Our church started its annual adopt-a-family program this past Sunday. All gifts for the families are due by November 28th. With the kids, we picked five tags off the table:
These are the items they wanted:
16 month old girl - 2T long sleeve shirt
3 year old boy - Memory game
a Mom - $25 grocery store gift card
a Mom - black dress socks
a Dad - warm black dress socks
It was very sad that most of the gift requests were gift cards to grocery stores and gas stations and kids clothing items. Only a few toys were asked for. That means to me that these families have some pretty basic needs that they can not meet on their own. We are glad to help them.
I'll be finalizing our Christmas budget soon but we already had in there a charitable giving line item. For our November budget I had $100 going to the Christmas savings account. Instead of transferring all that money right away, I'm going to purchase the items above and deduct that from the $100 and then transfer the difference to the Christmas savings account.
A while back I told you about the allowance system I set up for the kids. We'll be taking the money they have in their giving jar and using it to help purchase the items above. I think it will be a very good lesson for them to know and remember that not everybody has a warm house filled with toys like they do.
Surgery Medical Bills
We received the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from our insurance company for C's surgery. And I finally was able to look up online the EOBs for the last of the emergency room medical bills. For whatever reason, I didn't receive all of them in the mail so I had to go online to find them.
For October's budget there is a $74 bill that is being paid.
For November's budget there are over $250 in medical bills due.
And for December's budget there will be another $470 in medical bills due. This month is also a three paycheck month for me.
We're fortunate that the bills are going to be able to be spread out like that instead of all due in one month. Because they're spread out, we'll have to take less money out of savings to pay for them. In fact, we won't have to take any money out at all but just reduce how much of our budget is going to savings for those months, leaving the balance already in savings alone.
I'm so grateful we're able to basically pay cash for these bills and not pull money out of savings.
I also hope there are no more medical bills lingering in the billing process and no more medical emergencies in our future!
For October's budget there is a $74 bill that is being paid.
For November's budget there are over $250 in medical bills due.
And for December's budget there will be another $470 in medical bills due. This month is also a three paycheck month for me.
We're fortunate that the bills are going to be able to be spread out like that instead of all due in one month. Because they're spread out, we'll have to take less money out of savings to pay for them. In fact, we won't have to take any money out at all but just reduce how much of our budget is going to savings for those months, leaving the balance already in savings alone.
I'm so grateful we're able to basically pay cash for these bills and not pull money out of savings.
I also hope there are no more medical bills lingering in the billing process and no more medical emergencies in our future!
Unnecessary But Necessary Expenses
I don't talk much about fitness on this blog. I have a different blog for that. This one is focused on personal finance. But today I want to talk a little bit about fitness. C and I are a little on the health-nutty side. We try to eat whole foods as much as possible, making most of our meals from scratch. I've talked before about my desire to buy a chest freezer and fill it with grass fed beef and free range pork and chicken. We've switched to buying free range, organic eggs. I also have talked about my desire to increase the size of our garden which we plan to do next summer. We're doing pretty well on the food side of health.
And honestly we do pretty well on the exercise side of health too. Last summer I completed three duathlons and one half marathon. C completed four duathlons and a couple long group bike rides. This summer with the reduction in income we also reduced the number of organized races we did. Of course I also had a baby so I wasn't in shape to race anyway. We did just one race this summer, a duathlon at the end of August. But we have plans to do more. And even if we're not racing we're both still exercising. We both want to do some triathlons next summer with the goal of completing a half ironman triathlon in 2012.
How does this relate to personal finance? Well, in order to do a race you have to pay an entrance fee starting at $15 and up depending on the race. There is a triathlon I want to do next June and I checked and registration opens in December and the entry fee is $65. C might also want to do it. We could be spending $130 in December on entry fees. I've been waffling about this. It's a lot of money for us now that we're bringing in less income. Should we really do it?
We don't have a gym membership. In order to train for duathlons and biking and running races we simply go outdoors and run or bike around our neighborhood. We also have a bike trainer so we can spin indoors and we have an elliptical (no treadmill sadly) for more indoor cardio work. But to train for a triathlon we'll need to swim and we'll need a gym membership to do that. In Minnesota it's just not an option to train outdoors year round for swimming! The ice isn't even off the lakes most years until some time in March or early April. I wouldn't recommend swimming in a lake until the middle to end of May and that's only with a wetsuit!
I've been thinking about this over and over. Do we invest in a gym membership (there is a YMCA very close to our house that we're thinking of joining) or do we stick with the running and biking only? J.D.'s post today about fitness has me pondering this all over again. We may just suck up the costs and do it but right now it's hard to think about all that money it will cost us.
And honestly we do pretty well on the exercise side of health too. Last summer I completed three duathlons and one half marathon. C completed four duathlons and a couple long group bike rides. This summer with the reduction in income we also reduced the number of organized races we did. Of course I also had a baby so I wasn't in shape to race anyway. We did just one race this summer, a duathlon at the end of August. But we have plans to do more. And even if we're not racing we're both still exercising. We both want to do some triathlons next summer with the goal of completing a half ironman triathlon in 2012.
How does this relate to personal finance? Well, in order to do a race you have to pay an entrance fee starting at $15 and up depending on the race. There is a triathlon I want to do next June and I checked and registration opens in December and the entry fee is $65. C might also want to do it. We could be spending $130 in December on entry fees. I've been waffling about this. It's a lot of money for us now that we're bringing in less income. Should we really do it?
We don't have a gym membership. In order to train for duathlons and biking and running races we simply go outdoors and run or bike around our neighborhood. We also have a bike trainer so we can spin indoors and we have an elliptical (no treadmill sadly) for more indoor cardio work. But to train for a triathlon we'll need to swim and we'll need a gym membership to do that. In Minnesota it's just not an option to train outdoors year round for swimming! The ice isn't even off the lakes most years until some time in March or early April. I wouldn't recommend swimming in a lake until the middle to end of May and that's only with a wetsuit!
I've been thinking about this over and over. Do we invest in a gym membership (there is a YMCA very close to our house that we're thinking of joining) or do we stick with the running and biking only? J.D.'s post today about fitness has me pondering this all over again. We may just suck up the costs and do it but right now it's hard to think about all that money it will cost us.
How I Budget
Anonymous left a comment a long time ago (sorry for taking so long to get this posted!) wondering how I budget using my Excel spreadsheet. You've all seen my monthly budget reports which is a snapshot of my monthly budget. And I've shared my 2011 budget which is my master spreadsheet for 2011 all ready to be updated with real numbers. But here's the never-seen-before behind the scenes edition! :)
Basically I have 14 tabs in my Excel spreadsheet. The first tab is my budget. I have the main column on the left for all my categories and then 12 columns for monthly budgets followed by a grayed divider column and then 12 more columns for my actuals. Of course those 12 columns are for each month of the year. I hide the months that are not currently in use so I can just see the current month at any given time.
I enter my data directly into this budget tab for all my monthly bills since there is only one number going into them and I can plainly see which have been paid that month and which are still outstanding. Another tip? I highlight my budgeted amount in yellow when it hasn't been paid yet and change that to green when it has been paid. It's just another visual reminder as to which bills are unpaid for that month. Another tip? In the actuals cell I enter the confirmation code as a comment for any online bill paying along with the date it was paid. Here is October's current snapshot for bills:
See? All paid or scheduled to be paid for this month. Maybe I should clarify. I color it green if I have sent in the payment, scheduled the payment or if it is on auto-pay. It's yellow if there is an action left for me to do.
Then, for my fluxtuating monthly categories, the discretionary bills, I have those linked to 12 other tabs in my spreadsheet, one for each month. As we spend money during the month and I reconcile that spending with my budget, I input the amount into the appropriate category on my monthly spreadsheet tab and it auto fills it into my budget for me. Here is a snapshot of my September tab:
All these charges are auto summed and put into the respective categories on my budget tab. One last bit of Excel conditional formatting that I take advantage of: greater than/less than. I have it set up such that if my actuals are under budget, it turns the cell green and if my actuals are over my budget it turns the cell red. It's another visual reminder of how we're doing with our budget during the month. Here is a current snapshot of our October budget vs. actuals:
Hey, look at that - we're still all green for this month. Yay! And that's the basics. I also have one more tab in my spreadsheet for my credit cards. Here, I list out what charges have been posted to our accounts, then also list them in the appropriate budget categories. I also color code these charges yellow for not paid and green for paid so I never pay them late and incur a finance charge. I can then also easily add up the columns and make sure they reconcile with my credit card statement.
And that's how I budget in one long drawn out explanation! Let me know if you have any questions and I'll answer them in the comment section of this post.
If anyone would like my budget template, just leave a comment with an e-mail address (or e-mail me at debtmarathon @ yahoo dot com and I'll e-mail it to you. I know there are a million other ways to employ Excel (or Quicken or Mint or YNAB or anything else) to budget for your family but this is my way and it works really well for me. I usually spend ~ 1 hour/week (usually Monday evenings) updating our budget for the previous week's charges and I'm done. If it's not easy, you won't keep up with it so if nothing else - make a budget that works for you and stick to it!
Basically I have 14 tabs in my Excel spreadsheet. The first tab is my budget. I have the main column on the left for all my categories and then 12 columns for monthly budgets followed by a grayed divider column and then 12 more columns for my actuals. Of course those 12 columns are for each month of the year. I hide the months that are not currently in use so I can just see the current month at any given time.
I enter my data directly into this budget tab for all my monthly bills since there is only one number going into them and I can plainly see which have been paid that month and which are still outstanding. Another tip? I highlight my budgeted amount in yellow when it hasn't been paid yet and change that to green when it has been paid. It's just another visual reminder as to which bills are unpaid for that month. Another tip? In the actuals cell I enter the confirmation code as a comment for any online bill paying along with the date it was paid. Here is October's current snapshot for bills:
See? All paid or scheduled to be paid for this month. Maybe I should clarify. I color it green if I have sent in the payment, scheduled the payment or if it is on auto-pay. It's yellow if there is an action left for me to do.
Then, for my fluxtuating monthly categories, the discretionary bills, I have those linked to 12 other tabs in my spreadsheet, one for each month. As we spend money during the month and I reconcile that spending with my budget, I input the amount into the appropriate category on my monthly spreadsheet tab and it auto fills it into my budget for me. Here is a snapshot of my September tab:
All these charges are auto summed and put into the respective categories on my budget tab. One last bit of Excel conditional formatting that I take advantage of: greater than/less than. I have it set up such that if my actuals are under budget, it turns the cell green and if my actuals are over my budget it turns the cell red. It's another visual reminder of how we're doing with our budget during the month. Here is a current snapshot of our October budget vs. actuals:
Hey, look at that - we're still all green for this month. Yay! And that's the basics. I also have one more tab in my spreadsheet for my credit cards. Here, I list out what charges have been posted to our accounts, then also list them in the appropriate budget categories. I also color code these charges yellow for not paid and green for paid so I never pay them late and incur a finance charge. I can then also easily add up the columns and make sure they reconcile with my credit card statement.
And that's how I budget in one long drawn out explanation! Let me know if you have any questions and I'll answer them in the comment section of this post.
If anyone would like my budget template, just leave a comment with an e-mail address (or e-mail me at debtmarathon @ yahoo dot com and I'll e-mail it to you. I know there are a million other ways to employ Excel (or Quicken or Mint or YNAB or anything else) to budget for your family but this is my way and it works really well for me. I usually spend ~ 1 hour/week (usually Monday evenings) updating our budget for the previous week's charges and I'm done. If it's not easy, you won't keep up with it so if nothing else - make a budget that works for you and stick to it!
2011 Health Care Open Enrollment
It's open enrollment time at work for our 2011 benefits, specifically for the health care, health care spending account (HSA) and dependent care spending account (DSA). Last year I did a big post on our options and they're basically the same this year. It's the same choices of insurance companies (three) with basically the same coverage. I did see that some office co-pays were higher with the other two companies than the one we are currently with. Once again I'm not going to change our coverage. We have good insurance and I don't mind paying for it. C's emergency room visit in August? After the $150 co-pay it is 100% covered. So, yes, the monthly premium is expensive but the benefits are pretty good.
This year our per paycheck cost (bi-weekly) is $223. If you remember, for 2010 we're paying $198. It's a big increase again but there's not much we can do about that. That's $5800 per year that we're paying for health care. Just one emergency or surgery per year and we'd be paying more than that. Medical costs add up so fast!
And this year we will not be contributing to an HSA. We have no planned medical costs except for a few well child visits. And we've never had a DSA because we've never paid for childcare since C has always been a stay at home dad. If C does go back to school next fall (and we're still planning on that but he's not applied anywhere yet) then maybe for 2012 we'll open a DSA since we'll probably need childcare while he's in class during the day. I'll worry about that in the future though. For right now I want as much money in my paycheck each month so I can build that emergency fund!
This year our per paycheck cost (bi-weekly) is $223. If you remember, for 2010 we're paying $198. It's a big increase again but there's not much we can do about that. That's $5800 per year that we're paying for health care. Just one emergency or surgery per year and we'd be paying more than that. Medical costs add up so fast!
And this year we will not be contributing to an HSA. We have no planned medical costs except for a few well child visits. And we've never had a DSA because we've never paid for childcare since C has always been a stay at home dad. If C does go back to school next fall (and we're still planning on that but he's not applied anywhere yet) then maybe for 2012 we'll open a DSA since we'll probably need childcare while he's in class during the day. I'll worry about that in the future though. For right now I want as much money in my paycheck each month so I can build that emergency fund!
Emergency Fund in Jeopardy
Well, maybe. Probably. We're in the process of opening a Vanguard account so C can roll over his 401k from his last job into a Roth IRA. His 401k is a standard 401k, not a Roth 401k. So by rolling it over into a Roth IRA we're going to have to take a tax hit on the amount rolled over. We've decided to do this now because of a few reasons:
All this means that come tax time next year I'm not sure what kind of tax bill we'll have. Sure, we'll have reduced income and therefore tax liability plus a new child tax credit but I'm sure we'll still owe something. And I'm in no way a tax professional to sit down and try and figure it out.
Well, that and I just really don't like taxes and have absolutely no interest in doing that math. If we have a tax bill that we can't cash flow next year then we'll take money from our emergency fund to pay it. Head in the sand a bit? Yes. Still the right move to make (rolling it over into a Roth)? Yes. And really, whether we put the money in a savings account labeled "Emergency" or "Taxes" it's all savings anyway.
- This is a lower income year for us with his tutoring job bringing in less income than his old chemical analyst job and me taking four weeks unpaid during my maternity leave.
- We had a baby this year and will thus qualify for the new child tax credit.
- We are pretty confident we are earning less now than we will in the future and want to start a Roth IRA to take advantage of that.
All this means that come tax time next year I'm not sure what kind of tax bill we'll have. Sure, we'll have reduced income and therefore tax liability plus a new child tax credit but I'm sure we'll still owe something. And I'm in no way a tax professional to sit down and try and figure it out.
Well, that and I just really don't like taxes and have absolutely no interest in doing that math. If we have a tax bill that we can't cash flow next year then we'll take money from our emergency fund to pay it. Head in the sand a bit? Yes. Still the right move to make (rolling it over into a Roth)? Yes. And really, whether we put the money in a savings account labeled "Emergency" or "Taxes" it's all savings anyway.
New Target Account
Earlier this month I opened a Target Red Card account. Some of you just cringed. I opened a store account!! Ack!! Hee.
As I previously talked about, Target is changing the terms of their Red Card such that starting October 17th you can now receive an instant 5% discount on all purchases made with your Red Card. This is better than most credit card rewards programs. And we spend a fair amount at Target each month. It’s typically around $300 per month when you look at our household purchases and groceries. This means we can save about $15 each month just by using the Red Card and then paying it off in full each month just like we do with our other credit cards.
Does this change in program terms entice you to open or use a Red Card account?
As I previously talked about, Target is changing the terms of their Red Card such that starting October 17th you can now receive an instant 5% discount on all purchases made with your Red Card. This is better than most credit card rewards programs. And we spend a fair amount at Target each month. It’s typically around $300 per month when you look at our household purchases and groceries. This means we can save about $15 each month just by using the Red Card and then paying it off in full each month just like we do with our other credit cards.
Does this change in program terms entice you to open or use a Red Card account?
Disappointed!
Do you watch Project Runway? C and I do. And last week's challenge (the "create three new looks for Heidi's activewear line") we thought was cool because maybe then I could actually have a look from the show! I liked the hoodie and yesterday when looking for Halloween costumes online we ran across Heidi's line at Amazon. That hoodie? $158!!!! Yikes! I was so disappointed that Heidi's line was so expensive. I would maybe (MAYBE!) spend that much on clothing that I could wear to work (think a nice tailored pair of pants or blazer or some other staple that I would wear over and over again) but a hoodie? To wear to the park or the store and get baby spit up on? Never! Activewear should not be three digits in price! Yuck. I guess there will be no "HKNB Heidi Klum for New Balance" for me!
Randoms
Friday I spent $211 at the grocery store. I tried to act all nonchalant when the cashier told me my total. Like "oh, that's all?" when really I was all "what the he1l!" C and I had wanted to try out a couple new recipes and our pantry and freezer were getting very bare so I expected the total to be high but not that high! And the only "junk" food I bought was a half gallon of ice cream and a half gallon of rainbow sherbet (the kids love that!). But, we did make a huge pot of chili this weekend that was enough for Saturday nights dinner for 4, Sunday lunch for 2 plus enough for at least 4 more individual meals. And we also made a creamy pear pie with the pears from our in-laws pear tree. And we made a couple loaves of pumpkin bread yesterday. I have ingredients for Curry-scented butternut squash soup and apple pie and apple crisp too. And I bought a whole bunch of staples so we should be set (except for perishables) for most of the month. We better be too because most of our grocery budget is now gone for the month!
On Saturday the only thing I bought was a hook rack (this one) from Amazon. I had $20 in Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks so I only spent $9.99 on it. I'm so excited to get this hung in our entry way so backpacks and winter jackets can be hung up by the kids (instead of by me in the closet where they can't reach or on the stairway banister where they can).
On Sunday the only thing we purchased was a Halloween costume for A and a roll of tape (impulse purchase but we are out at home). It was a low spend weekend (if you don't count the groceries!) which is exactly what we needed!
On Saturday the only thing I bought was a hook rack (this one) from Amazon. I had $20 in Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks so I only spent $9.99 on it. I'm so excited to get this hung in our entry way so backpacks and winter jackets can be hung up by the kids (instead of by me in the closet where they can't reach or on the stairway banister where they can).
On Sunday the only thing we purchased was a Halloween costume for A and a roll of tape (impulse purchase but we are out at home). It was a low spend weekend (if you don't count the groceries!) which is exactly what we needed!
2010 Goals Review: September Edition
Monthly Goal Checklist:
We only achieved 4 of 9 goals this month. That is not stellar. That must be corrected this month. I’m shooting for 8 of 9 this month. I’ll put $50 (monthly budget contribution) into our short term savings to bring that back up to $220 this month so we won’t make that goal but there is NO REASON to not make the other goals. It will just take some diligence and discipline. We can do this!
- Keep emergency fund above $6000. We did it! We didn’t take any money out of the account this month even though we were a couple hundred over budget. How is that possible? Well, now that we’re using credit cards for everyday purchases instead of our check card, we have a lot of money in our checking account. I use my mid-month paycheck to pay our credit card balance from the previous month in full and I use my end of month paycheck to pay the mortgage. We are no longer bringing our checking account balance near zero. We can use this “slush” in our account instead of taking money out of savings. Yay!
- Stay under budget each month this year. Yeah, as I already stated above and in my last post, we were over budget by a couple hundred this month due to mainly the one time expenses. We have more one time or yearly expenses this month but C’s third paycheck will help us offset those. I’ll try harder to keep our discretionary spending under budget so we can end the month in the black. It’s been a little while since we’ve done that!
- Save all C’s unemployment benefits for tuition money. Done! I’ve been very disciplined in making sure this money is transferred to savings and not spent. We’re putting ourselves in a good position for next year.
- Always have at least $250 in short term savings. I took $80 out of this account this month to buy a new living room area rug. The account is now at $170. With the “slush” in our checking account as I talked about above so having this money is less critical. I will be building it back up to its $250 level and then building it again so we have the cash for our next want.
- Save at least $100 each month into our emergency fund. We did not save any money into our emergency fund this month so we could use that money for our one time expenses. There will be $100 going into this account in October though. Actually there will be $336.57 going into this account this money since our mortgage has lowered (due to our ARM resetting) and that extra money is going towards the emergency fund. We’re getting back on track!
- All extra money (snowflakes) goes to the emergency fund. Yeah, again we didn’t do that this month so we could use that money for bills. My $25 credit card reward check I’ve already received this month though is going to the emergency fund. Once again, we’re getting back on track!
- 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. No money went to other savings so I guess we made this goal this month. Technicalities. Gotta love ‘em. We will put money into these accounts this month while also putting money into the emergency fund. I am SO EXCITED to see the balances on these accounts rise again!
- Our list of want items must only be purchased with money from our regular monthly budget or our short term savings account. Done. At least we’re not being complete money dummies and spending our emergency fund on wants!
- And finally, post at least 15 times each month here on this ol’ blog. Oops. I was only here blathering on about our money 13 times. I promise to bore you with more money details in October to meet this goal! Heh.
We only achieved 4 of 9 goals this month. That is not stellar. That must be corrected this month. I’m shooting for 8 of 9 this month. I’ll put $50 (monthly budget contribution) into our short term savings to bring that back up to $220 this month so we won’t make that goal but there is NO REASON to not make the other goals. It will just take some diligence and discipline. We can do this!
September 2010 Budget Report
Once again we were over budget this month. Our discretionary combined with our one time expenses did us in. The details? Here ya go:
We brought in over $100 extra in income this month than I expected. That was thanks to an increase in hours for C plus his bonus. And we brought in a large amount of snowflakes (the difference between the other income and other expenses) but those combined weren't quite enough. Part of the problem was our discretionary spending was about $115 over what it should have been. Overall our budget was nice quite as in the red as I had projected it to be which is good, but we could have done better.
Our gas was almost $50 over budget. That means one extra fill-up for the truck this month. I'm not overly upset about this. Sometimes it needs a fill right at the end of the month. We could have only put in a few gallons to get us through before the next month started but I guess I don't get that hung up on hitting my budget to the penny. I know some of you just shuddered. Sorry.
Our groceries were also about $50 over budget. Again, we don't buy a ton of crappy food so I'm not too worried if we go over this budget. If that's a trend though, then I'll up the budget a bit. My family of five has to eat, ya know?
Household was pretty on track. Yay!
Restaurants were about $40 over. Whoops. This is one that I think we can do better on. We don't have to eat out. That's a pure luxury.
And discretionary was $33 under. Yay!
I'll put up a post in the next week as to how I populate my budget, as requested by a commenter a couple weeks back. I haven't forgotten! Just haven't had time to put the post together. Soon, though. I promise!
And that was our month. The next couple months should be back in black. And it's up to us to stick to our budget too. We can do better!
We brought in over $100 extra in income this month than I expected. That was thanks to an increase in hours for C plus his bonus. And we brought in a large amount of snowflakes (the difference between the other income and other expenses) but those combined weren't quite enough. Part of the problem was our discretionary spending was about $115 over what it should have been. Overall our budget was nice quite as in the red as I had projected it to be which is good, but we could have done better.
Our gas was almost $50 over budget. That means one extra fill-up for the truck this month. I'm not overly upset about this. Sometimes it needs a fill right at the end of the month. We could have only put in a few gallons to get us through before the next month started but I guess I don't get that hung up on hitting my budget to the penny. I know some of you just shuddered. Sorry.
Our groceries were also about $50 over budget. Again, we don't buy a ton of crappy food so I'm not too worried if we go over this budget. If that's a trend though, then I'll up the budget a bit. My family of five has to eat, ya know?
Household was pretty on track. Yay!
Restaurants were about $40 over. Whoops. This is one that I think we can do better on. We don't have to eat out. That's a pure luxury.
And discretionary was $33 under. Yay!
I'll put up a post in the next week as to how I populate my budget, as requested by a commenter a couple weeks back. I haven't forgotten! Just haven't had time to put the post together. Soon, though. I promise!
And that was our month. The next couple months should be back in black. And it's up to us to stick to our budget too. We can do better!
September 2010 Month End
The school year has started. We had some unexpected medical bills. The kids are all outgrowing their clothes. Such is the life of a busy family. Our finances though did okay. Let's take a look:
Debts:
Truck Loan: $26,403.00 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $6,297.29 (+$5.66) - Only interest was added to this account again this month. I have a nice chunk budgeted for this account in October though. I'll be very happy to see this balance rise again.
Short Term Savings: $170.04 (-79.99) - I took $80 out of this account to pay for a new rug (5x8') for our living room. Now that the baby is almost crawling (but most definitely scooting and rolling to where he wants to get) we really needed to replace the rug that was there. After potty training two kids plus numerous dog accidents, I just could not put my baby down on that rug. I just couldn't get the rug clean enough even with multiple steam cleanings. I was able to find a nice replacement rug for a decent price though and use this account to pay for it.
Travel Fund: $134.53 (+0.12) - Only interest for this account. I'm hoping to add a little to this account in October. C and I would really like to take the kids on a summer vacation next year (thinking the Black Hills area of South Dakota maybe?) and we'll need to add to this account to make that happen.
Christmas Savings: $435.91 (+0.39) - Nothing added to this account this month. This account will get a deposit in October though. Christmas isn't that far away anymore! We better start saving up!
Basement Finishing Fund: $79.20 (+0.07) - Sigh. I so want to finish this account and get that basement done! Maybe a little can go to this account in October. I sure hope so!
Tuition Fund: $8,730.32 (+824.33) - At least something had a big gain this month!
Another minimal gain month. That should be the last of them for a little while hopefully. October has a few one-time expenses but it's also a three paycheck month for C plus my raise kicks in so I'm hoping we'll be able to pay all the extra bills, send money to each of our savings accounts and maybe even have a bit left over!
Debts:
Truck Loan: $26,403.00 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. Not much else to say about this one.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $6,297.29 (+$5.66) - Only interest was added to this account again this month. I have a nice chunk budgeted for this account in October though. I'll be very happy to see this balance rise again.
Short Term Savings: $170.04 (-79.99) - I took $80 out of this account to pay for a new rug (5x8') for our living room. Now that the baby is almost crawling (but most definitely scooting and rolling to where he wants to get) we really needed to replace the rug that was there. After potty training two kids plus numerous dog accidents, I just could not put my baby down on that rug. I just couldn't get the rug clean enough even with multiple steam cleanings. I was able to find a nice replacement rug for a decent price though and use this account to pay for it.
Travel Fund: $134.53 (+0.12) - Only interest for this account. I'm hoping to add a little to this account in October. C and I would really like to take the kids on a summer vacation next year (thinking the Black Hills area of South Dakota maybe?) and we'll need to add to this account to make that happen.
Christmas Savings: $435.91 (+0.39) - Nothing added to this account this month. This account will get a deposit in October though. Christmas isn't that far away anymore! We better start saving up!
Basement Finishing Fund: $79.20 (+0.07) - Sigh. I so want to finish this account and get that basement done! Maybe a little can go to this account in October. I sure hope so!
Tuition Fund: $8,730.32 (+824.33) - At least something had a big gain this month!
Another minimal gain month. That should be the last of them for a little while hopefully. October has a few one-time expenses but it's also a three paycheck month for C plus my raise kicks in so I'm hoping we'll be able to pay all the extra bills, send money to each of our savings accounts and maybe even have a bit left over!
All Is Well
Thank you for your well wishes. The surgery went well and C is home resting on the couch. We sent the older two kids off to the grandparents for the weekend which excited them so much they almost forgot to kiss us good-bye. I'm on nurse and baby duty this weekend which is still not leaving me with much free time. I'm going to try and get the end of the month reports done and update the budget as well so hopefully I can get a couple of those posts up before Monday.
Have a great weekend!
Have a great weekend!
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