Upping Church Budget
Our church is facing a budget shortfall this year. As the economy is hit hard, so is church giving. Makes sense I guess. Last year we were giving $50/month to our church so this year I upped that to $60/month. But then when we saw the church budget and how much we were short and all the really great things that potentially would be cut, and, well, we took a look at our budget and adjusted our giving. We decided to up it to $75/month. Not only is this a 50% increase over our 2010 giving, but it is also more in line with our values. I mean really, we're putting $75/month away for both Christmas gifts and vacations. Why shouldn't we be giving at least that much to our church too? That means less will be going to the emergency fund each month but I'm OK with that. It's not like we're spending the money frivolously. We love our church and all the good things it does for our community.
Deals and Bargains
Thursday night we loaded up the kids and went to the local mall. It was picture time! L turned 9 months old yesterday and J turns 4 next weekend and I always do professional pictures at their birthdays (and 6, 9 and 18 months too). Our first stop was the childrens hair place so A could get her hair cut. We haven't had it professionally cut in over a year and she wanted a few inches cut off. That was not the most frugal thing to do as the cut with tip was $20 but since we do it so rarely, I'm OK spending that money.
The rest of the night found us scoring some great deals and finding some great bargains though!
We went to Target to get the pictures taken. I had a coupon for a free 8x10, no sitting fees and all other pictures for $3.99/sheet. I ended up with at least 12 sheets of 5x7s, 2 8x10s and 2 sheets of wallets. I got all that for $17! It helped that last time we were in for pictures (in October when we had A's 6 year, L's 6 months and Christmas pictures taken) we received a $50 off your next order coupon and you could combine it with other offers like the coupon I had above. Talk about a great deal! And now all the grandparents and aunts and uncles will have updated pictures as will our frames at home and my desk. Love it!
Next as we were walking through the mall to get to the entrance that we parked at C remarked how Old Navy was having a 40% off sale and clearance items sale. Well, of course we had to swing in there and see if we could score any bargains. And we did! We bought 9 pieces of clothing for only $46! We got 2 winter coats (one for A and one for L for next winter), 1 sweater for A, 2 button down dress shirts for C to wear to work, 1 fleece pullover for J, 1 long sleeved thermal shirt for J and 2 Vikings long sleeved t-shirts for J and L for next fall. I couldn't believe we walked out of the store with this giant bag of clothes and only spent $46. Now that is a great bargain!
The rest of the night found us scoring some great deals and finding some great bargains though!
We went to Target to get the pictures taken. I had a coupon for a free 8x10, no sitting fees and all other pictures for $3.99/sheet. I ended up with at least 12 sheets of 5x7s, 2 8x10s and 2 sheets of wallets. I got all that for $17! It helped that last time we were in for pictures (in October when we had A's 6 year, L's 6 months and Christmas pictures taken) we received a $50 off your next order coupon and you could combine it with other offers like the coupon I had above. Talk about a great deal! And now all the grandparents and aunts and uncles will have updated pictures as will our frames at home and my desk. Love it!
Next as we were walking through the mall to get to the entrance that we parked at C remarked how Old Navy was having a 40% off sale and clearance items sale. Well, of course we had to swing in there and see if we could score any bargains. And we did! We bought 9 pieces of clothing for only $46! We got 2 winter coats (one for A and one for L for next winter), 1 sweater for A, 2 button down dress shirts for C to wear to work, 1 fleece pullover for J, 1 long sleeved thermal shirt for J and 2 Vikings long sleeved t-shirts for J and L for next fall. I couldn't believe we walked out of the store with this giant bag of clothes and only spent $46. Now that is a great bargain!
Scared of 2010 Taxes
Is anyone else scared to do their 2010 taxes? I'm terrified! I've estimated our tax bill at $5000. I don't want to know what the real number is! Good-bye emergency fund! Why is our bill going to be so high?
We converted C's 401(k) from his old job to a Roth IRA late last year. We now have to pay taxes on that money.
C's part time job is not taking any taxes out of his paycheck. We now have to pay taxes on that. He didn't bring home a huge amount of money but still - no federal or state taxes were taken out.
Things working in our favor? C's unemployment income did have taxes taken out, both federal and state. In fact, they took out a decent chunk. Hopefully that will help offset.
I took 4 weeks off without pay last year to supplement my maternity leave. My income was lower last year and so my tax bill for income taxes will also be lower.
And finally we had our third child last year. Hopefully there are a couple tax deductions for three dependents that will help us out.
I'm in no way a tax expert so I don't know how all these factors will play together but I have been stalling on downloading some of our tax forms. I just need a bit of time to play ostrich.
We converted C's 401(k) from his old job to a Roth IRA late last year. We now have to pay taxes on that money.
C's part time job is not taking any taxes out of his paycheck. We now have to pay taxes on that. He didn't bring home a huge amount of money but still - no federal or state taxes were taken out.
Things working in our favor? C's unemployment income did have taxes taken out, both federal and state. In fact, they took out a decent chunk. Hopefully that will help offset.
I took 4 weeks off without pay last year to supplement my maternity leave. My income was lower last year and so my tax bill for income taxes will also be lower.
And finally we had our third child last year. Hopefully there are a couple tax deductions for three dependents that will help us out.
I'm in no way a tax expert so I don't know how all these factors will play together but I have been stalling on downloading some of our tax forms. I just need a bit of time to play ostrich.
Amazon Deal
Did any of you take advantage of the Living Social Amazon.com deal a couple days ago? You could purchase a $20 gift card for $10! I purchased one and we've already spent it! We used it to purchase some birthday gifts for J. He turns 4 at the beginning of February.
I'm also a member of Groupon. I've purchased I think 3 deals from Groupon including the Gap deal a few months ago. This was the first Living Social deal I've purchased.
Some people worry that subscribing to these sites will cause them to spend more money. That might be true for some people but I've found that I'm able to ignore deals that I'm not interested in or when the budget is tight. Instead, I've purchased only the select deals that I know I could use and that I have the budget money to spend.
Oh, and I love getting a good deal!
I'm also a member of Groupon. I've purchased I think 3 deals from Groupon including the Gap deal a few months ago. This was the first Living Social deal I've purchased.
Some people worry that subscribing to these sites will cause them to spend more money. That might be true for some people but I've found that I'm able to ignore deals that I'm not interested in or when the budget is tight. Instead, I've purchased only the select deals that I know I could use and that I have the budget money to spend.
Oh, and I love getting a good deal!
Over the Restaurant Budget
This weekend we went out to dinner…and went over our restaurant budget. OK, so the one meal didn’t entirely consume our budget, but it nearly did! With tip, it was $65 and our entire budget is $75. Last week I went out to lunch with a few work friends (a rare treat!) and spent $6. A couple weeks ago when we went to the mall (remember my $2.70 outfit?) we treated the kids to ice cream and spent $8. Together that equates to about $79, or a tad overbudget. I’ve told C no more eating out this month!
We have absolutely no regrets in spending that $65 though. It was C’s Mom’s birthday yesterday and the dinner out was a family birthday dinner to celebrate. C’s Mom was in a very bad head-on collision car accident a week ago that totaled her car. We’re just lucky she’s here with us today! (Thank you air bags and seat belts!) We’ll just be good little responsible budgeters the rest of the month.
We have absolutely no regrets in spending that $65 though. It was C’s Mom’s birthday yesterday and the dinner out was a family birthday dinner to celebrate. C’s Mom was in a very bad head-on collision car accident a week ago that totaled her car. We’re just lucky she’s here with us today! (Thank you air bags and seat belts!) We’ll just be good little responsible budgeters the rest of the month.
Making an Expensive Hobby Frugal
C loves to downhill ski. Unfortunately, that can be an expensive hobby! Between proper gear and lift tickets, it’s just too much for our budget. C has skis and boots from when he was in high school that no longer fit him and we haven’t put money towards getting him new gear. But a couple weeks ago, his brother asked him if he’d go skiing with him. We borrowed some snow pants from my dad, who has several extra pair because he has snowmobiles. We borrowed skis, boots and poles from a sister-in-law who bought new gear last winter and lucky us, her old gear fits C! C’s Mom had a bring-a-friend discount lift pass to the local ski hill. It made for a very frugal day of skiing! (Even more frugal is that I had a baby shower to go to that day so my in-laws watched the older two kids while C and his brother skied. It’s very nice that the ski hill is minutes from their house!)
C was surprised on Friday when his brother called telling him he bought C some new Columbia ski pants at the outlet mall. The ski pants were originally marked $130 and he got them for under $40! I guess he liked going skiing with C. With the other borrowed gear and the new ski pants, maybe we can work a lift ticket or two into our budget for the remaining months of winter. I know C really enjoyed going too.
C was surprised on Friday when his brother called telling him he bought C some new Columbia ski pants at the outlet mall. The ski pants were originally marked $130 and he got them for under $40! I guess he liked going skiing with C. With the other borrowed gear and the new ski pants, maybe we can work a lift ticket or two into our budget for the remaining months of winter. I know C really enjoyed going too.
Partial 401(k) Match Restoration
That was the title of the e-mail I received yesterday at work. Maybe you remember in July 2009 when my 100% match was reduced to 50%? That was a sad day. I have been putting away 8% of my income since I started at my company almost 13 years ago and I had been receiving a 100% match that entire time. Putting away essentially 16% of my income had created a nice nest egg for my retirement. I was so depressed when they changed the match to 50% instead, especially since I was in the middle of a 10% pay cut at the time. The 10% was restored in December 2009 and now they are partially restoring the match.
Instead of a 50% match, I'm going to be getting a 62.5% match. That means instead of 4%, I'll get a 5% match. Add that to my 8% and I'll now be putting away 13% of my income each month into my 401(k). That's better and I'll certainly take it but I can only hope that they eventually go back to the 100% match!
Another piece of good news in the e-mail was that the match is being applied retroactively back to July 1st, 2010! I expect a nice big bump in my 401(k) this month! Now that I'm tracking our networth monthly, I'm paying a lot more attention to my 401(k) balance. Last month alone it increased over $9k (both from earnings and my investments into it)! I'm hoping for another big gain this month.
One interesting tidbit in the e-mail is that almost 25% of 401(k) participants at my company have a loan against their account! Since that is most certainly not the point of a 401(k), they will no longer allow any loans against 401(k) accounts starting July 1, 2011. Interesting, huh? Have you ever taken a loan out against your 401(k)?
And one last thing. They are now going to be offering a Roth 401(k) plan too. I might have to look into that to see if it is something I should switch to, split my money between both, stay where I am, etc.
Instead of a 50% match, I'm going to be getting a 62.5% match. That means instead of 4%, I'll get a 5% match. Add that to my 8% and I'll now be putting away 13% of my income each month into my 401(k). That's better and I'll certainly take it but I can only hope that they eventually go back to the 100% match!
Another piece of good news in the e-mail was that the match is being applied retroactively back to July 1st, 2010! I expect a nice big bump in my 401(k) this month! Now that I'm tracking our networth monthly, I'm paying a lot more attention to my 401(k) balance. Last month alone it increased over $9k (both from earnings and my investments into it)! I'm hoping for another big gain this month.
One interesting tidbit in the e-mail is that almost 25% of 401(k) participants at my company have a loan against their account! Since that is most certainly not the point of a 401(k), they will no longer allow any loans against 401(k) accounts starting July 1, 2011. Interesting, huh? Have you ever taken a loan out against your 401(k)?
And one last thing. They are now going to be offering a Roth 401(k) plan too. I might have to look into that to see if it is something I should switch to, split my money between both, stay where I am, etc.
Bargain Shopping
My wonderful sister gave me a $50 gift card to Ann Taylor LOFT for Christmas. Last Wednesday C and I loaded up the kids and went shopping and I was able to spend my gift card on new clothes for me. We timed it perfectly because the store was having a 50% off the entire store sale! I was able to get a very nice pair of black dress pants regularly priced at $79.50 plus a beautiful cranberry colored sweater regularly priced at $44.50. Along with the 50% off I also had an additional 15% off coupon if you used a gift card to pay. So, my $124 purchase came to $52.70 which was then paid for with my gift card and $2.70 from our discretionary budget. Today I'm wore my new outfit to work along with a new necklace I received for Christmas and I was feeling pretty good!
December 2010 Budget Report
It's time to come clean. Just how did we do on our December budget?
Well? Good and Bad. Here it is:
The good:
The bad:
Well? Good and Bad. Here it is:
The good:
- C got a bonus at work and brought home more than expected. Go C!
- We were under budget in discretionary, the money set aside for my sister's two baby showers and the money set aside to buy me some new clothes.
- We were under budget overall! That's the first time that's happened in quite a while!
The bad:
- We were over budget is almost all spending categories. Shame on us! I blame this partially on my brother's impromptu visit. There was an extra gas fill on the car plus a few more groceries than normal purchased. The rest though is all on us.
- The money set aside for the clothes for me is going to hit the budget in January instead of December. Instead of a separate line item for this, I'm going to absorb it into our discretionary budget and keep a close eye on us to make sure we don't go over!
- One of my sister's showers was postponed until January because of a blizzard here in Minnesota the day it was supposed to be held. As such, I'm going to carry over the $182 balance into January to cover the extra groceries and other miscellaneous items needed for that. This should more than cover it though and whatever is left will be transferred to the emergency fund.
Happy New Year to Us!
New Year Eve, on our way out the door to a friend's house, C grabbed the mail. In there was a letter from our mortgage company. C figured it was the mortgage statement for the month but I knew we already had that so I opened it before we left. It was our annual escrow analysis. This usually brings bad news and an increased mortgage payment to make up for a deficit. Not this year!
This year it brought great news! Our monthly mortgage payment is being reduced by $52.66 for the next year (starting with the February payment) and we received a $500 escrow refund check! Nice!
C thinks we should keep our mortgage payment the same each month and basically snowflake that $52 to our mortgage. I'd like to add it to the emergency fund instead. C wants to refinance as early as possible and paying down the mortgage faster will help us do that. I want to do that too but I also really want the emergency fund complete so we can focus our money elsewhere. We have a whole month to decide but either way we win!
This year it brought great news! Our monthly mortgage payment is being reduced by $52.66 for the next year (starting with the February payment) and we received a $500 escrow refund check! Nice!
C thinks we should keep our mortgage payment the same each month and basically snowflake that $52 to our mortgage. I'd like to add it to the emergency fund instead. C wants to refinance as early as possible and paying down the mortgage faster will help us do that. I want to do that too but I also really want the emergency fund complete so we can focus our money elsewhere. We have a whole month to decide but either way we win!
December 2010 Month End
Happy New Year! I hope your new year has started better than ours! C is down with some food poisoning or stomach flu or something. And the baby has croup along with a really runny nose. And of course the baby hates having his nose wiped. It's been a day filled with pajamas, cuddling and a bit of housework. Hopefully 2011 gets better after this! On to the topic at hand, our December month end report. Here's how we did:
Debts:
Truck Loan: $25,082.85 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. No extra payments will be made here with a 0% loan!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,599.66 (+552.05) - We were able to make a large deposit to the emergency fund this month. Most of that came from the budget but I also brought in over $120 in snowflakes too! Every little bit helps us reach our goal!
Short Term Savings: $220.05 (+50.00) - Regular contribution made. Last year I instituted a $250 minimum for this account so that if we overdrafted our checking account, we'd have this money linked to it so that we could immediately transfer over money. Now that we're using our credit cards for daily purchases instead of our check card, we no longer run our balance close to zero. Because of that, C and I have decided to lift the $250 minimum rule. We are now free to spend this money as we wish. It's great when you get to make the rules with your money!
Travel Fund: $184.98 (+25.17) - I added a bit to this account this month. I really want to take a vacation this summer with the kids so I'm going to try and add to this account each month.
Christmas Savings: $537.35 (+0.50) - I set up the transfer today to take out $464 that we spent on Christmas presents. That will leave us with a surplus in this account. I plan on adding $75/month to this account to prepare us for Christmas 2011. I hope you have Christmas savings plans in place too!
Basement Finishing Fund: $129.49 (+25.11) - I added a bit of money to this account too. We've decided not to add anymore to this account until after the emergency fund is complete so this balance will see only interest deposits for a while.
Tuition Fund: $10,404.98 (+404.56) - This account saw another solid increase. C has used up his unemployment benefits (and we haven't been able to find a job that replaces the hours and pay that he was making before so for now he continues to tutor a couple students on a part time basis) so this account will stop growing so rapidly. In order to make sure we have enough funds for his nursing schooling though we do plan on adding $75 from our monthly budget to this account.
And that was our December. It was a very solid month! I hope this momentum carries over into the new year!
Debts:
Truck Loan: $25,082.85 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. No extra payments will be made here with a 0% loan!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $7,599.66 (+552.05) - We were able to make a large deposit to the emergency fund this month. Most of that came from the budget but I also brought in over $120 in snowflakes too! Every little bit helps us reach our goal!
Short Term Savings: $220.05 (+50.00) - Regular contribution made. Last year I instituted a $250 minimum for this account so that if we overdrafted our checking account, we'd have this money linked to it so that we could immediately transfer over money. Now that we're using our credit cards for daily purchases instead of our check card, we no longer run our balance close to zero. Because of that, C and I have decided to lift the $250 minimum rule. We are now free to spend this money as we wish. It's great when you get to make the rules with your money!
Travel Fund: $184.98 (+25.17) - I added a bit to this account this month. I really want to take a vacation this summer with the kids so I'm going to try and add to this account each month.
Christmas Savings: $537.35 (+0.50) - I set up the transfer today to take out $464 that we spent on Christmas presents. That will leave us with a surplus in this account. I plan on adding $75/month to this account to prepare us for Christmas 2011. I hope you have Christmas savings plans in place too!
Basement Finishing Fund: $129.49 (+25.11) - I added a bit of money to this account too. We've decided not to add anymore to this account until after the emergency fund is complete so this balance will see only interest deposits for a while.
Tuition Fund: $10,404.98 (+404.56) - This account saw another solid increase. C has used up his unemployment benefits (and we haven't been able to find a job that replaces the hours and pay that he was making before so for now he continues to tutor a couple students on a part time basis) so this account will stop growing so rapidly. In order to make sure we have enough funds for his nursing schooling though we do plan on adding $75 from our monthly budget to this account.
And that was our December. It was a very solid month! I hope this momentum carries over into the new year!
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