January 2010 Budget Report

Here is our budget from January:


January turned out to be a pretty good month, all considered. Here is how it all went down:

• I was off in estimating what my income this month would be. I forgot to take into account the reimbursement for my work travel. And then I was unsure how the 10% would affect my paychecks not to mention the increase in health insurance costs and the new deduction for this year's HSA. So I estimated but I was off a few hundred dollars.
• I didn't transfer all money to the emergency fund that I had budgeted. That's because the January 31st paycheck needs to go to the mortgage and truck payment which are both due in early February. So I'm holding that money in our checking account until the next payday (February 12th) and then I'll make a big transfer. No point in draining our checking account and risking an overdraft fee!
• Our other spending was pretty well in check. We were over in the gas, household and restaurant budgets (as usual) but under in groceries and discretionary and we came out $17.35 ahead for the flexible spending portion of our budget.
  
• Overall we have $565.90 left from this month's budget, mainly due to not transferring everything to the emergency fund.
  

Jamison's third birthday is at the beginning of February. I've budgeted $100 for his gift, cake and groceries for his family birthday party. To make sure we have the cash available for this special event, I'm going to reserve $150 from that January budget extra for February's budget. This is $50 more than what we have budgeted for Jamison but there's another special event (my cousin's wedding on the 13th) that we'll have to buy a gift for as well. Our budget is pretty tight now and this extra money would have had to come from somewhere. Chuck and I chose this route. That means we'll have $415.90 to send to savings. Of that $415.90, I'm going to send $100 to the Christmas savings account (which is being otherwise completely ignored in January and February) and the rest, $315.90, to the emergency fund.

This was kind of an exhausting month trying to keep track of all the money going in every which direction. I'm hoping February is a bit more simple. Chuck and I sat down tonight and reviewed the budget for February. We'll both have to watch our spending pretty closely to make sure we stay under budget. It will be a challenge.

Not Quite Ready

OK, so a number of you are able to use your credit cards, gather the rewards and pay your balances each month. Good job! I'm certain we could too but I'm not ready to take the plunge just yet. For one, February will be our first month where we'll have any idea what our new "regular" income is going to be. December still had a bit of income from Chuck's job plus only one paycheck had the 10% restored and well, it was irregular you could say. January was messed up with getting reimbursed for my work travel, missing a week of pay due to the furlough, increased medical insurance costs first being deducted, first payments deducted for the HSA, etc. I wasn't really sure what to expect for my income! February should have two regular paychecks though and from that I can create our first "real" budget for the month. I think I'll revisit this topic in March. Maybe I can use February to see which of our credit cards is the best one to use as "the one" taking into account if we can make multiple payments each month, how great the rewards are, etc. Anyway, for now, we'll stay status quo (using our check card) but I'm not opposed to changing that up in the future.

Using Credit Cards for Every Day Purchases

How many of you use your credit cards for every day purchases and then pay off the balance in full each month. While I know this strategy allows you to maximize credit card rewards while also staying out of debt, I haven't been able to make that switch for myself. I've been thinking about it again now that I have two credit cards that earn me cash back and Chuck has one. But I like the system Chuck and I currently have in place. We use our check cards for 99% of our purchases and I can see them post on our checking account and it's very easy to update my Excel spreadsheet budget by simply going to one place and updating our budget with the transactions that have posted.

If you use your credit cards for every day purchases, how do you update your budget with that information? Weekly? Daily? Monthly? Use only one card and download statements? Tell me your system. Maybe I can adapt it to work for us too.

Bargains!

We've done a bit of spending in the last couple days and I have to say we've scored some great bargains! Saturday I had Jamison's three year pictures taken and spent only $68 for 3 8x10's, numerous 5x7's and 3x5's for us at home, me at work, the grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles. I felt great walking out of there, like I'd really gotten my money's worth.

After pictures we walked around the mall and went to the nearby JCPenney. For Chuck's new tutoring job he can't wear jeans and at his old job he could. Basically Chuck's wardrobe consisted of jeans and dress (suit) pants. We scored two pairs of khaki-style pants for only $34.98! Gotta love sales and clearance!

Saturday night the kids and I ran to the grocery store. I made a list of the items we were short on and got out of there for only $51! And now we have enough groceries to last us the rest of this week. Not bad!

And today when I got home from work my mother-in-law was over with her veterinarian friend and neighbor. He was making a house call for us to get our dog's vaccinations up to date. He charged us only $5 for the visit plus $25 for the vaccinations. $30 for the entire visit and now our dog is set for the next year! Now that is a bargain!

Gotta love getting a bargain!

Bummer

Bummer! Vikes lost. Well, I guess the pressure's off to buy that new TV before the Super Bowl. We'll save a bit longer and make sure we watch the sales so we get a good price and have enough in cash for it. Besides, there are always friends and neighbors and family with big TVs that we can go visit if needed. What a letdown...

Happening Again

Remember last year about this time when I dreamed of running away? It's happening again. January in Minnesota can be depressing. It's typically our coldest month although this year it's been warmer than normal. (Even though it was warmer yesterday it rained and then froze and I had a nice sheet of ice I had to scrape off my windshield after work. That and it makes the sidewalks treacherous too which makes me really nervous while pregnant!)

And while the days are starting to get longer it still gets dark awfully early in these parts. And then there's knowing that this cold weather is going to last about another two months and, well, it gets old. There are many January and February vacations to warmer weather taken around these parts. I so wish Chuck and I were planning one of them. We haven't been on a vacation to a warm weather destination (thinking beach) in years. We're both scuba certified but haven't dove since our honeymoon seven years ago. I wish we could contribute to the travel savings account but right now we just can't or at least it would be a minimal amount. So, instead I'll ignore those travelocity and mypoints e-mails about their great travel discounts and just daydream about the beach.

Getting Closer!

We're getting closer to our Want Item #1. I think Chuck is getting excited. At the beginning of January our short term savings account was at $533.90. Subtracting the minimum balance of $250.00 leaves us with $283.90. This month the scheduled $50 budget contribution was added to the account giving us $338.90.

Then remember when my Dad gave us $50 in December? He wanted us to buy Anya the Leapster docking station with it. It's been almost a month since Christmas and Anya doesn't play with her Leapster enough (about 1 hour per day) to eat through the rechargeable batteries too fast. So we've decided to add the $50 to the short term account. If in the future we decide we need the docking station then we'll take it out of our regular budget and buy it for Anya. That $50 brought the account up to $383.90 to spend on our TV purchase.

Then, we returned a few gifts that we received for Christmas (a Wii game that didn't get very good reviews and a few accessories that we didn't need for the GPS) to Best Buy and received a $78 Best Buy gift card in return. If we purchase a TV at Best Buy then we'd have $461.90 to spend. Otherwise we'll save that gift card for something else (like that Leapster docking station maybe).

Anyway, all that to say we have $383 - 461 to spend on a TV right now. We're getting closer! That might be enough to get us a 37" TV if we watch the Super Bowl sales. I think Chuck would prefer a 40" though. We'll see when we pull the trigger.

If Chuck had his way, we'd have a new TV before the Super Bowl. Hey, our Vikings are close! It would be great to watch it on a new, bigger, HDTV!

Maternity Leave Options

Ever since we found out Chuck was being laid off, I've been thinking about maternity leave. With our first two children I took the maximum amount of leave I could, 12 weeks, both times. These 12 weeks are available to me because my company is big enough to qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act. Not all of that 12 weeks was paid though of course.

At my workplace, you get six weeks of paid leave for a vaginal delivery and eight weeks of paid leave for a cesarean delivery. I've been fortunate to avoid c-sections the first two times and I anticipate that will happen again, unless the baby is breech or some other complication arises. If I want to take the full 12 weeks then only 6 of those weeks would be paid. Before Chuck was laid off we would have tried to stretch his income, use a little from the emergency fund and gone the whole six weeks unpaid. Now that's not an option.

However, I do have three weeks of vacation that I can use this year. Chuck and I have talked and we don't want to use all three weeks during maternity leave and then leave me (us) with nothing for the rest of the year. So I think I'm going to use two weeks of vacation time during maternity leave.

That means I'll either be going 4 weeks unpaid (6 weeks paid plus 2 weeks vacation) or 2 weeks unpaid (8 weeks paid plus 2 weeks vacation). Either way, our emergency fund will help fill the gap and for that I am very grateful. This is our last baby and I want to be able to stay home and enjoy him and my older two children as long as I can.

Chop House Gift Card

As a Christmas gift, Chuck and I received a $60 gift certificate to a local restaurant. This was my gift from my brother-in-law. He had my name. My sister had Chuck's name. We had $25 spending limits that we set when we drew names. Um, they didn't listen so well. In fact, my sister gave Chuck the Rock Band - Beatles games for the Wii. They really didn't follow the rules very well! I've "scolded" them many times and also, of course, thanked them as well. They had a stipulation for the gift card though - we had to go with them. Oh darn, a night out with my sister! We're currently planning which night we want to go out. Time to find a babysitter!

How generous my sister is...she must get that from my Dad!

Another job offer!

So Chuck has gone on two interviews, applied for two jobs and been offered two jobs! The first is the tutoring position where he's currently completing the training program. Then on Monday the census office called and left a message. He called them back on Tuesday and found out that they were so impressed with his test scores and resume (he has supervisory experience too) that they wanted to offer him a job as a trainer. He would be training all the other census workers in the office. Great! Unfortunately it was a day job and since we don't have childcare he had to turn them down. They understood our situation and told him they'd keep his name on the list. Right now it's training and in 6-8 weeks is when the night and weekend positions open up. They'll call him back then they said. It's very reassuring to know that the work, while temporary, could be there in a month or two. We'll have to see how it fits in to the tutoring position as they are both nights and weekends. Either they'll conflict or Chuck will be a very busy guy for a while!

No HSA Reimbursement

Yep, as I suspected the ultrasound has to have been performed in 2010 for me to get reimbursed from our HSA for it even though I got the bill for it in January. Oh well. I'm glad I at least looked at the rules. So I'll pay for it out of our January budget and put less in savings this month. I'm grateful that we have insurance as the total bill was over $600. And I'm grateful that we have savings that we can draw from to pay these bills. This bill is an inconvenience for us and nothing more. And that is definitely something that I'm grateful for.

Want List Item #2 - Purchased!

I know. You're all thinking - why is the #2 want item purchased? Where did this money come from? What happened to the TV? Well, nothing happened to the TV. We're still saving money for that. However, Sunday after church we stopped by Target and found some really good deals! They're having a big clearance sale on their bedding and we scored two twin sized comforters for $10.98 each! They're a basic black on one side and black/white checked on the other. I figure when it's time to redecorate the boys' room for both of them (a couple years away) that we can add bright red, blue and green as accent colors in the pillows, curtains, lamp, etc. It's just the comforter so far and I think that will be OK. We have a ton of twin sheet sets that we've been given over the years from family members and those will work for now. I'm just glad that now I have a comforter big enough for the twin bed! I think in February we'll bring the other twin bed up from the basement and transition Jamison to it so we can get the crib (currently in toddler bed configuration) set up for the baby.

As for the $22 I spent on the comforters, well, I think I can absorb that into our January monthly budget. We're doing OK on our spending so far. I'll be keeping a close eye on the budget for the rest of the month too of course. Yay for deals! And I'm glad I found something I like for such a reasonable price. Considering that what I really wanted was the Kasey Quilted Bedding from Pottery Barn Kids? Well, I'm glad I found an alternative! (Although I still really, really like the Kasey bedding...)

We also got other great deals from their bulk item section like toilet paper, breakfast cereal and oatmeal. We spent a bunch of money but all should fit into our budget...and I love getting good deals!

$227 Bill - Ugh

Thursday I received a bill in the mail. $227 for the ultrasound I had in December. I was so upset. I had no idea it was going to cost so much! Friday I received the Explanation of Benefits from our insurance provider and everything looked correct - we owe $227. Thursday night I was so upset I just kept going over in my head how it could be so much and how were we going to pay for it.

In the past when I got a bill like this I'd just cash flow it - put it in the next months budget, reduce how much went to savings and moved on. We don't have that same cash flow though and can't absorb a bill that large into our monthly budget anymore. But just as I was falling asleep I quickly turned to Chuck and said - HSA! We set up an HSA this year for $3,000 to help with the hospital bills for the baby's birth. The only thing I'm not sure about is the service (ultrasound) was rendered in December 2009 but I was billed for it in January 2010. Can I use a 2010 HSA to pay the bill? I'll have to check that out Monday when I'm back at work. Either way January is a three paycheck month for me so I altered our January budget to add in the bill. I'll pay it this month, reduce how much I was going to send to the emergency fund and then see if I can get it reimbursed from the HSA. If I can, I'll send that money to the emergency fund when I receive it.

I feel better now. It sure would have been nice if the ultrasound hadn't cost so much though!

A job!

This has been a successful week for Chuck! Tuesday he talked with the local census office and took their test. He passed with 100% and officially applied to be a census worker. The pay is $12.50/hour and up depending on what they ask you to do. Obviously this would be a temporary job but it's nights and weekends which would be perfect. We'll have to wait and see if they call. They might not need him for a while so we'll just sit tight with that one.

Wednesday Chuck went to an information session on a tutoring position. It's with a local company and he took their test and applied there too. The pay is $14.00/hour to start and is also nights and weekends. It's only 10-25 hours/week but that's OK. Chuck thinks he might actually like to do this.

Thursday Chuck went to an information session on an LPN (practical nurse) program at a local technical college. That was eye-opening for both of us I think. He took his third test of the week and once again passed with flying colors. The LPN program is a day program (we just can't find any nursing programs that are nights and weekends only!) which is a bummer. And it's not exactly cheap. It's could be something like $36,000 to complete the program! Since Chuck has two degrees already, he could test out of a few of the classes though which would help. We don't want to put the baby in daycare (and couldn't afford to now anyway) so we're thinking that maybe Chuck can get some of the generals done with now (some are online only or offered at night) and then wait to start the main nursing program until next year when the baby is at least a year old. That would spread the cost out for us too. We haven't checked financial aid but after asking about the generals now, core nursing later questions, that would be our next step.

Then on Friday Chuck got a call from the tutoring company offering him a job! He has three training sessions in the next two weeks and then could start after that. We're not sure what this will do to his unemployment benefits. The hours will probably be pretty low per week to start. We'll of course report that to the unemployment office and then I'll guess we'll have to see if that reduces his benefits or eliminates them entirely. More investigating to do there probably.

I'm thinking that any money Chuck gets from this new job will go into the unemployment benefits/tuition savings account. We can continue to live on my income alone and save his paychecks for that nursing program in the future.

401k Rollover - Is it Necessary?

Ever since Chuck's last day of work, I've been thinking about his 401k. We haven't received his year end statement yet but as of 9/30/09 he had about $45k in it. $21k is in company stock. His company is a small, employee-owned company and the match was always in company stock. He's fully vested so he can take the non-company stock money and roll it over if he chooses. The company stock will sit there for 5 years and then they'll pay it out to him 20% a year for 5 years. I've been looking into how to roll over a 401k and found this great how-to article at Generation X Finance. I asked Chuck to contact his 401k provider to complete steps #1 and #2 - confirm he is listed as a terminated employee and request the forms for a rollover. I would, in parallel, look into Roth IRA options and then we'd decide where to move the money. But Chuck came back to me with a good question - do we have to move the money? If it continues to do well where it is, is it OK to leave it there? We can transfer it at any time, there are no time restrictions so should we leave it sit for a while? Anyone else have any experience with this? This is the first time we've had to do this.

Credit Cards

I don't talk much about credit cards here because we've been credit card debt free for over a year! And contrary to Dave Ramsey and some others, we do still have and use credit cards. The difference is now we pay the balance off in full each month! The two main credit cards that we use are #1 - my Discover and #2 - Chuck's Citibank Dividend Platinum Select. Both of these cards offer cash back bonuses. We don't use our cards very often. If we purchase something online, we use the cards but other than that, they sit pretty dormant. So our balances on them are pretty low most months, if not zero.

That is Chuck's only credit card but I actually have four others in my wallet! First is a Citibank Driver's Edge card. I haven't used this card since 2001. But it was my first credit card I opened so I kept the card because I was worried about it impacting my credit score if I closed it. I finally got sick of carrying it around though and called today to cancel it. Guess what! It's been closed for over a year. I guess they just forget to let me know that. Whatever. I can now shred the card and not worry about it.

Second I have a GM Card through HSBC Bank. This is my second oldest (well, now I guess oldest) card. I don't use it often but when I do I earn cash towards a new vehicle purchase with GM. We just did that in August and were able to take over $800 off the negotiated price of our truck. Now that we are definitely not in the market for a new vehicle, this card has taken a back seat. I have only been pulling this one out when merchants won't accept Discover. That used to be more of a problem then it is now though.

Third I have a Citibank Corporate card. Remember when I had to apply and get a Corporate American Express card? Well, my company ceased it's corporate Am Ex card agreement right around the time I went on my trip in December. I ended up putting my hotel and meals on my Discover and GM Card and then was reimbursed. My flight made it on to the Am Ex card before the deadline. Instead of the Am Ex card (already taken out of my wallet and shredded), my company has a new deal with Citibank. So I applied for that card but it arrived about a week after my trip. So, it's in my wallet but I doubt I'll have any business trips in the near future where I'll need to use it. It will sit in the back with the GM Card.

And finally I have a Chase Visa. A long time ago I used to sell Pampered Chef and Chase and Pampered Chef had a corporate agreement. I held a Pampered Chef logo'd Visa that I used only for business expenses so it was easy to separate from personal expenses. A few years back Pampered Chef and Chase went their separate ways and Chase sent me a generic Chase Visa card. After I stopped selling Pampered Chef, I used the card mainly for balance transfers as Chase always gave me 3.99 or 2.99 or 4.99% balance transfer offers. Now that we're credit card debt free, this card has not been used in over a year.

Since I mainly use my Discover, but not everyone takes Discover, I wanted to have a back up card that I could actually get some rewards with and didn't want that card to be the GM Card. So today I called Chase and asked if I could get the generic Chase Visa switched over to a Chase Freedom card. I contemplated going with the Chase Sapphire to earn airline rewards but really, when are we going to go traveling that I'd be able to use them? So I went with the Freedom card instead and will now be earning cash back with that card. I'll have to figure out if I'll get more cash back using the Discover or the Case Freedom cards. Hmm...

I guess you can tell that we're in the camp of "responsible credit card usage." We use them, gain the rewards and pay the balance in full each month. Still, for most items (gas, groceries, etc.) we simply use our check cards and have the money taken directly from our checking account. It's nice to have the cards available though for larger purchases (to take advantage of the rewards), when traveling, or when purchasing items online.

Want List

I've talked before about our want list. It's our prioritized list of items that we'd like to purchase but which we don't have the money for at the moment. So, we're saving a bit each month in pursuit of these items. I know we don't have our emergency fund fully funded. Believe me, I know that. But I also don't believe that we are the type of people that can be 100% frugal, no fun allowed, gazelle-intense if you will. We have to have a bit of fun in our budget and in our lives. To me, it's called balance. And since we initially wrote our want list, I've thought of a few more items to add to it. So, here I am to tell you about them and how I'm prioritizing them.

1. 37" 42" LCD HDTV - 46" purchased 6/27/10 on clearance!
   
2. Twin sized boys bedding - qty. 2 - purchased 1/13/10 on clearance at Target!
   
3. Hand held GPS - we received this item as a Christmas gift!
4. New - Landscaping - increase size of garden along East side of house and connect rock/shrub bed on West to South side of house with more shrubs and rocks
   
5. New - Storm/screen door for front door of house - purchased 4/24/10!
   
6. iPod Touch
   
7. Triathlon bike for Chuck
8. New - DSLR camera for Cynthia with community education classes to learn more about photography
   
9. Cedar chest

We're getting closer to item #1. We're having fun playing with item #3 and have used it to find a few places lately. And we're looking around at options for #2. It's actually kind of nice to have these mini goals, these pure-want items, to look forward to. It makes the daily grind of staying under budget, saving money, saying no to that cute new purse I saw today at Target, etc. a bit easier.

Job or School, School or Job

Chuck has been actively looking for jobs. There aren't really any in his field that aren't day jobs. We don't want to put the kids in daycare so he's looking for weekend and weeknight jobs. There's not a lot of those around for a chemical analyst. He had it pretty good where he worked. So that's led him to look at other fields. He's found one opportunity to help children in the evenings, it's kind of a tutoring position we think. He's signed up for an information session with that company this afternoon to see if it's something he'd like to pursue. He's also applied and taken the first set of tests to be a census worker, which is obviously a temporary job but which could pay decently in our area. Both jobs are nights and weekend which is perfect for our family life.

He's also interested in changing career fields entirely by going back to school. Chuck has two degrees in biology and chemistry. He's thinking the health care field may interest him, especially since he took the MCAT in college to try and get into medical school. So he's looking for PCA (Personal Care Attendant) type positions. Those, unfortunately, are not well paid but he does have experience as a PCA back when he was in college.

He's also looking into nursing programs. He has not been able to locate any RN or Physician Assistant programs that are held night and weekends. Those programs all seem to be day programs and a couple years in length. We couldn't afford both daycare and tuition so those might be out for the time being. However, he has found a few LPN programs that might work. We're not sure if they're night/weekend or day programs. That will take a bit more investigative work. He is signed up for an informational session with one local technical college on Thursday though to learn more about their program. The LPN program would be shorter and less expensive. Our current thinking is maybe he should get an LPN degree then work for a few years in the health care industry while the kids are still young. He could definitely get some night and weekend work as an LPN and still take care of the kids during the day. Then when our youngest (due April 27th!) is in kindergarten he could take classes to upgrade from an LPN to an RN or Physician's Assistant. There are accelerated programs to make that transition. Then he could hopefully transition to day hours and we could have a semi-normal family life with both parents working during the day and the kids in school.

More than likely if he does go back to school it won't be until this fall so we'll keep pursuing potential jobs in the mean time. It would be great to bring in more income to set aside as tuition money!

Yearly Mortgage Adjustment

Late last week I received in the mail a letter from our mortgage company. It was a yearly review of our escrow account which takes care of our PMI, home insurance and taxes. Our escrow account was a couple hundred dollars short last year so we can either pay it in one lump sum or they'll spread it out over the next year. It's basically a twelve month interest free loan. Since we don't really have a couple hundred dollars just lying around unless we took it from one of our savings accounts (something we don't want to do), we'll opt (again) to take the 12 month loan. This means our mortgage payment is going up by $36 a month started with the February 1st payment. Not the best timing with the reduced budget and all but we'll manage. We'll just have to tighten things up a bit more. It would be nice if we could pay our own home insurance and taxes instead of having to escrow it but, well, we can't so we'll live with this instead.

401k on the Up and Up

A few days ago I checked my 401k balance. Curiosity and all that. Remember this post from October? My 401k statement had shown $97k at the end of September and it was at $101k in October. On 12/31/09 my balance was over $106k. I am officially back to the highest I have ever seen my 401k. Yay!

My 401k is managed by INGDirect for my company. I have to say that I think they're doing a good job plus I must have my allocations doing the right thing as well. What else could it be really? Like the economy picking back up? Yeah right!

Keep going little 401k! Let's hit the $150k mark by the end of the year. Wouldn't that be awesome?!? My 8% contribution plus my company's 4% contribution (I hope they restore the 100% match sooner rather than later though!) will put another $10k into my 401k this year. That would bring me to $116k if all stayed the same. Maybe, just maybe the economy can pick back up so that I can turn that $116k into $150k? How cool would that be! Only time will tell I guess. Let's just hope that my balance is at least $116k by year end so that I don't lose any of the money I've regained and invested, OK?

December 2009 Budget Report

Here is our budget from December:



As you can see we came in $48.00 under budget. Yay! Now for some comments...

• We were a bit under in the income department. That's because I estimated how much Chuck's last paycheck would be and I was a bit off. Luckily that didn't hurt us too badly. Now that we're on my paychecks alone this should be easy to budget correctly as I'm salaried so my paychecks vary by maybe a penny.
• We didn't pay Anya's gymnastics tuition in December (for January classes). Anya has decided she's had enough of gymnastics for a while and wants to try dance class again. Next week (after the holidays) I'll call the dance studio to see if she can get into their class starting in February. If she can't then maybe we'll chill on the extra activities for a while. I'm sure we can find another use for that money each month.
• If we had paid that $63 tuition then we would have been in the red for this month by $15. I was watching our spending so closely and we would have been $5 in the black if we had made the tuition payment but then on the 29th a check I wrote in August for $20 was finally cashed. Argh! I mean, frustrating that it took so long but at least it didn't send us over the edge.

I've transferred that $48 to our emergency fund already along with a $24 snowflake (mileage reimbursement for my work trip) and a bit extra from our monthly budget.

We did pretty well on our first month on a reduced budget! We can do this!

December 2009 Month End

Last wrap up for 2009. What an up and down year! We did pretty well in December, despite the new budget restrictions. Hopefully we can make that habit now - we have to! Tomorrow the detailed budget report will be published. For now, here are our current debt and savings totals:

Debts:

Truck Loan: $30,363.45 (- $440.05) - Another payment made. Next month we'll be under $30K on the truck. We still love our truck and are still very happy with our purchase. If we hadn't been debt free but mortgage though when Chuck lost his job we would have been in a world of hurt. Just think - expensive truck payment, credit card minimums, student loans, HELOC...we would have been cutting back everything possible to stay in the black each month. Thank goodness we no longer have all those payments hanging over our head!

Savings:

Emergency Fund: $6,369.38 (+1107.84) - Yay for big increases in the emergency fund! Chuck was paid out for his remaining PTO time and that entire check was put in the emergency fund. That alone was $980. The rest is our regular $100 monthly contribution plus some snowflakes ($5 craigslist sale, $10 refund from an energy co-op, etc.). Hopefully January will also see a big increase. It is a three paycheck month for me although one of those paychecks will be half the size of a normal one since I'm on unpaid furlough all next week. And with the timing of the checks and you know, the need to pay the mortgage, we'll have to see if I can get it all transferred in January or if some of it will have to wait to be transferred until February. Timing and cash flow and when bills are due, etc. will dictate the timing on that.

Short Term Savings: $533.90 (+250.02) - We made the standard $50 budget contribution this month plus the $100 from my grandmother and the $100 from the Christmas budget. This means we currently have $283.90 to spend on our want #1 - the tv. More discussion on this in the coming weeks.

Travel Fund: $274.24 (+50.48) - This had been on an automatic savings plan at INGDirect and I forgot to disable that for the month of December. I let this $50 go through since we were doing pretty well with our spending. For coming months this will most likely be zeroed out. We'll need that money for regular spending I think. I am hoping to take the kids to a local hotel that has a giant waterpark this year and have that be a little staycation for us. That's where this money will be used. A new baby plus an unemployed husband do not equal family vacation, ya know?

Christmas Savings: $158.21 (-608.52) - Christmas is over! See my Christmas budget recap to see where all the money went. It's reassuring to know there's some left over for next year. With our reduced budget, it will be more difficult this year to siphon off money for this account. I'll have to keep it in the back of my mind though and stick money here when I can. I certainly don't want to go back to charging Christmas on credit cards. What a step backwards that would be!

Basement Finishing Fund: $401.69 (+0.88) - Once again no money for the basement this month...or any months in the near future! We'll let this account stay dormant for a while. My priorities right now are: Emergency Fund, Christmas Fund, Travel Fund, Basement Fund. Too bad, so sad basement!

Unemployment Benefits Fund: $538.09 (+538.09) - And here is our newly created Unemployment Benefits savings account. Two payments posted in time to be transferred in the month of December plus we even got a bit of interest! I have another transfer for this week that I'll be making in a few minutes. There's a bit of activity going on in the job hunt/resume building/school searching arena - more on that in the next week or so.

Overall not too bad! I think we still have our priorities where they should be and I'm trying to be diligent to keep our spending in check so we don't have to dip into any of these accounts. Right now we'll keep plugging along, doing the best we can and trying to make the smartest decisions we can as well.