Sucker Punched

Ever feel like life is sucker punching you? I keep whining about the extra bills we're having in August, September and October. And then I keep telling you about even more that are piling on. Today I received another bill for September, on top of some personal bad news and well, it was all too much. I feel like I've been sucker punched. My sister keeps reminding me that this is exactly what our emergency fund is for - to help us out on months where our income just isn't enough to cover unexpected expenses. It still sucks though. I want to be building that emergency fund, not having to take money out of it!

I haven't detailed out what all these extra bills are and I'm sure you're curious.

In August we had:

1. $75 driveway sealing - Our driveway is five years old and the tar needed to be sealed. This should help maintain our driveway for a few years and lengthen its lifetime.
2. $106 medical bill from L's birth - This one came in July and I paid it in August.
3. $233.15 - This was for work done on our car in July and I paid it in August.
4. $373.25 - This was our truck tabs (registration) for the next year.

With all these extra bills, we were $310 over budget. We had $212 budget "extra" from July that I put towards these expenses, leaving us almost $100 short. I have made enough snowflakes in August and C has made extra income to cover these bills and give us a head start on September. Unfortunately, September has decided to fight back by piling on more bills.

In September we have:

1. $174 electricity bill - This is a huge jump up for us. We're usually under $100. Yes, July was hot but this is a little extreme. We usually have the air conditioning set to 75 or 76 and I don't think that's too outrageous. I do have an infant in the house so I can't have it be too warm. Either way, this is the bill I got today and when I opened it I let out an audible groan. There goes more money right out of the September budget.
2. $260 for preschool - This is going to be $130/month through April's budget but in September we have to pay for two months (September and October). Ouch! That's a big bill.
3. $150 A's B-day & L's baptism - We've budgeted $150 for gifts for A's sixth birthday as well as food for the family party we're having to celebrate both L's baptism and A's birthday.
   
4. $252 C's hospital bills - This is the $150 co-pay, $70 specialist co-pays and $32 in prescriptions. I've tacked on $15 in other prescriptions to the August budget.
   
5. $133 Car towing - This was the price tag on the towing of the car to the mechanic.
6. $46 Car Registration - August it was the truck and in September it's the car. One good thing about the car being so old? It's a lot less for the registration.
7. $86 Car Repair bill - This is actually a $186 bill but my Dad has decided to give us $100 towards it. This was to offset back to school costs for A and we appreciate this so much!

I've already zeroed out all savings for September and our budget is still almost $600 in the hole! Ugh! I'm estimating that we'll have around $250 in August budget "extra" due to snowflakes and extra income. Unfortunately, that's not even close to the $600 we need. I'm going to ramp up my attempts at selling items (Craigslist and Half.com postings still up - need to try Ebay again for other items) as well as add some more items to Craigslist. I might even try to sell some clothes at a consignment shop if I can find the time to do that. Time is sometimes a rarity around my house.

Whatever happens we do have our emergency fund to fall back on. I'd just like to avoid that if possible.

Update Time

I haven’t given an update on C or the car lately. C is doing fine. He’s been to see the specialist, been given a few prescriptions and is to go back in two weeks for another x-ray and check up. We’re kind of in a wait and see pattern there. Each specialist visit is a $35 co-pay though and the prescriptions are starting to add up. All is being accounted for in the September budget. By the end of September I know we’ll be up to at least $267 in charges ($150 ER co-pay, $70 in specialist visits, $47 in prescriptions). We’ll have to see what other bills roll in. I would like my husband back in good health and I’ll gladly pay these bills to get him there.

The car was fixed yesterday. It did turn out to be two problems. The first was the clutch. The slave cylinder and the tube going from the slave to the master were both in need of replacement. The other was the battery. Apparently it’s completely shot and will no longer hold a charge. The battery is only two years old and has a six year warranty. I very quickly found the receipt for the battery (in my car file). I’ll be getting a replacement battery tonight for the car and should get a hefty discount on it with my receipt. All car expenses are also being accounted for in the September budget.

The car right now is at my Dad’s house as he picked it up from the mechanic yesterday for me. I was going to give our mechanic my credit card number over the phone (which I have done in the past) and then have my Dad bring the car back to me (the mechanic is in his town, not mine, and it’s a nice excuse to see each other) but never got that chance. My dad picked up the car and paid for the repairs. I assured him I’d give him a check tonight when he brought the car over and he said “Well, we’ll talk about that.” Yep, he’s up to something again. My generous dad. Love him. Turns out that he and his fiancée want to start a tradition of giving their kids (me) money at back to school time to help us with those yearly expenses. His fiancée’s parents did this for her when her son was young and she really appreciated it and now she wants to do that for her grandchildren. Aren’t they wonderful? My daughter is the oldest grandchild and will be starting kindergarten on Monday. So, Dad wants to talk about this new tradition. I’m guessing he’s going to want to pay for all or part of the repairs as a way of giving us money for this new tradition. Frankly, I’m so grateful. I’ve told him so already and will continue to show my gratitude and love by thanking him repeatedly and continually doing what I can to help him whenever needed. I’ll say it again. I am so lucky. And I know it.

In Threes

You know how they say bad things happen in threes? Well, that has been my week! First, my son J has had stomach problems this whole week which has led to a lot of extra laundry. Poor guy. A few more days of this and the doctor wants him to be brought him. We're medicating at home and modifying his diet and hoping he kicks whatever is bothering him.

Then Thursday our car died as I was driving to work. We still don't know what's wrong with it. Our mechanic is going to try and take a look at it tomorrow and give us an estimate to repair it. I'm cringing waiting for that bill.

And then yesterday only ten minutes after I had left the house to go to a Minnesota Twins game (courtesy of a free ticket from work as a thank you for a job well done) I got a call from C asking me to come back home - there was something wrong with his kidneys and he was in excruciating pain. Of course I immediately found the nearest exit and raced back home. I also called our neighbor who came over and took our kids to their house and then drove C to the ER. Diagnosis? A humongous 6-7mm kidney stone. He was discharged with some good pain meds (only $15 for three prescriptions!) and an order to see a urologist early this week. Now I'm adding a $150 hospital co-pay to our already in-the-red September budget and we'll see if we own anything else for the ER visit and CT scan.

I sure hope things can calm down and get back to normal around here. My heart and budget can't take much more.

Where Cheap Doesn't Cut It

How much thought do you put into the food you buy and feed yourself and your family? C and I are pretty health conscious. We work out regularly. We try to eat real, unprocessed food made at home more often than not. Sure, there is the occasional frozen pizza and hot dogs (nitrate free). We do have small children after all and they prefer those foods and they are easy for us to prepare. But the pasta we buy is whole wheat. The bread we buy is whole wheat or multi-grain. We have soda in the house only on special occasions or as a rare treat. Our regular snacks in the house are limited to granola bars or popcorn. If the children ask for a snack I offer them a cheese stick, yogurt cup or a granola bar. They can have all the fruit they want. Our meat is usually pork chops, chicken breasts or ground turkey, shrimp if we can find it on a good sale. Overall I feel like we’re doing a basic good job of eating and teaching our children how to eat healthy. They know what vegetables are, what they look like, that we can grow them in our garden and that they are healthy for you. But I think we could do better. The meat we buy is whatever is on sale at the grocery store. Our $400 monthly food budget for a family of five is low I think. I read Michael Pollan’s book “In Defense of Food” and watched the documentary Food, Inc. and now I really, really want to do better for my family. I’ve started researching chest freezers and local grass fed beef, pasture pork and free range chickens. I’m investigating local CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and what they can get us in the cold winter months of Minnesota where not much is growing. And that's not even touching the environmental aspect to all of this. I've only focused on health.

However, all this good food is not cheap. It is expensive, plain and simple. But I think I’m going to make a plan to invest in a freezer, to purchase local meat, and join a CSA. I want to do the best for my family and that includes the food we eat.

Time for More Snowflakes!

On my way to work this morning the car died and left me stranded at a stop light. Luckily I had my car pooling co-worker with me and between the two of us we were able to push the car 4-5 blocks and into my work parking lot. I have a AAA membership courtesy of my dad so when I got to my desk I called AAA and requested a tow truck. I spent $133 this morning towing my car 39 miles to my mechanic. The tow truck driver said I saved about $100 by having AAA. Thank you Dad!

I’m not sure yet what’s wrong with our car. The clutch went out and then I lost the electrical system. Could I have been unlucky enough to lose the master cylinder and alternator at the same time? Hopefully it would be something “simple” like that instead of say something like a transmission. Our mechanic is going to look over the car and give us an estimate as to what is wrong and how much it will be to fix it. Our car is a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse (purchased in September 2000 so almost 10 years old now!) with 148000 miles on it. I’m still hoping this car can last us another 50,000 miles or so. If it does need major repairs we’ll have to do a cost/benefit analysis and see if it makes sense to fix the car or if we should sell it for parts (junk it) and use our emergency fund to get us a “new to us” car for commuting. I’m not even sure how much our car is worth right now. I’ll wait to get the estimate before I do anything.

Either way – “inexpensive” or costly repairs, I certainly don’t have car trouble budgeted! I need more snowflakes! Time to get more stuff listed on E-bay, Craigslist and/or Half.com. I just ordered a $25 reward check from our credit card so I do have a bit more in snowflakes coming but not enough! Hopefully we can snowflake our way out of this “emergency” so we don’t have to touch our savings!

What Next?

I've been very focused lately on our monthly budgets...getting us through the unpaid portion of my maternity leave, getting us through the next couple months of increased expenses, etc. But I don't want to lose sight of our bigger goals. Our first big goal is to get the emergency fund finished. I'm getting impatient at our slow-going on that one. It seems like we've been at it forever! Patience, grasshopper. Anyway, that is priority number one.

And I'm pretty sure that priority number two is the basement. We both want to save up money and get that finished as quickly as we can.

But what comes next? I asked C last night what his long term goals and dreams were. He said he didn't have any. He's not a big dreamer or a planner. Long term to him is starting school next year, getting his nursing degree and starting a new career. So I asked a few questions - do you want to retire early? Do you want to travel? What do you want to do?

He answered that he'd like to go rafting in Colorado, scuba diving, canoeing. He said he doesn't necessarily want or need to retire early. He's not even working full time right now he reminded me. I know (always envious that he stays home). So even though he's not a dreamer or a planner, I was able to gleam enough information so that I think I know where his priorities lie - save enough for retirement but put extra money in a high yield savings account so we can travel and do fun things now.

Me? I'd like to retire early. I'm working enough now thankyouverymuch. And I'd like to retire early so I could take care of my future grandchildren during the day should my children want me to. But I also want to travel and do fun things as well.

It was a good discussion t have. It helps me figure out where to put our money after the emergency fund and basement are finished.

What about you? What are your goals and dreams for when the debt is paid, the emergency fund is in place and you have extra money to do with as you please?

Back to Black

Hooray! I've made enough snowflakes through Half.com sales, survey payments and blog ad revenue to put us back in the black for this month! Whew! The money hasn't all been deposited in our accounts yet but the transfers have been made. I just need to wait for them to clear before I count them officially in our budget. There is still a chance that we could bring in more money if C's hours at work are such that he brings home more than I've estimated. If that turns out to be the case then I'll save that money and roll it over into next month's budget to hopefully bring that one back to black too. We were close to $100 in the red this month and we're almost $50 in the red for next month so more income and/or more snowflakes are needed! In October we're $5 in the red but that's with a little money going to savings. If we bring in more snowflakes than we need I'll start sending more money to savings again. I'm on a "Sell it!" kick right now with Ebay, Craigslist and Half.com!

Now, we just need to be very careful to not go over budget this month. I'll be sitting down tonight to update the budget to see how close we are. I think we're close to going over in some categories already!

Another One!

I was at a family party all day. We played in the lake, chatted on the beach, sat in the sun and then BBQ'd at my aunt and uncle's house when we'd had enough time at the lake. It was a wonderful afternoon!

I came home, checked my e-mail and found I'd made another Half.com sale! Good-bye season 1 of Alias! I suspect I'll make around $7 for this sale. We're inching our way there!

Only one more day of my two Ebay auctions. So far no bidders. I've got my fingers crossed though!

One Sale Down!

I checked my e-mail this morning to find that I've made a sale at Half.com! Good-bye season one of 24! I listed it for $10 and when I factor in shipping, the shipping reimbursement and their commission I figure I'll net about $8. That may not seem like a lot, and really it isn't, but every little bit will help us get back to black this month!

Yesterday I went through and listed all of my old college textbooks on Half.com too. In the past when I've listed them I've sold some ranging between $25 and $50. I wouldn't mind selling a few more! I may be an engineer by title at work but I haven't sat down and designed anything in years and years. I'm more of a project engineer/technical director now and I have no desire or intention to go back to designing. No need for all those old textbooks anymore! With school starting in just a few weeks, I hope I sell a few of my books!

How to Combat Extra Budget Expenses

We have a lot of extra expenses in our budgets for August, September and October. Unfortunately, these expenses are adding up each month to more than what our projected income is. Our budgets for August, September and October are already in the red! We have to come in under budget in our regular categories or this problem will only be worse. I don’t want to take money out of savings for these expenses so I’m hoping two things happen:

1 – Our income is higher. My income is set as I’m salaried but C.’s income fluctuates based on number of hours worked. I’ve been fairly conservative in my estimation of his paychecks so there is opportunity for him to bring home more. Since he doesn’t control how many hours he works (that is client dependent) I’ll just have to cross my fingers that it’s more than I have estimated.

2 – Time to sell some extra stuff! I’ve slowly been going through the remaining garage sale items and bagging them up for donation. It’s taken a while because I’m creating an inventory list of the items at the same time for tax purposes. However, there are a few items in that pile that I’d like to sell rather than donate. I’ve listed some TV show DVDs on half.com. In fact, I just sold this week Lost Season 1 (brand new in original packaging) for my sister. I should have taken a commission on that! Kidding. Anyway, I have about six items listed there. Hopefully a couple of those sell. Then Tuesday night I went through my closet and pulled out a couple designer pieces that have either never been worn or have only been worn once and listed those on Ebay. Those auctions end on Sunday and I’m hoping that they both sell. Then there are a few more items in the garage sale pile that I need to photograph and post on Craigslist. I don’t know how much that could potentially net me but everything helps!

Another thing I’ve done is zero out the savings lines on the budget for those months. If we’re in the red then no money is going into the emergency fund, basement, travel, etc. accounts. Unfortunately even this change doesn’t bring us back to black.

Hopefully between #1 and #2 we can bring in enough and then send some money to savings while also paying these additional expenses!

And Another Thing

I thought of another item I'd like to add to our Want List. I know, I know. I keep adding to it! At least I'm adding to the want list and not putting myself in more debt by just going and purchasing all these things I want! Anyway, what do I want? A treadmill.

C is right now rolling his eyes at me. We go around and around on this one. We already have an elliptical machine that we rarely use. We also have a bike trainer that we use during the winter months. I'd like to replace the elliptical with a treadmill though. I'd really like to get a treadmill that can fold up and go up against a wall when not in use. Our elliptical, as nice as it is, takes up a lot of space. And I don't use it because I feel like I don't get the best work out on it for whatever reason. And if we keep doing these duathlons (next one is on August 29th - my first one post baby!) then we need to be able to train year round and in Minnesota that means there will be some indoor training unless we decide to go completely hardcore...which we won't. Heh.

Anyway, I'm adding it to the list. It just will probably be a while before it bubbles to the top. Here is the list in full:

• Landscaping (bigger garden, shrubs, rocks, etc. around house)
• TT Bike (for Chuck - estimating around $1200)
• DSLR camera with community ed photography classes
  
• HD video camera and/or new point and shoot digital camera
  
• Bedroom redecorate with cedar chest
  
• 40 or 42" HD TV for bedroom
• Gas Grill
• Kitchen backsplash tile
• Garage shelving
• Chest freezer
• Treadmill

Hmm, what else can I think of to add!?!

Emergency Fund Timeline Goal

Earlier this week I was thinking about our hopes and dreams and thought "I wish we could have our emergency savings funded by the end of 2011." We seem so far away at just over $6K when our goal is $20K. And C and I want to move on and get to the fun stuff! Travel! Finished basement! Items from our Want List! Increased retirement savings for C! (Wait, is that a fun one or not?) But until the emergency fund is complete, those things are on the back burner.

So, because I'm a spreadsheet freak (a.k.a. engineer) I opened up trusty Excel and started laying it all out. This is what I came up with:


Do you see that bottom line? If everything continues status quo, we could have our emergency fund complete in December 2011!! A little note about my assumptions:

• $100 is the bare minimum that goes into the emergency fund every month
• I assumed an average of $8/month interest will be added.
  
• For 12 months starting in October there will be an extra $236.57 from the mortgage "extra" that will be added to the emergency fund. I assumed that next October the rate would reset up the maximum 2% and we'd lose all this "extra" back to interest.
• Right now approximately $250 is being taken out of my monthly paycheck to fund our 2010 $3000 HSA. I assumed we would not put anything back into an HSA for 2011 and so that $250 would be available, starting in January, to go to the emergency fund.
• I calculated which months are 3 paycheck months for C and I. While our normal paychecks are a little bigger than the $400 and $2000 listed, I was playing it safe with these numbers.

So...my new goal is to have our emergency fund fully funded by December 2011. This doesn't include any budget extra, snowflakes or additional income and assumes no emergencies arise from which we'll need to use this money. So, I'm going to add a stretch goal of having it funded by October 1st, 2011. This means we'll have to find an additional $2000 or so for the fund in the next 13 months.

I love having a concrete, SMART goal. Now...off to make this happen!

2010 Goals Review - July Edition

Well, well, well. You saw how our savings accounts and our budget did in July. How did we do on our goals? Let's have a look:

1. Keep emergency fund above $6000. Done! Even with taking out $2000 in July we kept it above $6000. Yay!
   
2. Stay under our budget each month this year. Well...kind of. We did technically have money left over in the budget but that's only because I took a bit more than necessary out of savings.
   
3. Save all Chuck's unemployment benefits for tuition money. Done!
4. Always have at least $250 in short term savings. Done!
   
5. Save at least $100 each month into our emergency fund. Not this month. Can't really put money into the account when you don't have any income!
   
6. All extra money (snowflakes) goes to the emergency fund. Well, no. I left the money in our account since we didn't have much income this month.
   
7. Money going to other savings accounts (basement, short term, Christmas, etc.) must be done only after the $100 goes into the emergency fund each month. There was no money going to savings this month so I guess we made this one.
   
8. Our list of want items must only be purchased with money from our regular monthly budget or our short term savings account. So far, so good!
   
9. And finally, post at least 15 times each month here on this ol' blog.Done!

I made a few of those goals on technicalities. I know this. Next month will be better though. I'll be keeping very close track of things!

July 2010 Budget Report

Here is July's budget:


Ugh. That's all I really have to say about July. Well, OK, I have one more thing to say...this is what you get when you don't track your spending. Wait. Check that. This is what we get when we don't track our spending. You may be better with your discretionary spending then we are. Honestly I checked our budget on July 2nd and then not again until July 28th. Obviously that led to complete failure. Even with my reduced "free" time now that I'm back to work I'll have to do a better job. Anyway, here is what I have to say about our spending:

Gas: Well, I guess those 8 days I drove to work this month didn't affect our budget as much as I thought they would. I'll keep this budget at $225 for a couple months to see how a full time work schedule affects it.

Groceries: I took advantage of some sales this month and stocked our pantry and freezer. And, well, me loose in a grocery store is sometimes not a wise idea. I tend to just start stocking up just to stock up. I like seeing a fully pantry I guess. It's also not good that the Target one mile from our house has recently expanded their grocery offerings. We used to stop there for milk and cereal since it was less expensive but now we've been impulse purchasing groceries when we're there. I don't really mind spending money on groceries but I'll have to see what is a reasonable budget for our family of five now. Maybe $400 is about right, maybe it needs to be raised a bit. We'll keep it at $400 for a couple months and then analyze the data.

Household: Right on track. Nice job...for once!

Restaurants: Ugh. We didn't do so well here. Eating out is one of our vices. We get tired of cooking all the time so we treat ourselves, sometimes as much as once a week. Once this month we treated my dad and his fiance and my sister and her husband to pizza and there were a few "quick" meals when we were out and about too. We went out for lunch on our wedding anniversary as well. It all adds up very fast. A $75 budget means we can eat out 2-3 times, not the 8 times we ate out last month! Our budget is going to be tight the next couple months due to various one-time expenses. We can't afford to blow this budget so badly again!

Discretionary: This was over but not as terribly as the restaurant budget. I'm not concerned about this budget. Looking over the expenses that went here (wedding gift, nursing bras, doctor co-pay, chair covering, movie matinee for Anya, Jamison and me to see Toy Story 3 together for some mommy/baby-free kid time, etc.) it's nothing extraordinary. There was a bit of fun and a bit of necessary spending. It definitely wasn't out of control.

We have a budget surplus this month because I took out a bit more money from savings than we needed plus we received a fair amount of snowflakes through our garage sale, survey payments, etc. I'm going to transfer that amount to August to pay for some expenses. August is going to be one expensive month!

There was July. If we can get our groceries and restaurants under control then I think our August budget will be OK.

July 2010 Month End

Poof! There went my maternity leave. Did you see it fly by? It was a wonderful 12 weeks off. But, now it's back to our new normal. The regular paychecks are nice. July was kind of a strange month because of the lack of income. Here's how thinks shook out:

Debts:

Truck Loan: $26,843.05 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one.

Savings:

Emergency Fund: $6,285.79 (-1992.54) - I took out $2000 to cover bills this month. Seeing as how my regular paychecks are $2114.48 I guess I took out almost a full paycheck. That seems about right I guess. We ended up with a budget surplus last month which you'll see in tomorrow's budget report but that's only because a couple bills with early August due dates didn't get paid until today so I transferred them from July's to August's budgets. Actually we were over budget last month. I guess I could take another $114.48 out of savings so it wouldn't look so bad on paper but since we have plenty of money in our checking account to cover bills, I'll just let it be. We do have a lot of expenses coming up in August and September though with Anya's birthday, back to school expenses and a couple other things. I'll keep a close eye on the bank account and if that $114.48 is needed, then I'll take it out. At least we kept this balance above $6000 which is a goal of ours.

Short Term Savings: $250.03 (+0.01) - As I told you earlier, I transferred the normal $50 contribution back out of this account to help pay for the landscaping work that we did this month.

Travel Fund: $134.29 (+0.12) - Just interest for this account this month. I guess that makes sense if there's no income!

Christmas Savings: $435.12 (+0.40) - Same here. Uh, you'll start to see a theme soon I think.

Basement Finishing Fund: $79.06 (+0.07) - Surprised?? Yep, just interest.

Tuition Fund: $6,935.31 (+627.90) - More money for this account from Chuck's unemployment benefits. At least something went up this month!

And there you have it. This was not our best month by far but with good reason. August and September will be tight with yearly bills so not much will be going to savings. October should be back to normal plus it's a three paycheck month for Chuck so hopefully these accounts will see big gains again that month!