goal. Amazingly I remembered each pay period. I can't say I really liked how tedious that was.

So I see it as we have two choices. We can have the full amount transferred from his paycheck automatically OR have the full amount (divided by 2) transferred to one of our savings accounts twice per month. I may go with the latter because that would get the money into our account faster earning interest. I really failed to have any of last years raise earning interest, so that alone will be an approvement.

Next steps...I need to stop the current transfer from my husband's paycheck. As of January 15, I need to set up a transfer of half the amount ($231.50) to one of our savings accounts twice per month. This alone will guarantee $5,556 will be saved towards the Big Goal for 2019.

If you received a raise or had other changes to your paycheck for 2019, have you calculated what you expect your net amount to be? Do you use Paycheckcity or some other calculator? Share in the comments!

We have a Big Goal to save $200,000 to buy our next home, or at least a major portion of our next home in about five years time. This post is an accounting of what contributions we made in 2018 and where we are in our goal progress.

We saved all interest towards the Big Goal, $131/month direct deposited from my husband's paycheck, $216 each month that accounted for his 2018 raise, all snowflakes, gift money, military reimbursements for travel including a big one for our move.

I flag contributions in our accounts on YNAB, so I can go in and check mark them and have YNAB total them up for me.

Checking Account One $2,993.99
Checking Account Two $8,985.08
Navy Federal CU $2,154.52
First National Bank $632.16

Those numbers total $14,765.75!

2017 Big Goal Balance $46,836.39
2018 Big Goal Additions $14,765.75
New Big Goal Balance $61,602.14

That means we are now at 30.8% of our 200,000 goal!

In doing this I realized I need to move money from our checking accounts into higher interest earning accounts. I have too much money not earning interest. In fairness, a large amount of that money came fairly recently.

The progress is a bit slower than I would prefer. This year was fantastic, but $6,900 was a travel payment from our move. That makes a big difference! And we won't be moving every year. But we did do better than in 2017. We will keep moving forward. Anything saved will be helpful in the end.

I like to post our interest earned each month. I'm sure I forget some months, but I try. In December we earned $118.80 on our interest bearing accounts.

Now to total up ALL the interest.
$582.52 Navy Federal Credit Union
$632.16 First National Bank Omaha Direct
$1.04 USAA Checking
$1,215.72 TOTAL

Wow look at that! Over $100 per month on average. We saved every single penny of our interest. (We usually do.) It's currently going towards are Big Goal.

I'll update the Big Goal progress for 2018 very soon. Since I have money coming in from different sources and in different accounts it takes a little bit to compile it, but I will get it done because I want to know too!

Did you earn interest on your savings this year? How much did you end up with?

I have few final snowflakes to report for 2018. A full tally coming soon!

$100 Christmas gift from my parents
$24.81 Ibotta proceeds
$1.89 Starbucks (Amex reward offer)
$5.00 Hulu (Amex reward offer)
$2.91 Verizon (Amex reward offer)

It's been a good year for snowflakes (extra money)...all have been added to our Big Goal. More about that on the sidebar and an update soon.

Happy New Year, Saving Advice bloggers and readers!