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Home > Archive: February, 2011

Archive for February, 2011

This and That

February 27th, 2011 at 05:47 pm

I opened an ING account this last week. My current savings was only making .15% APY. I’ve been eyeing ING for a long time because it is so clean and simple and not filled with advertising every time I log in. Plus at 1%, it seems like it would benefit me in the long run.

My goal is to get my EF $3000 into the ING account. That way it is more out of sight and out of mind. Right now, whenever I log on to do my checking, or my husband logs on to do his checking, we see our normal savings account. The money in it calls out to me “pay off debt, pay off debt” over and over. But I know better, I do better with an EF.

Plus, I might have to pay a chunk in federal taxes, if Turbo Tax is right. Taxes are going to the accountant on Monday, so I’ll find out in a week or two if it was even close. I am hoping it was way off, but am prepared if it was dead-on. And ready to change withholdings if it was right.

Anyways, onto the EoM-
February goals didn’t turn out so well due to my large pay-cut. Everything was scaled down. Plus I’m back up to 2 or 3 sodas a day. Whoops.

So… March Goals:
1) If I owe taxes, pay it. If I don’t owe that much, pay off DH Student Loan 2.
2) Transfer $1000 to ING EF from savings.
3) All leftover to savings.

Snip

February 20th, 2011 at 09:27 pm

It is quite odd. Something that I dreaded, that most people dread, has actually brought me stress relief. We’ve had a pay cut. A pretty significant one. Yet, I trimmed the fat off of out budget and we can survive until December. And the only reason December will be tight is the gift/visit family budget for that month that I’m sure can be adjusted when we get there.

I am so glad that it finally happened. No more waiting and worrying. No more stress over “do I have enough in savings”, and “can we handle it”. Husband was very helpful figuring out the new budget suggesting changes and things to chop.

The hardest thing out of all of it is the halt on progress on our goals. We’re at a zero leftover budget, with $50 to savings a month. I’m sure we’ll have little here and there to work on them, but not at any speed.

This is hopefully a temporary setback. I’m calculating sometime between June and December our take-home income should be back up to where we were originally. That’s not too far away. It’s very do-able.

Yet Again

February 10th, 2011 at 04:09 am

My husband finally received confirmation that he did not get the jobs he was very high in the rankings for back in November. He had made it to the top 6 and they hired 3. I’ve lost count how many times he was at the top x and 1 to 3 spots away from being the hired one out of hundreds of applicants. It’s ridiculous. So are the 4 to 5 month long application processes, and the bazillion rounds he has to go through each time.

We’re pretty bummed. My first reaction was to widen the search range, list all the other places he could/should apply to, when they’re due, and what he has to do. If we have to live long-distance for a year or two in order for him to get his dream job, I will do it. I’d do just about anything right now to get him his dream job. Of course, nothing I do will affect him getting it.

We’ve halted the puppy search for a couple of weeks. We wouldn’t have the time to take off in order to train and enjoy the puppy’s first few days with us these next two weeks. I’m tempted not to resume seriously looking though. Which is weird. I want a dog so bad. I begged and cried and pleaded my heart out to get the ok to look. In the end, this is a want not a need.

Plus, I’m iffy about the future of our income. I am starting to make a “tight” budget so that we can live off of his fluctuating paycheck alone. It will be quite tight. Less tight if I could stomach getting our own health insurance outside of the company. It would save us $500/month to do that, but then we lose the security of the company plan (not being denied or dropped). Plus, there would be no maternity coverage. While I am NOT planning on getting pregnant while in this situation, I know an Oops Baby could cost $10,000 without insurance, or more. Tons more if there are complications. Not a risk I’m particularly fond of…

We shall see.

Oh, and I've had two soda-pops this month. I guess I need constant rewards in order to stop completely.