Time to say good bye to another month of 2009!
As I said through out the month, June was going to be expensive. We did go over budget. However, my Dad hasn't cashed that $400+ check yet for the truck repairs so technically we were under budget. I've already moved the "surplus" over to our emergency fund. That "surplus" is less than the check which is why we're still over budget. I've also adjusted the July budget so that $400+ check has a line item there. I'll be keeping a very close eye on the budget in July so we don't go over again. However this, too, is going to be an expensive month with my sister's wedding, our annual BBQ and that truck repair check hitting the books. Good thing July is also a three paycheck month for me so our budget still looks fat and happy. Even with all the expenses I still project us putting almost $2k into the emergency fund plus some more money in the travel fund, the Christmas savings, the basement savings and the car fund. Yay! But, on to the month of June:
Debts:
None! Other than our mortgage which I won't be detailing here other than to say we're paying ahead a couple hundred dollars each month and hope to re-finance out of our ARM sooner rather than later!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $2,714.94 (+170.42) - We didn't make much progress with the emergency fund last month. I hope to dramatically increase the contribution this month. So far I've already transferred $500 over. Yay!
Short Term Savings: $258.72 (+50.01) - Standard $50 contribution this month. We intend to use this money for initiation dues at the YMCA. My workplace is still checking with corporate to see if we get any health insurance reimbursement for certain chains of gyms. I think the YMCA and Gold's Gym may be options but haven't heard back yet for sure.
Travel Fund: $703.09 (+20.85) - Regular contribution again. This will be gone by the end of this month! I'm looking forward to our vacation. I think I'll be bumping up our monthly contribution to this fund next month. $20 takes too long to accumulate. And I want to travel more!
Christmas Savings: $332.32 (+0.41) - No money for Christmas in June! However, I do have some money budgeted for this account in July. Finally some action!
Basement Finishing Fund: $0.00 (0.00) - No money in this account yet. I plan to create and seed this account in July though!
New Car Fund: $0.00 (0.00) - Ditto to above. Gotta get this one rolling too.
And there you have it. Progres was made to our goals in June. Not as much progress as I would have liked but I'll leave my impatience out of it. Putting money in savings is good! I'll just keep remembering that.
New Vehicle on the Brain
OK, I admit it. I've got new car fever. I'd love to replace our truck. By the way, it went back into the mechanic yesterday. He couldn't find anything wrong with the air conditioning system. He even did a repeat dye test which he had done the first time too. He refilled the freon, didn't charge us anything and gave us instructions to run the air conditioner as much as possible to try and force a leak and then check under the hood for bright yellow dye anywhere. Great. Sounds fun!
OK, so back to the fever. Our truck is 10 years old with almost 160K miles on it. It's been a very good vehicle for us and besides the air conditioning, is in great working order. But, it's getting old and our car is 8 years old too. I'm worried that if we don't replace one of them soon then we're going to be dealing with large repair bills or worst case they both go belly up and we have to replace both of them and go from no car payment to two car payments! Now, none of this is a good reason to replace the truck. It's just rationalization for me!
I read J.D.'s Common Car-Dealer Tricks post with great interest last week, mentally bookmarking a bunch of handy tips for our next car-buying experience.
Then today I was at Five Cent Nickel reading his article about the Cash for Clunkers program. Hmm, would our 1999 Chevrolet Blazer qualify? First I checked the Blazer's official fuel economy score at fueleconomy.gov and found that it has a score of 16, two points below the 18mph cut off for the program. Then I read through the rules for the program. You get $3500 if the new car (must be new - no used car purchases allowed) you purchase has a mpg rating of 10 points or less above the car you are trading in. And you get $4500 if you purchase a new vehicle with a mpg rating 10 points or more above the trade-in vehicle.
Since we'd be trading in the Blazer and would want to replace it with a new SUV (one with 8 passenger capacity), I doubt we'd find one that we like that met the 10+point rule. That means we'd most likely get a $3500 credit.
Would that be worth it?
The traded in vehicles must be destroyed according to the programs requirements which means most dealers will only give you "scrap value" for your vehicle. What would that be for the Blazer? And what is the Blazer worth?
Going to Kelley Blue Book told me our vehicle was worth $3600 in a private party sale and worth about $2000 as a trade-in. So what does that mean for "scrap value?" I'm going to take a wild guess and go with 1/2 the trade-in value. So say the dealership gives us $1000 for the Blazer plus we get the $3500 credit. That only really gives us a $1000 boost over what we could potentially sell it for to a third party. Plus then we'd have a huge new car payment.
I think we'll pass at this time. We'll keep saving as much money as possible and cross our fingers that our vehicles hold out for us for a while longer.
And I'll keep daydreaming about that new car smell...
OK, so back to the fever. Our truck is 10 years old with almost 160K miles on it. It's been a very good vehicle for us and besides the air conditioning, is in great working order. But, it's getting old and our car is 8 years old too. I'm worried that if we don't replace one of them soon then we're going to be dealing with large repair bills or worst case they both go belly up and we have to replace both of them and go from no car payment to two car payments! Now, none of this is a good reason to replace the truck. It's just rationalization for me!
I read J.D.'s Common Car-Dealer Tricks post with great interest last week, mentally bookmarking a bunch of handy tips for our next car-buying experience.
Then today I was at Five Cent Nickel reading his article about the Cash for Clunkers program. Hmm, would our 1999 Chevrolet Blazer qualify? First I checked the Blazer's official fuel economy score at fueleconomy.gov and found that it has a score of 16, two points below the 18mph cut off for the program. Then I read through the rules for the program. You get $3500 if the new car (must be new - no used car purchases allowed) you purchase has a mpg rating of 10 points or less above the car you are trading in. And you get $4500 if you purchase a new vehicle with a mpg rating 10 points or more above the trade-in vehicle.
Since we'd be trading in the Blazer and would want to replace it with a new SUV (one with 8 passenger capacity), I doubt we'd find one that we like that met the 10+point rule. That means we'd most likely get a $3500 credit.
Would that be worth it?
The traded in vehicles must be destroyed according to the programs requirements which means most dealers will only give you "scrap value" for your vehicle. What would that be for the Blazer? And what is the Blazer worth?
Going to Kelley Blue Book told me our vehicle was worth $3600 in a private party sale and worth about $2000 as a trade-in. So what does that mean for "scrap value?" I'm going to take a wild guess and go with 1/2 the trade-in value. So say the dealership gives us $1000 for the Blazer plus we get the $3500 credit. That only really gives us a $1000 boost over what we could potentially sell it for to a third party. Plus then we'd have a huge new car payment.
I think we'll pass at this time. We'll keep saving as much money as possible and cross our fingers that our vehicles hold out for us for a while longer.
And I'll keep daydreaming about that new car smell...
No Gym Membership Reimbursement for Us
I talked to my HR department today and found out that none of the three health plans offered by my company for my location have any sort of gym membership reimbursement program. Man!
Chuck and I were hoping to join the YMCA that is being built near our house when it opens later this year. We were hoping to offset the cost of a family membership with some gym membership reimbursement through our health insurance.
Now that there is no reimbursement available we'll have to re-evaluate the YMCA membership. We both want a gym membership, especially now that we're debt free but mortgage and have a little more give in our budget. And we'd like a gym with on site child care so Chuck can go during the day when he's home with the kids.
I guess we'll have to find all our options for our area and see how they compare: price per month/amenities like a pool/child care/etc. Let the research begin...
Chuck and I were hoping to join the YMCA that is being built near our house when it opens later this year. We were hoping to offset the cost of a family membership with some gym membership reimbursement through our health insurance.
Now that there is no reimbursement available we'll have to re-evaluate the YMCA membership. We both want a gym membership, especially now that we're debt free but mortgage and have a little more give in our budget. And we'd like a gym with on site child care so Chuck can go during the day when he's home with the kids.
I guess we'll have to find all our options for our area and see how they compare: price per month/amenities like a pool/child care/etc. Let the research begin...
Back to the Mechanic
Hey! Guess what doesn't work?!? The air conditioning in our truck! It was working when we got the truck back from the mechanic last week (or was it the week before?) but now it's not working again. I'm guessing we have a leak somewhere and all the new freon he put in is now completely gone. Of course this is the week that it's 90+ degrees every day.
We have another appointment for next Monday to have it looked at again. I sure hope this isn't expensive! I also hope it's fixed and back to us by next Thursday when we leave for the Dells. I really don't want to drive the 4+ hours one-way in a vehicle with no air conditioning.
And that is my whine for the day. Thanks for listening.
We have another appointment for next Monday to have it looked at again. I sure hope this isn't expensive! I also hope it's fixed and back to us by next Thursday when we leave for the Dells. I really don't want to drive the 4+ hours one-way in a vehicle with no air conditioning.
And that is my whine for the day. Thanks for listening.
Ally Bank?
J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly published an article Tuesday about online banks. There are a lot of options! Currently we have all our savings, except for Short Term Savings, at ING Direct. I’ve been very happy with ING but their interest rate as of late has suffered in comparison to some of the other online banks. I’ve never been one to rate chase. I’m much too lazy for that. I prefer to just stick my money in savings and then ignore it and let it grow. However, I’m considering starting an account at Ally Bank. Their interest rate is over 2% right now with no minimums and they are FDIC insured.
In reading through the comments on J.D.’s post, it sounds like Ally Bank may not have the best customer service or that their account opening requirements may be hard to work through but that people haven’t had many problems with their accounts once open. And one commenter even noted that he has his ING account and Ally account linked so he can move money back and forth. Hmm, maybe that would be a nice option, especially if I could link both to my main checking account? Make moving the money not labor intensive? Easy for us lazy savers?
Anybody have any other experience with Ally? Are you considering moving your savings around?
In reading through the comments on J.D.’s post, it sounds like Ally Bank may not have the best customer service or that their account opening requirements may be hard to work through but that people haven’t had many problems with their accounts once open. And one commenter even noted that he has his ING account and Ally account linked so he can move money back and forth. Hmm, maybe that would be a nice option, especially if I could link both to my main checking account? Make moving the money not labor intensive? Easy for us lazy savers?
Anybody have any other experience with Ally? Are you considering moving your savings around?
Out of Control
Chuck and I are out of control. We went over budget in May. By a lot. And we’re headed that way in June too. I sat Tuesday night and updated our budget for the month of June. And then I put us on a spending freeze, or at least a spending slowdown, for the rest of the month. We need to be frugal. We need to avoid spending money at all costs. We’re never going to meet our savings goals if we spend every cent we earn!
Now, we’re not spending so much that we’re racking up debt again but we’re definitely spending more than we had been in previous months. I haven’t pinpointed it to anything in particular. It’s not that we’re eating out too much or that we’re spending more on groceries or gas. It’s just our overall discretionary spending is all over the place. It’s time to put some discipline back in our spending.
How do we do that? I’ll be updating the budget much more frequently. That will give us a better look at how we’re spending money and we can reign things in a lot quicker before the budget is blown for the month. I’m talking 3-4 times a week. It will be a simple and quick task. I just have to sit down and do it. Back when I was first starting this blog and first starting our budget I updated it every day with any new spending. I’ve gotten out of that habit and into a habit of once a week or once every two weeks. We can spend a lot of money over that time period and not realize how it’s all adding up! Time to be proactive with the budget again! This will probably also make me pause and think about what I’m purchasing as well because I’ll have a more up-to-date picture of how we’re doing budget-wise as well.
Mid Year Goal Review
OK, June is half gone and so the year is half gone too. What? How did that happen?!? I figured it was about time for a mid year goal review. My 2009 goals I set last December were these:
Goal #2 - $8K, huh? Well, at the end of June the fund will still be around $2.5K, if not a bit more (whatever I can scrape into it this month!). That means I need to add a little over $5K to this fund before the end of the year. I still think this is achievable. Both Chuck and I have three paycheck months coming up before the end of the year which will definitely help. So we should be able to put an average of $1000/month into the emergency fund and still meet this goal. It will be my own personal little challenge to have more than $8K into the fund before year end.
Goal #3 - $6K! On track. Definitely on track. I just received our June statement and so far we've paid over $3200 in principal this year. We're averaging over $550 in principal a month and plan on keeping this pre-payment schedule up through at least the end of this year. That should give us more than a $6K principal reduction before the end of the year. Yay! We need that if we have any hope of re-financing any time soon.
I'm considering adding some more goals relating to the basement fund and new car fund. But then I want to focus on the emergency fund so I'm unsure. Basically I'm waffling. But hey, at least I'm on track to meet these goals!
- Pay off HELOC by June 30, 2009
- Grow emergency fund to $8K by December 31, 2009
- Lower mortgage principal balance by $6K before year end.
Goal #2 - $8K, huh? Well, at the end of June the fund will still be around $2.5K, if not a bit more (whatever I can scrape into it this month!). That means I need to add a little over $5K to this fund before the end of the year. I still think this is achievable. Both Chuck and I have three paycheck months coming up before the end of the year which will definitely help. So we should be able to put an average of $1000/month into the emergency fund and still meet this goal. It will be my own personal little challenge to have more than $8K into the fund before year end.
Goal #3 - $6K! On track. Definitely on track. I just received our June statement and so far we've paid over $3200 in principal this year. We're averaging over $550 in principal a month and plan on keeping this pre-payment schedule up through at least the end of this year. That should give us more than a $6K principal reduction before the end of the year. Yay! We need that if we have any hope of re-financing any time soon.
I'm considering adding some more goals relating to the basement fund and new car fund. But then I want to focus on the emergency fund so I'm unsure. Basically I'm waffling. But hey, at least I'm on track to meet these goals!
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