Chuck received $100 from my dad for his birthday. There isn't anything Chuck wants to purchase at the moment so we've decided to add the money to the short term savings account. This will help us get to that TV faster! In the debt elimination days I would have been tempted to snowflake this to debt. Now in the emergency fund stage I'm tempted to add it to savings. But it's birthday money which is a different kind of snowflake. To me, that's fair game to spend frivolously!
My birthday is in a week. I expect to receive cash from my dad as well. And with my money I intend to purchase for myself a new pair of sandals since I threw my disintegrating pair out last fall and now have none to wear this summer! I'm also tempted to splurge for a massage. Or I'll throw the rest into the short term savings account to get us that TV faster too. Decisions, decisions!
What would you do with such a generous gift?
May LIBOR Rate Check
I just checked what the LIBOR rate is currently. As of today it's 1.21263. It's a bit higher than previous months. However, when you add 2.25 to that rate you get 3.46. Round that to the nearest 1/8th percent and you get 3.5%. An interest rate of 3.5% is none too shabby! I'll keep checking. The middle of July (around the 18th) is the rate of interest and will be what our new mortgage rate will reset to on September 1st. So far, so good!
Happy Birthday from Swagbucks!
Chuck's birthday was last week. The kids and I bought him a couple small things from Target and I told him he could pick out a couple more small things too. Today he did, a cadence meter for his bicycle and subscription to Bicycling magazine. And thanks to $25 of Amazon.com gift cards earned through Swagbucks, I was able to purchase his two extra gifts for $15! Thank you Swagbucks!
Collective Buying Power
Collective Buying Power, that's the tagline for Groupon's website. What's groupon? A website I joined recently where you can get discounts to local merchants. Each day the site e-mails me the "deal of the day" and if I'm interested in purchasing I can do so. If not, I delete and ignore. If enough people purchase that day's deal, usually a 100 minimum, everyone gets it. If not, no one does. And the deals are usually pretty good! Usually it's 50% off at a local restaurant or service provider. Last Thursday I purchased my first offer. It was for 58% off at a favorite restaurant of Chuck and I. I purchased a $25 gift card that will get me $60 worth of food at the restaurant. Sure, there are restrictions - it must be used by November 2010 and only 1 "groupon" per table unless there are five or more people, etc. But I can live with all the restrictions. And I'm excited to use our groupon in the coming months!
Baby Expenses
Our new son is already adding expenses to our budget this month. Of course there's the diapers and other necessities but so far this month I've already spent $40 on doctor's co-pays and $16 on prescriptions. Liam has a blocked tear duct that has become infected twice now. Last week brought a $20 doctor co-pay and a prescription for an eye drop. Because he was still so new then (less than two weeks old!) he wasn't on our insurance yet so I had to pay for the prescription out of pocket. It cost $43.99.
Today I brought him back in to the doctor as the goopy eye had returned. That meant another $20 co-pay and another prescription. When I picked up today's prescription it had successfully been billed to our insurance. The cost? $4.08. Nice! And I had brought last week's receipt with me too. They re-billed that prescription to the insurance and refunded me the $43.99. The new cost once insurance had paid their portion? $12.66.
We're also trying to open the tear duct with massage. Hopefully it opens soon so we don't have to worry about this any more!
I'll be updating our budget spreadsheet tomorrow to see how we're doing this month. We still have a couple expenses coming up (a birthday gift for a friend of Anya's and a bridal shower gift for my cousin's fiance) so I'll have to see how we're doing so far.
Today I brought him back in to the doctor as the goopy eye had returned. That meant another $20 co-pay and another prescription. When I picked up today's prescription it had successfully been billed to our insurance. The cost? $4.08. Nice! And I had brought last week's receipt with me too. They re-billed that prescription to the insurance and refunded me the $43.99. The new cost once insurance had paid their portion? $12.66.
We're also trying to open the tear duct with massage. Hopefully it opens soon so we don't have to worry about this any more!
I'll be updating our budget spreadsheet tomorrow to see how we're doing this month. We still have a couple expenses coming up (a birthday gift for a friend of Anya's and a bridal shower gift for my cousin's fiance) so I'll have to see how we're doing so far.
Bill #2
The anesthesiologist's bill came in the mail yesterday. Original amount was $1190.20. The insurance discount was $217.48 and insurance paid $777.44 leaving me with a $195.28 bill. Almost $200 for a two minute procedure (putting the epidural in). Was it worth it? YES! My baby decided to come out one of the most difficult ways possible (face up with his hand up by his face so an arm came out with his shoulder). My midwife commented I should be very grateful I had that epidural as that would have been one painful birth otherwise!
So far we're up to $1250 in hospital bills. Liam's bills haven't come yet. Most likely that is because it took a little while to get him added to the insurance so it will take a bit longer for those bills to be submitted and paid by insurance and then the rest billed out to me.
My plan for these hospital bills is to pay them at the beginning of June with a credit card. That way I can earn cash back rewards. Then I'll submit them for reimbursement from our HSA right away. I should have the money back from the HSA before my credit card bill is then due in July! That way no money would have to come out of savings and I get the cash back rewards. My next task is to log in to my workplace website and find the HSA forms to print out, fill out and send in.
So far we're up to $1250 in hospital bills. Liam's bills haven't come yet. Most likely that is because it took a little while to get him added to the insurance so it will take a bit longer for those bills to be submitted and paid by insurance and then the rest billed out to me.
My plan for these hospital bills is to pay them at the beginning of June with a credit card. That way I can earn cash back rewards. Then I'll submit them for reimbursement from our HSA right away. I should have the money back from the HSA before my credit card bill is then due in July! That way no money would have to come out of savings and I get the cash back rewards. My next task is to log in to my workplace website and find the HSA forms to print out, fill out and send in.
1st Birth Bill
We received our first bill in the mail yesterday for Liam's birth. It was for my portion of the hospital stay and was $1047.96. The total charges were $9570.50 and my insurance had a discount of $5324.53 and then paid $3198.01 bringing us down to the final amount for us. I don't have an Explanation Of Benefits (EOB) from my insurance company yet to know what this amount covers. I assume it's my portion of the birth (medications, midwife, nurses, etc.) and hospital room charges. I assume it does not cover the anesthesiologist for my epidural. It also does not cover any of Liam's charges.
We have $3000 in an Health Savings Account (HSA) that I'm hoping will cover all the bills. If it does not, we'll have to dip into the emergency fund to cover the rest. If there is some money left over in the HSA then we'll start gathering other eligible expenses (the $170 ultrasound charge, co-pays for doctors visits, receipts for over the counter medications, etc.) to send in for reimbursement.
We have $3000 in an Health Savings Account (HSA) that I'm hoping will cover all the bills. If it does not, we'll have to dip into the emergency fund to cover the rest. If there is some money left over in the HSA then we'll start gathering other eligible expenses (the $170 ultrasound charge, co-pays for doctors visits, receipts for over the counter medications, etc.) to send in for reimbursement.
2010 Goals Review - April Edition
Time to take a look at our 2010 goals and how we did against them in April. Here they are:
- Keep emergency fund above $6000. We're still over $7000 even though we had to dip into it for our 2009 taxes. I'm hoping to add to it this month.
- Stay under budget each month this year. Yeah...we failed again at this one. Time to whip ourselves back into shape.
- Save all Chuck's unemployment benefits for tuition money. Again all money went to the tuition account. It's really growing quickly!
- Always have at least $250 in short term savings. Check.
- Save at least $100 each month into our emergency fund. Not this month. I actually took out $335 for taxes. I should be able to put in more than $100 this month though.
- All extra money (snowflakes) goes to the emergency fund. If I had snowflakes in April they would have gone towards the taxes but since I didn't have any, this is a moot point.
- Money going to other savings accounts must be done only after the $100 goes into the emergency fund each month. No money went to savings unfortunately.
- Post at least 15 times here. Check!
April 2010 Budget Report
Ugh. That's all I have to say about April. We blew it. Big time. Most of the problems were due to lack of planning although there was one miscalculation and one estimation error on my part too. Here's how we did:
And now for the breakdown of the red:
Income: Right off the bat I was slightly off in estimating what Chuck's take home pay would be. That put us $13 in the hole to start off. Not too terrible but not great either.
Gas: We were $70 over in the gas budget. Some of this was less car-pooling time for me due to my doctor's appointments and commitments/sick time for my car-pooling buddy. And part of that was another fill-up for the truck. Those typically run $50 or so. With the unexpected trip to Rochester to visit Chuck's sick grandfather, we needed another tank of gas.
Restaurants: Whoa. We completely blew this budget. Chuck's trips out of town coaching did us in. As did the last minute meal we ate out the night before I was induced. It was a "well, we'd better eat out now because it will be a while before we do this again!" kind of meal. And it was $40. We must, simply must, keep this in check better in the future.
Website renewal: I thought this was going to be $85 but instead it was $110, a miscalculation on my part. This is for the domain name I own and the hosting of that domain name. This is for a year+ of hosting. It's just over $7/month. This is for my personal blog.
There were a couple of areas we came in under budget: groceries, household and discretionary. Unfortunately, those were not enough to offset the damage done.
Yikes. May will be better. It has to be!
And now for the breakdown of the red:
Income: Right off the bat I was slightly off in estimating what Chuck's take home pay would be. That put us $13 in the hole to start off. Not too terrible but not great either.
Gas: We were $70 over in the gas budget. Some of this was less car-pooling time for me due to my doctor's appointments and commitments/sick time for my car-pooling buddy. And part of that was another fill-up for the truck. Those typically run $50 or so. With the unexpected trip to Rochester to visit Chuck's sick grandfather, we needed another tank of gas.
Restaurants: Whoa. We completely blew this budget. Chuck's trips out of town coaching did us in. As did the last minute meal we ate out the night before I was induced. It was a "well, we'd better eat out now because it will be a while before we do this again!" kind of meal. And it was $40. We must, simply must, keep this in check better in the future.
Website renewal: I thought this was going to be $85 but instead it was $110, a miscalculation on my part. This is for the domain name I own and the hosting of that domain name. This is for a year+ of hosting. It's just over $7/month. This is for my personal blog.
There were a couple of areas we came in under budget: groceries, household and discretionary. Unfortunately, those were not enough to offset the damage done.
Yikes. May will be better. It has to be!
Close Call
This morning the house was 65 degrees. Here in good ol' Minnesota we still have the furnace on and it's May 6th. That is just sad. But the highs for the next couple days are supposed to be in the mid-50's. It's just too cold in the house for the itty bitty baby. Anyway, the thermostat was set to 67 degrees. Do you see the disconnect? The furnace wasn't kicking in. Not good. Not good at all. Chuck played around with the thermostat. If you turn it to fan only on or turn the air conditioner on, then the fan kicks in. When you turn it to heat, no fan. OK, time to go troubleshoot the furnace.
After 30 minutes or so, Chuck had it figured out. The condenser tube was blocked. He cleaned it out and the furnace is now running. Whew! The whole time he was working on it I had visions of repairmen in my head with lots of dollar signs floating around. I'm glad Chuck was able to take care of it. Now that was close!
After 30 minutes or so, Chuck had it figured out. The condenser tube was blocked. He cleaned it out and the furnace is now running. Whew! The whole time he was working on it I had visions of repairmen in my head with lots of dollar signs floating around. I'm glad Chuck was able to take care of it. Now that was close!
$50 Cash Back
We've reached the $50 mark on our Discover credit card rewards and have requested a direct deposit into our checking account. As soon as it posts, it will be snowflaked to the emergency fund. Using our credit card for day to day expenses has reaped its first reward! We continue to pay off the balances in full each month, taking advantage of the rewards without paying any interest.
April 2010 Month End
April is done and gone. It went about as I expected for these accounts. May, June and July will be interesting with me on maternity leave and reduced income. But for now, let's focus on April:
Debts:
Truck Loan: $28,603.25 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,522.43 (-328.10) - This is the first time this year (and in quite a while) that this account has gone down in a month. I had to take out some money to cover our income taxes. This account should grow again in May while I'm still receiving paychecks due to short term disability but then will probably go down again in June and July. That's OK though, that's why this money is here! And it was a very good feeling to reassure my mother last week that we have more than enough money in savings to cover my unpaid time off.
Short Term Savings: $593.01 (-140.94) - Well, I got my wish from last month and we purchased and installed a storm/screen door using money saved in this account. A nice big purchase paid for with cash - gotta love that! Next on the list is the TV, unless something gets re-prioritzed again!
Travel Fund: $275.29 (+0.25) - No contribution this month. Traveling is on hold for now.
Christmas Savings: $284.07 (+0.26) - Nothing contributed during April. There were too many other expenses this month.
Basement Finishing Fund: $403.21 (+0.36) - No contribution this month. Our priorities are elsewhere right now.
Tuition Fund: $4,620.75 (+842.72) - Every cent of unemployment money is going to this account and it's adding up fast! An interesting discussion with my labor nurse on the nursing field and Chuck going back to school led to another lead for a local technical college, one we had never heard of before then! She was able to get an RN degree (two year, not four year) for only $2500! It took 2 years but the cost was so low because she only had to do her nursing classes because she had a 4 year degree already (she too had gone back to school). And she did it while also working full time which may be why it took two years to do. That school is definitely one we'll look into for Chuck. Since he too already has a 4 year degree, maybe he too could only take the nursing classes. Hmm...
So there was our April. Not too bad I think and now onto May.
Debts:
Truck Loan: $28,603.25 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,522.43 (-328.10) - This is the first time this year (and in quite a while) that this account has gone down in a month. I had to take out some money to cover our income taxes. This account should grow again in May while I'm still receiving paychecks due to short term disability but then will probably go down again in June and July. That's OK though, that's why this money is here! And it was a very good feeling to reassure my mother last week that we have more than enough money in savings to cover my unpaid time off.
Short Term Savings: $593.01 (-140.94) - Well, I got my wish from last month and we purchased and installed a storm/screen door using money saved in this account. A nice big purchase paid for with cash - gotta love that! Next on the list is the TV, unless something gets re-prioritzed again!
Travel Fund: $275.29 (+0.25) - No contribution this month. Traveling is on hold for now.
Christmas Savings: $284.07 (+0.26) - Nothing contributed during April. There were too many other expenses this month.
Basement Finishing Fund: $403.21 (+0.36) - No contribution this month. Our priorities are elsewhere right now.
Tuition Fund: $4,620.75 (+842.72) - Every cent of unemployment money is going to this account and it's adding up fast! An interesting discussion with my labor nurse on the nursing field and Chuck going back to school led to another lead for a local technical college, one we had never heard of before then! She was able to get an RN degree (two year, not four year) for only $2500! It took 2 years but the cost was so low because she only had to do her nursing classes because she had a 4 year degree already (she too had gone back to school). And she did it while also working full time which may be why it took two years to do. That school is definitely one we'll look into for Chuck. Since he too already has a 4 year degree, maybe he too could only take the nursing classes. Hmm...
So there was our April. Not too bad I think and now onto May.
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