$16,125.22 Starting Balance

+__,146.06 Amount Added

--------------------

$16,271.28 New Balance

I had $60 left in the grocery envelope so I transferred that to the meat fund.  $31 topped off the beef fund portion and now I am saving for half a hog, so there is $29 towards that.  Total money in the meat fund is $3667.

$15,880.55 Starting Balance

+__,244.67 Amount Added

---------------------------

$16,125.22 New Balance

That means I have $6,107.64 left to save to hit 6 months of expenses, which is my next goal.  That will put the EF at $22,232.86.  I'd like to make that by year's end, but I think it is going to be closer to February unless DH gets quite a bit of overtime or a really good Christmas bonus.

Ultimately, though, I have a goal of 6 month's take home pay, not just 6 month's expenses.  That would be a little over $36,000, which is an additional $13,767.14.  That's likely take an additional 18 months, so around 2 years and 2 months from now I should hit that, barring OT or raises.  Raises are unlikely as they have a wage freeze going on at DH's work.  He hasn't gotten one in over 2 years.  Normally this is a place that gives yearly merit raises, but Covid hit hard.  It could be another year before they unfreeze wages.  They have started to rehire some of the people that were laid off, so that is promising.

I am $31 short of the highest estimate on the beef costs, based on a 750 to 850 pound hanging weight.  With the $2000 I had set aside previously added to the money I've been scrimping out of the grocery budget I am almost there.  I need $3638 total and after the $179 I saved out of the last grocery envelope, I am at $3607.  And from my experience, farmer's always estimate high, but the hanging weight actually tends to be lower.  So it is more likely it will be closer to 750 pounds than 850 pounds.  I've also reserved my beef.  I am getting a whole with a butcher date of either late July or early August (he's got two dates for two different sets of steers).

I was finally able to make a substantial deposit into the Emergency Fund this week.  This is a 3 paycheck month so I had some extra money that wasn't allocated for anything else.  This tips our net worth over the $100K mark to $100,182.21, so a big milestone goal met there.

$15,374.23 Beginning Balance

+__,506.32 Amount Added

----------------

$15,880.55 New Balance

I also had a lot left in the grocery envelope when I re-funded it today, so I transferred that into the Meat Fund.  We are getting closer and closer to being able to pay for a full beef for the freezer by summer's end.  I've been working on eating down the chest freezer so we will have room, which means I haven't bought too much in the way of groceries.  It was definitely why I was able to save over half of the two week grocery budget this last time.

$1224.00 Starting Balance

+_204.00 Leftover Grocery Money

-----------------

$1428.00 New Balance

I rolled my coins and was able to deposit $10.50 into the Emegency Fund.  It's not a lot and it is most likely all we are going to be putting in this month, what with all the outlay for building the new garden.  I should be able to start making more regular deposits into the EF starting in May.

$15,363.73 Previous Balance

+__,_10.50 Rolled Coin

--------------------

$15,374.23 New Balance

As for the Beef Fund, there was $63 left in the grocery envelope when I re-funded it today, so that was transferred to the Beef Fund envelope.

$1161.00 Previous Balance

+__63.00 Amount Added

-----------------

$1224.00 New Balance

I do have an extra $1000 set aside just in case I don't meet my Beef Fund goal in time to buy a full steer by the end of the summer, but I really want to try to meet it by doing what I am doing so that maybe that can be allocated elsewhere.

MIL took her 401K disbursement for the year.  She gave us $3000 for medical (paying for the surgery daughter had) and $5000 as a gift.  I put $2K into the EF.  My goal for the year is to get to $22,121.86.  I have $6869.13 to go to hit that and 9 months to do it in.  That will put us at 6 month's expenses.  I still would like to get to six month's income, but that is a goal for 2022 and 2023.

$13,363.73 Beginning Balance

+_2,000.00 Amount Added

--------------------

$15,363.73 New Balance

$13,325.73 Beginning Balance

+__,_37.49 Allstate Safe Driver's Refund

+__,___.51 Lousianna Pacific Stock Divident Payment

---------------------

$13,363.73 New Balance

In the first time in forever I have a large deposit to make to the EF.  This is a portion of the stimulus we recieved.

$11,325.73 Beginning Balance

+_2,000.00 Amount Added

----------------------

$13,325.73 New Balance

I had a sad, piddly little amount to add to the EF this week, but even so, it was something.  Most of what I would have put in  went towards gardening stuff, including three huckleberry bushes.  I've wanted those for a long time.  I just have to realize that the EF is not going to grow at the rate I had hoped.  There are too many other things on the agenda, including that handicaped ramp.  Still, anything is better than nothing.

$11,322.98 Previous Balance

+__,__5.29 Amount Added

----------------------

$11,328.27 New Balance

I did manage to put a little into the Emergency Fund this paycheck.  Having to save for the handicapped ramp is putting a damper on how much I can put in probably through March.  But I am happy I at least put in a little.

$11,251.02 Previous Balance

+__,_71.96 Amount Added

---------------------

$11,322.98 New Balance

$11,551.02 Previous Balance

+__,__2.49 Interest Added

----------------

$11,553.51 New Balance

Since we don't owe taxes after all, I moved the $300 I had saved towards that into the Emergency Fund.

$11,251.02 Previous Balance

+__,300.00 Amount Added

----------------

$11,551.02 New Balance

$8971.68 to go to hit my goal of $20,522.70, or expenses for six months.

Well, it is not as much as I wanted it to be since we have to save for taxes, but I still put a nice little chunk of change into the Emergency Fund this payday.  I had .57 leftover in the checking account from last week, so that is added into what came out of the paycheck as well.  I have started running a $0 based budget, so that every single dollar and cent from the paycheck goes to use.  I have enough of a cushion in checking to not be worried about doing that, plus I am so meticulous about what is spent, so it was time to bite the bullet and just do it.

$10,771.20 Previous Balance

+__,479.82 Amount Added

------------------

$11,251.02 New Balance

I didn't get my debit card back in my wallet last week when I made my second seed order.  I noticed it was missing last night when I went to place my third seed order.  It scared me quite a bit at first and then I realized there was no way I had taken it out of the house.  I completely dumped out my purse and went through everything.  It was not there, although I did have $1.37 in change at the bottom that I put in the coin jar.

So I ended up organizing my desk, mostly.  It had gotten ridiculous with papers that needed to be filed, shredded, or recycled.  It's still a little cluttered, but ten times better.  I did not find my debit card on my desk, but I did find a $5 bill and then about a half an hour later a $50 bill.  The $5 was just loose, but the $50 was in an envelope system that was battered and I had replaced, but not thrown out.  It was in the restaurant envelope, if anyone was curious.

I am glad I decided last minute to check all the envelopes.  I was thrilled.  I took that $55 and added it to the Beef Envelope, so there is now $120 in there.  I can't believe I almost threw that $50 away.  If it wasn't for that little voice that said check it, check it, check it, I would have.

Finally I cleaned out underneath my desk.  It wasn't bad, just a few papers that had slipped between the wall and my desk and ended up on the floor.  It was not there, either.  So then I picked up my foot board.  All of my height is in my back so in order to be comfortable in a computer chair, DH made me a two foot long by one foot wide foot board at the right height for me to be comfortable.  And that is where it was.  It had slipped down the back of the desk and wiggled its way under there.

I was so relieved to have found it.  Tomorrow I will work on my desk some more, but tonight I need to shred papers.  I don't want to build up again like I did and have to do a massive shred fest like I did a couple years ago.  I've been generally good at staying on top of that, but when you pull muscles in your back, you don't worry about your paper pile getting larger.  You do the bare minimum until you can function again.  Which is about where I am now.

I am feeling the bug to organize, to clean, and to work out in the garden.  We have had lovely sunny days without ran in the middle 40's.  It would be perfect weather to go out and pull the corn stalks and the dead bean vines and get the posts dug out.  We are totally revamping the garden and everything has to be cleared away so we can build the new beds.  I don't want the growing season to get away from me.  I think it would be good to get outside and move my body and it would be good for DS, as well.  He's feeling quite the large amount of cabin fever right now.  Being outside does help mitigate that.

The way I have my monthly budget set up, I can only make a small deposit to the EF on the first payday, but on the second payday I can make a large one.  I'd rather do it the other way around, but the bills have to be paid on certain dates, and this way is just more practical.  I also rolled the coin in my coin jar.  So I guess I start with a whimper and end with a bag as opposed to the other way round in the poem by Yeats.  Also the world's not ending, maybe, so there's that.

$10,658.60 Previous Balance

+__,100.10 Amount Added

+__,_12.50 Rolled Coin Added/

--------------------------

$10,771.20 New Balance

The stimulus is now deposited so I transferred that money to my C1-360 account where I keep the bulk of my EF.  We are officially at three months' expenses.  Haven't been there since the end of 2015.

_$9456.32 Balance Forward

_+1200.00 Amount Added

----------------

$10,656.32 New Balance

$10,261.35 is 3 month's expenses so we are $394.97 into the 4 month.  That means I need an additional $3025.47 to hit 4 months.  So that is my next mini-goal, on the way to my next milestone goal which will be $20,522.70 or 6 months.  Of course after that I think I'd like to work towards doubling that to a year's expenses or $41,045.40, just not at such an aggressive rate of spending.

Once we have hit the six month mark, I'd like to bump up the 401K to 17% in 2021 to max it out.  Since we are both over 50 now we can do the catch up max, which is $19,500 in 2021 instead of just $17,500.  And if we manage to do IRA's as well in 2022, we could each max out to $7000, so $14,000 total.  That is still a dream, because who knows what will happen between now and then.  Hopefully the pandemic will just go away and life can return to normal and there will be things like raises again.  It would be really cool, though if we could actually put $33,500 a year towards retirement in 2022.

Mom wants to give us the house for all the years of taking care of her, as long as she gets to live here for the rest of her life, barring the need to go into a nursing home.  With the new medication she is on, she is doing so much better both cognitively and physically, so I think we have a good chance of not ever having to put her into one.

We have to figure out how to do it in such a way that no one is getting hit with a huge tax bill or gift tax.  Still researching that.  I think she can use the unified tax credit to avoid that.  She could put it into a trust with us as the beneficiaries, but I'm not sure if she would lose the senior tax exemption by doing that or not.

Then we would have to decide after she dies whether or not we want to stay here or sell the house and buy or build one that is more handicapped accessible.  If we sell, the house is valued somewhere between $650 and $750K.  I would give $100K each to my sisters in that event, assuming they are both still alive, but at the gift tax amount over however many years it took so they wouldn't have to pay taxes.  Even at the lowest valuation that would still give us $450K to buy a new house in a warmer, lower cost of living area when we retire.

We may need to talk to an estate planner or real estate lawyer to get everything figured out properly.  If we have to do it in a way that puts it in our name now, we need to be able to afford the property taxes at the normal rate, which are $6000 a year, so we'd have to be able to save $500 a month for that.  It is doable, but not until after our EF is where it needs to be.  It's a lot to figure out.

I checked my bank account this morning and to what should my wondering eyes appear, but a pending stimulus payment. DH and I got $1200 together.  I'm a little disappointed that they couldn't get their act together and do the $2000, but free money is free money.  That will go into the EF, minus the tithe, and that will put us at a little over three month's expenses.  I plan to continue to save for six month's expenses, which will take to the end of the year or thereabouts.  Eventually I'd like six month's income and not just six month's expenses, but once expenses are met, I'll probably cut the contribution in half so we can save for other things, but still push forward.

We also made sure our retirement account was set to15% for 2021.  DH had done it once but it didn't take.  So we did it again and this time got to an end screen he didn't get to the first time.  I will make sure I check it again before payroll hits.

I did the numbers and between what we will contribute and what work will contribute (2.5%) it'll be a little over $20K this year.  And that doesn't include company stock.  If DH works until 72 and we get the same average rate of return as has been going for the last 20 years with the funds we are in, we should have 5.5 million.  If we max out it'll be a little higher.  If he can only work until 65, we still max out a little over 2 million.  That's assuming no raises that will allow us to max out our 401K.  Gives me hope that our disabled daughter will be well taken care of and that there will be an inheritance for my son, too.

And that's only if we don't put anything into the IRA.  If we can contriubte to it this year that would be amazing, even if it is only a little bit.  But I think if possible we would max out the 401K first, which would be an additional $2000 to what we are putting in.  That might be a big enough stretch on its own.

DH's work is considering doing something where if you work overtime, instead of getting paid overtime, the hours worked can bank for extra paid vacation time or can bank for a quarterly payout, or do half vacation time/half quarterly payout.  Since the project he is working on does not authorize overtime, this would be a way to actually work it, but get a different way of paying out.  Normally it is only offered to salaried employees, not hourly, but he is doing the work of a salaried employee.  I think they are putting it to a vote when everyone comes back from the holidays.

I am all for it.  I'd like extra paid vacation and an extra payout, so we would do 50/50 for the first quarter and see what that looks like.  And of course extra hours worked already means extra sick leave banked, since it is based on that at his work.  While straight OT is better than anything, that just won't be an option this year.  I guess we just have to wait and see how things play out.

I had an extra $50 in my checking acount and I added an additional $325 from this paycheck.  It feels good to be making progress again.  Next month should be better if I can keep it under control.

$9,090.32 Previous Balance

+_,375.00 Amount Added

--------------

$9,465.32 New Balance

The Christmas bonus came, but it was not what DH was told.  He was told it would be $500 after taxes, but no, it wasn't.  It was $500 before taxes.  Everyone is a little bummed out, because why say one thing and do another?  Anyway, the actual amount was $350.48.  But I broke $9K and any bonus is better than no bonus.

$8739.48 Previous Balance

+_350.48 Amount Added

--------------

$9090.32 New Balance

I had DH work up a spreadsheet for me of what his projected income next year will be with the higher medical taken out in 2021 alone, at 7% going into the 401K and at 10%, and at 15%.  We can put 10% in and still be able to save at least $1000 every 4 weeks towards the Emergency Fund, so that is what we will be doing.

The Emergency Fund goal for next year is to get it to $22,232.86 and that will be 6 month's expenses.  I am currently at $8739.84, so will need to save $13,493.02 to hit that goal.  I'll be putting the $500 Christmas bonus in the EF, so that will bring it to $9239.84 by years end, leaving me with $12,993.02 to save in 2021.  So that should be done by the end of the 2021, at which point we could move our retirement savings to 15% and continue to save for 1 year's expenses, and additional $22,232.86, which would take 37 months.

And that is without MIL giving us any money next year, or possibly at the end of this year.  Mil is going to pay for DD's surgery to take out the liver tumor, at least what the insurance won't cover ($3000, I think), so I don't know if there will be money on top of that or not.  I don't expect it, but I will be happy if it happens.

Putting 15% into retirement means that we will only be able to save $600 a month (well, every 4 weeks, so 13 "months") towards the 12 month's expenses Emergeny Fund.  And that is all assuming there isn't another raise in medical that makes an income cut again or that DH doesn't get a raise during that time period.  They have a wage freeze at the moment.  So I assume the medical will go up and the wages might go down.

Mom is going to do a quitclaim on the house with a life estate for her, meaning she can live here until she dies and she will be responsible for property taxes still, but the house will be ours, with the provision we provide a set amount of the sale to each sister (2) if we sell the house, although we might just buy them out of that, and of course my eldest sister can stay with us as long as we are here (my decision, not Mom's) because family takes care of family.  Mom wants us to have the house, though, because we've helped her all these years when the others have not.

I won't count on it until the ink is dry and it has been five years (the gov could come back and take it if she needed to go into the nursing home).  With that in mind, we will start to save money, on the off chance it falls apart, towards a house once the EF is met, at least until the five years has passed.

Once the five years has passed on the quitclaim and all is safe from the government, we will reassess what we are going to do with our savings from that point.  Future future goals are a solar system for the house and possibly an electric vehicle if they have one that is disability assessible, say maybe in ten years.  I'd prefer a mini-van that could go about 250 miles between charges, but as far as I know they don't make those yet.

I think I have remotivated myself to stop spending so lavishly and refocus on saving.  We have made it a week without takeout and in January we will be doing an eat from the pantry challenge, so my main goal right now is no takeout until February, though a year without takeout would be amazing, if we could pull it off.  We'd certainly stop jeopardizing our goals that way.

$8639.84 Balance Forward

+_100.00 Amount Added

--------------

$8739.84 New Balance

$8203.84 Beginning Balance

+_436.00 Amount Added

--------------

$8639.84 New Balance

I really hate the fact that I can't take line breaks out, even if I do it in Word first and transfer it.  At first we could.  It makes the column of numbers take up way too much space this way and it looks stupid.  Anyway, it feels nice to be able to start building this fund up again.

$7868.55 Balance Forward

+_335.29 Amount Added

$8203.84 New Balance  

$1796.16 to go to hit my next milestone of $10,000 saved.