So, DH is finally settled in Japan and we just realized that we will be making an extra $1300/month in non taxable income! Woohoo! Since he is over there unaccompanied, he gets all kinds of allowances (cost of living allowance, family separation pay) and our lovely home state of CA does not tax military income earned outside of the state, so that's an extra $300/month in taxes no longer being withheld. That's like me getting a part time job at minimum wage! LOL! We were moaning and groaning about all the expenses he has had with moving over there (had to buy a car, car insurance for the year...you pay upfront for the whole year over there..., random things for his apartment, etc) but this really takes the sting out of those.
This will really help us with our savings goals. Our spending for the month is already DRASTICALLY down. I have 2 cars here and filled them both up with gas 2.5 weeks ago and they are both still about 7/8 full. I suspect I will only need to fill up on gas every other month, if that. Groceries are so much less since I'm not really cooking full meals, just buying fruits, veggies, milk/yogurt and meats for the most part. I bought a $5 Costco rotisserie chicken and it lasted me all week! I am trying to eat out of the pantry and freezer because I have a lot of food in there. I also am limiting my non grocery spending to $100/week. This includes random
Amazon purchases and eating out with my kids. Last week, kids were sick, so we stayed home all week and spent nothing but grocery money. So far, we are at like 1/3 of our normal spending, which is great, and this includes DH spending about $1000 on "one time" expenses that won't recur going forward. I, personally, have spent less than $500 since he left on the 10th.
All in all, we are on track to put away $4000 next month into savings (3/4 into long term savings, 1/4 into vacation savings). We are planning a Hawaii trip for Spring Break and I will be going to Tokyo sometime later in the spring, likely May.
I do have to buy him a plane ticket to come home for Christmas (yay!), but we have $375 worth of Chase UR points towards travel, and will use that to help, since one RT ticket will be around $1000. I think I will wait until our next statement posts so we will have a bit more points to put towards that.
Overall, I'm feeling very optimistic about the coming year. I put DH on a budget of $1000/month which he has agreed to stick to. Surprisingly, we are finding that things over there are quite a bit cheaper than where we live. It's ironic that the government pays out a COLA over there when things actually cost more over here.