We're still thinking of moving and we're researching everything we can in order to make informed decisions. I had some good comments on my first post about this. And we've learned a few things in the past week.
We've learned that the house was relinquished last August to a major national bank with a mortgage balance of $200,570.00 and will most likely go on the market for about that price.
We've learned that our options for a mortgage for the new house might be slim and that it may be hard to get a mortgage. We've learned no one is accepting contingency offers, especially on foreclosures. This means we'd have to buy the house outright and try to sell ours on the side. Can we handle both mortgage payments? Yes but that would significantly reduce what we could send to savings each month. Can we get a mortgage for another primary residence? Maybe. Would we have to drain most of our savings to do this? Likely. We've starting working with the mortgage guy at my company's credit union to get us pre-approved so when the house does go on the market we can move quickly if we decide to. We're still anxious to get inside and look around. C may or may not have peeked inside the front door and may or may not have seen nice looking hardwood floors. Heh.
We have a realtor coming to our house tomorrow to give us a market analysis. We want to know realistically what we could sell our house for and approximately how long he thinks it would take. We will ask him what he thinks about approaching the bank directly to see if we could make an offer on the house before it's listed.
It's all very exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Future posts from me will include talking about hoarding money to help with down payments, realtor costs and the delta between our current mortgage and what our house could sell for and what we're spending to get our house ready to sell.
Hustling for Snowflakes
C and I have been on a decluttering craze lately. We've cleaned out all the closets and pantry on the main level of our house. We've gone through our master closet and through most of the basement. We have 4 garbage bags full of items to donate and we have a whole pile of things listed on Craigslist and Half.com. I have a pile of clothing to try selling to the local consignment shop - my first time ever trying to sell something there!
And so far those Craiglist and Half.com sales have already netted me $88.61! I have another $20 Craigslist sale pending too.
We're having a virtual snow storm over here!
Every cent of these snowflakes are going to the emergency fund, of course. I'm trying to hoard as much cash as possible in case we do end of moving.
And so far those Craiglist and Half.com sales have already netted me $88.61! I have another $20 Craigslist sale pending too.
We're having a virtual snow storm over here!
Every cent of these snowflakes are going to the emergency fund, of course. I'm trying to hoard as much cash as possible in case we do end of moving.
Extreme Couponers
Last week my brother called me. He said he'd watched an episode of the new show "Extreme Couponers" and that it reminded him of me.
WHAT!
I wasn't sure if I should be offended by that or not. He did not intend for it to be a dig at me. He was just reminded that I don't really like paying retail for anything. Whenever we go shopping or out to dinner we usually have a coupon or know of a sale. If we buy anything online it's with a discount code or with swagbucks that we've earned. We always have coupons when we go grocery shopping. We use our Target Red Card for all purchases at Target so we get the immediate 5% discount and then we pay our balance in full each month. I think all this just makes good financial sense (and cents!)!
But we're not extreme about it. We don't hoard toiletries. We don't play the drug store game. We don't buy in bulk. We're kind of a happy medium I think.
What about you? Are you extreme in your money saving shopping habits? Or are you on the other side and don't use coupons, discount codes or credit cards for the rewards?
WHAT!
I wasn't sure if I should be offended by that or not. He did not intend for it to be a dig at me. He was just reminded that I don't really like paying retail for anything. Whenever we go shopping or out to dinner we usually have a coupon or know of a sale. If we buy anything online it's with a discount code or with swagbucks that we've earned. We always have coupons when we go grocery shopping. We use our Target Red Card for all purchases at Target so we get the immediate 5% discount and then we pay our balance in full each month. I think all this just makes good financial sense (and cents!)!
But we're not extreme about it. We don't hoard toiletries. We don't play the drug store game. We don't buy in bulk. We're kind of a happy medium I think.
What about you? Are you extreme in your money saving shopping habits? Or are you on the other side and don't use coupons, discount codes or credit cards for the rewards?
We Might Just Be Crazy
So, there's this house in our neighborhood...
C and I might be crazy but we're contemplating trying to sell our house and buying a different one a block away.
I know.
The house is currently empty and was foreclosed on last August. The people moved out in February. We're waiting for the For Sale sign to go up so we can get inside to look around and see what they're asking for it.
We're pretty sure we're underwater on our house by about $6k.
But the new house has four bedrooms and a three car garage. And it's in our neighborhood still so close to all our friends and my sister (who is 1/2 block away). Our family of five could live very comfortably in this house for the next 20-25 years, only needing to move to downsize after L is off at college. It's on a nice corner lot.
We might just clean this place of ours up, do some small home maintenance projects and bring in a realtor to give us a market analysis. We might just try to get into that house to see what it's like on the inside. We might just try to make this happen if the numbers work out OK.
I feel crazy for even thinking about this but then I'm also excited.
If the house lists for what I think it might list for, then our mortgage payment probably wouldn't change by very much at all. We might even break even when you add in the additional taxes for that house but then subtract the majority of our current association dues. Oh yeah, the new house isn't in an association. We could put in that playground in the backyard that our kids want so desperately.
I'm just daydreaming tonight of what we might do. And I'm trying to clean, purge and sell as much as I can so I can hoard as much cash in savings as possible. Anyone want to buy some random crap from my closets?
C and I might be crazy but we're contemplating trying to sell our house and buying a different one a block away.
I know.
The house is currently empty and was foreclosed on last August. The people moved out in February. We're waiting for the For Sale sign to go up so we can get inside to look around and see what they're asking for it.
We're pretty sure we're underwater on our house by about $6k.
But the new house has four bedrooms and a three car garage. And it's in our neighborhood still so close to all our friends and my sister (who is 1/2 block away). Our family of five could live very comfortably in this house for the next 20-25 years, only needing to move to downsize after L is off at college. It's on a nice corner lot.
We might just clean this place of ours up, do some small home maintenance projects and bring in a realtor to give us a market analysis. We might just try to get into that house to see what it's like on the inside. We might just try to make this happen if the numbers work out OK.
I feel crazy for even thinking about this but then I'm also excited.
If the house lists for what I think it might list for, then our mortgage payment probably wouldn't change by very much at all. We might even break even when you add in the additional taxes for that house but then subtract the majority of our current association dues. Oh yeah, the new house isn't in an association. We could put in that playground in the backyard that our kids want so desperately.
I'm just daydreaming tonight of what we might do. And I'm trying to clean, purge and sell as much as I can so I can hoard as much cash in savings as possible. Anyone want to buy some random crap from my closets?
Snowflakes Needed
Even though I've already hit our $100/month snowflake goal for April, I want to bring in more snowflakes wherever possible! So far we have $104.68 in budget surplus from March and a $25 credit card reward check that are both going to savings. I just transferred $6.00 in survey payments from my paypal account to my bank account. Every little bit helps!
And last night in a fit of purging and hopefully money making, I listed 15 items on Craigslist. I have more items to list soon after I get a couple pictures snapped. I'm hoping I can clean out some closets and bring our emergency fund closer to that five digit number. We're getting so close to $10,000!
And last night in a fit of purging and hopefully money making, I listed 15 items on Craigslist. I have more items to list soon after I get a couple pictures snapped. I'm hoping I can clean out some closets and bring our emergency fund closer to that five digit number. We're getting so close to $10,000!
2011 Goals Review - Q1 Edition
One quarter of 2011 is over already. Back in December, I made four goals for us for this year. They are:
And how are we doing so far?
All told, our Q1 has been pretty successful! It's time to keep this nice pace going for the rest of the year!
- Stay under budget each and every month. Income >= Expenses. Always.
- All Snowflakes must go to emergency fund until it is fully funded at $20,000.
- Make an extra $100 minimum each month.
- Complete emergency fund.
And how are we doing so far?
- January - March and I'm proud to say that we have been under budget each of the three months. Yay us! Our total surplus for the three months is $116.02 and every cent has been put into the emergency fund.
- Speaking of emergency fund...we have indeed applied all snowflakes to the emergency fund this year. And our total snowflakes for January - March is $1114.45! That's a nice chunk of change that we've been able to tuck away in our emergency fund! So far in April, we have an additional $129.68 too!
- I thought $100 per month was going to be difficult and was wondering if I was setting the bar too high when I made this goal for us. Our average snowflake total per month in 2010 was around $120 so I thought we should be able to do it. We made this goal in January and March but fell a few dollars short in February. I think we're doing OK though - our snowflake total divided by three tells me that we've averaged over $370/month in snowflakes so far! I don't think we'll be able to keep up that pace for the rest of the year but I'm sure going to try! And I'm going to make sure we meet that $100/month goal at the least.
- Our emergency fund currently sits at $9321.71 as of the end of March. In order to meet our $20,000 goal by the end of the year, we're going to have to add $1186.48 to the emergency fund per month. That is a large sum of money! We won't make it this month so in order to meet this goal we're going to have to tuck away future money at an increased rate. Luckily I do have two three paycheck months coming up (the first in July) so the emergency fund should see large gains those months. In the mean time, we'll keep adding as much as we can from the budget and trying to collect as many snowflakes as possible.
All told, our Q1 has been pretty successful! It's time to keep this nice pace going for the rest of the year!
Running Shoes - check!
As I said in an earlier post, C and I decided to put $225 in our April budget so we could both buy new running shoes. We each have hundreds of miles on our shoes and they both needed to be replaced badly. Quality running shoes can be expensive but to us they are worth it. I don't want either of us to have injuries to our knees or ankles or hips or anything else because of our footwear. C did a bunch of shopping and trying on of shoes. He must have tried
on at least two dozen pairs of shoes before he settled on a pair of Mizuno's. I always run in ASICS and am partial to a particular kind of ASICS (the Nimbus). I tried on the updated version and yep, they still feel great on my feet. But neither of us wanted to pay the sticker price. My shoe alone is $125 retail!
C is a great online bargain shopper though and found Kelly's Running Warehouse online. They had great prices on our shoes of choice and he found a 10% off code! We got both of our shoes for $141.24! We were way under our $225 budget! I lowered our shoe budget to $142 and moved the difference to our emergency fund budget.
on at least two dozen pairs of shoes before he settled on a pair of Mizuno's. I always run in ASICS and am partial to a particular kind of ASICS (the Nimbus). I tried on the updated version and yep, they still feel great on my feet. But neither of us wanted to pay the sticker price. My shoe alone is $125 retail! C is a great online bargain shopper though and found Kelly's Running Warehouse online. They had great prices on our shoes of choice and he found a 10% off code! We got both of our shoes for $141.24! We were way under our $225 budget! I lowered our shoe budget to $142 and moved the difference to our emergency fund budget.
March 2011 Budget Report
As I said yesterday, we ended the month in the black (or green if you look below). Yay us! That was all thanks to C bringing home about $110 more than I had anticipated. He received a bonus which is of course always appreciated! Without that income, we would have been about $7 over budget. I don't think that's too bad! Here's how it went:
Our discretionary spending was kind of all over the place. Some categories were under, some over. I don't really care as long as the bottom line is OK. We were almost $10 over in discretionary but made a couple dollars back in our cell phone bill budget line item. I'm not going to stress too much about it. $9.54 out of a $1425 budget is less than 1%. That's pretty good!
I've already moved the surplus to the emergency fund. We're inching closer to our goal there. If I can find some more snowflakes this month, it would be really cool to hit the halfway point with that account and get us into the five digit range too! Come on budget and snowflakes! Let's go!
Our discretionary spending was kind of all over the place. Some categories were under, some over. I don't really care as long as the bottom line is OK. We were almost $10 over in discretionary but made a couple dollars back in our cell phone bill budget line item. I'm not going to stress too much about it. $9.54 out of a $1425 budget is less than 1%. That's pretty good!
I've already moved the surplus to the emergency fund. We're inching closer to our goal there. If I can find some more snowflakes this month, it would be really cool to hit the halfway point with that account and get us into the five digit range too! Come on budget and snowflakes! Let's go!
March 2011 Month End
I'm a few days late posting our March month end. Have no fear though - we ended the month in the black, not the red! Yay! Here's how it all went down:
Debts:
Truck Loan: $23,762.70 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. No extra payments will be made here with a 0% loan!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $9,321.71 (+409.81) - Most of this increase was our tax return. The rest was snowflakes. Our budget didn't contribute anything this month because we paid our car, truck and motorcycle insurance in full this month. Thank goodness for tax returns and snowflakes!
Short Term Savings: $329.71 (+50.00) - We contributed out budgeted amount this month. I think we'll use this money to do some landscaping this spring. We want to add some stone edging around our shrubs as well as increase our garden square footage. Or we might use it to buy a new gas grill. Ours is on its last legs and we use it all the time in the spring, summer and fall!
Travel Fund: $335.76 (+0.28) - The budget didn't have any money to spare this month due to other bills that had to be paid. Next month we'll send some more money here.
Christmas Savings: $298.77 (+75.22) - Our Christmas budget is right on track. Woo-hoo!
Basement Finishing Fund: $129.83 (+0.11) - By the end of the year I hope to make a big deposit here. Until then I'll focus on the emergency fund and dream of my finished basement.
Tuition Fund: $10,562.25 (+38.91) - C paid his $20 admission fee and was formally accepted to school. He's working through some paperwork issues and then hopes to register for his first class in a couple weeks. I'm excited for him to start!
NetWorth:
Assets:
Savings: $24.5k (INGDirect subaccounts plus 529's)
Retirement: $246.8k (my 401k, my pension lump sum, C's company stock, C's Roth IRA)
House & Vehicles: $247.8k (house, truck, car, two motorcycles)
Liabilities:
Mortgage & Truck Loans: $245.6k
Networth = 24.5k + 246.8k + 247.8k - 245.6k = $273.5k We had a modest increase in our networth this month and for that we are grateful.
All our accounts are headed in the right direction - up! We'll mark this month as a success and now we're off to tackle April!
Debts:
Truck Loan: $23,762.70 (-$440.05) - Regular payment made. No extra payments will be made here with a 0% loan!
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $9,321.71 (+409.81) - Most of this increase was our tax return. The rest was snowflakes. Our budget didn't contribute anything this month because we paid our car, truck and motorcycle insurance in full this month. Thank goodness for tax returns and snowflakes!
Short Term Savings: $329.71 (+50.00) - We contributed out budgeted amount this month. I think we'll use this money to do some landscaping this spring. We want to add some stone edging around our shrubs as well as increase our garden square footage. Or we might use it to buy a new gas grill. Ours is on its last legs and we use it all the time in the spring, summer and fall!
Travel Fund: $335.76 (+0.28) - The budget didn't have any money to spare this month due to other bills that had to be paid. Next month we'll send some more money here.
Christmas Savings: $298.77 (+75.22) - Our Christmas budget is right on track. Woo-hoo!
Basement Finishing Fund: $129.83 (+0.11) - By the end of the year I hope to make a big deposit here. Until then I'll focus on the emergency fund and dream of my finished basement.
Tuition Fund: $10,562.25 (+38.91) - C paid his $20 admission fee and was formally accepted to school. He's working through some paperwork issues and then hopes to register for his first class in a couple weeks. I'm excited for him to start!
NetWorth:
Assets:
Savings: $24.5k (INGDirect subaccounts plus 529's)
Retirement: $246.8k (my 401k, my pension lump sum, C's company stock, C's Roth IRA)
House & Vehicles: $247.8k (house, truck, car, two motorcycles)
Liabilities:
Mortgage & Truck Loans: $245.6k
Networth = 24.5k + 246.8k + 247.8k - 245.6k = $273.5k We had a modest increase in our networth this month and for that we are grateful.
All our accounts are headed in the right direction - up! We'll mark this month as a success and now we're off to tackle April!
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