Hello all! It's been a crazy year+ since I last posted. In that time...

We had another child! We're now a family of four plus a golden retriever. My little boys are already great friends, and my mom is their "daycare provider", which is working out really well for everyone. Pregnancy was really rough, so I feel like I lost most of 2014. Let's just say pregnancy and I are NOT friends. Not planning on doing that anytime soon, if ever again. Finances this past year took a back seat, but...

We paid off our first car! And all of our student loans (no debt!)! And then bought a new van (more debt! at 0% though)! And have a house down payment (soon to have way more debt!)! Not bad for pretty much ignoring life while either working or being miserable on the couch.

We've been house hunting for a few months, but in our price range in our area, there aren't a whole lot of choices besides small and fixer upper. Both of which I'm looking forward to having. Small will keep the clutter down (I hope), and I love fixing up houses/doing construction (I have lots of experience, except in electrical, which my brother/dad have). We've bid on a few different houses, but each one has had a weird fluke happen and we didn't get them. C'est la vie.


So, I have some simple goals for 2015:

1) Continue to save until we have a house. I have enough for down payment and closing costs, but I would love to have a larger cushion for the fixing up so that some of it won't have to go on a credit card temporarily.

2) Once we have a house, I want to at least round up our payment to the nearest $50 increment. Maybe more depending on what the actual payment ends up being, and how much we need in order to fix the house.

3) I also would like to increase our emergency fund from $3,000 to $5,000 this next year. Maybe even get it to my ideal of $6,000, but we'll see how many fixes our new house will end up needing.


They seem to be pretty simple goals, but I have a hunch that 2015 is going to be a year of changes for us, so I'm going to be pretty flexible. I've learned that one has to be with a toddler and an infant in the house. Once we get our living situation figured out, I'm going to have other goals to add in, but it really depends on what the future brings. No use setting up goals that won’t work with our "new" life.

Hope all is well and that everyone has a great holiday season and a wonderful New Year!

Hello! It's been awhile. I've learned that having a baby sure takes up a lot of time. We had our baby boy a few months back. I was back to work within a month and my husband has joined the stay-at-home dad club. I managed not to go crazy on spending for baby. Well I did have some clothes shopping sprees, but even those were on deeply discounted items and I think I only spent $100 max over a few months. I did end up having to buy formula, but not without a lot of work trying to get my supply up (grumbles). It just wasn't meant to be. DS is such a big boy (in the 97percentile for height!) and is already trying out solids. So far we're making all his food at home. It is so easy to mush bananas or pears or...

Anyway, I came on here for some advice. We're going to be spending $3k to $4k in the next month or so, and I was wondering if anyone has advice for a credit card we could put it on to get rewards or cash back? We have a flight next year for a wedding, so we could use travel rewards, but cash back is always nice too. No worries, I do have the money to pay it in full, but I thought I'd make this unavoidable expense into a plus. Any thoughts?

I have been thinking about new goals for awhile as I actually wanted to do September goals, but I never got around to it. I think October's goals will be as follows:

1) Eat out only twice this month as a family - Eating out is such an escape for us. But lately it seems like prices at restaurants just keep sneaking up. Not worth it, especially with a little one in tow.

2) Pack all lunches - This one is getting easier now that I have a stash of noodle bowls at work for when I forget my lunch.

3) Don't spend on non-essentials - This one is hard. Shopping has become a stress reliever. I need to find a new activity. I've been reading, walking, and playing with the baby, but shopping involves going out, browsing, daydreaming. I will have to think on this. It's not that I spend a lot when I do this, but I always come home with something we don't -really- need.

4) Work out what I want as a career - I've been thinking about this for several months. I'm under-utilized in my current job and am getting bored. I'm busy, but bored. I hear squeaking of changes in the company, so I think a good time to switch might be coming. I'm not sure if it's switching companies or getting more/new education to switch jobs... sky's the limit, really.

Sorry, it’s been quite awhile (again) since I last wrote. Pregnancy sure takes a lot of energy. I did make my short term goal in January (eating out less than 25% of the time for lunch). I also kept up at the 75% mark of packing lunches for February.

Right now in March, I’m at 70% packed, 30% eat out. This last week was what brought me down as I ate out all week. I didn’t want to be in the office and the time shift was killing me. We will be going grocery shopping here in a few hours so I can get some simple, grab-and-go meals for the next week or two.

In other news, we sold the junker in prep for my husband to be the stay-at-home dad. It just needed too many fixes that would add up fast. We’ve also refilled the emergency fund (partially depleted from junker purchase last year), puppy fund (wiped out from puppy’s surgery), and the car fund (wiped out from junker). Woot!

We also have quite a bit saved up for baby stuff. We have a few of the basic things. I will just need to get the first-aid and grooming kit, plain/neutral clothing for the first month or so, the stroller that we’ve drooling over, and I think that is all we -need- pre-baby still. I’m sure there will be other stuff we will need or want to buy, but as of the moment, I’m not too worried about it. And even if we bought everything on the baby registries, we have enough cash. But some of that stuff we put on as a mild-want, even though we don’t need it.

I have found it’s been really easy to not go out to eat for lunch, since I’ve been home sick for several days. Unfortunately, that means I’m using up all my sick/vacation time that I’ve been stockpiling for maternity leave. My work does allow us to borrow vacation time, and of course I can always take unpaid time. In my case, I’ll probably borrow some, and depending how much I have left, I’ll start easing back in earlier than later.

There’s only 9 more work days left in the month. I wonder if I can get by with eating out for lunch only once in those 9 days. That’d be pretty awesome.

I’ve decided that I won’t be able to eat out during lunch as much once the baby comes. We’ll have a decrease in amounts for our personal allowances, so I won’t have that much to spend (like $10/week little). I figured I should get used to it now. No reason to be shell shocked when it needs to happen. Plus then I can save some of my allowance now for future use.

There are 22 work days in January for me. I want to start packing at least 75% of the time. That means I have to pack 17 lunches and only go out 5 times. So far I’m doing well. I only have eaten out once, on Monday. I was so tired from last weekend that I forgot to pack or grab anything as I ran out of the door.

I’m also going to try to track my grocery expenses for the lunches to see how much it really costs compared to some of my $2 or $3 eating out options (bagel sandwich or salad bar)

I have paid off the second of the two student loans I wanted to get paid off before baby came! Woot! My EF is a little smaller than I’d like, but it will pop back up here in the next month or two. And it’s still a very comfortable amount, even if it doesn’t grow. Its funny how there’s an arbitrary dollar amount that makes me feel really safe, but if I drop below a bit, I start to get antsy.

After this last payment clears, I will set up auto pay on Student Loan A. It’s only going to be $175/month instead of $400 to begin with because I had increased my HSA contribution to cover the baby health expenses and with the SS tax break disappearing, I have no clue what my new paycheck amount will look like. I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’ll adjust later.

I’ve also managed to only buy a $3 cute onesie so far for the babe-to-be. I’d say I’m doing really well not buying things yet. I’ll get there eventually.

I’m starting to get things ready for maternity leave at work. I know I’m going to struggle with wanting to be home, but also with wanting to go back to work. I admit, I like working, a lot. I don’t like doing nothing. But I also really like kids and babies. Hopefully, it won’t be that much of an internal struggle. My husband is staying at home with the baby, so if I do start sneaking back into work early part time, it won’t be that big of a deal, and might be an easier transition for him.

Hello all! Thought I’d pop on and give an update. It’s been a long time since I’ve updated my numbers and a lot has happened (and yet, not happened).

We are still living at home with my family. We looked at houses this summer and fell in love with one in our price range (foreclosed ranch), got pre-approved, put in an offer, was told there were multiple offers, went up to our maximum amount that I decided we could afford and that we thought the house was worth, and still didn’t get it. If the internets is right, the house sold for less than our original bid which makes me wonder what kind of schemes these banks of foreclosed houses do. All I can think of is perhaps the purchasers had cash to pay for it.

We were bummed, but then we decided maybe we should start aggressively paying down debt and saving up money so that we can bump up into the next price range where instead of 7 houses (4 of which ought to be torn down) in the town we like, we’d have 25+ to look at. We calculated that we could be in a new house by early 2014, debt (except mortgage) free.

So we used our vacation fund, part of our emergency fund, and some cash we had on hand to purchase a $2,000 “junker” car so my husband would have transportation to a part-time job. We didn’t know what kind of job he was going to get, and while I said I wanted him to have a job before we got the car, he thought he needed a car to get to the interviews/jobs.

Well, the car came first and he got a delivery driving job, which meant he took the good gas mileage, reliable car since his entire job is based on the transportation. I got to drive the junker, well, that is until I began having problems with the junker. It would work for about two and a half weeks with no problem, and then it refused to back out of the parking spot or died at a stop sign. My brother always came to the rescue, but it looks to be a computer problem.

In the end, my husband and my immediate family don’t want me driving the junker because I’m expecting our first child. (Yes, I’m pregnant! I’m due in spring. I’m so exhausted and queasy still, but we’re so excited!) So now our plan is to have my husband drive the junker until it dies, and once it dies, he’ll be done working. He’ll be the stay-at-home dad, so in the end, it should work out. I just hope it lasts to February.

And now, onto my goals: I think I’m going to “abandon” my 2012 goals that I hit earlier in the year and then backtracked on to get the junker. I’m not going to do 2013 goals because in all honesty, I can only guess what the baby expenses are going to be and my guessing will be rather off until I get a few months under my belt, I think.

So my new “Before Baby Goals” are as follows:
1) Pay off Student Loan 1 – We actually paid it off this week!

2) Pay off Student Loan D – This should be done by March at the latest if we go at the same speed as Student Loan 1 (providing the junker keeps on driving).

3) Setup auto-payment of $400/month for Student Loan A – This will make the payoff on our LAST student loan (ever, if I have a say in it) December 2014, which is just 6 months after our (good) car loan payoff (0% loan, not going to pay off early). Then, 2015 can be the time to build up savings for a down payment, and voila! House by time the baby is 2. A year+ later than expected, but that is ok.

4) Buy minimal items for the newborn – I have been purging since the house we had liked was rather small and cozy. I like not having so much stuff. They seem to market so much junk for babies/toddlers these days that it is pretty crazy the amount of things people have for such a little being. It really just needs a safe place to sleep, diapers, clothes, and food in the beginning. I’m sure my thoughts will change on this as my pregnancy progresses and marketing gets even deeper engrained in me, but I can still hope.

5) Survive baby money chaos – I have no clue how to begin to even estimate what our new expenses will be. I’m good on the medical front (fully funded HSA for our deductible), but diapers? Clothing? Formula (if breast feeding doesn’t work for me)? So yes, I’m just hoping to survive it.

Well, that’s it. I’ve been trying to keep up reading everyone’s blogs, but it seems like the last several months just flew by in a flash. I hope I can start popping on here more frequently now.

It’s been awhile! I don’t think I’ve blogged since February, and honestly, I’ve barely noticed the time fly by, I’ve been so busy. My new job is going well, but it takes a lot of energy. Most nights I come home exhausted and ready to space out.

I’m still struggling with stocking my closet with clothes for work, but it’s slowly getting there. The problem isn’t wanting to spend money on it, its finding clothes that actually fit well, and look professional. It’s hard to find shirts that fit, aren’t sleeveless or tank tops, and aren’t three-quarter sleeves. Three-quarter sleeves make me want to yank it down to my wrists or push it up above my arms. I can’t wait until winter when long sleeves will be acceptable again.

After sorting out how much I’d been getting per pay period, I set up my accounts on autopay. Everything is automated now from monthly expenses, health savings account, retirement, other savings, and debt payment. It kind of sucks. It’s so simple and seemless, but I loved looking at it and calculating and making a decision where the leftover should go. I won’t change it because I think we do have the right portion going to savings and a right portion going to debt payment. If everything goes as smoothly as it is, we’ll be debt free sometime mid to late 2015. That is kind of exciting.

I have yet to figure out why summers are so expensive in our house. We don’t do anything different in summer, but our groceries, eating out, movie going, and random splurges always goes up May, June, and July. We always stick within our budgeted expenses the rest of the year, just not those months. I’m looking forward to August when it will slow down again.

Well, I don’t have much more to report. I feel quite boring. Perhaps next time I'll have sometime more exciting to report.

I had my first payday of my new job this week. It was enough to cover the clothing expenses for the professional clothes I had to buy before I started. AND enough to payoff Student Loan B! with some leftover to pay some towards Student Loan C!

I am excited to not have to worry about incoming money lasting as is forever. It is such a relief to have leftover money to apply towards our debt payoff and savings goals.

I still need to get used to the hours I put in a week, but it got easier this last week. Hopefully it’ll be just as smooth this week.

In the past two weeks I have started a new job which increased my income, decreased my medical costs while adding in dental and vision, and set up an HSA for the deductible. That’s three of my temporary goals in one shot. I finished my second job since it was seasonal, and my old job is now becoming a night job which, hopefully, once things get settled, it will be just one night a week.

It was a hard decision - hard to make, hard to implement, and hard to let go. I basically have been working three weeks straight with this last week being all three jobs. I’m tired, but excited about the change.

Happily, I finally get to make concrete goals! Here are my 2012 Goals:

1) Complete a checking cushion of $500. This will help with small unexpected expenses and cash flow.

2) Complete a Puppy Fund of $750. This will help save up for her one year shots coming up, and any unexpected expenses that have a habit of popping up.

3) Payoff Student Loan B. I’ve renumbered the Student Loans from last year. The lettered ones are the direct loan ones that were broken out into subsidized/unsubsidized groups. Student Loan B only had $500 when I listed my dream goals in January. Now it’s down to $250. Since we’re still in grace/deferment, I’ve taken the amount we’d pay monthly, applied it to the outstanding interest, and the remainder to the principle. I’ll be excited to see this little one gone.

4) Payoff Student Loan C. There is $1750 left on it right now, and it’s the second smallest we have.

5) Complete the emergency fund. There is $1500 in it right now, but as I’ve said before, I’d like this to be $3000 where I’ll feel more comfortable. This is already set up on auto save and should be done by the end of the year.

6) I want to have a fully furnished HSA by the end of the year. In order to this, I set it up with my job to withdraw more than the deductible by the end of the year so I’ll have some extra for next year, even if I have to use the full deductible.

7) Save for a real live vacation where we travel somewhere that we haven’t been. This might be funded by the extra income we might find this year, and not by any auto savings. I’m not sure yet.

As usual, I have some dream world goals. We might get to parts of these, but probably not. They will be in my mind as the year goes by.

1) Payoff Student Loan D, $3100 left.
2) Payoff Student Loan 1, $3600 left.
3) Payoff Car Loan 1, $7200 left.
4) Payoff Student Loan A, $8525 left.
5) Complete Car Fund to $2000.
6) Complete Moving Fund to $1500.

Oh, and my February Goals are:
1) Get a handle on my new job.
2) Kill Student Loan B.
3) Pack lunches at least 15 days.

I haven’t written much (despite my love for setting goals (New Year’s requires new goals!)), because, oie, the last 4 or 5 weeks have been a little chaotic:

There was the second job (finally!).
Followed by the two weeks of sickness hell (I have blocked out the memory).
Followed by the week of exhaustion from recovery and year end work (not sure how I did it).
Followed by the week of chaos with changes at work and a major family holiday (thank goodness I wasn’t sick this week).
Followed by catchup in every aspect of life (still catching up).

Throw in some interesting possible changes (that I can’t go into yet) with a dash of everyone else getting sick and a sprinkle of taking over another person’s job temporarily, and…

*whew*

I have not been able to sit down and figure out my goals very clearly yet. And the interesting possible changes will throw the goals out the window and require a new set.

On a side note: I could use some good mojo the next few days to swing the changes in my favor. I really hope the changes will come through, but if they don’t, what’s meant to be, is meant to be.


I can tell you my vague 2012 goals though…

1) I’d like to increase our family income somehow. My second job has allowed us to purchase a few things we really need, but were pretending we didn’t, but it hasn’t really allowed us to save. They didn’t give me enough hours like they said they would.

2) I’d like to decrease the amount we pay for our health. I pay way too much monthly for a high deductible plan. Our medical right now is between a third and a half of my gross income. I need to find some way to decrease it.

3) I’d like to put some more into our EF. I found that I am more comfortable with $3000 in our EF than I am with only $1500.

4) I’d like to constantly put some money into our health deductible fund. Right now we’re putting in $75/month, which is a start, but not nearly enough.


Of course, I have other goals floating around in my head that I’d like to accomplish, but without any concrete way to tackle them, I think I’ll let them float temporarily.

Wow, it’s been awhile. Time has flown by without me really noticing. Lots of little random things happened, and I’m not sure where the time has gone.

I started my part-time job (finally!) two weeks ago. I’ve had an orientation, training, and a shift. And then I got sick for the last six days straight. I can’t even function to do my day job, so I had to call in my last two shifts sick. I feel like a dweeb. Here I fought so hard for this job, and then I get really sick. I’m still not healthy enough to make it to my desk job, much less stand and talk to customers as a cashier. Luckily, my voice sounds absolutely terrible, so they’ve believed me so far.

Hopefully, I will be healthier by Wed when my next shift is. They’re only scheduling me for 9 hours/week despite my preference/their offer of 15-20. I’ll take it, as I honestly enjoy the job despite the money. I doubt that they’ll be keeping me on after the season ends in two and a half weeks. They’ll have only seen me for 8 to 10 shifts max. How can anyone honestly say how well I did if I worked so little?

In other news, we have received two more bills for the kidney stone that happened back in Sept. There went our cash cushion. Hopefully that’s it, or we’ll have to start touching the emergency fund again.

We’re dropping our dental insurance. We pay $100/month, and it’s not worth it. There is no way we spend $1200 for two of us a year in dental cleanings/fillings. This will allow my paycheck to increase a little despite the health insurance increase.

After long and lengthy discussions, my husband is not going to continue schooling. The field wasn’t for him and I’d rather not have more student loans. Now to figure out what’s next…

Oh, I failed NaNoWriMo which is very unlike me, but it’s been a stressful couple of months, so I’m giving me some slack. I have no December goals, as I just need to get through this sickness and then catch up at work. I am working on coming up with 2012 goals, but things are so… topsy turvey, I have no clue what to do besides “stay in budget”.

First off, the good news: We sold Car #2. Yay! But we sold it to a dealership for the same amount that we owe. Boo. It was either wait and wait and wait, pay for the oil change, new tires, insurance, extra gas, etc. Or sell it for way less. We took the sell it for less (obviously). It is making such a difference in the budget.

And now… the What?!? News: Like I said in my last post, I was told I failed the drug test, but I don’t do drugs (or prescription drugs, or eat poppy seeds). When I called the HR guy back, he said he sent an email that “[I] passed so they should pass [me]” (whatever that means) and that he’d call me back when he got approval. He also mentioned that orientation was 10 to 2 on Friday. I rearranged my schedule so I could do the orientation, but it kind of suck that it was during my normal work hours.

Next day, he called me back and said I was approved, and that there were two orientations, the second at 5 to 9. I practically jumped in joy and said I would do the later one so I could keep working. He said ok and had me wait for a second so he could write it down before he told me the details of what to wear and bring to orientation.

I show up at ten to 5 and wait where I was supposed to wait. At 5, when no one else was there, I went up to customer service who told me that orientation was to wait where I was supposed to wait, someone was supposed to come get me.

I waited 20 minutes before going back up to customer service. They called the HR guy to the desk. The customer service people (one a manger) weren’t happy to hear my story. I made sure to tell them about the drug test part, too. The HR guy arrived and said that he had just canceled the orientation. He thought that he had called the only person who was doing the orientation. As we talked, me a little upset and confused, him saying that he was going to be in so much trouble.

So as it stands, supposedly they’re having another orientation this week. If I don’t hear from him, I am supposed to call him on Monday by 9. Of course, I’m guessing the orientation will be on Wednesday, when I’m out of town and had asked off as a condition of hiring.

On top of that, when I got home after the major mess up, I had a letter from the corporate office. It said that I never took the drug test. What?!? I can’t imagine what is next. I don’t know what to think about this other than the HR guy doesn’t want to hire me.

I’m half tempted to call on Monday and tell him (or his supervisor) all my complaints, including that I turned down another job for this, and then tell him no thanks.

As I had mentioned, I was offered conditional employment for a seasonal part-time job two weeks ago, went and took the drug test, and was waiting to hear back about orientation. I called late last week, wondering if I could make other plans for last weekend, and they said that they hadn’t gotten the results yet. So I made plans and enjoyed what I thought would be my last free weekend in forever.

When I didn’t hear anything this week, I called this afternoon asking about it. I was on hold for a while, and when he got back on, he said something that made me just about fall out of my chair - I failed my drug test.

WTF?! I don’t do drugs. I don’t smoke. I drink maybe once a year. I am a goody-to-shoes. It’s insulting to even off-handidly impy that I have done drugs.

The HR guy said that I need to call the drug testing center if I thought they were wrong, and that they have been wrong before. I called, and all the drug testing center could tell me was that they had no problems processing the test and that if the employer wanted to confirm or ask a question, they could call them. The drug testing center could not tell me if passed or not.

I called back, stating such, and I am waiting for a phone call back from the HR guy. If he doesn’t call me back in an hour, I plan to call him... again.

Seriously. How frustrating. All I want is a few hours a week for a month and a half. I’ve put my life on hold, not scheduling things, because I thought I would have orientation with little warning and get put on the schedule so that I would have a few practice runs before the busy Black Friday.

I can’t help but to think that they’re trying not to hire me. If they wanted to rescind their offer, rescind the offer! Say we hired too many people; say that I have the wrong hours that they need, something. I’d get it! Don’t insult me by saying I do drugs.

I can’t believe I turned down another (seasonal part-time) job for this one.

I am flabbergasted.

***

In other news, income isn’t increasing (the above job fiasco, hubby not getting interviews, and in 2012, losing $35/paycheck for insurances), monthly costs aren’t decreasing (still no bites on Car 2), and unexpected expenses are coming thru the woodwork.

No wonder I’m so pessimistic lately.

I had applied Sunday to two part time jobs. They both called, they both interviewed me, and they both wanted to hire me! I was able to pick the one I really wanted (which also has the higher rate) and did the drug screen today.

It is seasonal, and will last through the first week of January, with an option for them to hire me on permanently. I think it’s a perfect fit as I can see if I can handle it with my current full time job without having to commit long-term. I’m hoping to take home an extra $800 before the end of season. We shall see.

Now I just have to wait to hear about training and when my schedule starts. A few people are worried about me burning out. I am cautious, but I think I can handle it. If I can’t, I can always find someone to cover some of my shifts or quit.

Now to just figure out what I want to apply it to… hmm…

October is pretty much over. We still have not sold the car despite dropping the price even more. No one has even inquired. There have only been two scams: “pay me x and we’ll sell it” and “my agent will pick it up, give me your paypal info”. Ah, no thanks. It’s been suggested to post it on some craigslists that are a bit farther away. Maybe we’ll get a real bite, but I’m skeptical.

I paid the ER bill, and am waiting on the follow up appointment bills. It only halved our savings account, which isn’t too bad. Way better than I expected.

I applied to two part-time jobs today. My husband is talking of applying, but I can’t sit around and wait for him. Most tell me that I’m crazy to apply for a part-time job on top of my full time job because my full time job is so “much” of a job. We’ll see. Even if I do it only seasonally, every penny will help. I might apply to two more tonight.

I am going to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I’m not sure if I’m going to finish so I think my monthly goal will be to write a bit every week. My story idea isn’t fleshed out at all, but I have kind of a premise. As long as it provides words and constant movement in the story, I’m ok with that.

I’m honestly not looking forward to November. It’s going to be a long tiring month with many trials. I wish I would have been able to go on that vacation so I could go into this relaxed and ready to get stuff done. I just hope it speeds by.

It’s been awhile. Between 2 week long colds, that kidney stone, a computer going on the fritz, partially taking over a coworker’s position, and switching rooms, we’ve been pretty much “recovering” all month so far. This post will probably be random.

It looks like we won’t be hitting our deductible this year (yay), but it looks like we’ll probably wipe out most of our savings (boo). That’s what it’s for, but I just wish I had the opportunity to save back up.

We’ve posted Car 2, at a price under KBB. No calls. I think there are 3 factors: 1) it’s too high of a price if we want to sell it quickly. 2) it’s rear wheel drive with a mid-west winter coming on. And 3) it’s a pricey used car with everyone in this area freaking out about jobs/income. We’re dropping the price slowly every few weeks hoping we’ll get a nibble, but short of begging a dealership of buying it (at an insanely low price and trying to be talked into trading in) there’s not much we can do yet.

We’ve flip flopped rooms with my brother. I’ve spent most of this month slowly cleaning, priming, priming, painting, painting, painting, …and finally moving. Still need to do a lot of staining/polying of windows/doors/decorative wooden ledges, but it’s getting there. It’s a nice change of scenery and doesn’t feel as temporary as my previous set of rooms. Plus we’ve spent very little on it as most of the supplies had already been purchased or found around the house.

Instead of writing 5 cards and meeting up with a friend, I’ll have reconnected with 5 friends, and send one card. Funny how life switched that up on me. I’m counting it as a successful month, even though it was reversed.

It seems like the federal direct loans really restructured their website. I’m loving it so far as I can finally apply payments the way I’ve always wanted to, but I haven’t used it yet since we’re in deferment. I will probably re-number all the student loans in January because it isn’t even grouped the same anymore. This will help with my snowball method and to target those that have a higher interest. (Whenever I have money towards debt repayment, that is.)

We’re still debating our options for our future, and we’re not sure if he’s going to continue schooling. Honestly, it’s feeling like a gamble. A lot of money/time/debt for a potential for a payoff. Will it actually payoff? We don’t know; a lot can change in 4 years. Will it be worth it? That’s debatable. We’ll see. He has until December to pick a route as the University application is due then or shortly thereafter.

My next year’s dental insurance numbers came in today. I love dental insurance. It’s simple, easy to manage (from the HR perspective since I run it at work), and it rarely goes up much. This time it is only a $3.56 per month increase. I can handle that. I’m just terrified of the health insurance number for which I’m still waiting. That one I’m expecting $50 to $100/month increase.

I shocked the coworkers in the weekly meeting today. I just happened to remind them that, hey, it’s the end of the year, and guess what, that means all the end of the year stuff. I hope they’re ready for a long sprint. I’m not procrastinating until December. I have enough that they aren’t involved in that goes into work in December/January. I’d like to reach February without keeling over.

Since my year’s goals have been shot, I’m going to make a few mini-end-of-year goals:
1) Sell Car 2 or get Car Loan 2 under 11k. Very doable if I can swing the January payment before the end of the year.
2) Finish staining and/or polying our room
3) Declutter/sell/toss books and craft supplies
4) Finish a craft for a Christmas gift

That should be easy enough and costs very little. :-) Speaking of Christmas gifts, I’m thinking I can stick to my $50 budget I weaseled in for this year. I can make or use some of the stuff I’ve been stocking up earlier this year for gifts.

Ok, time to end this long rambling post.

Well, we’re selling car 2. We posted it on craigslist last night, and once we take it through the car wash today, we’ll take a picture and post it on carsoup. It was easier to convince the husband than I expected. Although, it kind of makes sense, we’ve been thinking/talking about it since July.

I’m happy with the decision because I’ve never been really thrilled about the purchase of car 2. It was impulsive and so not like me. At the time we could afford the car (since husband was working two part-time jobs) and have plenty to save/payoff debt, but not anymore. I can say that I won’t ever buy a used car ever again as a family/until it dies car. I would, however, be ok buying a used car as a short-term (read: year or two) clunker. And I don’t want to buy a car with a car loan EVER AGAIN. Oie the headaches this car has given me.

Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll only get a little over $2500 back after we pay off the car loan (depending on the negotiations when they happen). That will go straight to the rest of our deductible for the year and re-building up the EF.

Car 1 has under $8000 on the loan and is zero percent finance. Good gas mileage, good for long trips to visit his family, and good for fitting the nieces in (and their car seats, toys, and groceries). At the moment, we’re not going to sell it, but it’s not off the table. We need to sell car 2 first and foremost.

We’ve also been talking about my husband’s future. His schooling is really taking a toll on us and maybe it’s not the best time to do this. We’re not sure what his other career options are though. Right now, his recent experience puts him at low-wage/minimum-wage, part-time, no ladder to climb jobs. While doable (he’s done that for quite some time when he was trying to get into his dream job), he’s a college graduate and can do so much more.

I recently read something that says our generation is the “lost generation”. I am beginning to think that is so true. I can’t tell you the number of my friends who are living with parents and are taking whatever jobs they can get. It’s sad. I’m jealous of 30-something year olds who have relevant experience in their field and have roots/place of their own, and those who are just entering college now who will be the pick of employers when they graduate. We don’t have relevant experience, and by time there are jobs open, our degrees and knowledge will be outdated.

Well, I’m posting my budget. I haven’t done this in forever, but it’s to the point of I’m going crazy trying to make it work and its unsustainable. I need someone else to agree with me on my thoughts or give me other ideas.


Monthly Take-Home Income: $1220
Total Monthly Expenses: $1220


Monthly Car Expenses Total: $930
Car Loan 1: $248 (0%)
Car Loan 2: $305 (~5%)
Gas: $277
Insurance Savings: $100

Monthly Allowance* Expenses Total: $280
My weekly allowance: $40
Husband’s weekly allowance: $40
Joint allowance: $100
Puppy allowance: $100

Other Monthly Expenses Total: $10
Netflix: $10
Student Loans: deferred

*About allowances-
~Weekly Allowances: the $10/week/each goes towards things we want for ourselves that isn’t for a joint reason. For example, lunch out for work functions, needing new socks or clothes, getting a new CD/game, buying a grocery craving.
~Monthly Joint Allowance: it is for groceries, dining out, entertainment/dates, cold medicine, items that are used jointly. $100 is really small, $200 is where we function the best without wasting money or scaling too far back. Thank goodness my parents feed us a lot.
~Puppy allowance: This is for her food, frontline/heartguard, and vet visits. I’m crossing fingers that our expenses for this goes down now that she’s spayed and rid of giardia.


*****
My first thought is we need to increase income. Period.

My second thought is that we are now really, really, really car heavy. We weren’t while he was working two part-time jobs which brought in way more than my salaried job due to health insurances coming out of my pay (~$700/mo), but now that he doesn’t have either one, it is a heavy burden. I’d like to sell car 2 because it isn’t a car I can comfortably drive. Or we could easily sell my car since it’s a used Toyota. Or we could sell both and fix the windshield on my parent’s old ’94 beater-no suspension left, rusted van. It’s an awful situation and I’m also selfish in the thoughts that I will be the one that has to carpool and be carless all the time. Been there, done that, it sucks. But I’ll suck it up though…

Because… If you notice, there is no monthly savings in there for emergencies. My income never fluctuates up. Our EF fund will be gone with the recent trip to ER. If the car gets a flat, it’s going to have to go on the credit card, and not be paid off… for who knows how long. There is no way to even start paying back the EF, so next year, we’ll have nothing if either of us needs to go to the doctor. There is no savings for Christmas. We usually have extra expenses around that time for traveling (ie: driving/gas/food) to visit his family more than presents. We don’t do presents in my family or to each other, but I do typically get something for his nieces and nephews. Plus, insurances go up at the end of the year which means my paycheck goes down fast.

So…We need to increase income and decrease car. Am I right? There's not much else to it that I can see...

Lucky us, we got to visit the ER today. My poor husband woke me up at 5am because he was in pain and couldn’t take it anymore. He’s the kind of guy that never needs to go to the doctor, and will never want to unless it’s bad. The on call doc said to go in and not wait.

I was really impressed with the ER service, and we got in right away (which totally dispelled my wait forever belief). After an IV, blood tests, urine test, shot of pain meds, and a CT scan, we found out he has a kidney stone. Poor fellow.

Now that I’ve had a nap and time to process what happened (I’m not a morning person), I’m starting to think about what this is going to cost me. We have a high deductible plan ($5400), and I only have $3000 in my EF. I’ve read that an ER visit for a kidney stone can cost from $500 to $10,000. Anyone have a better estimate for me so I don’t go into sticker shock when I finally get the bills?

Oh, and is September over yet?

The second half of the month wasn’t any better. One failed goal. I didn’t increase income. One succeeded goal. I didn’t go over our strict budget

I don’t have any good to say about anyone or anything right now, so I think I’ll just keep this short.

My October goals:
1) Send handwritten cards to five people
2) Connect in person with a friend and do something fun

I’m in a bad, icky, dark mood…

I’ve tried to increase our income twice so far this month, and both failed miserably.

It’s the last weekend of my husband’s remaining part time job. I think he thinks he won’t be able to handle another part time job with his “heavy” schooling. Not sure how far I can push the issue without causing a huge fight/lasting resentment since we can and are living on what I do bring home. There’s just not enough to save, pay for unexpected expenses, or pay for his schooling if we don’t get financial aid.

I shocked my husband when I proved to him that when he graduates, we’ll have $60,000 in student loans to cover only tuition, fees, and books. $12,000 from the past, plus $9,000 this year, and about $13,000 each the next three. I sure as hell hope he graduates early and is able to work part time through school. Funny thing is, we’ve talked about the number before and it’s just now clicking in his mind.

Then I realized, while proving the numbers to him, that since we got married 3.5 years ago, we paid down $21,000 in credit card debts (from moving cross country twice), bank of moms loans (wedding lending), and student loans. (Well and added two car loans, but I don’t really count those since I can sell both easily for more than I owe. Net-wise, they’re positive). Which, now that I think about it, wasn’t too bad for progress. But now we’ll have it back up to that insane number in no time.

Plus, that number makes me wonder if I shouldn’t have paid down debts and instead I should have saved for a down payment on a house. Which is a whole stupid thought cycle in itself. I wouldn’t have been able to pay house payment and all those minimum balances. But, gah, I want my own place!

And then my relationships with friends/family aren’t going too well. But that’s a whole book in itself.

So yeah, dark mood. Chocolate isn’t working. Catching up on sleep might. Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling less moody.

I really hate how every penny now has a need. I loved having “leftover” money each month to put towards savings, debt repayment, or random expenses that came up. Now, even the auto-savings has a need. Every six months, the exact amount we put in will come out to pay for the car insurances.

I was just thinking that by time my husband’s schooling is over, we’ll have lived with my parents for 7ish years. Never in a million years did I think this would happen. How depressing.

So yeah, I’m not sure if I’m going to survive the next 4 years of scrimping by and additional debt. I really hope this proves to be worth it.

September’s goals:
[ ] Stick to tight budget
[ ] Increase income

There have been a lot of things to talk about financially, but I’ve been too tired to write about them the past several days. So here we go…

I’m not sure what I’m going to use the book income for. This round I just let it go into the joint fund so we could get school supplies. We’ll see when/if I sell the rest.

I asked for and got a credit limit increase on my credit card. Not as much as I wanted, but something is better than nothing. I won’t need it, but it’s good to have. They will be mailing me the reason why I can’t get the full increase I want.

I still haven’t moved my personal account yet. I haven’t had time yet and still aren’t sure where to put it. I like Wells online checking best out of the three I’ve had in the past. I need to check out the local credit union in town.

Husband’s last day of his part-time job was yesterday. He’s happy. And school starts Monday for him. He’s excited. I’m excited too, actually. Not as much as he, though.

We have financial aid worked out. Subsidized and unsubsidized loans cover tuition, fees, books, supplies, car loan for 4 months, and gas. It is more than we technically “need”, but this way we can have some wiggle room each month until we officially decide to sell car 2 or husband gets a part time job (we will decide on that in a few weeks). We can always pay it back if we don’t use it.

I’ve been asked by a state to file 2007 taxes… uh, I don’t owe that state taxes and I did file my 2007 taxes for the correct state. And even then I made around $10,000 that year… why would they come after me? It’s more annoying than anything.

We paid for what we hope will be the last of the vet bills this week. She was spayed and still seems like the giardia is gone. We’ve said that before, but I’m hoping it’s finally gone this time. I don’t want to add up how much we’ve spent at the vet since we’ve gotten her.

I’ve been asked a few times these last few weeks what my dream job would be or what I would go back to school if we could afford it. I don’t have an answer. We’ve been so focused on helping the family and my husband going for his dream job(s). We’ve been surviving and I’ve been taking it one day at a time. It’s hard to dream when my first priority is to get rid of debt and my second priority is to get our own place. I need to work on that.

I think that’s all. I’ve been anxiously waiting for more news from Scottishgirl all day: how her appt went and if her move to her mom’s went smoothly. :-)

I posted four books on half.com and have sold two! I have mailed them and have $5.94 profit off the two despite they sold for $4 a piece. The $2.64/each shipping allowance covers the $2.41/each postage, But it doesn’t really cover the bubble envelope that I found at dollar general for $0.66/each. I need to find an envelope for 23 cents or less. Any ideas? The only thing I’ve found close was 35 cents but I had to buy 100 from uline.

I wouldn’t worry much if I had pricey books, but the out 41 books I looked at, only 4 of them could be sold for $1 or more. The rest were all $0.75 so far. If I can’t find packaging that would be less than 23 cents, I would really only get 21 cents profit. And what’s the point of that?

I got an email today from Wells Fargo. My personal checking that holds my weekly allowance is no longer going to be free. There will be a $7/month fee starting mid-September. Well, that is unless I direct deposit $500/month or keep $1500 in it… which is hard when I only have a $10/week allowance. Hah. So time to get a new checking account.

Although I’m half tempted to just make a “sub-account” in my joint checking instead and just use that to make my purchases. I don’t really want to open another account at this moment. What’s funny is my husband’s personal account isn’t changing, but it’s probably because he had gotten it as a student account initially. I used to like Wells, but I’m beginning to change my mind.

Also, it seems like Netflix has raised its prices, but is removing watch instantly shows – no more Up, District 9, Babylon 5… We were just going to downgrade to watch instantly only, but now we’re more than half-tempted to drop it all together. It was the one frivolous thing we were going to allow, but maybe not.

I have a lot of books. Young Adult, Children, Adult, Classics College books… all sorts of books. When I unpacked them this year for the first time in a few years, I was so happy to have them. But now that I’ve looked at them for several weeks, I realized that I have favorites that I read on a yearly basis, but I have a lot of other ones that are just ok. I had kept them because at one point I had wanted to have a HUGE library where the room was 360 degrees of bookshelves overflowing with books. I don’t see that in my future anymore, so I think it’s time to part with some. Plus, I could use the extra personal funds.

I found that when I took them to half-priced books, I would get what seemed like pennies per book. I would like to try to sell them online, but I don’t know the best place to sell books. Is half.com decent? Do you have any suggestions on places or suggestions on how to sell them? I’m not interested in paperback swap, because I don’t read much these days nor do I typically find new stuff I like when I do borrow books.

Speaking of selling… I have some pretty nice dolls and Barbies that I’ve been thinking about selling. Where/how should I go about selling those?

We’ve finally made our decision.

It started with getting letters from the places that my husband interviewed at containing the multiple variations of “no”. Those were the last ones we were waiting on. His eligibility to get this type of job is up soon and since each application process takes 4 to 5 months, we’re pretty much to the limit of his ability to be hired. A year and a half he’s been applying, interviewing, getting to the top of the interview process, and then not getting hired.

So, he’s going to go back to school to get a second degree. His first degree is a liberal arts one that has no real job attached to it. It could be applied to many things, but it doesn’t help him with any specialized skills or job experience. So this one is more … specific, for a lack of better term, and has real job applications with potential for a nice salary.

It is a 4 year degree though, and the only thing his previous degree will help with is that he will most likely not have to do any gen eds or liberal arts electives. He is starting this fall with some of the basic classes at the local tech and will transfer into the university next fall. This will help keep the cost down.

He will be leaving the part-time job that he has the most hours with because they are not flexible with schedule at all. Unfortunately, that knocks our take-home pay in little more than half. He will be keeping his other part-time job, but that’s only one weekend per month without ability to pick up extra hours or shifts. He is planning on getting a student job or other part-time job in-between/after classes, but we don’t know when that will happen.

I have rearranged our budget to survive on my paycheck alone. We have already started this new tight budget for August even though he’s working through the end of it. I want to bank every penny we can before it actually happens. Once his current student loans go into deferment, we will have a little wiggle room, but not much. We will also need to take out more student loans since we don’t have anything saved up for it.

Also, we had the really tough conversation about selling Car 2. It’s his dream car and I love the freedom of having my own car. Yet, we could use the monthly payment for other things and the extra money from selling it could really be used in the EF. I don’t see us being able to put much into savings for the next 4 years. So we will be selling it. He sees the sale as an investment into his future. I see it as a necessity, even though I will end up being the one without a car again.

I have canceled my fall trip, because we no longer have much of a personal allowance or even much of a joint allowance. I know I will need clothes here for winter soon, so my money will be saved for when I feel like I can no longer stretch what little I have. My husband offered to help pay for it out of his personal, but he doesn’t have much saved up and he could use any cushion he has too. It was very sweet of him to offer to help, though.

Let’s see, what else is there to tell.

My husband is really excited about going back to school and the subject matter. It’s not his “dream job” anymore, but it’ll be interesting. Plus, he will have internships that could become a job once he graduates. He also is very happy he won’t have to stay at the part-time job as it can go nowhere promotion-wise, time-wise, benefit-wise, or even raise-wise.

I am growing a little excited. It’s change, even though it’s not much change for me. Plus, I tend to learn things when he’s learning. He loves coming home and telling me about class or what he read.

What I am not excited about is that we will be taking out more student loans. And there is no guarantee for a job at the end of this. And there is no chance for moving out; we won’t be able to afford it for the next four years or even for probably a year or two after that as we dig ourselves out of student loan debt. And we won’t be able to go to Russia for the Olympics; he’ll be full time at school then.

It seems kind of counter-intuitive to go into more debt in order to make money, but we don’t have many other options. Here’s to hoping that the economy gets better in the next 4 years so that when he completes the degree, there will be plenty jobs.

This month started with so much promise and excitement, and has ended in BLEH. Bad month for goals. Bad month for anything planned. It all went wrong on so many levels.

I didn’t succeed at any of my goals for July:

[/] Save $100 of personal – Managed to save $75, forgot I needed a few things, so I didn’t manage to squeak out those last $25, but it might not matter anyways as the trip may be canceled.
[-] Teach puppy 4 tricks – Didn’t happen. It was an odd month. Nothing got done. And surprise! She is still sick. Puppy is back on medicine. I’m beginning to think the Giardia will never go away. :-(
[-] Plot lunches and buy groceries – I seriously only needed this to happen once to consider it a success, so of course it didn’t happen. I did try, though.
[/] Cook one family meal – Well, I didn’t, but my husband did and I kind of helped. Does that count as a partial?
[-] Eat breakfast 20 out of 31 days – Only ate breakfast 5 times. Pathetic.

Now onto August, I don’t have any goals for this month because we’re in the process of making a decision that will affect the next few years of our life and a lot of our money. My husband is optimistic, and frankly excited. I, on the other hand, am not excited, but I don’t see many other options. I’m sorry I’m being vague. I just don’t want to jinx it either way. I’ll go more into it once we finalize.

So, a few days ago I received an email from my car dealership. They would like me to trade in my 2009 Yaris for a 2011 Yaris. Traded in, including all the taxes and registration and fees, they would come back with a monthly payment of $5 less per month.

I haven’t asked for more specific details yet, but is this even something to think about? My current loan is 0% and I think if this new loan has interest, I would balk, but if it’s also 0%... Well hmmm. A car two years newer is always nice, even if I have car payments for a few years more, but at theoretical 0%, it would hard to say no. Right?

What else would I have to ask besides interest rate? The Yaris's (Yari?) are pretty bare/standard, so it’s not like I would be trading down in features… What a sales pitch. I can't think of the downside, and there's got to be one.

What do you think? I’m not sure what I think. My husband isn’t sure what he thinks either.

It’s been a bad week from the get-go for me. Ran out of stain for doors I wanted to get done before guests came (they didn’t get done – not even close), got a flat tire, bank messed up –three times, clients asking for payment plans on pre-paid discounts, lots of things going wrong… Actually, just about everything I touched this week went wrong.

I’m tired, cranky, and stressed to the max. This weekend the house is full of family guests. I’m really looking forward to visiting with them, but hopefully I can shake this bad mojo so it doesn’t rub off on them.

The only plus is in our finances. I managed to send $20 to my personal savings and an extra $100 to Car Loan 2 this week.