Chuck and I have some issues with impulse purchases. I'm not talking about the bag of chips we'll throw into the cart when at Target or the spur of the moment I'm-tired-of-cooking-let's-order-a-pizza-or-go-out-to-eat splurges. No, Chuck and I like to impulse purchase large things apparently. There was the time we impulse purchased a tree. (In that post I talk about buying four trees. We had only planned on three and bought a fourth tree on impulse while at the nursery!). Then there was the time we impulse bought gutters. Gutters! Who impulsively buys gutters? I guess we do. Well, on Sunday we impulsively bought a 46" LCD HDTV, striking off Want Item #1 on our list. Yikes!
Here's how it happened. We were on our way home from visiting Chuck's grandfather who is still recovering from a stroke. As we were driving Chuck received a cell phone call from his brother telling us Ultimate Electronics was having a huge clearance sale on TVs and that we should check it out. Well, there was an Ultimate Electronics on our way home so we stopped in. And they were having a big sale! We ended up with a brand new, in the box, Mitsubishi LT-46151 46" 1080p, 120Hz LCD HDTV. (There are three separate review links there for you to see if you'd like.) And we love it! We read some reviews online and the only thing people are really complaining about is that the screen can sometimes have a bad glare on it. We haven't noticed that on ours but maybe that's because of the layout of our living room and where it sits on the TV stand.
Anyway, the MSRP on the TV is $2199. Sale prices found online today range from $979 (clearance on Amazon) to $1439. We got it for $886! We did purchase the 4 year TV repair plan for $189. If we don't use that repair plan at all then at the end of the four years we get half the money back in store credit which we could use to purchase a Blue-Ray player or Wii games or something else at that time. With tax the final purchase price was $1139.68. I know - that's more than we have in the short term savings account. Chuck and I decided to use some of the money from our other savings accounts to offset the difference. The short term savings account has $893 in it right now with the addition of our birthday money and the $50 monthly budget contribution. That leaves almost $500 that needs to come from other accounts. I'll take $400 out of the basement account and $100 out of the travel account to make up the difference. Ouch. Those are big chunks of money to take out of those accounts, dropping them both to almost zero. But we did this with our eyes open and we're happy with our purchase. And we've decided to re-do our Want List as there are some new items we'd like to add to the list and maybe re-prioritize the list as well. Watch for that new list in the next few days.
Payroll Issues
My six weeks of paid short term disability (maternity leave) was up on June 8th. After that my boss entered two weeks of vacation time for me from June 9th through June 22nd. Then from June 23rd through July 20th I'll be on unpaid short term disability to finish out my twelve weeks of maternity leave. On the 18th of June I received my paycheck for the last of my disability pay plus three days of vacation (the 9th through the 11th). There was one problem. They had zeroed out my 24 hours of vacation time. Yikes! I called up my employee help line Monday morning (the 21st) to get this resolved right away. I need that money! Luckily everyone was very helpful (the payroll representative had to contact my boss and there was paperwork for someone to fill out and I'm not even sure what else) and Friday afternoon (the 25th) a very nice payroll representative called me to say the issue had been resolved and a direct deposit was being initiated immediately for the missing 24 hours of pay. I checked my checking account this morning and I do, in fact, have a deposit incoming. Whew!
The payroll representative is also going to be watching my next paycheck to make sure the other seven days of vacation I have entered get processed correctly. That paycheck is due to me July 2nd, this Friday.
Speaking of July paychecks...this July is a three paycheck month for me (in theory) with my pay dates falling on the 2nd, 16th and 30th of the month. This is going to work out quite nicely for me. I'll receive a paycheck on the 2nd with seven days of vacation pay on it. Then the 16th will be a zero dollar paycheck (ouch) and then the 30th will be a paycheck with three days of regular pay on it as I'll be back to work on the 21st. That means that I'll bring in 10 days or two weeks of pay in the month of July. And my August paychecks will be back to normal. So, even though I'm taking four weeks off without pay, in looking at the budget, because of July being a three paycheck month, it will only look like I'm missing two weeks of pay. This is a very good thing for the savings account. I should be able to take out a lot less than I was anticipating to get us through July. Yay for three paycheck months!
The payroll representative is also going to be watching my next paycheck to make sure the other seven days of vacation I have entered get processed correctly. That paycheck is due to me July 2nd, this Friday.
Speaking of July paychecks...this July is a three paycheck month for me (in theory) with my pay dates falling on the 2nd, 16th and 30th of the month. This is going to work out quite nicely for me. I'll receive a paycheck on the 2nd with seven days of vacation pay on it. Then the 16th will be a zero dollar paycheck (ouch) and then the 30th will be a paycheck with three days of regular pay on it as I'll be back to work on the 21st. That means that I'll bring in 10 days or two weeks of pay in the month of July. And my August paychecks will be back to normal. So, even though I'm taking four weeks off without pay, in looking at the budget, because of July being a three paycheck month, it will only look like I'm missing two weeks of pay. This is a very good thing for the savings account. I should be able to take out a lot less than I was anticipating to get us through July. Yay for three paycheck months!
MN Zoo Family Membership
Friday we went to the Minnesota Zoo with six other friends and their kids. It was a great day with some pretty great friends. This day has been planned for about a month and I thought I could absorb the admission cost into our discretionary budget for the month. When we got to the zoo though and they rang up our admission, it was going to be $57 for our family of five (really 4 as the baby was free) to go to the zoo for just the one day. One day! Yikes! Then we looked and a year long membership for our entire family was only $95. So we splurged and bought the membership. We plan on going back a couple times yet this summer. Each time will be free and even if we only go back one time in the next year we'll have saved money! The zoo is only 25 minutes from our house and our kids really enjoy going and five of those six friends have memberships too so we can all go back together anytime we want.
Now, $95 was definitely not in our budget for this month. As it is I'm afraid we'll be over. So, I've decided to take $95 from our travel savings account to pay for this membership. Little by little I'll repay that savings account and for the next year we have free entertainment!
Now, $95 was definitely not in our budget for this month. As it is I'm afraid we'll be over. So, I've decided to take $95 from our travel savings account to pay for this membership. Little by little I'll repay that savings account and for the next year we have free entertainment!
Decision on Mortgage "Extra"
Oops! Hit publish before I typed anything! Let's blame the baby sleeping on my chest for that one, okay? It makes typing a bit harder than usual.
In order to decide if the mortgage "extra" money should go to the principal of the mortgage or to the emergency fund, I decided to look at the numbers.
So, like the good little engineer that I am, I made a spreadsheet to see where our mortgage would be in two years if we continued to pay only the minimum. I didn't change the interest rate so these are conservative numbers. Anyway, in two years our mortgage principal should be around $215.5k. We're currently paying ~$380 each month in principal with that amount going up a little less than $2 each month. So, in 24 months (or September 2012), we should be about $10k lower than we are now.
Next up is house value. When I said in my last post that I thought we could sell our house for $210k, that was just a guesstimate. To get a more accurate number I went to zillow.com and did a little research. When I put in my actual house information it comes up with a value of $193k. I know that isn't right. How? Because zillow lists my house as being 848 square feet. That's the foundation size but my house is a two story so the actual square footage is 1696 square feet. I can't go in and correct the information unfortunately. Instead, I found a house in my neighborhood with the exact same floor plan/square footage and similar amenities and looked at its information. It last sold on 12/9/09 for $212k. I guess my guesstimate wasn't too far off! This house would be used as a comp in any home appraisal we had done. And according to zillow, this same house would be approximately $216k on 6/1/10.
So, what does this mean? If house prices stay the same or rise a little bit, we'd be at a break even point on our mortgage in two years and could probably re-finance if we needed or wanted to. We'd have to either do an 80/20 or pay PMI at that time but we could figure that out then.
Because of this information, I'm inclined to put the money in our emergency fund. It looks like the house stuff will take care of itself but the emergency fund is still not even half funded and I'd like to focus there.
Oh, and for my information, a house with my same floor plan/square footage but with a finished basement is currently listed for $269k. If we spent $25k on finishing the basement (completely doable as our neighbors did it for $23k two years ago) then we might even be ahead! ($225k mortgage + $25k basement finishing = $250k which is less than $269k list price!) All the more reason to finish the basement and enjoy it before we decide to move elsewhere!
In order to decide if the mortgage "extra" money should go to the principal of the mortgage or to the emergency fund, I decided to look at the numbers.
So, like the good little engineer that I am, I made a spreadsheet to see where our mortgage would be in two years if we continued to pay only the minimum. I didn't change the interest rate so these are conservative numbers. Anyway, in two years our mortgage principal should be around $215.5k. We're currently paying ~$380 each month in principal with that amount going up a little less than $2 each month. So, in 24 months (or September 2012), we should be about $10k lower than we are now.
Next up is house value. When I said in my last post that I thought we could sell our house for $210k, that was just a guesstimate. To get a more accurate number I went to zillow.com and did a little research. When I put in my actual house information it comes up with a value of $193k. I know that isn't right. How? Because zillow lists my house as being 848 square feet. That's the foundation size but my house is a two story so the actual square footage is 1696 square feet. I can't go in and correct the information unfortunately. Instead, I found a house in my neighborhood with the exact same floor plan/square footage and similar amenities and looked at its information. It last sold on 12/9/09 for $212k. I guess my guesstimate wasn't too far off! This house would be used as a comp in any home appraisal we had done. And according to zillow, this same house would be approximately $216k on 6/1/10.
So, what does this mean? If house prices stay the same or rise a little bit, we'd be at a break even point on our mortgage in two years and could probably re-finance if we needed or wanted to. We'd have to either do an 80/20 or pay PMI at that time but we could figure that out then.
Because of this information, I'm inclined to put the money in our emergency fund. It looks like the house stuff will take care of itself but the emergency fund is still not even half funded and I'd like to focus there.
Oh, and for my information, a house with my same floor plan/square footage but with a finished basement is currently listed for $269k. If we spent $25k on finishing the basement (completely doable as our neighbors did it for $23k two years ago) then we might even be ahead! ($225k mortgage + $25k basement finishing = $250k which is less than $269k list price!) All the more reason to finish the basement and enjoy it before we decide to move elsewhere!
"Extra" Mortgage Money
Anonymous made a really thoughtful comment on my LIBOR rate post from a couple days ago. Why not put the "extra" money from the reduced mortgage interest rate into the emergency fund? That way we could build the fund faster so we could then focus on saving for the basement, vacation, etc. That's my exact argument for doing such a thing. Let's get that emergency fund out of the way so we can save for fun stuff!!!
However, on the flip side, we're upside-down on our mortgage right now. We owe $225K and we could probably sell it for $210K right now I think. It's great that our interest rate is going down this year so I don't have to worry about re-financing us out of our ARM just yet. However, I couldn't re-finance now even if I wanted to! The reason to put the "extra" money to the principal is to lower it such that we're no longer upside-down. That way, when our interest rate does rise too high (it can swing up to 2% a year so we have 2 years or so before we'd get too worried about it) we can re-finance. I'm not going to even guess at what the housing market will do between now and two years from now. Will our market value rise enough on it's own to bring us back to even? Let's not bet on that.
So, would it be wiser to put the money in the emergency fund or to the principal of the mortgage? I'm inclined to say emergency fund such that if we wanted or needed to refinance we could always pull the money out of savings and pay off some principal with it but on the other hand, the mortgage is our loan with interest we're paying right now and I'd really like to see that balance go down! More opinions please!
However, on the flip side, we're upside-down on our mortgage right now. We owe $225K and we could probably sell it for $210K right now I think. It's great that our interest rate is going down this year so I don't have to worry about re-financing us out of our ARM just yet. However, I couldn't re-finance now even if I wanted to! The reason to put the "extra" money to the principal is to lower it such that we're no longer upside-down. That way, when our interest rate does rise too high (it can swing up to 2% a year so we have 2 years or so before we'd get too worried about it) we can re-finance. I'm not going to even guess at what the housing market will do between now and two years from now. Will our market value rise enough on it's own to bring us back to even? Let's not bet on that.
So, would it be wiser to put the money in the emergency fund or to the principal of the mortgage? I'm inclined to say emergency fund such that if we wanted or needed to refinance we could always pull the money out of savings and pay off some principal with it but on the other hand, the mortgage is our loan with interest we're paying right now and I'd really like to see that balance go down! More opinions please!
Consignment Stores?
I had a great question asked in my last garage sale post about consignment stores. I have to admit that I don't go to them very often. Each time I do I'm so discouraged. Maybe I'm going to the wrong stores or maybe they're just not a good deal (to me) in my area but I feel like I strike out each time. Why pay $5 to $9 for a used pair of "brand name" pants when I can go to Target or Kohl's and get my kids brand new pants (including brand name like Levi, etc.) for $9 to $15? And the used clothing looks used - knees that are starting to wear, shirts that are pilling, etc. So, no, I usually look for bargains at regular stores and build my kids' wardrobes that way. When I do go to consignment shops I only purchase clothing that looks new so it will hopefully last longer but don't feel like I'm always getting the best deal.
It's great that others have good luck at those shops. Maybe I just don't have the patience to go through all the racks to find the great deals? Whatever it is, I usually just look for great sales or use coupons and never pay that much for their clothes. Tell me the consignment stores secrets so I can have better luck next time?
It's great that others have good luck at those shops. Maybe I just don't have the patience to go through all the racks to find the great deals? Whatever it is, I usually just look for great sales or use coupons and never pay that much for their clothes. Tell me the consignment stores secrets so I can have better luck next time?
June LIBOR Rate Check
We're one month away from decision day. What will our new interest rate be on our adjustable rate mortgage? Right now our interest rate is 5.125%.
Back in February when I dug out our mortgage papers, they said the rate could go as low as 2.25% or as high as 10.125%. But, it will depend on what the LIBOR rate is 45 days out from September 1st, our change date. Last month the rate was at 1.21263 which meant our mortgage rate would reset at 3.5% (1.21263 + 2.25 and rounded to the nearest 1/8th).
Checking today I see the rate is at 1.18875. Adding 2.25 to that and rounding to the nearest 1/8th gives us a rate of 3.5% again although with the small reduction we are awfully close to rounding down to 3.375% instead. So far it looks like we're going to luck out and our interest rate will drop on September 1st. I sure hope so!
Now, what to do with the "extra" money in the budget each month...add it to the emergency fund? Keep paying the same amount to the mortgage and have the "extra" go to the principal? Spend it frivolously? Well, maybe not that last one. Chuck and I will have to decide between the first two options I think.
Back in February when I dug out our mortgage papers, they said the rate could go as low as 2.25% or as high as 10.125%. But, it will depend on what the LIBOR rate is 45 days out from September 1st, our change date. Last month the rate was at 1.21263 which meant our mortgage rate would reset at 3.5% (1.21263 + 2.25 and rounded to the nearest 1/8th).
Checking today I see the rate is at 1.18875. Adding 2.25 to that and rounding to the nearest 1/8th gives us a rate of 3.5% again although with the small reduction we are awfully close to rounding down to 3.375% instead. So far it looks like we're going to luck out and our interest rate will drop on September 1st. I sure hope so!
Now, what to do with the "extra" money in the budget each month...add it to the emergency fund? Keep paying the same amount to the mortgage and have the "extra" go to the principal? Spend it frivolously? Well, maybe not that last one. Chuck and I will have to decide between the first two options I think.
Garage Sale Money Spent
Well, easy come and even easier go! Sunday we went shopping and spent all our garage sale money. We brought in $92 (after a very late sale to my sister to add $2 to our total!) and we spent $96 on new clothes for Chuck and Anya. Chuck got two new button down shirts and two new khaki pairs of pants for work. Anya got two sundresses (one which she can wear to a family wedding in July) and two pairs of denim shorts. Eight pieces of new clothing for $96. That averages to $12/piece. Not too bad I think!
And now everybody should be set for a while with clothing. The kids need some more pajamas but I've been buying those slowly, like a new pair a month for the past couple months. If only they would stop growing so quickly! Or not. I love my healthy, growing children. I just have to keep my eye out for bargains!
And now everybody should be set for a while with clothing. The kids need some more pajamas but I've been buying those slowly, like a new pair a month for the past couple months. If only they would stop growing so quickly! Or not. I love my healthy, growing children. I just have to keep my eye out for bargains!
Garage Sale!
Friday and Saturday my sister and I had a garage sale at her house. We both had a ton of stuff to sell. Unfortunately we also had poor weather. It was rainy and cool and I think that kept some people from going out and perusing the local sales. We did pretty well overall though. My sister came away with $165 in cash and I now have $90 (with a few extra dollars from my purse thrown in)!
It was my intention that this money would go straight into the emergency fund just like my goals state (all snowflakes go to emergency fund). However, we've neglected Chuck's wardrobe for so long that he could really use some new clothing. And my daughter has outgrown most of her summer clothing with a growth spurt last fall. And my middle son could also use some new shorts for summer. So, I think instead of stretching our budget super thin this month and next month we're going to use our garage sale proceeds to re-stock the drawers. We have a 20% off entire order coupon for Kohl's and a $25 gift card for Target. Between those two, some bargain hunting and the cash we have from the sale, I think we can get everybody outfitted with necessities again.
Just today my next door neighbor expressed interest in having a garage sale with me this summer so I think instead of donating everything that's left from this sale (and there is still a lot left) that I'll bring it all back home (which is just around the block fortunately!)and have another sale in a few weeks instead. And in the mean time I'll take another look through the closets and basement and I'm sure I can find more items to sell. Have you had a garage/yard sale recently? Sold anything on E-bay or Craigslist? Have you had any luck?
It was my intention that this money would go straight into the emergency fund just like my goals state (all snowflakes go to emergency fund). However, we've neglected Chuck's wardrobe for so long that he could really use some new clothing. And my daughter has outgrown most of her summer clothing with a growth spurt last fall. And my middle son could also use some new shorts for summer. So, I think instead of stretching our budget super thin this month and next month we're going to use our garage sale proceeds to re-stock the drawers. We have a 20% off entire order coupon for Kohl's and a $25 gift card for Target. Between those two, some bargain hunting and the cash we have from the sale, I think we can get everybody outfitted with necessities again.
Just today my next door neighbor expressed interest in having a garage sale with me this summer so I think instead of donating everything that's left from this sale (and there is still a lot left) that I'll bring it all back home (which is just around the block fortunately!)and have another sale in a few weeks instead. And in the mean time I'll take another look through the closets and basement and I'm sure I can find more items to sell. Have you had a garage/yard sale recently? Sold anything on E-bay or Craigslist? Have you had any luck?
2010 Goals Review - May Edition
It's almost the middle of June. It's about time I took a look at our goals and how we did against them in May! Here they are:
- Keep emergency fund above $6000. We're almost at $8000 now!
- Stay under budget each month this year. We made it with a bit left to spare - all thanks to Chuck bringing home more income than I had planned.
- 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. Done! Over $400 went to the emergency fund!
- All extra money (snowflakes) goes to the emergency fund. Done! My $50 Discover card reward money went directly to the emergency fund.
- Money going to other savings accounts must be done only after the $100 goes into the emergency fund each month. Check! I did put money in the basement, travel and Christmas savings but only after the emergency fund money was transferred.
- Post at least 15 times here. Fail! I only posted 12 times. You guys will forgive me since I also had a brand new infant in May, right??
New Stroller
I made the decision a couple weeks ago that we needed a new stroller. We already have two strollers. One is a jogging stroller but the front tire doesn't turn which makes it very difficult to steer the stroller. I'd like to sell this one but I'll need to talk to Chuck about that first. Our other stroller is a very cheap and tiny umbrella stroller. With our older two children we always used a Baby Bjorn to carry them everywhere instead of using a stroller very much. And when they got older we used the umbrella stroller (which is too short for Chuck so I ended up pushing it usually). However now with three children the Bjorn is proving to be not quite as useful. Oh, we still use it but only in the house when we need our hands free and the baby still wants to be held. When we're out and about it's not quite as convenient we've found. So, I put a bit of extra money in the budget this month (meaning not quite as much in savings) so we could purchase a new stroller. And then I went researching. With the help of my sister, I've found a great deal on a stroller with excellent reviews. It's a Combi Strolee 2010 Stroller with a list price of $99.94. I paid $47.16 for it with free shipping! You have to love those online coupon codes! The stroller should arrive this Thursday, just in time for the weekend!
Birthday Money
As expected, I too received money for my birthday from my Dad. $100 to be exact. And I've decided to put it all in the short term savings account so we can purchase a new TV between now and August. With my $100, Chuck's $100 and the $50 budget contribution this month, we should have $893 in the account by the end of this month. And so by August we should have $993 with two more monthly budget contributions of $50 each. Since we need to leave $250 in there, that would leave us with $743 for a new TV. We should be able to find a 42" LCD HDTV for that much. We'll have to see if we can find a 1080p, 120Hz TV for that much. I just checked Best Buy and there is one right now (this one) on sale for $699.99. With sales tax that should come out at just about $743. We could supplement a bit if needed from the regular budget I'm sure. So, the new TV is on the horizon. That's a good thing since our main TV in the house has a yellow spot in the upper right part of the screen and an occasional big green spot on the middle left portion of the screen. It's slowly dying on us. I'm excited to watch football in HD this fall!
I'm also a spoiled brat. But you knew that right? In addition to the money from my dad I also received $20 from my in-laws, $25 from my mom and a $30 gift card to LOFT from my sister. I see shopping in my future! I'm going to use part of the money to buy myself some new sandals and the rest to purchase some new summer clothing. And I'll be shopping with my sister who is becoming quite the masterful bargain hunter! She can always find coupons or coupon codes for online shopping. I can't wait!
I'm also a spoiled brat. But you knew that right? In addition to the money from my dad I also received $20 from my in-laws, $25 from my mom and a $30 gift card to LOFT from my sister. I see shopping in my future! I'm going to use part of the money to buy myself some new sandals and the rest to purchase some new summer clothing. And I'll be shopping with my sister who is becoming quite the masterful bargain hunter! She can always find coupons or coupon codes for online shopping. I can't wait!
May 2010 Budget Report
Here's our budget for May.
Overall, not too bad. A quick review of how we did:
Gas: Slightly over in gas. Not too worried about this. I'll up this budget again when I'm back at work.
Groceries: Room to spare this month. We had some food brought to us by generous family members for Liam's birth and we ate out of our freezer and pantry some too. I expect us to be right around that $400 in the future.
Household: We were over here this month. There was a $30 charge from yesterday that's already cleared the credit card. I added it to this month's budget because I knew that Chuck brought home more in income than I had budgeted for so I knew there was some room in the budget. Otherwise I would have put that charge in June's budget. Confession: Sometimes I play with the number, OK!
Restaurants: We went over again. Chuck went away two weekends for coaching and yesterday we went out to eat as a family of five for the first time. I would have fudged a little bit and put that restaurant charge in June's budget but once again, I knew I had a bit of room to play with. That was almost a $40 charge so we came in closer to the original goal of $75.
Discretionary: Right on target!
Overall we had $11 left in our budget. I'm going to keep this in our checking account instead of moving it to savings since we've been over budget the last couple months and I haven't moved money from savings to cover that. So far, that's been OK as our account has plenty of cash in it. I'm happy to be back in the black for a month end report. Now on to make June successful too!
Overall, not too bad. A quick review of how we did:
Gas: Slightly over in gas. Not too worried about this. I'll up this budget again when I'm back at work.
Groceries: Room to spare this month. We had some food brought to us by generous family members for Liam's birth and we ate out of our freezer and pantry some too. I expect us to be right around that $400 in the future.
Household: We were over here this month. There was a $30 charge from yesterday that's already cleared the credit card. I added it to this month's budget because I knew that Chuck brought home more in income than I had budgeted for so I knew there was some room in the budget. Otherwise I would have put that charge in June's budget. Confession: Sometimes I play with the number, OK!
Restaurants: We went over again. Chuck went away two weekends for coaching and yesterday we went out to eat as a family of five for the first time. I would have fudged a little bit and put that restaurant charge in June's budget but once again, I knew I had a bit of room to play with. That was almost a $40 charge so we came in closer to the original goal of $75.
Discretionary: Right on target!
Overall we had $11 left in our budget. I'm going to keep this in our checking account instead of moving it to savings since we've been over budget the last couple months and I haven't moved money from savings to cover that. So far, that's been OK as our account has plenty of cash in it. I'm happy to be back in the black for a month end report. Now on to make June successful too!
Scratch That
I just completed my second HSA reimbursement form. I found receipts for numerous prescriptions, the ultrasound, a birth bill, etc. The total reimbursement that I will be getting this time around is $430.56. Of that, $89.25 is for current medical bills. The rest of the charges have all been paid out of the budget some time this year. That means when I get the reimbursement I'll leave $89.25 in the checking account to pay the credit card that I'll be using to pay the bill and the rest, $341.31, can be snowflaked to the emergency fund! Yay!
May 2010 Month End
May turned out to be a good month. Not only do I have a precious newborn that I'm doting on, but all of our savings went up and our debt went down! Here's how it went:
Debts:
Truck Loan: $28,163.20 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one. (I have to this to repeat every month!)
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,929.74 (+407.31) - This includes a $50 snowflake (Discover card cash back reward) and $350 from the regular budget. I'm very pleased with this number and hope to make additions this large every month! And look! Our balance is almost over $8000! Hoo-ray!
Short Term Savings: $643.03 (+50.02) - Regular budget payment made. I haven't yet deposited the $100 in birthday money that Chuck received. I'll do that this week and next week I'll add any money I get for my birthday that I decide is going towards the TV. At this rate we should have that TV before the football season starts, just like I promised Chuck.
Travel Fund: $300.55 (+25.26) - OK, it was just too hard for me to write "nothing added to this account this month" to this and the basement account month after month. So, I'm going to add a bit to these accounts if I can each month. First priority is the emergency fund and at least $100 must go there and if there's money left over then I'd like to put a bit in the other accounts. It's a mental thing - if I see the accounts go up then I'm happy and feel like we're making progress towards some of the fun things in life too!
Christmas Savings: $384.35 (+100.28) - This money came from the regular budget. We're getting closer to my Christmas savings goal. This is a big expenditure for us each year and it feels SO GREAT to be able to pay for all gifts and entertaining with cash!
Basement Finishing Fund: $453.59 (+50.38) - And some money from the regular budget went here this month too. We're a long ways to our goal for this big project but we can do bits and pieces as the cash is available. First we should probably make a plan for the basement and list out the steps and then we could get started. I think the first step would be to waterproof all the cement block walls with a Kiln-type product and put up some vapor barrior on the stud/insulation portion of the walls. Maybe that's a project we can tackle this winter when it's cold outside and we don't want to go play at the parks all day long!
Tuition Fund: $5,457.32 (+836.57) - Another nice increase this month! I'm on auto-pilot when it comes to transferring the unemployment money when it clears our account. It's so great to see this balance rise so steadily and quickly!
And that's it! We had a very successful May. Now to make June the same!
Debts:
Truck Loan: $28,163.20 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one. (I have to this to repeat every month!)
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,929.74 (+407.31) - This includes a $50 snowflake (Discover card cash back reward) and $350 from the regular budget. I'm very pleased with this number and hope to make additions this large every month! And look! Our balance is almost over $8000! Hoo-ray!
Short Term Savings: $643.03 (+50.02) - Regular budget payment made. I haven't yet deposited the $100 in birthday money that Chuck received. I'll do that this week and next week I'll add any money I get for my birthday that I decide is going towards the TV. At this rate we should have that TV before the football season starts, just like I promised Chuck.
Travel Fund: $300.55 (+25.26) - OK, it was just too hard for me to write "nothing added to this account this month" to this and the basement account month after month. So, I'm going to add a bit to these accounts if I can each month. First priority is the emergency fund and at least $100 must go there and if there's money left over then I'd like to put a bit in the other accounts. It's a mental thing - if I see the accounts go up then I'm happy and feel like we're making progress towards some of the fun things in life too!
Christmas Savings: $384.35 (+100.28) - This money came from the regular budget. We're getting closer to my Christmas savings goal. This is a big expenditure for us each year and it feels SO GREAT to be able to pay for all gifts and entertaining with cash!
Basement Finishing Fund: $453.59 (+50.38) - And some money from the regular budget went here this month too. We're a long ways to our goal for this big project but we can do bits and pieces as the cash is available. First we should probably make a plan for the basement and list out the steps and then we could get started. I think the first step would be to waterproof all the cement block walls with a Kiln-type product and put up some vapor barrior on the stud/insulation portion of the walls. Maybe that's a project we can tackle this winter when it's cold outside and we don't want to go play at the parks all day long!
Tuition Fund: $5,457.32 (+836.57) - Another nice increase this month! I'm on auto-pilot when it comes to transferring the unemployment money when it clears our account. It's so great to see this balance rise so steadily and quickly!
And that's it! We had a very successful May. Now to make June the same!
That was Fast!
I got an e-mail today saying that my HSA reimbursement will be direct deposited into my account in 2-5 business days. I mailed the forms just last week so I'm very pleased with the turn-around time. I have a couple more bills to submit for reimbursement (my ultrasound bill from earlier this year plus about $120 in bills from the pediatrician). The $120 in pediatrician bills I'll count as snowflakes when the I get the reimbursement money back because those bills were paid out of the regular budget.
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