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Archive for January, 2008

EF Update

January 18th, 2008 at 01:57 am

Added the auto deposit of $10 to the EF today.

$2593.67 Old balance
+ 10.00 auto deposit
---------
$2603.67 New balance

Just a brief update on Rose, she is doing much better. Thank you to everyone who sent good wishes our way.

Hospital Visit

January 15th, 2008 at 10:58 am

Rose went into the hospital last night with a fever of 104.1 and they couldn't get it to go down. Her pulse was really fast and her blood pressure was too low. Scared the living daylights out of us. They gave her a narcotic, Ibuprofen AND Tylenol, and an antibiotic for a severe bacterial infection. Not pneumonia and not strep, but they couldn't give us a name for it. Finally, after a couple of hours it started going down but it was scary while it lasted.

She's home now and safely asleep in bed and I'm wired on too much caffeine to sleep. And now that the danger has passed my mind automatically ticks over to thinking about the insurance deductible, the hospital and doctor's fees and the cost of a chest x-ray. Well, that's what my safety net is for. The small touchable part of my EF that is used for small emergencies. If I can't scrape enough out of the regular medical portion of the budget I'll have it covered with the safety net.

I am grateful we have the money there if we need it. That I didn't have to be one of those people debating whether or not to take my kid to the ER because we couldn't afford it. That we do have insuarnce that will cover part of this. But mostly that my daughter is going to be okay after some further treatment with medication.

EF Update and Mortgage Update

January 14th, 2008 at 03:18 pm

I made several deposits to the EF last week. I took interest money made on my safety net and temporary savings accounts and transferred it to ING along with the regular weekly $10, and a refund check from the orthodontist, for a total of $302.57.

$2291.10 Old Total EF Balance
5.77 Interest
286.80 Refund Check
10.00 Auto Deposit
----------
$2593.67 New Total EF Balance

The last payment on my mortgage posted finally bringing the total left on my house to $32,014.98. Slowly but surely we're getting there.

EF Update

January 4th, 2008 at 12:20 am

I finally got around to adding the CU money to ING, plus needed to add in the amount of interest from the last two months to arrive at my new total in the emregency fund.

$2198.58 Old Balance
80.00 auto deposits
6.10 November interest
+ 6.42 December interest
---------
$2291.10 New Balance

So I have about $500 to save to finally have a half a month's pay in the bank. Then onward to the next goal of one month's pay.

Expenses for today were $20 to the school for my son's hot lunch account. Otherwise, nothing.

Finding the Swing

January 2nd, 2008 at 04:13 am

First I had to find the swing before I could make the attempt to get back into the swing of things. I pulled my CU statement off the internet today and balanced my checkbook for the month of December, so that's a positive step in the pay attention to my finances category!

Tomorrow's big step will be sitting down with the bill box and paying bills. Okay, more than that because I've been paying bills all along, but getting that aspect of my life organized. I'm going to be getting this nifty organizer thing from Lillian Vernon for my birthday in February. It's a box that has slots for every day of the month that you organize your bills into and then a couple little drawers for miscellaneous bill paying items like envelopes or stamps or whatnot. Always have a hard time keeping track of my whatnots, after all! Big Grin But it should come in quite handy.

I'm working on my 2008 Budget Spreadsheet, too. Now I know that medical has not gone up for the first year in forever and that car insurance has actually gone down ('bout time, DH hasn't had an accident since '94 and I've not had one since '88 when I was 18 and that was only a parallel parking mishap!), and they've finally gotten the clue we're safe drivers! Security system monitoring has gone up by a buck a month.

Lots of little things. Property taxes should go down a bit this year as a levy came off.

Tomorrow I'll be making a trip to Costco and getting gas. Don't think I'll buy anything else there, except produce if it looks good. I've got plenty of canned goods and meat in the freezer. Well, maybe eggs, milk, and cheese. And dishwasher tablets. I think I'll make a list before I go. Since things seem to be magically popping into my head at the moment.

Just wanted to say thanks again for the warm welcome back. It was lovely.

Letting Things Slide

January 1st, 2008 at 02:20 pm

I've been letting things slide for a bit too long. I'd say almost two months now, but particularly the month of December. I've just been ignoring things, and that's the kind of thing that got me into trouble in the first place.

What is it about finances that makes you turn your eyes away or put your head in the sand anyway? I haven't been completley hopeless. I mean the bills are getting paid. On time, too. But I can't remember the last time I transferred money from my CU to my ING account and I'm pretty sure there's at least six weeks of auto-deposits sitting there ready to go.

Haven't kept my running account of savings or the coin jar or updated my 401K either. Well, new year and maybe I'll get myself back to this. I need to. I'd rather know what I'm doing than not know what I'm doing.

I've rolled up a bunch of coins tonight, $36.50 ready to go to the CU for deposit. I've stopped saving $1 bills, a habit I'd like to get back into. I have managed to make at least one of the monthly $100 transfers to ING from the past two months. I think I did both, but I'll have to pull my statements and check to be sure.

I just feel so scattered. Or at least, scatter-brained. My house on the other hand has never been this organized before, so really no excuse for this lazy financial head in the sandiness.

This isn't a New Year's Resolution or anything because I don't make them, but I'm really encouaging myself strongly to stay on top of this in the coming months. It's too important to just not keep track, and if I don't I know we will just blow the extra on eating out and frippery. I'd rather be using that money to save up for my DH's next set of course work and a family vacation then what we've been using it on, anyway.

Well, here's hoping I won't be such a stranger to my own blog in this new year.