I disappeared there for a week or so. Things at home just got really busy there all of a sudden. Tomorrow C is scheduled for surgery to remove his kidney stone. There will be more medical bills in our future. I don't know for how much though so I'm having a hard time creating October and November budgets to account for them. At least we have money going to savings those months so if more bills arrive, we'll reduce our savings budgets and send that money to medical bills instead.
Here's hoping tomorrow morning goes smoothly!
Good News!
We’ve received some excellent news in the last couple days.
First C received word that one of his first students completed his post tutoring evaluation and scored high enough to get C a bonus! We expect an extra almost $100 on this Friday’s paycheck. I’m proud of C! And I’m very grateful for the extra income this month, both with the increase in hours and now with the bonus. Great job C!
Second I received word today that I’m being given a raise! It’s been about a year and a half since my last raise and then, you may remember, I had to take a 10% pay cut for 9 months last year. I’m very grateful for the 3.4% raise I was given today. Not everyone in my company is getting a raise so I am even more grateful that I was chosen to receive one. The raise is already in effect and will be reflected on my 9/24/10 paycheck. This raise equates to over $200 extra/month pre-tax for us according to my calculations. Once I figure out exactly how much my new take home will be I’ll update our October – December budgets plus our proposed 2011 budgets too.
I think we’re going to be OK with all our extra expenses thanks to these two items. I don’t think we’ll have to take money out of savings to cover anything. My only outstanding worry right now is C and his kidney stone and probable upcoming surgery to remove it.
First C received word that one of his first students completed his post tutoring evaluation and scored high enough to get C a bonus! We expect an extra almost $100 on this Friday’s paycheck. I’m proud of C! And I’m very grateful for the extra income this month, both with the increase in hours and now with the bonus. Great job C!
Second I received word today that I’m being given a raise! It’s been about a year and a half since my last raise and then, you may remember, I had to take a 10% pay cut for 9 months last year. I’m very grateful for the 3.4% raise I was given today. Not everyone in my company is getting a raise so I am even more grateful that I was chosen to receive one. The raise is already in effect and will be reflected on my 9/24/10 paycheck. This raise equates to over $200 extra/month pre-tax for us according to my calculations. Once I figure out exactly how much my new take home will be I’ll update our October – December budgets plus our proposed 2011 budgets too.
I think we’re going to be OK with all our extra expenses thanks to these two items. I don’t think we’ll have to take money out of savings to cover anything. My only outstanding worry right now is C and his kidney stone and probable upcoming surgery to remove it.
Target Red Card Program Change
Do you have any store credit cards? Do you use them regularly? I have a couple accounts that I'm sure have long since been closed by the company due to inactivity (i.e. Slumberland for a 0% financed furniture purchase 9+ years ago). I don't carry any cards in my wallet other than my three credit cards and my check card that I currently use for everyday expenses and then pay off in full each month (got to get that caveat in there!).
However, last night when I stopped at Target quickly for some groceries I grabbed a flier promoting their Target Red Card. Did you know that on October 17th they are changing the terms of their Red Card so that you can now receive 5% off every purchase (with exceptions of course like pharmacy, optical, gift cards, etc.). We spend around $200 each month at Target and now that our local store has groceries, we're probably going to be spending even more there in the future. We would typically use our credit cards and get 1% cash back for those purchases.
A big selling point for me on this program? It's an immediate 5% discount at check out when you use your Target Red Card. It's not points or a cash back balance where you have to request a reward check be mailed to you like most credit card companies have. I do think we will be opening a new Red Card account for us! We'll use the new Visa card only at Target stores and use our other credit card (currently using the Chase Sapphire card) for all other everyday purchases to get that 1% cash back.
However, last night when I stopped at Target quickly for some groceries I grabbed a flier promoting their Target Red Card. Did you know that on October 17th they are changing the terms of their Red Card so that you can now receive 5% off every purchase (with exceptions of course like pharmacy, optical, gift cards, etc.). We spend around $200 each month at Target and now that our local store has groceries, we're probably going to be spending even more there in the future. We would typically use our credit cards and get 1% cash back for those purchases.
A big selling point for me on this program? It's an immediate 5% discount at check out when you use your Target Red Card. It's not points or a cash back balance where you have to request a reward check be mailed to you like most credit card companies have. I do think we will be opening a new Red Card account for us! We'll use the new Visa card only at Target stores and use our other credit card (currently using the Chase Sapphire card) for all other everyday purchases to get that 1% cash back.
Auto Insurance Reduction
One way to reduce your auto insurance expenses? Eliminate comprehensive and collision coverage from your policy.
I was wondering this week if we're paying too much for auto insurance so I got a couple quotes online. Our current company was right in the ballpark for our 2009 Traverse. That's good to know. I didn't really want to go through the hassle of switching companies.
But each quote I received didn't have anything for our 2001 Eclipse. I checked Kelley Blue Book and our car is only worth $2200 right now for a third party sale. It would be worth even less as a trade-in. I couldn't justify spending $730/year to insure a car worth only 3x that.
What is comprehensive and collision insurance? Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Right now we pay our car insurance monthly. I know I could knock a few bucks off our monthly payment if I paid it every six months instead. Starting with our renewal in March, I'll begin paying our insurance every six months instead of monthly. Until then, I'll enjoy the reduced monthly expense (about $30) by dropping the extra coverage.
I was wondering this week if we're paying too much for auto insurance so I got a couple quotes online. Our current company was right in the ballpark for our 2009 Traverse. That's good to know. I didn't really want to go through the hassle of switching companies.
But each quote I received didn't have anything for our 2001 Eclipse. I checked Kelley Blue Book and our car is only worth $2200 right now for a third party sale. It would be worth even less as a trade-in. I couldn't justify spending $730/year to insure a car worth only 3x that.
What is comprehensive and collision insurance? Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
This reduction in coverage dropped my annual insurance from $730 to $390.Collision
Collision coverage provides coverage for an insured's vehicle that is involved in an accident, subject to a deductible. This coverage is designed to provide payments to repair the damaged vehicle, or payment of the cash value of the vehicle if it is not repairable. Collision coverage is optional, however if you plan on financing a car or taking a car loan, the lender will usually insist you carry collision for the finance term or until the insured's car is paid off. Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) or Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) is the term used by rental car companies for collision coverage.
Comprehensive
Comprehensive (a.k.a. - Other Than Collision) coverage provides coverage, subject to a deductible, for an insured's vehicle that is damaged by incidents that are not considered Collisions. For example, fire, theft (or attempted theft), vandalism, weather, or impacts with animals are types of Comprehensive losses.
Right now we pay our car insurance monthly. I know I could knock a few bucks off our monthly payment if I paid it every six months instead. Starting with our renewal in March, I'll begin paying our insurance every six months instead of monthly. Until then, I'll enjoy the reduced monthly expense (about $30) by dropping the extra coverage.
Game Night
I don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the woods but here in Minnesota it’s more than just the bears that hibernate during the winter. Us people tend to do the same thing. There is no more seeing your neighbors on a regular basis as you play outside, get your mail or perform other outside tasks. We can go months at a time without seeing our neighbors! Then we “catch up” each spring. I like our neighbors and wanted to get us together more often than that. So I sent an e-mail to four neighbors and asked if they’d be interested in forming a once monthly neighborhood game night. They were all excited and wanted to be included. Our first game night is Friday, the 24th of September. I offered our house to host the fun but we might rotate as well. And it will be a frugal source of fun for us this fall and winter. We already have some board games, our neighbors are invited to bring others and each neighbor, us included, will bring a small snack to share and a beverage of their choice. I’m so excited for a night of fun and laughter!
Amazon Total
Let’s take a break from the whining, shall we? (Whaa – we don’t have enough money. These medical bills are too high. Boo Hoo!) Mrs. Accountability from Out of Debt Again posted recently how much she’s spent at Amazon.com over the years. I’m not a huge Amazon user. I prefer to actually go to a store for most purchases. I do use Amazon though for Christmas gifts and some other items where I know exactly what I want and the cost there is cheaper. I also like the free shipping too! And of course Swagbucks has lead to more Amazon purchases. However, those purchases have been $0 or low cost thanks to those Swagbucks gift cards. So, what’s my grand total?
We’ve spent $872.91 from 2002 to present. It was fun to see what items I’ve purchased from Amazon too and to realize just how many of those items we no longer have (garage sale items, donated, gifts, etc.).
How much have you spent at Amazon?
We’ve spent $872.91 from 2002 to present. It was fun to see what items I’ve purchased from Amazon too and to realize just how many of those items we no longer have (garage sale items, donated, gifts, etc.).
How much have you spent at Amazon?
That Can't Be Right!
We just received our first bill for the emergency room visit for C in August. It was $1582.78!! We haven't received our Explanation of Benefits (EOB) yet from our insurance company, just a bill from the hospital. I took one look at the number though and said "That can't be right!" I didn't want to wait for the EOB to come in the mail so I called up our insurance company and talked with a representative. For some reason the claim was processed as out of network when it shouldn't have been so they applied a $1500 deductible to the bill. That's certainly not right! The representative sent it right back to be reprocessed. I won't know for a few more days what the actual bill will be. Thank goodness it's not $1500 though!
Speaking of Emergencies
Speaking of emergencies, at the end of last month C was in the emergency room and was diagnosed with a giant kidney stone. He’s seen a specialist twice since then and the stone has not moved at all in almost three weeks. C has another appointment two weeks from now and if the stone still hasn’t moved then the specialist recommends invasive treatment. Basically, it will require surgery to remove the stone. Everything I’ve read online agrees with the specialist's recommendations because if the stone does not move there is risk of infection, especially given its size and location. We’ve already spent close to $300 in emergency room co-pays, prescriptions and specialist co-pays. I don’t know what other bills we’re going to get for treatment above the co-pays. And now we most likely will have to add in a surgery in the near future! That definitely wasn’t in the budget. It’s going to be a couple weeks before we know if surgery is required. Until then I’ll keep trying to bring in more snowflakes to offset the cost.
Increased Income
In my last post I talked about the need for additional income. Of course extra income can come from snowflakes (survey payments, Ebay sales, rebates, etc.) but those, for us, have been lower in dollar value and pretty variable in nature. Some months we can get over $100 in snowflakes and other months we can’t get anything. We just can’t count on them. I said in my last post that C was working eleven hours a week. That was with his first two students. Those students completed the tutoring program in July and August and C has been assigned to two new students. However, one of the students is on a different plan and comes in for tutoring less. C has only been working 9 hours a week instead of eleven. It’s not a huge difference but it does affect his paychecks and our budget, especially since our budget is so tight! I’ve been conservative in my estimating of C’s income, assuming it to be $450 per month. It’s probably closer to $550 when C is working 11 hours/week. At 9 hours/week it’s closer to $450. We could really use that extra money each month!
Thursday C found out that he’s being assigned to a third student who will add an additional 5 hours/week to his schedule. Starting tomorrow he’ll now be working 13 hours/week. When those paychecks start rolling in, C should be bringing home closer to $650/month. While I’m not looking forward to the additional time away from home (I like having him there with me!) I am happy for the increase in income. I’m going to add in the additional income into my Oct, Nov and Dec budgets for this year and baseline $650/month for my 2011 budget too.
Of course, when his current students are complete with the program this will all change again depending on what new students he’s assigned and what programs/hours they require. For now though, I’ll take the increased income!
Here is our new 2011 budget with this update made. Look at all the green!
And if I add up the current emergency fund, the 2010 budget contributions, the projected 2010 budget “extra”, the 2011 budget contributions and the projected 2011 budget “extras” it adds up to over $21,000! If this increased income holds, we even have the opportunity to complete our emergency fund next year!
Now if only we can steer clear of those emergencies…
Thursday C found out that he’s being assigned to a third student who will add an additional 5 hours/week to his schedule. Starting tomorrow he’ll now be working 13 hours/week. When those paychecks start rolling in, C should be bringing home closer to $650/month. While I’m not looking forward to the additional time away from home (I like having him there with me!) I am happy for the increase in income. I’m going to add in the additional income into my Oct, Nov and Dec budgets for this year and baseline $650/month for my 2011 budget too.
Of course, when his current students are complete with the program this will all change again depending on what new students he’s assigned and what programs/hours they require. For now though, I’ll take the increased income!
Here is our new 2011 budget with this update made. Look at all the green!
And if I add up the current emergency fund, the 2010 budget contributions, the projected 2010 budget “extra”, the 2011 budget contributions and the projected 2011 budget “extras” it adds up to over $21,000! If this increased income holds, we even have the opportunity to complete our emergency fund next year!
Now if only we can steer clear of those emergencies…
2011 Budget
When C started tutoring earlier this year he had two students and was working eleven hours a week. That's not even half the twenty five hours per week that he had been working before he was laid off. And the pay at his new job was roughly two-thirds of what his old pay was. We were (are) very grateful he was able to find a job quickly our budget took about a $1000/month hit. And while we still routinely check job websites and classified ads, there just isn't anything else out there right now! Anyway, before the change in our income we were sending $800 - $1500 away to debt and savings each month. When unexpected or yearly expenses came up, we just cash flowed them and sent a bit less to debt repayment or savings for that month. It was like having a built in $1000 emergency fund each month right into our budget. We adjusted our budget and lifestyle when we took the income hit but now we no longer have that built in cushion for the extras.
I think that is what is happening to us in August and September and even a little in October. Our budgets are in the red because we no longer have that extra $1000 to get us through. Some of the expenses we're facing right now are things that are going to come up every year - back to school, car and truck registration, birthdays. But some of them have been "emergencies" or one-time expenses like the emergency room visit, car repairs, etc.
I've been working on a 2011 budget, broken down by month, to see how a "normal" year would break down for us. Where are these yearly expenses coming up, where are our three-paycheck months, and how is it all going to shake out? Here is my first cut:
As you can see there are still a couple yellow highlighted items. Those are items that need (taxes) or want (races) to be planned in. I just don't know yet how much we'll owe in taxes, although I am assuming we'll owe something. And race entrance fees are definitely a want but C and I really enjoy doing races and we'd like to budget them in if we can.
One thing you'll notice though is about half the year our budget is in the red. Yuck. However, if you look closely, we have over $800 going to savings each month and none of the numbers in red are over $800. That means, should no emergencies arise, we should be able to cash flow all the extra expenses.
Of course, there are emergencies. And to get those numbers out of the red, we either need to cut out the wants a little more or we need to generate additional income. More on those two in the coming two posts!
I think that is what is happening to us in August and September and even a little in October. Our budgets are in the red because we no longer have that extra $1000 to get us through. Some of the expenses we're facing right now are things that are going to come up every year - back to school, car and truck registration, birthdays. But some of them have been "emergencies" or one-time expenses like the emergency room visit, car repairs, etc.
I've been working on a 2011 budget, broken down by month, to see how a "normal" year would break down for us. Where are these yearly expenses coming up, where are our three-paycheck months, and how is it all going to shake out? Here is my first cut:
As you can see there are still a couple yellow highlighted items. Those are items that need (taxes) or want (races) to be planned in. I just don't know yet how much we'll owe in taxes, although I am assuming we'll owe something. And race entrance fees are definitely a want but C and I really enjoy doing races and we'd like to budget them in if we can.
One thing you'll notice though is about half the year our budget is in the red. Yuck. However, if you look closely, we have over $800 going to savings each month and none of the numbers in red are over $800. That means, should no emergencies arise, we should be able to cash flow all the extra expenses.
Of course, there are emergencies. And to get those numbers out of the red, we either need to cut out the wants a little more or we need to generate additional income. More on those two in the coming two posts!
2010 Goals Review - August Edition
Time to check those monthly goals!
- Keep emergency fund above $6000. Still there! We didn't add anything to it this month but at least we kept it where it's at!
- Stay under our budget each month this year. We did thanks to extra income and snowflakes! Otherwise we would have been a bit over.
- Save all Chuck's unemployment benefits for tuition money. Done! That account is getting so big!
- Always have at least $250 in short term savings. Done! I didn't add anything to it this month but that's OK.
- Save at least $100 each month into our emergency fund. Again not this month. There were too many other bills that needed paying instead.
- All extra money (snowflakes) goes to the emergency fund. Nope. The snowflakes are being used to pay bills so I can avoid taking money out of the emergency fund. So while I didn't technically make this goal, the snowflakes are being used wisely.
- 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. If only there was more money to go to those accounts! There will be in October. I just keep telling myself that.
- 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!
- And finally, post at least 15 times each month here on this ol' blog. Done!
August 2010 Budget Report
It's time to review our August budget. We haven't done too well lately. How did we do this month?
Not too bad actually. Our discretionary spending is a little over ($43) but that's not too horrible. And none of the categories are completely out of bounds. We're going to have to watch our grocery budget. It's been creeping up as we've shifted our focus on more and more fresh, unprocessed real foods. Our budgeted bills came in $16 under so that balanced the discretionary a little bit. Thankfully C brought home more income than I had planned ($180) and that definitely helped.
It's just the extra expenses this month that really added up! It would have been nice to send all that money to savings instead of bills!
The $212 is our budget extra from July that I rolled forward for August's extra expenses. Between increased income and August snowflakes, we have another surplus of $205. That is going to be rolled into September where we really have a lot of extra expenses. Come on snowflakes! Please start falling! (So far I have just over $33 in snowflakes so far this month from Half.com sales, survey payment and another $20 reward check in the mail from our credit card company.)
Not too bad actually. Our discretionary spending is a little over ($43) but that's not too horrible. And none of the categories are completely out of bounds. We're going to have to watch our grocery budget. It's been creeping up as we've shifted our focus on more and more fresh, unprocessed real foods. Our budgeted bills came in $16 under so that balanced the discretionary a little bit. Thankfully C brought home more income than I had planned ($180) and that definitely helped.
It's just the extra expenses this month that really added up! It would have been nice to send all that money to savings instead of bills!
The $212 is our budget extra from July that I rolled forward for August's extra expenses. Between increased income and August snowflakes, we have another surplus of $205. That is going to be rolled into September where we really have a lot of extra expenses. Come on snowflakes! Please start falling! (So far I have just over $33 in snowflakes so far this month from Half.com sales, survey payment and another $20 reward check in the mail from our credit card company.)
August 2010 Month End
The end of summer is here. A started kindergarten on Monday and J starts preschool on Tuesday. Those are big firsts for my kids! I can't believe they're getting so big already. *sigh* Anyway, here is how our August went:
Debts:
Truck Loan: $26,843.05 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $6,291.63 (+$5.84) - Only interest was added to the emergency fund this month. We did end the month in the black thanks to snowflakes and increased income but all that money is going to expenses in September instead of the emergency fund. I hope to contribute to the emergency fund again in October.
Short Term Savings: $250.03 (+0.00) - I didn't send anything to this account in August so that money could instead go to the August and September extra expenses. If the budget is in the red then there can't be any money going to fun savings!
Travel Fund: $134.41 (+0.12) - Just interest again here. I have dreams of vacations. Unfortunately, it will be a while until those dreams come true.
Christmas Savings: $435.52 (+0.40) - Again just interest here. I don't have any money going to this account in September either. I hope to contribute a bunch in October though so we're closer to our savings goal for this year.
Basement Finishing Fund: $79.13 (+0.07) - One more time - only interest. Blah, repeat, blah.
Tuition Fund: $7,905.99 (+970.68) - At least this account had another big jump up! I'm hoping there is enough in this account to pay cash for C's schooling next year.
The one thing keeping me going in these months of little savings is this: if you add up all those numbers up there we have over $15,000 in savings. While our emergency fund is only about 1/3 done, we're actually 3/4 there if we lump everything together. This means if we absolutely had to, we'd be OK for many months if we tapped those other accounts too. It's reassuring at least.
Debts:
Truck Loan: $26,843.05 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $6,291.63 (+$5.84) - Only interest was added to the emergency fund this month. We did end the month in the black thanks to snowflakes and increased income but all that money is going to expenses in September instead of the emergency fund. I hope to contribute to the emergency fund again in October.
Short Term Savings: $250.03 (+0.00) - I didn't send anything to this account in August so that money could instead go to the August and September extra expenses. If the budget is in the red then there can't be any money going to fun savings!
Travel Fund: $134.41 (+0.12) - Just interest again here. I have dreams of vacations. Unfortunately, it will be a while until those dreams come true.
Christmas Savings: $435.52 (+0.40) - Again just interest here. I don't have any money going to this account in September either. I hope to contribute a bunch in October though so we're closer to our savings goal for this year.
Basement Finishing Fund: $79.13 (+0.07) - One more time - only interest. Blah, repeat, blah.
Tuition Fund: $7,905.99 (+970.68) - At least this account had another big jump up! I'm hoping there is enough in this account to pay cash for C's schooling next year.
The one thing keeping me going in these months of little savings is this: if you add up all those numbers up there we have over $15,000 in savings. While our emergency fund is only about 1/3 done, we're actually 3/4 there if we lump everything together. This means if we absolutely had to, we'd be OK for many months if we tapped those other accounts too. It's reassuring at least.
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