I was going to tell you tonight about the profile I chose as my first Lending Club investment. Instead, Chuck called me and asked me to come home early from work because he wasn't feeling well. Six hours later and I'm sitting here in the waiting room at the hospital while he has his appendix removed.
I think this classifies as an emergency.
Yikes!
I'm doing OK. He's doing OK, especially with the good drugs they gave him.
And it's so nice to know that financially we'll be OK too. Sure we may not be able to put much if anything into the emergency fund next month if this hospital adventure bills come in a timely manner. But that's OK, that is what that money is for.
Right now all I'm worried about is Chuck. That he comes out of surgery OK. That his recovery is quick and with little pain. That he's back to normal before too long.
Frugal Family Weekend
We went to Iowa this weekend to visit family and celebrate our nephew’s baptism. And we had a very frugal weekend! All told we spent $20 on a gift, $20 on food and $33 on gas for the trip. Lodging was free (air mattresses at their house) and most meals were courtesy of Chuck’s parents or sister. We only purchased $20 of food on the road.
Usually when we go out of town the dog stays at Chuck’s parent’s house but since we were all celebrating together, they weren’t home either. That upped the cost of the weekend and was not a charge I had budgeted for, an oversight on my part. Tonight I’ll be updating our August budget and will get a better feel for where we are this month. I suspect this may have put us over in the discretionary category. Whoops! We’ll have to be more careful in September.
Usually when we go out of town the dog stays at Chuck’s parent’s house but since we were all celebrating together, they weren’t home either. That upped the cost of the weekend and was not a charge I had budgeted for, an oversight on my part. Tonight I’ll be updating our August budget and will get a better feel for where we are this month. I suspect this may have put us over in the discretionary category. Whoops! We’ll have to be more careful in September.
Debt - It's Back
Guess what? We cashed in our clunker on Saturday. Yep, I know I said back in June that we were going to pass on the Cash for Clunker program and wait until next spring to replace our vehicle. I did not want to go through another summer with non-working AC in our truck. Well, we decided to take the plunge and just do it. Here's why:
The total price with taxes, title and license we will be paying is $31,683.60 which comes out to $440.05 a month for the next six years. I know some of you are appalled by that total. It is an expensive vehicle. But we are happy with the purchase and are enjoying our new vehicle.
We plan on paying the minimum due at this time until our emergency fund is fully funded. Then I think we'll still save money for the basement so we can get that project done. Then, we'll start paying ahead on the truck so we can hopefully pay it off early. There is no penalty for paying the loan off early but it is at 0%. I'm thinking after the emergency fund and the basement maybe we'll just start saving as much money as we can so we can replace the 9 year old car without having to get another auto loan. We'll figure that out after the emergency fund and basement though.
So, we're officially back in debt.
- '09 vehicles are on sale because dealers are trying to make room for the '10 models so we got a good price on our vehicle.
- We received the $3500 credit.
- I had $815 in rewards on my GM credit card that we were able to take off the top of the vehicle price.
- We got 0% financing for 72 months.
The total price with taxes, title and license we will be paying is $31,683.60 which comes out to $440.05 a month for the next six years. I know some of you are appalled by that total. It is an expensive vehicle. But we are happy with the purchase and are enjoying our new vehicle.
We plan on paying the minimum due at this time until our emergency fund is fully funded. Then I think we'll still save money for the basement so we can get that project done. Then, we'll start paying ahead on the truck so we can hopefully pay it off early. There is no penalty for paying the loan off early but it is at 0%. I'm thinking after the emergency fund and the basement maybe we'll just start saving as much money as we can so we can replace the 9 year old car without having to get another auto loan. We'll figure that out after the emergency fund and basement though.
So, we're officially back in debt.
Another Weekend Getaway
Yep, we're going away again this weekend. Last weekend it was just me. This weekend it's the whole family. My nephew is being baptized down in Iowa Sunday morning so we're all heading out Saturday morning and will be arriving home Sunday evening. It's going to be a nice weekend surrounded by family. We wouldn't miss it.
It should also be fairly frugal. We need to bring a dessert and I think I'll just make something with ingredients already on hand. And we're staying with family so there won't be any lodging charges. There may be a quick meal or two on the road but the restaurant budget has more than enough money in it to cover that provided we don't eat out the rest of August. I think that's doable. And I increased the auto gas budget this month in anticipation of the trip so we should be covered there as well.
And there we go! Another quick weekend trip - within budget - and with cash. Gotta love that!
It should also be fairly frugal. We need to bring a dessert and I think I'll just make something with ingredients already on hand. And we're staying with family so there won't be any lodging charges. There may be a quick meal or two on the road but the restaurant budget has more than enough money in it to cover that provided we don't eat out the rest of August. I think that's doable. And I increased the auto gas budget this month in anticipation of the trip so we should be covered there as well.
And there we go! Another quick weekend trip - within budget - and with cash. Gotta love that!
Buyer's Remorse
I'm having buyer's remorse. I spent $118 at Target last night. $65 of that was on household products (toilet paper, toothpaste, CFL bulbs, sunscreen, etc.) and the rest was spent on clothing for my daughter. Granted she needs clothes for school this fall but that was not my purpose in choosing the clothes I did.
I bought her new clothes to wear in her five year pictures next week.
She's going to look so cute. And she can wear the clothes to some of the more formal events we will inevitably go to this fall since I bought her a nice cardigan and cute skirt. She doesn't have a lot of more formal-ish clothing, most of it is play clothes for school and at home. So I guess I shouldn't feel so badly about what I purchased. $15 of the clothing purchase was socks and undershirts after all. And I did have $10 in Target coupons and saved $3 in buying items on sale.
I think it's the enormity of the bill that has me down today. Three figures. I don't like spending that much at a time anymore. This will all fit into the August budget so I don't have to worry about going over budget. I still feel guilty though for some reason.
Maybe it's because I just read a blog post by someone who I've read for years and she announced today that they can't hold on any longer and are declaring bankruptcy. Maybe my guilt is from the fact that Chuck and I are doing very well despite the economic decisions around us. I guess I'll just count my blessings, always stick to my budget and keep saving as much as we can.
I bought her new clothes to wear in her five year pictures next week.
She's going to look so cute. And she can wear the clothes to some of the more formal events we will inevitably go to this fall since I bought her a nice cardigan and cute skirt. She doesn't have a lot of more formal-ish clothing, most of it is play clothes for school and at home. So I guess I shouldn't feel so badly about what I purchased. $15 of the clothing purchase was socks and undershirts after all. And I did have $10 in Target coupons and saved $3 in buying items on sale.
I think it's the enormity of the bill that has me down today. Three figures. I don't like spending that much at a time anymore. This will all fit into the August budget so I don't have to worry about going over budget. I still feel guilty though for some reason.
Maybe it's because I just read a blog post by someone who I've read for years and she announced today that they can't hold on any longer and are declaring bankruptcy. Maybe my guilt is from the fact that Chuck and I are doing very well despite the economic decisions around us. I guess I'll just count my blessings, always stick to my budget and keep saving as much as we can.
Frugal Fun Weekend
What a fun, frugal girls weekend! I spent about $30 on groceries for the weekend. I tend to go a little overboard when feeding others. Did I need mini-muffins, coffee cake and donut holes for seven women for Sunday's brunch? Probably not. Did I need three kinds of juices? Probably not. I bought them all anyway! And the leftovers were brought home and fed to my family so it wasn't a complete waste of money. I also bought some snack foods to bring with such as pretzels and a $2 package of cookies. We had to have something to munch on during those late night chat sessions!
As for spending during the weekend, it came to $27 total. $7 was for bug spray at a convenience store. There are a lot of bugs up in the woods of northern Minnesota! And $20 was spent on dinner Saturday night. I could have spent less there, my portion of the food and drink only came to $17. However, one of my friends forgot her cash at home and the restaurant didn't accept credit/debit cards so we all pitched in a few dollars to cover her meal too. Some of those small town restaurants can't afford the merchant fees of credit cards so they just don't accept them.
Not too bad for a weekend getaway! I had a great time with my friends and we're already talking about when we can go back!
As for spending during the weekend, it came to $27 total. $7 was for bug spray at a convenience store. There are a lot of bugs up in the woods of northern Minnesota! And $20 was spent on dinner Saturday night. I could have spent less there, my portion of the food and drink only came to $17. However, one of my friends forgot her cash at home and the restaurant didn't accept credit/debit cards so we all pitched in a few dollars to cover her meal too. Some of those small town restaurants can't afford the merchant fees of credit cards so they just don't accept them.
Not too bad for a weekend getaway! I had a great time with my friends and we're already talking about when we can go back!
Budget Breakdown
In case you haven't noticed, I don't talk very much about day to day spending here on this ol' blog. I think that's because I'm really not very frugal. That seems like such a no-no in the personal finance blogosphere, to no be very frugal. If there's something I want I'll more than likely buy it. But I do have a budget for our family and I do at least review the budget to see if that purchase I want to make can fit into the budget.
I also thought, for a long time, that our discretionary spending each month was a little on the high side. Since I have one line item in the budget called "Discretionary" and it has several hundred dollars in it each month then, well, it seems like we're spending a lot of money on some "frivolous" things. How can I come here and admit that to you all!?!
Tonight as I was putting the kids to bed though I got to thinking. Our discretionary budget plus our household budget is less than 10% of our take-home pay. If you add in our restaurant budget then we're still only at 12% of our take-home pay. In the grand scheme of budgets, that's actually pretty good! So, how does our budget, without standard items like electricity, cell phone, natural gas, etc. break down? Like this:
Auto gas: $200
Groceries: $325
Household: $200 (This is actually called my Target budget - what can I say? I love Target! It is where I buy all my paper towels, diapers, cleaners, etc. each month plus, you know, some of that frivolous stuff too.)
Restaurants: $125
Discretionary: $325 (This could include anything from a hair cut to an oil change to kids clothing to clip-on aero bars for Chuck's road bike - his latest Ebay purchase.)
Beyond this there's the standard monthly bills and line items for all the different savings accounts in our budget. I also add line items for one-time bills like presents that need to be purchased that month, the hotel room for last month's wedding, ECFE registration for Jamison for this fall, etc. Once I have all the monthly bills, discretionary items and one time bills accounted for, the rest of the take-home money is put into savings. This system has worked pretty well for us. We did the same thing while ridding ourselves of non-mortgage debt. We try to minimize the one time expenditures and we try to come in under budget in our fun budget categories. And any snowflakes (blog ad revenue, pinecone surveys, craigslist or E-bay sales, etc.) plus any budget surplus from the prior month is also transferred to savings.
I know you're supposed to "pay-yourself-first" and not wait to see what is left over in the budget to put into savings but usually our savings is pretty healthy each month so I don't worry too much about it. This month we're saving 15% of our take-home pay. That doesn't include the 14% (8% for me, 6% for Chuck) we put into our 401k's or the 4% of our take-home pay that we put towards our mortgage principal above our standard mortgage payment due each month.
So, what do you think? Is our spending out of line? Should I not feel so embarrassed at the discretionary money we do spend?
(Recent purchases - two pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts for this fall from Kohl's for Anya - total price? $40 - not bad per piece! Another purchase was $22 from Michael's - supplies for Anya's birthday party invitations - more expensive than buying a pack of pre-printed cards from Target - but also more fun to make! Should I tell you more about these kinds of things?)
I also thought, for a long time, that our discretionary spending each month was a little on the high side. Since I have one line item in the budget called "Discretionary" and it has several hundred dollars in it each month then, well, it seems like we're spending a lot of money on some "frivolous" things. How can I come here and admit that to you all!?!
Tonight as I was putting the kids to bed though I got to thinking. Our discretionary budget plus our household budget is less than 10% of our take-home pay. If you add in our restaurant budget then we're still only at 12% of our take-home pay. In the grand scheme of budgets, that's actually pretty good! So, how does our budget, without standard items like electricity, cell phone, natural gas, etc. break down? Like this:
Auto gas: $200
Groceries: $325
Household: $200 (This is actually called my Target budget - what can I say? I love Target! It is where I buy all my paper towels, diapers, cleaners, etc. each month plus, you know, some of that frivolous stuff too.)
Restaurants: $125
Discretionary: $325 (This could include anything from a hair cut to an oil change to kids clothing to clip-on aero bars for Chuck's road bike - his latest Ebay purchase.)
Beyond this there's the standard monthly bills and line items for all the different savings accounts in our budget. I also add line items for one-time bills like presents that need to be purchased that month, the hotel room for last month's wedding, ECFE registration for Jamison for this fall, etc. Once I have all the monthly bills, discretionary items and one time bills accounted for, the rest of the take-home money is put into savings. This system has worked pretty well for us. We did the same thing while ridding ourselves of non-mortgage debt. We try to minimize the one time expenditures and we try to come in under budget in our fun budget categories. And any snowflakes (blog ad revenue, pinecone surveys, craigslist or E-bay sales, etc.) plus any budget surplus from the prior month is also transferred to savings.
I know you're supposed to "pay-yourself-first" and not wait to see what is left over in the budget to put into savings but usually our savings is pretty healthy each month so I don't worry too much about it. This month we're saving 15% of our take-home pay. That doesn't include the 14% (8% for me, 6% for Chuck) we put into our 401k's or the 4% of our take-home pay that we put towards our mortgage principal above our standard mortgage payment due each month.
So, what do you think? Is our spending out of line? Should I not feel so embarrassed at the discretionary money we do spend?
(Recent purchases - two pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts for this fall from Kohl's for Anya - total price? $40 - not bad per piece! Another purchase was $22 from Michael's - supplies for Anya's birthday party invitations - more expensive than buying a pack of pre-printed cards from Target - but also more fun to make! Should I tell you more about these kinds of things?)
Girls Weekend
Tomorrow night I'm leaving with six friends for my first girls weekend away since before I was married...seven years ago. I'm excited to go. Being married with children and a husband that works night doesn't lend itself to a lot of night out with the girls opportunities.
I'm also happy because this should be a pretty frugal weekend away too.
There are six of us that will be staying at a seventh friend's cabin. No money spent on lodging! We will be eating three meals at the cabin: Saturday breakfast, Saturday lunch, Sunday brunch. The six of us divided into groups of two and so I'm in charge of Sunday brunch with my friend, R. The food I'm bringing should be less than $15. And dinner on Saturday night is at a local mexican restaurant. I should be able to spend less than $20 there, less than $15 if I don't have a margarita! But I probably will. Heh.
I don't have to pay for gas. The offer was put out there to the person driving me and another friend up but she declined any money.
Any outings we do during the day on Saturday should be very low cost. We're thinking of hiking in a nearby state park or tubing down a nearby river. Those should cost less than $10/person.
A low cost, relaxing weekend with friends and a husband practically kicking me out of the house too (he thinks I should spend more time with my friends). I'm so lucky!
I'm also happy because this should be a pretty frugal weekend away too.
There are six of us that will be staying at a seventh friend's cabin. No money spent on lodging! We will be eating three meals at the cabin: Saturday breakfast, Saturday lunch, Sunday brunch. The six of us divided into groups of two and so I'm in charge of Sunday brunch with my friend, R. The food I'm bringing should be less than $15. And dinner on Saturday night is at a local mexican restaurant. I should be able to spend less than $20 there, less than $15 if I don't have a margarita! But I probably will. Heh.
I don't have to pay for gas. The offer was put out there to the person driving me and another friend up but she declined any money.
Any outings we do during the day on Saturday should be very low cost. We're thinking of hiking in a nearby state park or tubing down a nearby river. Those should cost less than $10/person.
A low cost, relaxing weekend with friends and a husband practically kicking me out of the house too (he thinks I should spend more time with my friends). I'm so lucky!
Jumping In
Living on the edge! That’s me! A dare devil I am. OK, not really. But I am going to invest a small amount of money in Lending Club this week. I signed up and verified my account so I’m all ready. I talked with Chuck and we are definitely not risk takers. Our emergency fund will stay in our FDIC insured INGDirect account. But I am going to take $25 out of this month’s discretionary budget (the minimum investment allowed) and put it in Lending Club. And I may do that each month for the next six months or so. And any interest I earn will be re-invested as well. This will hopefully get me a nice average 9% return for my money while still having a secure emergency fund as well.
I’m actually kind of excited to read through the bios of the people requesting loans. I’d like to help people lower their credit card interest rates, fund a family business or something else.
I’ll let you know which loan I choose to fund this month.
Have you invested in Lending Club? Too risky for you?
I’m actually kind of excited to read through the bios of the people requesting loans. I’d like to help people lower their credit card interest rates, fund a family business or something else.
I’ll let you know which loan I choose to fund this month.
Have you invested in Lending Club? Too risky for you?
10% Cut Extended
Just found out today in a group meeting at work that the 10% pay cut we took back in April and which was supposed to go through the end of third quarter (end of September) was extended through the end of November.
Yuck.
At least I still have a job.
And we’re still making progress on our savings goals with this 10% cut.
It still sucks though.
Yuck.
At least I still have a job.
And we’re still making progress on our savings goals with this 10% cut.
It still sucks though.
July 2009 Month End
Another month has flown by. In fact, time is moving so quickly that it's already August 5th and I'm just now getting the July report out!
July was a month with both increased savings and increased spending. Our vacation and my sister's wedding added increased dollars flowing out of our accounts. Such is life. August will be another spendy month so I'll have to keep a close eye on disposable income so that I can save as much as possible. I'm getting itchy to get the emergency fund fully funded as you know.
Debts:
Still none! It better stay that way for a while too!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $4,221.33 (+1,506.39) - Honestly this wasn't as much as I was hoping to save but anything in 4 figure in one month is nothing to feel too badly about either. It was a three paycheck month for me, which of course helped. I'm expecting August's contribution to be less, more in the $600 range. That's still pretty good for one month. Maybe I'll make it a stretch goal to get the fund over $5,000 by September 1st. That would be sweet!
Short Term Savings: $83.87 (-173.95) - The money went to some house repairs and upgrades this month. A good use of the money, I think. I think we'll save it up now in order to purchase an iPod Touch in September. Or gym initiation dues. Or something else that we decide on in the future.
Travel Fund: $23.45 (-679.64) - There went our travel money! It was a fun vacation though. I think I'll start contributing more to the travel fund each month. Now that we're debt free I think we have a few trips we'd like to take. No traveling on credit allowed so it's time to increase this monthly budgeted line item from $20 to maybe $50 or $100.
Christmas Savings: $332.71 (+0.39) - OK, it's time to get serious about Christmas savings. It's not that far away now! OK, it is. But if I want to have a stress-reduced Christmas I need to have the money saved. There is a line item in the budget for August for this. I will fund this account this month. At least a little bit!
Basement Finishing Fund: $100.00 (+100.00) - I seeded this account with $100.00 this month. I think I'll make that a standing monthly contribution until the emergency fund is fully funded. Then I'll hit this account hard next so we can finally finish our basement! It's still a couple years away yet but that doesn't stop Chuck and I from dreaming about it now!
New Car Fund: $0.00 (0.00) - This account is still at 0. I'm pretty certain we'll be replacing the truck next spring. I'm waffling if I should be aggressively funding this account or sticking to the emergency fund. In this economy I think I'd rather finance a portion of a new(er) vehicle and keep money in savings than pay cash for a new(er) vehicle and completely deplete my savings. More discussion is needed with Chuck on this. For now I think I'll seed this account in August and make it a regular contribution for now.
And that's it! There's so much to think about, priorities to set, money to funnel different places. It may be time for a another strategic discussion with Chuck so we have a clear path forward for a while. It was easy while we were in debt destruction mode - all extra money went to debt. Now that we're out, it seems there's too many areas for us to save and spend our money.
July was a month with both increased savings and increased spending. Our vacation and my sister's wedding added increased dollars flowing out of our accounts. Such is life. August will be another spendy month so I'll have to keep a close eye on disposable income so that I can save as much as possible. I'm getting itchy to get the emergency fund fully funded as you know.
Debts:
Still none! It better stay that way for a while too!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $4,221.33 (+1,506.39) - Honestly this wasn't as much as I was hoping to save but anything in 4 figure in one month is nothing to feel too badly about either. It was a three paycheck month for me, which of course helped. I'm expecting August's contribution to be less, more in the $600 range. That's still pretty good for one month. Maybe I'll make it a stretch goal to get the fund over $5,000 by September 1st. That would be sweet!
Short Term Savings: $83.87 (-173.95) - The money went to some house repairs and upgrades this month. A good use of the money, I think. I think we'll save it up now in order to purchase an iPod Touch in September. Or gym initiation dues. Or something else that we decide on in the future.
Travel Fund: $23.45 (-679.64) - There went our travel money! It was a fun vacation though. I think I'll start contributing more to the travel fund each month. Now that we're debt free I think we have a few trips we'd like to take. No traveling on credit allowed so it's time to increase this monthly budgeted line item from $20 to maybe $50 or $100.
Christmas Savings: $332.71 (+0.39) - OK, it's time to get serious about Christmas savings. It's not that far away now! OK, it is. But if I want to have a stress-reduced Christmas I need to have the money saved. There is a line item in the budget for August for this. I will fund this account this month. At least a little bit!
Basement Finishing Fund: $100.00 (+100.00) - I seeded this account with $100.00 this month. I think I'll make that a standing monthly contribution until the emergency fund is fully funded. Then I'll hit this account hard next so we can finally finish our basement! It's still a couple years away yet but that doesn't stop Chuck and I from dreaming about it now!
New Car Fund: $0.00 (0.00) - This account is still at 0. I'm pretty certain we'll be replacing the truck next spring. I'm waffling if I should be aggressively funding this account or sticking to the emergency fund. In this economy I think I'd rather finance a portion of a new(er) vehicle and keep money in savings than pay cash for a new(er) vehicle and completely deplete my savings. More discussion is needed with Chuck on this. For now I think I'll seed this account in August and make it a regular contribution for now.
And that's it! There's so much to think about, priorities to set, money to funnel different places. It may be time for a another strategic discussion with Chuck so we have a clear path forward for a while. It was easy while we were in debt destruction mode - all extra money went to debt. Now that we're out, it seems there's too many areas for us to save and spend our money.
I want an iPod Touch
I want an iPod Touch. See? I’ve already identified it as a want instead of a need. Hee. Now, how can I make this happen?
First, here’s some history. A co-worker has an iPod Touch and has been using it in meetings lately (He’s downloaded a scientific calculator app and actually uses it in our technical meetings!) so when I was updating my Amazon wish-list around my birthday (early June) I told Chuck that I wanted one. He kind of laughed at me and teased me that I didn’t need one. Of course I don’t need one. I want one! They’re cool! Last weekend we were at a family party and an aunt of mine had hers out. She was showing it to us and I think it sparked some interest in Chuck. Hee! Guess his tune has changed! He, like me, loves gadgets!
This week he asked if we had an extra $150 lying around. He found some 2nd gen 8GB models on Ebay for around $150 (free shipping, refurbished models with 1 year factory warranty). The 2nd gen 16GB models are around $200 on Ebay. Obviously they’re more expensive retail. ($229 for the 8GB, $299 for the 16GB)
Our August is going to be pretty expensive with some other charges (see last couple of posts!) so I don’t think we can justify the purchase in August. Our short term savings should be around $130 in August and then $180 in September. Maybe we can use short term savings in September coupled with a few dollars from the regular budget to splurge and get a 16GB model! Yay for toys!
First, here’s some history. A co-worker has an iPod Touch and has been using it in meetings lately (He’s downloaded a scientific calculator app and actually uses it in our technical meetings!) so when I was updating my Amazon wish-list around my birthday (early June) I told Chuck that I wanted one. He kind of laughed at me and teased me that I didn’t need one. Of course I don’t need one. I want one! They’re cool! Last weekend we were at a family party and an aunt of mine had hers out. She was showing it to us and I think it sparked some interest in Chuck. Hee! Guess his tune has changed! He, like me, loves gadgets!
This week he asked if we had an extra $150 lying around. He found some 2nd gen 8GB models on Ebay for around $150 (free shipping, refurbished models with 1 year factory warranty). The 2nd gen 16GB models are around $200 on Ebay. Obviously they’re more expensive retail. ($229 for the 8GB, $299 for the 16GB)
Our August is going to be pretty expensive with some other charges (see last couple of posts!) so I don’t think we can justify the purchase in August. Our short term savings should be around $130 in August and then $180 in September. Maybe we can use short term savings in September coupled with a few dollars from the regular budget to splurge and get a 16GB model! Yay for toys!
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