Update on my New Year's Resolution: End of June

Back in January, I shared my financial resolution for this year, which is to save a crazy amount of money to create a large cash cushion. I promised a monthly update, but I've been remiss and I totally skipped last month's. This month is almost over, but I do have an update for the end of June so I figured I'd better get it posted. In the last two months, we've saved 12.5%, which puts us at 42% of our total goal this year. That's a little short of the 50% of the year that's passed, but I'm still quite pleased, because we've consistently saved more than the minimum I've budgeted for each month.

The key to our success has been continuing to do the things I've written about before. Some things, like paying ourselves first, are on autopilot. Other things, like snowflaking extra income, are habits.

One thing that kind of amazes me is that our budget works. Even though I know it should, theoretically, I'm still a little surprised that it works in practice. We've been quite lucky, in that we've been able to avoid large unexpected expenses. For instance, when my small, frequently used oven died, I decided to make do with my toaster oven and large bottom oven instead of buying a new one. (It's still working out for me - I use the big oven once or twice a week, and my toaster oven three or four times a week.)

I'm pretty sure we won't reach our goal by the end of the year, but I know that we'll get closer by aiming high than by setting our sights too low.