Immediate 10% ROI
Our local grocery store chain (Cub Foods) is having a promotion until 4/15/09 where if you buy a $300 gift card they give you a $30 gift card for free. An immediate 10% return on investment! Since our grocery budget is usually in the $325 range anyway I purchased one of these for our April budget tonight when I went shopping.
$4 tax refund
We are done filing our taxes for 2008. And we couldn’t have done any better if we’d tried! I’m not a fan of big tax returns. I’d rather have my money throughout the year rather than given back to me as a lump sum, ya know? That’s why I changed my withholding mid last year. Man did that pay off! We ended up with a $4 net return! We owed $492 to one (state or federal, I can’t remember which one) and we had a refund of $496 from the other.
Last week Chuck submitted our taxes for the refund. The refund was deposited into our account on Monday. Tuesday Chuck submitted our taxes for the other and now $492 will go back out of our account. Perfect!
This makes me wonder if I should tweak my withholdings again so we don’t end up owing taxes next year. However, with all the uncertainty in the economy and these economic stimulus plans and potential tax implications, I think I’ll just stick with what we have.
Are you done with your taxes? How did they turn out?
Last week Chuck submitted our taxes for the refund. The refund was deposited into our account on Monday. Tuesday Chuck submitted our taxes for the other and now $492 will go back out of our account. Perfect!
This makes me wonder if I should tweak my withholdings again so we don’t end up owing taxes next year. However, with all the uncertainty in the economy and these economic stimulus plans and potential tax implications, I think I’ll just stick with what we have.
Are you done with your taxes? How did they turn out?
Finally ordered a Garmin!
We put our short term savings to good use on Sunday. We’ve been wanting a Garmin GPS/Heart rate monitor watch for a while. Now that it’s starting to get warmer here in Minnesota, we dipped in to our savings and purchased one. And we scored a great deal! $140 got us a refurbished unit with free shipping and a one year warranty on Ebay. New is up around $190 right now. I can’t wait for it to arrive so I can take it out running and really get some stats!
YMCA
There’s a new YMCA opening by our house later this year. A couple weeks ago we went to their open house. They’re recruiting new members, of course. Chuck and I are considering joining. We’d finally have a gym membership with childcare on-site. Plus, it will have two pools and a two story play structure for the kids. The monthly family membership dues will be $105 and there is a $150 charter member fee but that will pay your first month’s membership dues. I have to check with our health insurance. Some health insurance policies will reimburse you $20 if you use the gym 8 or 12 times per month. If Chuck and I both went that often then we could get $40 off the monthly dues. A family membership for $65/month is a pretty good rate for the Twin Cities area. We won’t be paying the charter member fee until some time this summer, after the HELOC is paid off, and the monthly dues won’t be due until starting 10/15/09. I’m kind of excited! More investigation to be done (health insurance, fitness classes extra?, etc.)
As part of the open house they were giving away a free week of camp this summer. And we won! Anya is too young for sleepaway camp and the day camps are expensive ($175/week for members) so we hadn’t planned on signing her up. A week for free though we’ll take! Anya will be a wee backpacker some time this summer. Lucky her!
As part of the open house they were giving away a free week of camp this summer. And we won! Anya is too young for sleepaway camp and the day camps are expensive ($175/week for members) so we hadn’t planned on signing her up. A week for free though we’ll take! Anya will be a wee backpacker some time this summer. Lucky her!
Monthly Emergency Fund
We’re to the point now where our monthly budget allows us a roughly $1000 debt payment, usually more and not counting snowflakes. At the beginning of our debt marathon, we paid roughly $800 a month to debt. Thanks to increased income and a fairly steady budget, we’ve been able to increase that payment. (Yay us!)
Our minimum monthly payment to our last remaining debt, our HELOC, is now $100. This means we have around $900 each month “extra.” I like to think of this as our mini emergency fund. If something were to happen in any given month, we could pull $900 out of our budget (if we haven’t sent that to debt yet) without having to touch our savings. It’s like our emergency fund is closer to $3000!
Our minimum monthly payment to our last remaining debt, our HELOC, is now $100. This means we have around $900 each month “extra.” I like to think of this as our mini emergency fund. If something were to happen in any given month, we could pull $900 out of our budget (if we haven’t sent that to debt yet) without having to touch our savings. It’s like our emergency fund is closer to $3000!
Good News
I received good news on Friday. I had my annual performance review at work and received a raise. I was unsure how much of a raise we would be getting this year. My work place has already announced that all managers and above would not be getting a raise this year. And they announced that those eligible for raises would be getting smaller raises than in the past due to a smaller pot of money being available for them. So I was pleasantly surprised to receive a 2.8% raise. My boss informed me the average was 2% this year so I was very happy to once again receive an above average raise. The raise is effective March 31st so I should start seeing the larger paychecks in April. Yay for good news during this recession!
This raise combined with my promotion and raise last fall has really brought up my paychecks in the last year. I feel so fortunate to not only have a job but a job that is seemingly stable. We’ll use the extra money for the financial benefit of our family – debt elimination and then savings. I’m feeling very lucky right now and am hoping shoes don’t start dropping!
This raise combined with my promotion and raise last fall has really brought up my paychecks in the last year. I feel so fortunate to not only have a job but a job that is seemingly stable. We’ll use the extra money for the financial benefit of our family – debt elimination and then savings. I’m feeling very lucky right now and am hoping shoes don’t start dropping!
Why our Budget is helping us to not fall back into Bad Habits
Since we've paid off our credit cards last year, we've barely used them. We've used them for some online shopping here and there or for some more expensive purchases in order to get the cash back rewards. Most of our every day shopping though (groceries, gas, etc.) is done with our check cards. We may not earn rewards on those purchases, but it's very easy for me to update my budget by simply looking at one bank account.
Lately though, we've been using the cards more often and instead of paying the balance off right away (like within days) I've been waiting for the month to close and paying it off in full the next month before any interest charges accrue. While this is responsible credit card usage, it also can mean the start of some bad habits. For instance, our credit card bill this month is $375! That's from a combination of things (2 year pictures for Jamison, a nice dinner out for Valentine's, FICO scores for Chuck and I, registration for a Daddy/Daughter dance and our regular Netflix subscription) but I don't think that matters. I need to be better disciplined about charging and then paying immediately (thus taking the money out of the current budget) or just stall the credit card usage entirely.
This month we've already put $110 on a credit card. It was dog kennel charges for our recent family vacation. I've budgeted for this expense this month so as soon as the charge hits our card, I'll go in and pay it. To me, this is the most responsible use of credit cards - take advantage of the rewards and pay it off ASAP.
By keeping track of our money so carefully with our budget spreadsheet, I can see these trends (credit card usage going up). I'm so grateful for our budget. I can nip this bad habit before it becomes a full blown problem again and we get to the point where we can't pay our bill in full. I want to make sure that never happens again. If I keep budgeting, I'm pretty sure it won't.
Lately though, we've been using the cards more often and instead of paying the balance off right away (like within days) I've been waiting for the month to close and paying it off in full the next month before any interest charges accrue. While this is responsible credit card usage, it also can mean the start of some bad habits. For instance, our credit card bill this month is $375! That's from a combination of things (2 year pictures for Jamison, a nice dinner out for Valentine's, FICO scores for Chuck and I, registration for a Daddy/Daughter dance and our regular Netflix subscription) but I don't think that matters. I need to be better disciplined about charging and then paying immediately (thus taking the money out of the current budget) or just stall the credit card usage entirely.
This month we've already put $110 on a credit card. It was dog kennel charges for our recent family vacation. I've budgeted for this expense this month so as soon as the charge hits our card, I'll go in and pay it. To me, this is the most responsible use of credit cards - take advantage of the rewards and pay it off ASAP.
By keeping track of our money so carefully with our budget spreadsheet, I can see these trends (credit card usage going up). I'm so grateful for our budget. I can nip this bad habit before it becomes a full blown problem again and we get to the point where we can't pay our bill in full. I want to make sure that never happens again. If I keep budgeting, I'm pretty sure it won't.
February 2009 Month End
I think this is the latest I've ever done a month end review. We have been out of town for a couple days. The in-laws have a timeshare so we had an inexpensive 4 day vacation. It only cost us two tanks of gas and two inexpensive meals out and a family vacation for four was had! Thank you in-laws!
And now to get down to business. February was a good month debt and savings wise. Debt went down and savings went up. See? A good month! We did pretty well on our spending too. We came in very close to our budget. Always a good thing! Here are our details for this month:
Debts:
HELOC: $3,990.94 (-$1,677.02) - A nice healthy budget line item plus $400 in budget "extra" plus $160.29 in snowflakes make for a nice reduction this month in our HELOC balance. We're under $4K now! If we continue to have decent months, we should have the HELOC paid off in May. That would be awesome! I already have $1153.15 earmarked for the HELOC for March. Any more snowflakes that come in will go directly to this, of course. We're getting so close!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $2,023.98 (+5.17) - We earned a bit less interest this month than last month. The high interest online savings account is a bit of an oxymoron right now. It's still my favorite spot though to stash away my emergency cash. Come June or July and this will start to grow! (knock on wood!)
Short Term Savings: $242.73 (-3.67) - We deposited our monthly $50 contribution and then took $53.70 right back out! That money went to our family outing with the Christmas money left over from my dad. We took he and his fiance and our family to our local Children's Museum. The $53.70 covered the cost of our admissions. It was a fun afternoon and of course he had to take us out to dinner that night as well. A whole day of entertainment together - a great way to spend the remainder of our gift money, if you ask me!
Travel Fund: $420.26 (+20.64) - Our newly re-labeled travel fund had a small increase this month. I can't wait to have enough in here to actually do some traveling!
Christmas Savings: $330.63 (+0.52) - Sitting tight here with the Christmas cash. I'll put another $500 or so in this account before December. For now though all extra money is going to the HELOC so this sits dormant for now.
Our NCN chart went from 79.61% to 85.64% this month. Another great month! We smashed that 80% mark and then some! Less than 15% of our original debt is left. We've paid almost $24K in a year in a half. Our monthly minimum debt payment is $100. We have made huge improvements to our financial life. I'm so glad we started this debt marathon when we did. If you're wondering how to start or if it seems overwhelming all I can say is this - do it. Start. Go. You will not be sorry. If you need to, start small. Send a bit of an overpayment to the credit cards. Sock away a bit into an emergency fund. Just do it. Set up a budget, track your money and watch it work for you.
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And now to get down to business. February was a good month debt and savings wise. Debt went down and savings went up. See? A good month! We did pretty well on our spending too. We came in very close to our budget. Always a good thing! Here are our details for this month:
Debts:
HELOC: $3,990.94 (-$1,677.02) - A nice healthy budget line item plus $400 in budget "extra" plus $160.29 in snowflakes make for a nice reduction this month in our HELOC balance. We're under $4K now! If we continue to have decent months, we should have the HELOC paid off in May. That would be awesome! I already have $1153.15 earmarked for the HELOC for March. Any more snowflakes that come in will go directly to this, of course. We're getting so close!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $2,023.98 (+5.17) - We earned a bit less interest this month than last month. The high interest online savings account is a bit of an oxymoron right now. It's still my favorite spot though to stash away my emergency cash. Come June or July and this will start to grow! (knock on wood!)
Short Term Savings: $242.73 (-3.67) - We deposited our monthly $50 contribution and then took $53.70 right back out! That money went to our family outing with the Christmas money left over from my dad. We took he and his fiance and our family to our local Children's Museum. The $53.70 covered the cost of our admissions. It was a fun afternoon and of course he had to take us out to dinner that night as well. A whole day of entertainment together - a great way to spend the remainder of our gift money, if you ask me!
Travel Fund: $420.26 (+20.64) - Our newly re-labeled travel fund had a small increase this month. I can't wait to have enough in here to actually do some traveling!
Christmas Savings: $330.63 (+0.52) - Sitting tight here with the Christmas cash. I'll put another $500 or so in this account before December. For now though all extra money is going to the HELOC so this sits dormant for now.
Our NCN chart went from 79.61% to 85.64% this month. Another great month! We smashed that 80% mark and then some! Less than 15% of our original debt is left. We've paid almost $24K in a year in a half. Our monthly minimum debt payment is $100. We have made huge improvements to our financial life. I'm so glad we started this debt marathon when we did. If you're wondering how to start or if it seems overwhelming all I can say is this - do it. Start. Go. You will not be sorry. If you need to, start small. Send a bit of an overpayment to the credit cards. Sock away a bit into an emergency fund. Just do it. Set up a budget, track your money and watch it work for you.
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