I am going to be honest, July was a brutal month when I look at my spending and my resulting savings rate. Twice per month I automatically transfer $250 to our savings account. This helps to make sure that no matter what I am putting some money away. At the end of the month I will transfer any additional money over into savings. Well when the end of July rolled around I had no money left to transfer. My heart sank a little as I looked at my dismal savings rate of only 26%. Last year I saved an average of 42% of my take home pay and yet here I was saving only 26% of a much higher amount. WTH? Has lifestyle inflation really gotten the better of me?
When I got my promotion last fall initially thought I would be save almost 100% of of my raise which would amount to a nice little sum of money by the years end. Yet it appears that lifestyle inflation has hit me a little as I am not saving as much as I should/could be.