Our 2009 taxes are complete and filed. We finished them on Friday, in time to take advantage of a reduced price for TurboTax online. The price was going up on the 27th. We paid $66 to prepare our taxes online which did not in any way help our March budget. More on that later this week though.
How did our taxes end up? We got a $506 refund from the federal government and we owed $951 to the state of Minnesota. Ouch. That means our net was a $445 owe. This has been added to our April budget and we’re going to have to take some money out of savings to pay it. Boo!
Still No Oil Change for Truck
Our truck has 6200 miles on it. It’s now seven months old so we’re averaging less than 1000 miles a month on our vehicle. Yay for keeping the miles low! And now for the shocker: we have yet to change the oil. I know! If you’re old school like I am then we should have just completed our second oil change at 6000 miles. And yet either we’re negligent (we’re not) or our engine hasn’t needed it yet.
Our truck has an oil life gauge. I checked it over the weekend and we have 47% oil life remaining. When I read through our manual for the truck it does not list out a mileage at which to change the oil. It specifically says – change the oil when the oil life monitor tells you too. So, 47% apparently isn’t low enough to trip the monitor. We’ll wait until it does and then change the oil promptly.
I have to say it’s a nice perk of having a newer vehicle! Lower maintenance costs!
Our truck has an oil life gauge. I checked it over the weekend and we have 47% oil life remaining. When I read through our manual for the truck it does not list out a mileage at which to change the oil. It specifically says – change the oil when the oil life monitor tells you too. So, 47% apparently isn’t low enough to trip the monitor. We’ll wait until it does and then change the oil promptly.
I have to say it’s a nice perk of having a newer vehicle! Lower maintenance costs!
Asking for 401k Rollover Advice
I haven't forgotten about Chuck's 401k and that I'd like to roll it over into a Roth IRA for him. But it hasn't risen to the top of the priority list the last few months. This week I put in a request for advice from my uncle. My uncle is a professional in the insurance/personal finance arena. He's worked in this field for 30+ years. In his world he helps manage portfolios and insurance needs for professional athletes, important businessmen and NASCAR drivers. (He lives in the south.) I trust his advice and he's helped my Dad open IRA accounts in the past. We haven't connected yet but I'm sure when I do get a hold of him he'll have some sound advice for me. (Fidelity? Vanguard? ING? Other? Which funds? Fees? Returns? Ack!)
Do you have someone in your life that you trust you can go to with personal finance questions?
Do you have someone in your life that you trust you can go to with personal finance questions?
Increasing March Budget
I've decided we're just not going to be able to absorb those baby costs into our March budget. There have been too many expenses coming up this month to be able to do that. Expenses like almost $70 in medical supplies to control my gestational diabetes, an oil change for the car, a new headlight for the car, TurboTax payment for our taxes, my sister's birthday, etc. That $130 spent on baby items eats up a large chunk of our discretionary spending.
Instead, I'm going to adjust our March budget to use Chuck's tutoring paychecks to cover us. I've already put over $500 into our emergency fund this month ($100 from budget, $60 from Chuck's first paycheck of the month plus the $342 snowflake) so I feel OK using part of Chuck's second paycheck of the month to increase our budget.
And next month is going to be expensive too. I have a $168 doctor bill to pay (from my gestational diabetes counseling) plus I need to renew my registration for my personal blog plus other items that I'm already tallying up in my head. I might have to use Chuck's paycheck next month to cover some of those too. So glad he's bringing in income again! His unemployment is still going to the tuition fund and I was hoping we could put all or at least most of his tutoring income into our emergency fund. I guess not this month or next month, at least not all of it will go into the emergency fund. We'll keep watching our spending though so that our emergency fund contributions can be increased from the monthly budgeted $100 each month.
Instead, I'm going to adjust our March budget to use Chuck's tutoring paychecks to cover us. I've already put over $500 into our emergency fund this month ($100 from budget, $60 from Chuck's first paycheck of the month plus the $342 snowflake) so I feel OK using part of Chuck's second paycheck of the month to increase our budget.
And next month is going to be expensive too. I have a $168 doctor bill to pay (from my gestational diabetes counseling) plus I need to renew my registration for my personal blog plus other items that I'm already tallying up in my head. I might have to use Chuck's paycheck next month to cover some of those too. So glad he's bringing in income again! His unemployment is still going to the tuition fund and I was hoping we could put all or at least most of his tutoring income into our emergency fund. I guess not this month or next month, at least not all of it will go into the emergency fund. We'll keep watching our spending though so that our emergency fund contributions can be increased from the monthly budgeted $100 each month.
Lessons from Dad
Last weekend, at brunch to celebrate my sister’s birthday (paid for by my Dad), we talked a little bit out finances. We don’t go into specifics (like dollar amounts) in my family but even talking in generalities can be enlightening. My sister, if I haven’t mentioned it, is in Financial Peace University now with her husband and they are in debt elimination mode. I’m so happy they are working to free themselves from debt! We got to talking about 401k’s. I told them mine had rebounded 100%. My sisters had too. And my dad’s was close to being back to where it was. And he let us in on one other tidbit – he still has a fair amount of risk in his 401k. He’s in his upper 50’s. Now is the time when he might want to think about being more conservative. He decided though that he wasn’t going to change his allocations until he had rebounded. He didn’t want to lose all that money, then go conservative and never get it back. Now that he’s almost back to where he was, he’s going to think about re-allocation in the next year or two.
My dad has a very good financial head on his shoulders. If I had paid attention earlier, I probably could have avoided some of the stupid credit card problems I got myself into. My dad uses credit cards but he has always told me to pay them off each month. Did I listen? No. And 15+ years ago when I was in high school he showed me a 401k statement and told me about how much he was saving and what he was projecting he’d have at retirement.
My dad has made some very smart financial decisions in his life. He is an LP gas man by trade (very blue collar) and he has built a wonderful life for himself. He has a house with tons of equity (not sure how close he is to paying it off – if he paid only his minimum on his mortgage it would be another eight years from when he first purchased it). He pays off his credit cards each month. He lives below his means. And yet he has and does whatever he wants. He goes on vacations. He has lots of toys (snowmobiles, boat, convertible, four wheelers, 50” plasma HDTV, etc.). And beyond his 401k he has multiple IRA accounts too. I wish I had absorbed some of his financial teachings sooner.
I have a white collar job with an excellent salary. Hopefully now that I’m managing my money (our money) in a better manner, I can enjoy such a quality life like my father has.
And I’m going to take the lessons he taught me, that finally sunk in and try to teach them to my own children – save for retirement, use credit cards responsibly, live below your means, have an emergency fund at all times, etc. I hope they hear and listen to me, absorb my teachings and incorporate them into their own lives.
My dad has a very good financial head on his shoulders. If I had paid attention earlier, I probably could have avoided some of the stupid credit card problems I got myself into. My dad uses credit cards but he has always told me to pay them off each month. Did I listen? No. And 15+ years ago when I was in high school he showed me a 401k statement and told me about how much he was saving and what he was projecting he’d have at retirement.
My dad has made some very smart financial decisions in his life. He is an LP gas man by trade (very blue collar) and he has built a wonderful life for himself. He has a house with tons of equity (not sure how close he is to paying it off – if he paid only his minimum on his mortgage it would be another eight years from when he first purchased it). He pays off his credit cards each month. He lives below his means. And yet he has and does whatever he wants. He goes on vacations. He has lots of toys (snowmobiles, boat, convertible, four wheelers, 50” plasma HDTV, etc.). And beyond his 401k he has multiple IRA accounts too. I wish I had absorbed some of his financial teachings sooner.
I have a white collar job with an excellent salary. Hopefully now that I’m managing my money (our money) in a better manner, I can enjoy such a quality life like my father has.
And I’m going to take the lessons he taught me, that finally sunk in and try to teach them to my own children – save for retirement, use credit cards responsibly, live below your means, have an emergency fund at all times, etc. I hope they hear and listen to me, absorb my teachings and incorporate them into their own lives.
Dealing with Wants
Do you ever get tired of doing the “right” thing? I go through waves where I’m completely gung-ho about completing that emergency fund. Then the next wave comes and all I want to do is buy some fun toys and go on some fun trips. I want so badly to go to El Paso to visit my brother. I want so badly to go on a tropical vacation. I want so badly to say yes to Chuck about buying a new bicycle. It’s that last one that is weighing on me most recently.
Chuck really loves bicycle racing (think Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, etc.). And in the past 18 months or so he’s become more and more involved in the sport himself. He does long group rides associated with various charities and fundraisers. There’s a ride coming up at the end of April that he and his brother are going to be doing. They’re just trying to figure out if they want to do the 65 or 100 mile course. And all summer long he’ll do more rides as well as duathlons.
Chuck has a bike. It’s a road bike that he bought off Ebay several years ago (before our financial epiphany and debt reduction activities started) for around $450. He also bought clip pedals and shoes and aero clip-on bars and has made it a usable bike. But he’d love to upgrade. He routinely checks out time trial and triathlon bikes on Ebay. And every time he tells me he found a good one, we talk and decide we just can’t spare the money (between $800-$1500) to buy a new bike. Oh, how sometimes I want to say yes.
It doesn’t help that his brother just purchased a new bike last weekend and called Chuck over and over to talk about it. He’s excited obviously and wants his brother to share in that excitement. His brother’s bike was $7000 new and he got it slightly used for $3200. That is way out of our price range. But it just highlights for me that we are sacrificing, both of us, in order to give our family a more secure financial future.
Sometimes it’s just so tempting to blow some money on fun things though.
A new bike for Chuck is on our want list and while I may move it up in priority a notch or two, it will still be a while before we’re able to get Chuck a new bike. And today that’s bumming me out!
Chuck really loves bicycle racing (think Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, etc.). And in the past 18 months or so he’s become more and more involved in the sport himself. He does long group rides associated with various charities and fundraisers. There’s a ride coming up at the end of April that he and his brother are going to be doing. They’re just trying to figure out if they want to do the 65 or 100 mile course. And all summer long he’ll do more rides as well as duathlons.
Chuck has a bike. It’s a road bike that he bought off Ebay several years ago (before our financial epiphany and debt reduction activities started) for around $450. He also bought clip pedals and shoes and aero clip-on bars and has made it a usable bike. But he’d love to upgrade. He routinely checks out time trial and triathlon bikes on Ebay. And every time he tells me he found a good one, we talk and decide we just can’t spare the money (between $800-$1500) to buy a new bike. Oh, how sometimes I want to say yes.
It doesn’t help that his brother just purchased a new bike last weekend and called Chuck over and over to talk about it. He’s excited obviously and wants his brother to share in that excitement. His brother’s bike was $7000 new and he got it slightly used for $3200. That is way out of our price range. But it just highlights for me that we are sacrificing, both of us, in order to give our family a more secure financial future.
Sometimes it’s just so tempting to blow some money on fun things though.
A new bike for Chuck is on our want list and while I may move it up in priority a notch or two, it will still be a while before we’re able to get Chuck a new bike. And today that’s bumming me out!
Up and Down Mail Day
Our mail yesterday was very interesting.
Item #1 was my new GM credit card. I now have the flexible earnings card and they even upgraded my account to Platinum, whatever that gets me. Anyway, now I can redeem my points for cash or for a discount on a new vehicle. It's nice to have that flexibility.
Item #2 was an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from our insurance company. As I suspected, we owe $150 for my gestational diabetes counseling session. I haven't received the actual bill yet but that will probably be arriving in the next week or two. I'll have to budget this into the April budget. We'll have to use Chuck's tuition income to pay that. We do have $3000 in an HSA for the year but I think the hospital bills from the birth will eat that up and more possibly. If there is money left over in the HSA then I'll gather this bill and any other co-pays, etc. and submit them for reimbursement.
Item #3 was an unexpected surprise! It was a check for $342! Apparently we overpaid for something for Chuck and the hospital did an account reconciliation, saw the overpayment, and sent us a reimbursement check. The only thing I can think of is Chuck's appendectomy last August. He hasn't even been to the doctor other than that in the last year! There's a note on the check stub that we paid and our insurance company paid so they're sending us our money back. We'll gladly take our money back. And we'll deposit it into our checking account tomorrow. And as soon as it clears, it will be sent to the emergency fund - 100% of it.
Our mail isn't usually so full of non-junk mail items! It was one day I didn't mind getting the mail!
Item #1 was my new GM credit card. I now have the flexible earnings card and they even upgraded my account to Platinum, whatever that gets me. Anyway, now I can redeem my points for cash or for a discount on a new vehicle. It's nice to have that flexibility.
Item #2 was an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from our insurance company. As I suspected, we owe $150 for my gestational diabetes counseling session. I haven't received the actual bill yet but that will probably be arriving in the next week or two. I'll have to budget this into the April budget. We'll have to use Chuck's tuition income to pay that. We do have $3000 in an HSA for the year but I think the hospital bills from the birth will eat that up and more possibly. If there is money left over in the HSA then I'll gather this bill and any other co-pays, etc. and submit them for reimbursement.
Item #3 was an unexpected surprise! It was a check for $342! Apparently we overpaid for something for Chuck and the hospital did an account reconciliation, saw the overpayment, and sent us a reimbursement check. The only thing I can think of is Chuck's appendectomy last August. He hasn't even been to the doctor other than that in the last year! There's a note on the check stub that we paid and our insurance company paid so they're sending us our money back. We'll gladly take our money back. And we'll deposit it into our checking account tomorrow. And as soon as it clears, it will be sent to the emergency fund - 100% of it.
Our mail isn't usually so full of non-junk mail items! It was one day I didn't mind getting the mail!
Score!
Score! Tuesday my boss called me into his office. This is not that uncommon so I expected he had some question for me or was looking for some data or something else. Not this time though. This time he was calling me into his office to offer me two of the company tickets to the upcoming Minnesota Timberwolves game on Friday. I gladly accepted them, thanked him and went back to work. These tickets are awesome! They are $260 each at face value. They are row 1 on the bottom level. I will literally be courtside Friday night!
So, if you’re a Wolves fan or a San Antonio Spurs fan, check out the game and look for the geeky engineer in the first row! This will cost me a couple out-of-pocket dollars to go. I’ll have to pay for parking (unless my sister, who is going with me, picks up that amount). I’ll want a bit of spending money for a snack at the game. My gestational diabetes diet asks that I eat every couple hours and I’ll be at the game during my “evening snack” time. But those are minimal costs for a really nice evening out with my sister! I’m excited to go!
So, if you’re a Wolves fan or a San Antonio Spurs fan, check out the game and look for the geeky engineer in the first row! This will cost me a couple out-of-pocket dollars to go. I’ll have to pay for parking (unless my sister, who is going with me, picks up that amount). I’ll want a bit of spending money for a snack at the game. My gestational diabetes diet asks that I eat every couple hours and I’ll be at the game during my “evening snack” time. But those are minimal costs for a really nice evening out with my sister! I’m excited to go!
Baby Expenses
Last weekend, in a fit of nesting, I made a big list and drug the family out for a shopping trip. We have almost everything we need for this new baby due in April but there were a few things we needed to buy new. Among the items on the list were teeny-tiny diapers and wipes, new nipples for the bottles (we have the bottles themselves from the last two kids but I wanted new nipples), a new changing pad, some itty-bitty socks, etc. I also wanted a going-home-from-the-hospital outfit for the baby. I have one for each of the other two kids that I’ll keep for them. And I wanted one for this baby too. All together, we spent about $130 on items for the baby. I felt bad about this expensive shopping trip but not too bad. We didn’t have to buy a crib, stroller, dresser, bouncy seat, swing, high chair, etc. We have all of that. And now I feel 99% prepared for this baby. There are two small items for me that I need to pick up but otherwise we are ready.
This expense is a big chunk of our discretionary spending allotment for March. We’ll have to watch our spending the rest of the month to make sure we don’t go over our budget categories.
This expense is a big chunk of our discretionary spending allotment for March. We’ll have to watch our spending the rest of the month to make sure we don’t go over our budget categories.
Retirement Worries
If we were following Dave Ramsey's baby steps then technically we'd be in Baby Step #2 - pay off all debt - since we have an auto loan. Since our auto loan is at 0%, we're choosing instead to move on to baby step #3 - build an emergency fund. And we're just over one-third of the way funded on that goal. We still have a ways to go. I think baby step #4 is save for retirement. At least, after our emergency fund is funded that is what I plan on next. Sure, we'll be saving money for the basement and for travel but I also want to sock away more money for retirement.
Right now I'm putting 8% into my 401k and my company is (hopefully) temporarily matching that at 4%. So, 12% of my salary is going to my 401k. That's not too bad. Unfortunately, Chuck was putting in my less and his company match was less and he was making less and now he's not contributing at all. It's his retirement savings that have me worried. His balance is currently about one-third of what mine is. And I worry about that. I know we don't have money right now to save for his retirement, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about it. We won't be able to do anything about that this year. But I'm holding out hope that in 2011 we can have our emergency fund fully funded (or at least close maybe?) and that we can start a Roth IRA for Chuck with at least a $3K investment. I'm hoping I don't have to wait until 2012 to do this but that is a possibility.
Either way, retirement savings are on my mind today. And as of right now, that is my strategy. After we get Chuck's Roth IRA started then we'll work in 2012 to max out Roth IRA's for both of us. It's good to have goals and plan ahead. It takes some of the worry away for me, having a plan.
Right now I'm putting 8% into my 401k and my company is (hopefully) temporarily matching that at 4%. So, 12% of my salary is going to my 401k. That's not too bad. Unfortunately, Chuck was putting in my less and his company match was less and he was making less and now he's not contributing at all. It's his retirement savings that have me worried. His balance is currently about one-third of what mine is. And I worry about that. I know we don't have money right now to save for his retirement, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about it. We won't be able to do anything about that this year. But I'm holding out hope that in 2011 we can have our emergency fund fully funded (or at least close maybe?) and that we can start a Roth IRA for Chuck with at least a $3K investment. I'm hoping I don't have to wait until 2012 to do this but that is a possibility.
Either way, retirement savings are on my mind today. And as of right now, that is my strategy. After we get Chuck's Roth IRA started then we'll work in 2012 to max out Roth IRA's for both of us. It's good to have goals and plan ahead. It takes some of the worry away for me, having a plan.
Division of Paycheck
Friday Chuck received his first paycheck from his tutoring job. $278 was deposited into our account for his first two weeks of work. And he applied for his unemployment benefits last week and was still eligible for $169 in benefits plus the $25 economic stimulus payment. We’re pretty excited about still receiving unemployment benefits. We’re guessing he still qualifies because the hours and pay at his new job are pretty low compared to his old job. And we still have our eye out, checking the newspaper, etc. for other jobs. We have to if we want to continue to claim benefits. And a job with higher pay and more hours wouldn’t hurt either!
So now we have to decide what to do with the money. How do we want to partition it? We talked Saturday night and made some decisions.
All unemployment benefits received will continue to go to the tuition savings account. Chuck is looking at alterative LPN programs other than the spendy ($40K!) program he looked at in January and he may be able to do it for more the $10-$15K range. Either way, we’ll need more money saved up for this than we currently have. We’d like to avoid any student loan debt if we can.
But for the tutoring income we decided we’d use that a bit differently. First we’re going to pad our budget by $150 or so. I’m going to add a few dollars to the household, restaurant and miscellaneous categories. Household will go to $200 from about $150 now. Restaurants will go to $75 up from $50. And miscellaneous will be capped at $250 which is up from the $200 range. And those will be set limits each month. We should be able to stay within these numbers and not feel so tight each month. Granted, these numbers are still lower than our “old” budget so we’ll have to still watch our spending carefully but we won’t have to delay purchases as much because the budget is getting tight.
Next I’m going to divide the rest of Chuck’s income between two savings accounts. The first is the Christmas savings account. I’m going to add $25-$50 each month to that account so we have the money by December for our Christmas shopping. And the rest of the money is going to go to the emergency fund. It’s still very important to us to build that account to the $20K goal.
We’re going to continue to ignore the travel savings account and basement accounts for now. Of course we reserve the right to change our minds at any time! But for now, we’re going to focus on the Christmas savings and the emergency fund. The $50 going to the short term account will stay that way so we can splurge every once in a while on bigger ticket items or home improvements.
We’ll have to see after I’m back to work after maternity leave if we want to change any of these allocations. Our emergency fund will take a bit of a beating during my leave but hey, that’s what it’s there for, right?! By focusing on that account now and in the future, hopefully we can rebuild it and keep it growing.
So now we have to decide what to do with the money. How do we want to partition it? We talked Saturday night and made some decisions.
All unemployment benefits received will continue to go to the tuition savings account. Chuck is looking at alterative LPN programs other than the spendy ($40K!) program he looked at in January and he may be able to do it for more the $10-$15K range. Either way, we’ll need more money saved up for this than we currently have. We’d like to avoid any student loan debt if we can.
But for the tutoring income we decided we’d use that a bit differently. First we’re going to pad our budget by $150 or so. I’m going to add a few dollars to the household, restaurant and miscellaneous categories. Household will go to $200 from about $150 now. Restaurants will go to $75 up from $50. And miscellaneous will be capped at $250 which is up from the $200 range. And those will be set limits each month. We should be able to stay within these numbers and not feel so tight each month. Granted, these numbers are still lower than our “old” budget so we’ll have to still watch our spending carefully but we won’t have to delay purchases as much because the budget is getting tight.
Next I’m going to divide the rest of Chuck’s income between two savings accounts. The first is the Christmas savings account. I’m going to add $25-$50 each month to that account so we have the money by December for our Christmas shopping. And the rest of the money is going to go to the emergency fund. It’s still very important to us to build that account to the $20K goal.
We’re going to continue to ignore the travel savings account and basement accounts for now. Of course we reserve the right to change our minds at any time! But for now, we’re going to focus on the Christmas savings and the emergency fund. The $50 going to the short term account will stay that way so we can splurge every once in a while on bigger ticket items or home improvements.
We’ll have to see after I’m back to work after maternity leave if we want to change any of these allocations. Our emergency fund will take a bit of a beating during my leave but hey, that’s what it’s there for, right?! By focusing on that account now and in the future, hopefully we can rebuild it and keep it growing.
3/5/10 LIBOR Update
It's been almost a month since I checked the LIBOR rate. As of 3/5/10 (Friday), the rate is at 0.85063 which is just slightly higher than last month's rate of 0.85000. Come on LIBOR...stay low so my mortgage interest rate will drop in September!
2010 Goals Review - February Edition
Time to take a look at our 2010 goals and how we did against them in February. Here they are:
- Keep emergency fund above $6000. Our emergency fund is now over $7200! So far, so good!
- Stay under budget each month this year. We were $3.18 under budget in February. So we just squeaked in and made this goal.
- Save all Chuck's unemployment benefits for tuition money. Every penny has gone to the tuition fund. We've been able to live on my income and save all those benefits. Go us!
- Always have at least $250 in short term savings. We do. Goal achieved.
- Save at least $100 each month into our emergency fund. The $100 monthly budget contribution was saved along with a hefty snowflake and the rest of the January budget extra. Go us!
- All extra money (snowflakes) goes to the emergency fund. Done! We received a $90 snowflake in February and it went straight to the emergency fund.
- Money going to other savings accounts must be done only after the $100 goes into the emergency fund each month. Done! There was no extra money for other savings accounts this month and the January budget extra ($100) that I put in the Christmas savings account was only done after a very hefty sum was added to the emergency fund. Priorities still in check.
- Post at least 15 times here. I just squeaked this one in. 15 posts on the dot with two of them being on the last day of the month. Heh. I have three so far for this month, including this one, and I have other things I want to write about so hopefully I can keep writing every other day or so to reach this goal again this month.
February 2010 Budget Report
Here is our budget from February:
As you can see, we squeaked by with $3.18 left for the month! That's not a lot of margin but I'll take a positive number if I can get it.
We did pretty well in all of our discretionary budget categories too. Gas was pretty much on track. Groceries were awfully close. Household was a little high but not too bad. Restaurants I'm actually kind of proud of! We almost always go over in that budget! Discretionary came in under. And Jamison's birthday was a success and just a bit over budget. His gift from us was a 16" bike which I got off Amazon for $64.00. (I tried Craigslist and Ebay to find a used or new bike cheaper but just didn't have any luck.) The rest was spent on food for the party. We fed 12 people for about $40 and had leftovers. Not too bad!
March will be challenging. I've increased our gas budget to account for Chuck's now 4 day a week commute to work. And there is a weekend trip with the grandparents that will eat up a chunk of gas too. Luckily the grandparents will take care of the lodging with their timeshare and most of the meals so the rest of the budget should be OK. There are some decisions to be made about Chuck's tutoring income now though. See an upcoming post this week about how we decided what to do with it.
As you can see, we squeaked by with $3.18 left for the month! That's not a lot of margin but I'll take a positive number if I can get it.
We did pretty well in all of our discretionary budget categories too. Gas was pretty much on track. Groceries were awfully close. Household was a little high but not too bad. Restaurants I'm actually kind of proud of! We almost always go over in that budget! Discretionary came in under. And Jamison's birthday was a success and just a bit over budget. His gift from us was a 16" bike which I got off Amazon for $64.00. (I tried Craigslist and Ebay to find a used or new bike cheaper but just didn't have any luck.) The rest was spent on food for the party. We fed 12 people for about $40 and had leftovers. Not too bad!
March will be challenging. I've increased our gas budget to account for Chuck's now 4 day a week commute to work. And there is a weekend trip with the grandparents that will eat up a chunk of gas too. Luckily the grandparents will take care of the lodging with their timeshare and most of the meals so the rest of the budget should be OK. There are some decisions to be made about Chuck's tutoring income now though. See an upcoming post this week about how we decided what to do with it.
February 2010 Month End
February was a pretty good month for us. We were able to save according to our goals and plans and our spending was pretty in check! Hopefully we can keep the trend going!
Debts:
Truck Loan: $29,483.35 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Pretty boring update here. We'll keep making the minimum payments on this 0% interest debt so we can focus on savings.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,288.66 (+512.32) - Another nice increase this month. That's thanks to the $100 budget contribution, the $315.90 from the January budget, a nice snowflake and a bit of interest. Going up is always the right direction!
Short Term Savings: $683.93 (+50.02) - Another $50 budget contribution this month. We'll start watching the sales now so we can purchase our want item #1 (the bigger TV) in the next month or so. What a nice treat that will be for us!
Travel Fund: $274.78 (+0.25) - One day. One day we will travel. To someplace warm. Tropical. White sand. Beaches. Sorry - got carried away there for a second. It's, uh, been a long winter!
Christmas Savings: $258.56 (+100.18) - I deposited $100 in this account this month from our January budget. I'll have to look for more opportunities in the future to fund this account. For right now it's not a regular budget item.
Basement Finishing Fund: $402.48 (+0.36) - Dreaming again. Of a finished basement with an exercise room. And a family room with a media center. And a dedicated space for the family computer instead of in a corner of the master bedroom. Someday...
Tuition Fund: $2,693.08 (+808.93) - Another nice increase this month. All unemployment benefits have been transferred and the $232 Chuck received for last week is working it's way through the transfer system. We'll keep adding to this fund whatever benefits Chuck is able to qualify for.
You know what's really awesome? If everything fell apart today (knock on wood!) we have over $11,000 in savings if you add up all the different accounts up there. That will get us three months of living expenses at least. So even though the emergency fund is not where we want it to be yet, we do have quite a bit of money in savings. That knowledge is comforting to me.
Onward and upward for another month!
Debts:
Truck Loan: $29,483.35 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Pretty boring update here. We'll keep making the minimum payments on this 0% interest debt so we can focus on savings.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,288.66 (+512.32) - Another nice increase this month. That's thanks to the $100 budget contribution, the $315.90 from the January budget, a nice snowflake and a bit of interest. Going up is always the right direction!
Short Term Savings: $683.93 (+50.02) - Another $50 budget contribution this month. We'll start watching the sales now so we can purchase our want item #1 (the bigger TV) in the next month or so. What a nice treat that will be for us!
Travel Fund: $274.78 (+0.25) - One day. One day we will travel. To someplace warm. Tropical. White sand. Beaches. Sorry - got carried away there for a second. It's, uh, been a long winter!
Christmas Savings: $258.56 (+100.18) - I deposited $100 in this account this month from our January budget. I'll have to look for more opportunities in the future to fund this account. For right now it's not a regular budget item.
Basement Finishing Fund: $402.48 (+0.36) - Dreaming again. Of a finished basement with an exercise room. And a family room with a media center. And a dedicated space for the family computer instead of in a corner of the master bedroom. Someday...
Tuition Fund: $2,693.08 (+808.93) - Another nice increase this month. All unemployment benefits have been transferred and the $232 Chuck received for last week is working it's way through the transfer system. We'll keep adding to this fund whatever benefits Chuck is able to qualify for.
You know what's really awesome? If everything fell apart today (knock on wood!) we have over $11,000 in savings if you add up all the different accounts up there. That will get us three months of living expenses at least. So even though the emergency fund is not where we want it to be yet, we do have quite a bit of money in savings. That knowledge is comforting to me.
Onward and upward for another month!
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