In July, I came up with a new goal: to hoard $4,500 in cash in my savings account by the end of 2011.  I’m not sure that I managed to save any more cash this month than in prior months, but my total cash inflow was approximately $609. You can see that reflected in my new goal-tracking widget located in the sidebar.

Extra Expenses in July:

I had to buy a wedding gift this month, and paid an extra $157 towards my student loan to get the balance to below $14,000! I tried to avoid eating out completely, but still had a few higher restaurant bills from paying for other people’s meals along with my own. (Some of that was in exchange for those friends paying my way another time though, so really, that would be money I would have spent anyway.)

Extra Cash Inflow:

I received a check for about $330 from my pet insurance company as reimbursement for the high vet bills I had the month before. I need to appeal this claim and see if I can get some additional refund, since they disallowed so many charges.

Upcoming Expenses in August:

The wedding that I bought a gift for in July will take place in August. I bought a dress yesterday, which will be included with August expenses. The wedding requires quite a road trip, and a weekend away, which will entail some extra gas money and eating out. I also need to get my car serviced before making the road trip. Also, I think that I will put an extra $100 towards my student loan payment for the rest of the year in an attempt to get the balance to $10,000 by the end of the year.

July, in Conclusion:

I’m pretty disappointed with my savings in July. I feel like this is how much cash I had been saving in a typical month before starting to cut costs. Especially since I had some extra cash inflow and no really big expenses other than the wedding present, and some I can look forward to even bigger expenses in August.

Then again, when I look back over the last couple months of vet bills, I have had a couple of negative months due to unusual expenses, so +600 is certainly way better than what I’ve been able to save recently!

My total food spending, on restaurants and groceries combined, was $415 ($365 groceries and $110 restaurants) in July, as compared to $453 in June ($322 groceries and $131 restaurants) and $595 in May ($436 in groceries and $159 in restaurants). I’m hoping to get this closer to $300 total in August, even with eating out on the weekend of the wedding.

I’m appalled anew at how much groceries cost, even when I think I’m cutting back. Plenty of the great personal finance bloggers I follow could feed a whole family for what I’ve been spending on groceries. August will be a month of renewed discipline in my grocery shopping!