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Viewing the 'Is Budget a Four Letter Word?' Category
November 9th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Today is payday and for once I got to sit down early and do everything. As of today the only bill that hasn't been paid for the month is the internet bill. I don't think it has come yet. That means the vast majority of next week's paycheck can be split between credit card debt and Christmas. It feels nice going into the holidays without having to scramble this year.
DH's boss called him yesterday to let him know that he will be working an extra week on his next hitch. They still don't know about January. They'll have a better idea of that after he works the extra week. But one guaranteed extra paycheck is great. Especially if he has the three weeks off. I can just save it for that time period and if there is anything leftover put it toward debt.
I hadn't paid the car payment yet, so I'm including it here, but the money for that was from last week's payday. Here's what went out today:
$1700.00 to BoA credit card
_757.82 to car loan
_300.00 for glasses (3 months same as cash, paid in full now)
1000.00 to Mom
__37.68 Garbage
_100.00 to Vacation Fund
__72.00 to holding tank for water/sewer
__44.87 Phone at old house
__23.00 for kid's allowance (DS owes me $2, so that's lower than usual)
_300.00 for beef money
_100.00 cash for miscellaneous stuff
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$4473.05
DH is going to be buying a new pair of workboots, too. They will be around $200. They are steel-toed, steel-shanked, electricity proof, water proof, and Arctic safe. The last pair lasted him about 5 years so that works out to about $40 a year. Not bad for safety gear.
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November 4th, 2012 at 09:46 pm
I am so happy it is November. No more $500 payments to the doctor for DS's treatment. We will have one more $300 payment for glasses this month and then we'll be done with big medical for a while, I hope. Although we still need to save some as come January we will have the $2500 deductible again. Hopefully this coming year it will not be met so quickly. I will have to have two molars fixed, but I am hoping to use part of DH's Christmas bonus to do that.
I did send the extra $230 to AMEX along with my regular payment. Here's how it all broke down this week.
$730.00 AMEX
_100.00 Chase (no interest)
_300.00 for Mom's utilities
__92.97 to the Freezer Fund
___7.03 to the Emergency Fund
__32.97 Electric at the Old House
__25.00 to the Holding Tank for Garbage
__72.00 to the Holding Tank for Water/Sewer old house
__39.53 DH Life Insurance
__32.70 Me Life Insurance
__59.89 Car Insurance
__45.63 House Insurance for old house
__41.16 Security system for old house
_153.00 Storage
__17.00 HoA Dues for old house
_100.00 Property Tax for old house (Holding Tank)
_500.00 to Mortgage for old house
_100.00 to Holding Tank for propane (old house)
_100.00 to MacBook Fund
__28.20 Dental (DH)
__15.69 Medical (DD)
_100.00 DH's monthly allowance
__15.00 DD's weekly allowance
__10.00 DS's weekly allowance
_267.32 on groceries (did a major staples stock up, plus OTC meds)
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$3075.09
I will also be making the car payment out of this payday, just waiting for the bill to get here. I took $100 in cash out for miscellaneous needs. And I will be depositing $46 from the coin jar on Monday, which puts my Freezer Fund at $1000 even. And the MacBook Fund is now at $300. I had $7.03 left after fully funding the Freezer Fund so that went to the Emergency Fund, which now sits at $1008.36.
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October 24th, 2012 at 02:47 pm
I reconciled my checkbook with my account this morning and it came out to the penny! After making two errors in the last six weeks or so, it was nice to have everything match up exactly as it should.
I also updated my spreadsheets. After my appointment today I will be able to record the final medical payment for the month and close off the October spreadsheet. November's I set up last week so it's all ready to go. I left a note on it to remember to provide for haircuts for DD and myself this month. It's been six months for me and I definitely need the ends trimmed properly. I am also thinking about going with bangs. Right now they are past my chin.
The mortgage balance has posted and it is now at $15,801.43. If I pay $100 extra to principal for the next two payments it will be under $15,000. I like the idea of finishing off the year under $15K.
The rumor mill has it that this year's Christmas bonus will be double last year's, which will make it 10% of yearly income. But even if it is only 5% like last year it will be very nice. Since DH is going to be working an extra week or two more than he did last year, even that 5% will be higher than last year's 5%. Between that and our big tax return due to medical, we may be able to pay off the last of the credit card debt. At least I hope so. I just want it gone.
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October 19th, 2012 at 07:09 pm
I made another error in the checking account. Fortunately this one was a lot easier to track down. I simply forgot to record a cash withdrawal. I did this back when I had the worst part of the flu about 10 days ago when I was mostly out of it. It cost me two privelge pay fees, so a total of $26.
I spent the morning tracking the error down, reconciling the checkbook with the bank statement, finishing off recording things into the October Budget spreadsheet and setting up the November Budget spreadsheet.
Today is the small payday. I am saving half of it for first of the month bills. There are no bills until then. The rest is slated for groceries and whatever is left will go for an extra credit card payment.
In other news, Curious is making so much noise I had to go and check what the heck was going on. She and Georgie are on the back porch.
Georgie is sitting in the box she's been laying her eggs in and Curious is just screaming at her. They've both been laying in there the last couple of days. Georgie won't get out of the box and I can't tell if she's laid and just won't move or if she's still trying to lay an egg. Regardless, she's not giving up the box until she's good and ready, no matter how much she is cursed out by her twin. We're going on five minutes here. There's a perfectly good row of nesting boxes in the chicken coop, but very few of the chickens actually use them. Goofballs.
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October 13th, 2012 at 01:27 am
Today was payday and for once I am not slacking on getting my post up for bills paid. I have enough sustainable, organic beef, chicken and pork in the freezer that I think we can skip going to the ranch this month altogether and just go the second week in November. I've also got some other things in the freezer that need to get eaten, some fish, rice, and miscellaneous items that could round out some meals, but not quite be meals in and of themselves.
Here's what came out of this week's paycheck:
$1000.00 Loan to Mom
_1700.00 Bank of America VISA
___10.00 School class t-shirt for DD
__100.00 Freezer Fund
___25.00 Garbabe (holding tank)
__105.00 Pantec
__100.00 Vacation Fund
___17.00 HoA Dues (holding tank)
__100.00 Property Tax (holding tank)
___25.00 Kids' Allowances
__100.00 propane (holding tank)
__100.00 MacBook Fund
__100.00 Christmas Fund
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$3482.00
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October 8th, 2012 at 06:51 am
One of the things that helps me to stay incredibly organized when it comes to bill paying is my bill box. I love this thing. It is specially designed with 31 slots for each day of the month and two drawers beneath to hold things like stamps, address labels, envelopes, pens, whatever. As the bills come in I file them in the corresponding number that is one week before their due dates. I can tell at a glance that bills are coming due so I never have to worry about it.
I've had it for a few years now and I totally would not give it up without fight. What kind of methods do you all use to stay on top of the bills you don't pay online?
Anyway, here's what I paid out of Friday's paycheck:
$1000.00 Medical DS
___41.16 Security system for old house
___21.18 Medical DS
__400.00 Old house mortgage (plus extra to principal)
__200.00 Chase
__757.82 Car payment (plus extra to principal)
__300.00 Glasses (2nd month of 3 months same as cash)
___44.87 Phone for old house
___70.56 Internet
__144.00 Water/sewer old house (2 months)
__300.00 Mom's utilities
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$3279.59
I still have to buy some groceries, I'll have a $90 physical therapy session on Wednesday, and need to get out $25 to pay out the kids' allowances. Otherwise I am right on target for the month. Just having that big check ready to pay off the forward head posture treatment for DS tomorrow has lifted a tremendous weight off my shoulders. I can face the rest of the month without it looming.
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October 5th, 2012 at 07:19 pm
I got a little lax about reporting the stuff I paid within the last few days and figured I should do that before writing up what is coming out of today's payday. This all came out of the last paycheck from two weeks ago. I did find out what the new monthly amount on the car insurance is now that the other car has been sold and we only have to deal with the van. It was a drop of about $26 a month.
$158.50 WMTC
__66.02 Electric old house
__59.89 Car insurance
__45.67 Old house insurance
_225.00 Medical
__39.53 DH Life insurance
__90.00 Physical therapy
__32.70 My Life insurance
_153.00 Storage
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$870.31
I also saved out $500 for DS's medical which will combine with $500 out of the paycheck today to pay off the remaining $1000 owed for his forward head posture treatment, which will continue for a while, but thank goodness will be paid off. I really did not like the way it felt to have that looming over us. One more month and I can get back to using that $500 a month on debt repayment.
Electric out at the old house is way up because of the workmen using power tools and lights on the weekends and possibly hot water to wash up in. It amazes me that 8 days of use a month can make the bill jump by $45. And I will be so glad when we don't have to pay for storage anymore, but until the house sells and we can buy a new one, there it sits.
Oh, and I also got a bit of gas the other day, $20.53, at a station near home because I didn't want to drive across town to the Costco where it's cheaper. That should be enough to keep us good until DH is home on Wednesday and can fill up the tank and also run in to Costco proper and pick up toilet paper and vitamin D.
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September 7th, 2012 at 08:28 pm
I am starting to feel like my old self again today. What's more, the nephews seem to have had an attitude adjustment and are behaving better today, which makes my attitude far better as well. DS and I got through our homeschooling by eleven. I am thinking of buying a science program to hold us over until WAVA gets its act together, but I don't know if I want to have the expense. I am thinking I might be able to put something together from the library. Maybe pick something I know a lot about like coral reefs and make up a unit study on it.
After that I worked on the budget, paid bills, and entered everything into the spreadsheets. Here's what went out of today's payday:
$300.00 to pay back the Freezer Fund
_375.86 mortgage
__46.00 allowances for two weeks
_757.82 car payment (plus extra principal)
_300.00 dental (finally paid off crowns)
__10.59 medical DS
_100.00 propane fund
_100.00 property tax fund
_100.00 Mac Book fund
_100.00 vacation fund
__17.00 HoA dues fund
_300.00 Cash for sustainably raised meat purchase
_587.39 Fashion Bug (in full)
_100.00 Chase (no interest)
__64.30 BoA MC (in full)
__41.16 ADT security system monitoring
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3300.12 money out
I've got a couple hundred dollars left in checking after this. It is earmarked for groceries.
Fashion Bug was a one time purchase of back to school clothes for my daughter and clothes for me. I haven't been shopping since I lost the 50 pounds so I ended up buying a few things while we were there. I paid this in full. The only reason I used the card was for the discount.
BoA MC was used because DH accidentally forgot the credit card he uses for day to day purchases one day and only had this one in his wallet. Normally there is no balance on this card. This was paid in full.
Chase is no interest for 18 months and we transferred a good chunk of what was on the BoA Visa onto it with the plan of paying off the BoA Visa while taking advantage of the Chase intro rate.
I went ahead and fully paid back the freezer fund from the money I borrowed from it last month to pay for medical, I think it was.
I took out $300 for our trip to the sustainable, organic farm tomorrow. I will be buying our month's supply of beef and pork. Any money left over will go into the freezer fund.
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August 29th, 2012 at 09:07 pm
I sent for another $5 gift card to Amazon from Swagbucks today, so that should show up in a week. I have gotten $25 worth of free gift cards this month. This is the first month I've managed to do that in. Not bad for 10 minutes worth of effort in a day (if that).
I've qualified for a couple of the good surveys at ACOP this month. Will probably have a decent cash out next month.
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I have two crockpots full of tomato puree cooking down into sauce. I have decided I don't care that it takes longer, it's hands off and that makes it easier for me. The whole house smells like tomato sauce.
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I just found out that my mother invited two of my nephews up to stay next week. Starting on the first day of school. There has been the whole long summer to do this and she invites them up the first week of school? And the first week of homeschool for DS? Sometimes I don't think she thinks things through. My nephews are supposed to be homeschooled, but my sister is...lazy about it. Oh, they do get educated, but not on any kind of a schedule. This is just going to make things ten times harder for us. Oh, well, it's not like I can do anything about it. This is part and parcel of living in someone else's home.
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I hope our house sells fast and we come out of it with a good down payment. I really want to not be subject to Mom's whims. I feel like the dang thing is never going to get on the market, though. They were supposed to paint the outside of the house last weekend and the inside this. For whatever reason it didn't happen and now they are planning to paint it this weekend. The weather is supposed to be good for it, but I'm not sure about how much longer.
And for some reason or other they seem to want to paint the outside first. Even if it rains. This is not a good plan in my mind. *sighs* Since they are fitting us in around other people there is not much I can do about that either.
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We have close to $800 worth of eyeglasses to pay off in the next 3 months (same as cash, fortunately). If it isn't one thing it's another. Our vision insurance only covers glasses every 2 years instead of the industry standard of every year for lenses and every 18 months for frames. They do cover one eye doctor visit per year though.
Unfortunately both kids' prescriptions have changed so much that there was no way of putting it off for another year. Fortunately DH and I are not having any problems with ours and can wait another year. Personally I think insurance companies should take into account changes in the prescription and if there is a valid change, then pay for it or some of it, regardless of how long it has been. Just wanting different frames sooner is not valid, but the eyes changing enough to make a major difference is medical and should be covered no matter what.
Next payday I will finally finish paying the dentist for DH's crowns. Yesterday I made another $500 payment to DS's doctor. That leaves us owing them two more payments, or a total of $1000 left. Ugh. But no interest. I think I'm putting half of next year's tax return straight into the HSA next March.
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I borrowed $300 from the freezer fund which will be replaced over the course of next month (I hope). I needed to buy school clothes and supplies before school actually started and with all the extra medical I've had to pay from DS's head injury this summer, I couldn't budget enough for it. It was either that or take it out of the emergency fund, which I couldn't justify. That is okay, though.
Fortunately DS didn't need much because he's homeschooling, but he did need fall appropriate clothing as he has grown way, way too much since last fall to fit into anything he had. And DD had to have non-marking sole shoes for PE separate from her regular shoes. She has PE all year though and at least her feet have stopped growing. She should be fine except for snow boots (which can wait a few months) and she can always use mine if she has to. DS will need them if we have a bad winter, though. And DH said something about needing new work boots soon. It never ends.
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We got 3 duck eggs today. We were pretty sure we had 2 males and 2 females, but now it's looking like 3 females, with Patches being the one male. Because ducks don't lay more than one egg a day.
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August 24th, 2012 at 09:18 pm
Ceejay74 posted a link to an article on kids' allowances today found here: Text is http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/survey-kids-65-month-allowance-too-high-just-165600768.html and Link is http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/survey-kids-65-month-allow... and after reading it, I have to say, it annoyed me that it drew some of the conclusions it did. It was assuming that children get their allowances on top of their parents buying everything else for them as well. Umm...in what universe? "Some experts say." What experts? They don't even say who says it. Hand-wavy journalism, I see you.
In the real world, the one I live in, parents don't buy their children everything else they want because parents live on a budget. In fact most parents won't even let children by everything they want with their own money. As in my family, children are expected to save up their money to get what they want and what they want still must be on the parental approval list.
They are assuming children do chores for about one hour a week to earn their allowances, though "some" parents require up to six.
I laughed at this. One hour of chores for $15 a week? No, I don't think so. Now, my daughter does earn $15 a week in allowance, a recent raise from $12, but she is 16. My son, who is 12, earns $10 a week. For their money they:
Take out the garbage (including to and from the curb on garbage day) (DD)
Take out the compost (DS)
Take out the recycling (including to and from the curb on recycling days)
Set the table (Both)
Clear the table (and wash it) (Both)
Load and unload the dishwasher (Both)
Scrub pots and pans (DD)
Clean off the surface of the stove when it gets messy (DD)
Clean out the refrigerator and scrub it or at least help (DD)
Clean the tub and shower stall (DS)
Clean the toilet (DS)
Clean the sink (DD)
Water the garden (DS)
Help with weeding (Both)
Sweep and vacuum floors (DD)
Keep rooms neat (Both)
Fold towels (DD)
Help with washing and drying clothes (Both)
Help harvest food from the garden (Both)
Help with canning (both)
Cooking meals at least once a week (DD)
Helping with meals a few times a week (Both)
Help with making bread or rolls (DS)
Makes all cakes, cookies, or other goodies (DD)
Cleans out the inside of the van (Both, their portions)
Helps with washing the van (Both)
In addition they both do chores for their grandmother (DS does yard work, mostly mowing and DD does housework) for an additional $5 a week. And DS collects aluminum cans from neighbors and in the park to earn additional money.
I seldom buy my children things other than nice clothing and a book or two. We do buy them events or experiences, like a trip to the zoo or the King Tut exhibit. On vacation they get a souvenir or two, but it's usually a t-shirt or sweatshirt or something practical like a book mark or necklace.
But for stuff? They've saved up for almost every big purchase they've wanted. If it's near their birthdays or Christmas I might go in halfsies with them as long as it doesn't go over their allotted amount.
I don't give my children music CD's or let them download whatever they want on my dime. They can pay for those themsevles and I have approval of artist. I might download a book if the whole family will read it. I don't pay for them to go to the movies unless it is a family thing. We go to the movies maybe once a year. We went to The Hunger Games together. It was a family outing. They don't go to see movies with their friends, but that has to do with approving content. If I approved content and they wanted to go then they'd certainly use their own allowances to pay for it.
Is it really that common for parents to buy them all this stuff above and beyond allowances? It wasn't when I was growing up and we were firmly in the working middle class. And I don't know any parents that do it now. Most of the parents I know can't even afford to give their kids allowances at all despite being firmly in the working middle class. They must not be getting their info from the middle or lower classes.
I don't think I'd have a different opinion if we weren't working so hard to get out of medical debt and had a ton of disposable income. I just don't see the point in giving children everything they want. I don't get everything I want even when we do have the money for it. I do see the point in having them earn it and save up for it. Maybe this is because I worked all through my childhood, every summer picking berries, and then when I was old enough, baby-sitting, and then regular jobs.
I do agree with the article that parents should talk to their kids about saving and about money. Do people really not do this in this day and age? I mean, I hear my kids' friends saying things like, we'll have to go to the park because we can't afford bowling or the movies. Or things like "My mom is broke this week because we bought school clothes, let's just go up to the lake." So it's clear they understand there is no money at the moment. And I hear them talking about saving up for stuff, too. I don't know.
Sometimes I think it's me with the disconnect, but most of the time I think it is the writer's of these articles using outdated information from when the economy was booming. But even then, I still didn't give my kids what they wanted. In fact back then they didn't even get allowances at all.
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August 12th, 2012 at 03:55 am
Out of yesterday's payday and about $300 from short term bill savings, I paid the following bills:
__32.88 Electric
__10.59 Medical
_400.00 Mortgage for the old house
_301.30 to Chase (no interest for 18 months)
__90.00 Medical
_300.00 To Mom for her utilities
_757.82 Car payment (plus extra to principal)
_685.86 to BoA credit card (will pay more next week)
_176.09 Paid off computer (18 months same as cash)
__70.56 Internet
__44.87 Phone for old house (for security system)
_144.00 Water/sewer for old house
__49.91 yearly propane tank rental
_125.00 Cash for groceries
__25.00 Kid's allowances
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$3605.18
I just raised the kids' allowances from $7 and $12 respectively to $10 and $15 per week. They have really stepped up and started doing a lot more of the daily chores and helping with the gardening. I've told them that if they slack off though it's going back down.
I have $42 left of my grocery money for the week. Aside from milk I should not need to buy anything else this coming week. I thought I needed to buy chicken legs or thighs, but I did some digging around in the freezer and found 3 pounds which I cooked up for the next few days lunches. There may be more in the freezer. I do have two whole chickens and some boneless, skinless thighs.
It will be a short grocery week as we are going down to Tacoma on Wednesday, spending the night, going to the Point Defiance Zoo on Thursday, spending that night, and then coming home on Friday after morning rush hour. That wipes out our vacation savings, but we have nothing else planned for the summer.
Our hotel room has a microwave and a fridge and there is a Top Foods (like Haggen) nearby. We will bring a cooler with some food from home and our little egg cooker (which does boiled eggs or poached and our microwave bacon cooker, so we can have bacon and eggs for breakfast that we bring. I am going to roast a chicken on Tuesday and pick all the meat off the bones and we will bring that in the cooler. I will also bring along coleslaw and salad and a bottle of dressing and maybe a couple cans of green beans. And peanut butter, jelly, butter, and bread. We will probably eat out two meals (one at the zoo), but that is in the vacation budget.
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August 9th, 2012 at 12:00 am
So from the last paycheck these are the bills paid:
$500.00 AMEX
__45.63 House Insurance
__84.72 Car Insurance
__39.53 Life Insurance DH
__32.70 Life Insuance Me
_153.00 Storage
__41.16 Security System
_267.40 Dental
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1163.14
+180.00 Medical (out of medical savings, not paycheck)
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1343.14 Total money out
I also $4.37 to the coin jar.
The house insurance has gone up from $41.25 to $45.63 a month. That's a difference of $4.38 a month. DH's life insurance also went up from $37.80 to 39.53. His birthday is this month and it bumps up a bit every six months since it's term insurance which gets a bit more expensive the older you get. That's a difference of $1.73 a month. Storage went down $2.
When we go to talk to the insurance agent about landlord's insurance later this month I need to ask him about the surcharge showing up on our stuff. We weren't supposed to be charged $5 a month for doing monthly payments if they took it directly out of our bank account, but now we are. So if they are going to do that the same as if they were billing in the mail each month, we will switch back to paying in a lump sum. We won't be able to do that until January, because we'll have to save up, but I don't like that being changed on us after 5 years. If they remove it (and they'd do it retroactively, too) then we'll leave it on auto-pay.
I've got the August budget set up and ready to go for Friday's payday, so it'll just be a question of sitting down and writing out the checks or making the online payments.
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August 2nd, 2012 at 08:19 pm
So here's what's coming out of last Friday's paycheck. Today is the no paycheck Friday so last week's paycheck, which is the little one with only 2 days on it, plus whatever I saved from the week before has to stretch over 2 weeks.
$500.00 to AMEX
_376.84 to mortgage
_155.00 to storage (working on getting this down)
__37.61 Life Insurance DH
__32.70 Life Insurance Me
__41.25 House Insurance
__84.42 Car Insurance
__41.16 Security System
__31.00 Power
_100.00 half year HoA dues
_100.00 property tax savings
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$1499.98
I also have $75 in cash for groceries for the next week. We shouldn't need to buy more than milk and a few canning lids this week. Though I am very tempted to get another 3 pounds of apricots to put up.
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Yesterday I paid a 50 cent fine at the library. It was for a book I couldn't check out again as it had a hold on it and I wanted to finish it. It was also a new book so they only give you 2 weeks instead of 3 weeks. Since it was the last one in the stack I got to, that's how it turned out.
I came home with a new stack of libarary books yesterday and promptly put them in the order of books to get through first so that wouldn't happen again. I'm starting with Still Life with Chickens and Second Helpings. I can't read just one book at a time, usually.
I love the library. So many books to read for free, at least unless you get a fine for overdue. And that's entirely on the borrower and can be totally avoided.
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The weather has broken, it's a nice 60 degrees today, so I am going to process jam this afternoon if I am not too tired right after I go out and pick some more blueberries.
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July 27th, 2012 at 05:58 am
I emptied my purse and DH's wallet of ones and change today and added $17.59 to the coin jar.
I updated my July budget spreadsheet and created my August spreadsheet. I entered in all of the medical spending for the month so far into the HSA tracking spreadsheet. Ouch.
I have a deposit of $48 ready to go into the Freezer Fund tomorrow from my coin jar savings. The Freezer Fund is currently at $409.68 so that will bring it to $457.68.
I did not make jam. It was too hot, even in the morning. I will see about making it tomorrow. I bought a food mill for $70. It has three different plates and is a high rated one. I think one and a half batches of jam will cover that. I am looking forward to not having to peel apricots. And having the seeds out of the blackberries or raspberries.
My English cucumbers finally have blossoms on them and my brandywine tomatoes are starting to turn a very pale shade of yellowy/orange.
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July 13th, 2012 at 03:20 am
After having to come up with $500 unexpectedly for my son's medical treatment at the end of last month, it meant that after paying all bills we had $450 left to get through the next two weeks. Well, today is the last day of that two weeks. Tomorrow is payday. It was harder than I thought it would be, because I have gotten used to the ability to buy little things pretty much when we want them. Big things we save up for of course, but if I wanted to buy a bushel of organic apricots, normally I would have been able to just go and do that. If I wanted to go and purchase a couple extra garden stakes, I could do it. With that extra $500 missing from the budget, there was no way.
I had to really remember how we used to do things back when things were super tight, but fortunately it's not been that long ago. So we all did some belt-tightening and we've made it through. And with $49 still in the checking account, so clearly it's doable. The kids had a few cases of the "I wants" but I just kept reminding them of the medical bills. We don't believe in hiding the truth about finances from our kids. They are old enough to get it and we want them to live in the real world and not understand the truth about money, budgets and bills. This month I have budgeted for the extra medical and although it will still be a little tight, it won't be so much of a challenge as being blind-sided by it.
It has shown me though that there are places I could tighten the budget so we could pay off a little bit more or save a little bit more, so I think I am going to keep that in mind for the future.
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Tonight for dinner we had roast chicken. There was a lot left over (I got a five pound organic bird). We will be eating it for lunch for the next couple days in one form or another. I picked all the meat off the bones and I've finally got enough to make stock. So tonight before bed I am going to throw the chicken carcasses I have been saving in the freezer and all the onion skins and tops and bottoms, garlic skins, and carrot peels that I have been saving along with a whole fresh onion, some carrots that are getting to the end of their life, a bunch of celery leaves and the innermost stalks no one likes to eat, some crushed garlic, peppercorns, turmeric, marjoram, sage, sea salt, basil, thyme and parsley into the crockpot and cover it with water. I am going for some major flavor. I will let it cook on low overnight and in the morning I will have beautiful chicken stock.
Then I will strain it, pour it back into the crockpot, saute fresh carrots, onion, and celery and cook them until they are soft. I will add some of the chicken and then I will pour it all into quart jars and pressure can it. The recipe I saw recommended you put your chicken and vegetables into the jars first so that it fills them about 2/3 of the way and then add your hot broth. This way makes sure that the heat penetrates all the way to the center of the jar, very important in canning. I might do 2 pint jars of just broth, too.
We will then have homemade shelf-stable chicken soup and broth ready on the shelf. All I will have to do in the future will be to heat it, add some noodles if I want them, simmer until they are soft and there you go. Homemade, healthy, organic soup and you can bet it won't cost what it does in the store, especially when half the ingredients in the stock are things you would have thrown away or composted anyway.
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I picked three more pints of raspberries today, another quarter pint of blueberries and 10 blackberries. In a few more days I think the blueberries will be in serious business and another week and it will be the blackberries turn to explode.
And I'm pretty sure we're going to have grapes this year. I just am not sure when. Does anyone know when grapes get ripe in the Pacific Northwest? They are Concords.
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July 9th, 2012 at 05:42 pm
We've made it through all of the potatoes we dug up when starting the garden, so I will have to stop by the store to buy those and corn on the cob today and I will need more milk around Thursday, otherwise I am set for food for the week. I do need to make buns and bread tonight for future meals this week, too. Anyway, here is my meal plan for the week. Doing this every week again is really helping me stick to my food budget while still purchasing mostly organic fruits and veggies, and pasture raised, sustainable protein.
Monday--
Pork chops
Corn on the cob
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Drop biscuits with homemade strawberry jam
Tuesday--
Bacon cheese burgers
Fried potatoes
Green beans
Cherries
Wednesday--
Spaghetti
Garlic cheese meatballs
Texas toast
Cherries
Thursday--
Roast chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli/cauliflower
Cloverleaf rolls with homemade strawberry jam
Friday--
Homemade Pizza with uncured pepperoni, homemade sausage, uncured Canadian bacon, onions and red bell peppers
Coleslaw
Cherries
Saturday--
Tropical Island Chicken Stir-fry
Sunday--
Beef chuck pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Drop biscuits with homemade strawberry jam
Alternate meal in case I am too tired to do the planned meal--
Pancakes, ham, and scrambled eggs. I did this one day this past week instead of my planned meal because I was really tired. It was nice to have it as a backup plan and really easy to fix.
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June 7th, 2012 at 07:02 pm
A few months ago I upped my grocery budget to $800. I figured that switching over completely to pasture-raised, organic protein and sustainably raised organic produce was going to really hit us hard and that there was no way I could manage at $600 a month. Well, guess what? I just added up all my grocery receipts for the month. I am under the original $600 budget!
$269.44 on beef, chicken, and pork (including duck)
__40.92 on organic milk
___7.00 on organic peanut butter
__15.96 on organic cheese
__21.95 on organic pizza toppings
__80.42 on organic vegetables
__12.73 on organic flour
__42.49 on organic fruit
__20.00 on organic, pasture-raised duck/chicken eggs
+_37.00 on organic butter (bought in bulk)
------------
$595.83
Okay, it's only $4.17 under, but I was struggling to hit that before switching. I think it helps that I am no longer buying any bread products, but making all of our bread. It also helps that the meat we are getting is much more filling so we are eating less of it. Actually that's true for the fruits and vegetables as well and the homemade bread, so everything lasts longer.
Another thing that helps is the meal planning, of course. Even if I don't stick to it every day, I have a list of pinch hitter meals. What are pinch hitter meals? Something I can get on the table fast when the other meal plan falls through.
Things that fall into the pinch hitter category:
Angel hair pasta in tomato sauce, ground beef, green beans from a can, fruit.
Boneless skinless chicken thighs cooked on the George Foreman grill, leftover vegetables or quickly boiled broccoli/cauliflower (only if it's been pre-cut up on another day), canned corn, bread.
Chili or soup (previously homemade or canned), club sandwiches, fruit.
Fish and chips in the deep fat fryer (not the best for health, but once in a while is fine). I do keep a box of codfish filets (with the fewest additives I can find) and a couple bags of Alexias organic French fries or sweet potato fries in the freezer. When I have time I will make fish and chips from scratch, but this is for a time crunch day. I'll usually skip the veg on this day because it is filling.
So it definitely helps to have the meal plan, but it also helps to have a backup meal plan list as well of things that are on hand. And of course, leftover management. That is always key.
I think I will leave the $800 budget in place for now. This month could have been a fluke. But any extra money will go first into the freezer fund and then into the beef fund. Well, first to the $300 deposit we need to put down to claim a half a beef for later slaughter, and then to the freezer fund.
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June 1st, 2012 at 04:00 am
Today I sat down with the last four books of checks and entered everything into my spreadsheets. I have been remarkably lax at doing this lately. Though I balance in the checkbooks themselves, I like to have a copy on the computer, too. I finished updating the information on the April Budget Spreadsheet and entered in everything on the May Budget Spreadsheet, then I set up the June Budget Spreadsheet. I still need to transfer everything medical off the budget spreadsheets to the HSA spreadsheet, but that should be relatively simple since it's now detailed on each month's spreadsheet. I really need to stay on top of that better.
I sent some money to ING, including things that are either paid for bimonthly or half yearly:
$100.00 to the Emergency Fund
_100.00 to the Vacation Fund
__72.00 to the Holding tank for Water/Sewer
_100.00 to the Holding tank for Property Tax
+_17.00 to the Holding Tank for HoA Dues
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$389.00 total to ING
This is all out of last Friday's paycheck. Then I wrote down all of the bills that are due between now and the 15th, which will be our next payday after the one tomorrow. The one tomorrow is the small two day paycheck. How small it is depends on whether or not they take out June's medical. Usually they take that month's medical out of the first check earned that much, but for some reason, every once in a while they take it out of the first one paid of the month. So it could be anywhere from $800 to $1325.
I have $1200 left from last payday and the bills due between now and the 15th total $1006. I'll keep back about $300 for groceries and miscellaneous expenses. Whatever else it left over goes to the BoA VISA. It will at least be $500, but I am hoping this is the amount without medical, because then I could send a lot more to the VISA.
I know I said I would never do business with Chase again, but they keep sending DH these really good offers. This last one is a no-fee balance transfer and a 0% interest rate until August of 2013. It sure would be nice to get the interest off the BoA card and just be using it for the autopays and DH's travel expenses that we pay off every month. We would only use the Chase card for the balance transfer and then pay it off fast with no interest incurred.
When I thought we'd have it paid off by the end of this month and we would have had to pay a transfer fee, it wasn't going to be that big a deal, but now that we will likely have the balance until the end of the summer, it's worth it for three months without interest. And then we can cancel the card when it's paid off. I guess I'm okay with using Chase so long as they are not using me. And I can deal with their crappy customer service (or hopefully never have to) if it means no interest.
We had a cleaning service out to the house today. They will need a couple more days out there, but that will have to wait until the next time DH is home. I don't want to be making that drive twice in one day to unlock the house and turn off the alarm and then go back and reset it in the evening. But we will get it scheduled for the Thursday after DH gets back. Then we will need to get the carpet shampooed.
After that I'm not sure. We might be ready to sell it As is/Where is, as in "you take it as it comes and you fix anything that is wrong with it because we are done." Doesn't matter what they find on the inspection, doesn't matter if it needs to be painted or a new gutter put on or whatever. As is/where is, and it will be priced accordingly. I just want it gone, enough to pay off the mortgage, which will be just under $17K when I make the payment tomorrow, and have some money to go to a good downpayment.
We bought it for $65,000 in 1998 and it's assessed at around $110,000 and I'd honestly be happy at this point to get what we paid for it. Sure I'd like more, but you get what you get in this market. Once it's sold, it will free up each month:
$375.86 mortgage
__72.00 water/sewer
__41.25 house insurance
__20.00 power
_100.00 propane
+_44.89 phone for the security system
-----------
$654.00
and then when we move out of Mom's and into our own place we will have:
$154.00 from storage
$300.00 for the utilities we pay for here
--------
$454.00
$654.00
+454.00
---------
$1108.00
So $1108 freed up just by getting rid of that house and moving out of this one. I think that's worth a loss if we have to take one. And once the credit card is paid off there will be another $2000 a month free and clear. So $3108 will be available for house payments and running a household. And since we are looking at 1500 to 1600 square foot houses in the $219,000 to $250,000 range our house payment should only be around $1200 a month. More than enough to run a house and put some money in the EF. I really can't wait for that day to come. I am sick of throwing money away.
Oh, and our debt to income ratio is now under 45% so we will qualify for the really good mortgage loans when the time comes. Actually once that mortgage is gone and the credit card is gone we will be around 25% and that will put us in great standing.
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April 21st, 2012 at 05:41 am
Today was payday, so I made a payment to the BoA VISA of $1800. It didn't drop the balance much since all of the autopays went through since the last payment, the interest charges hit, and DH bought his next round trip plane ticket. New balance on the account is $6574.60. But we will make another payment next week of $500 (maybe more, I'm hoping to squeeze an extra $200 out of the budget) and all of that will go to make a good drop.
I know I said I was going to use most of the emergency fund to drop the balance, but I haven't brought myself to do it yet. I feel very unsure about it. Maybe I would feel better if I just dropped it to $2000 in the EF instead of $1000. Part of me just gets really insecure when that EF goes down. Which means not getting the BoA paid off until June, but if I worry less, that's a good thing. I know it's stupid to keep paying the interest, but it's a psychological thing. Security is very important to me.
I also spent $5.49 on a gallon of Organic Valley milk. It was on sale for 50 cents off, so that made me happy.
I also set aside $1000 for either cleaning/repairs at the old house, or to give to Mom, since she has been vacillating on weather or not she wants our monthly payment to be on hold or to use it to get the house more ready to put on the market. I think she's worried that the remodel on the bathroom is going to overrun her ability to pay it. She is going to have to make up her mind soon, though, because if it goes to repairs, cleaning, etc., we want to be able to use it when DH comes home next week.
We will be spending an additional $225 on the alarm system (we paid half in deposit at the estimate and will pay the other half next Thursday when all the work is done. I am going to have DH take the really good vacuum out that day and vacuum all the floors at the very least so they'll be ready to be shampooed.
Oh, I paid out 3 weeks worth of allowances to both kids (I was behind, so that was $36.00 and $21.00 respectively). My kids have higher allowances than some here might expect because they do a lot of work with the chickens and ducks as well as household chores. They probably put in five hours a week on poultry care alone.
I also took out DH's monthly allowance and mine, which is $100 each. This is our walking around money and our frittering away money and our don't feel guilty about spending it money and our we don't have to check with each other before spending it money, although DH usually does out of habit, since we've only been drawing an allowance the last little while and we've always discussed any expense over $50. This is the first that we've really been able to not keep such a tight lid on our money and it seems to be a sufficient amount so far.
Okay, I think that covers everything I've done so far. I might have a bit more out of this paycheck, but I need to set up the May budget before I know for sure. I'll do that tomorrow.
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April 20th, 2012 at 05:32 pm
So I thought about it a lot and I'm wondering if I can't actually save money by going to the grocery store more often. I know that seems counterintuitive to everything we're ever taught about saving money on food, but hear me out.
The grocery store is pretty much on the way to/or the way back from everywhere I go and is a six block walk away otherwise. Often times if I am buying for a week or two weeks, I simply buy too much food at a time and it some of it does go to waste, mostly because it gets shoved to the back of the fridge and we lose track of it.
My thinking is that if we keep a sparser fridge we will know what is in there and easily be able to see all of the ingredients for meals. And if I buy my fresh fruits and veggies as I need them I won't overbuy. It will also mean they are fresher as they are consumed instead of maybe ending up a bit past optimum consumption time. Or so far past they have to be tossed.
If I go to the store with a list and stick to those items, it should go well. It will mean I can't let myself be distracted by good buys, though. Not that I won't still pay attention to the flyers and plan accordingly, but I do need to finish eating down what is in my freezer stash, so it doesn't matter if there is a good deal on potroast if I have 8 hams and more chicken parts than I can count. I think I will give myself permission to buy hamburger in the way of meat, but until the rest of the freezer is eaten down, no more meat on sale.
I noticed that I have several packages of stew meat in the freezer, so I am going to buy some chiles and make up some chili this weekend. So I can leave a little early to pick up DD from school, stop by the store, by only what we need, and get out. I think this sort of thing will only work if I go to the store by myself. Taking the kids, even taking DH, often leads to extras. DH might go for yogurt but he often comes back with cookies. I'm not against cookies, but we can make them perfectly fine at home with the ingredients on hand. And if I take DD right after school she is usually starved and she will often ask for a package of sushi from the deli, which I can't make myself, but is $5 a container. DS always wants a donut and it has hard to always say no. Easier to go without them.
Anyway, I'll try it for a while and see if it doesn't make a difference. Tonight we are having homemade cheeseburgers and fried potatoes with broccoli/cauliflower and strawberries for dinner. Tomorrow will be homemade chili, freshly made rolls, leftover broccoli/cauliflower and bananas.
On Sunday I am going to roast a whole chicken (rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with basil, oregano, sea salt and freshly ground pepper) that I have in the freezer and we will have coleslaw and fruit smoothies made with the last of the strawberries and bananas and some frozen blueberries from our backyard. And then I will make enchiladas from the leftovers on Monday and figure out the veg and fruit based on what is left or if I need to buy some more. I have tortillas and the makings for enchilada sauce on hand already (except I need to buy more cocoa, but I need to do that anyway).
So my grocery list for today at the store is chiles, onions, cocoa powder, orange juice and milk. On Sunday I will go to TJ's for preservative free deli meat for school lunches. If I keep to those lists my costs for the week should be way down.
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March 23rd, 2012 at 09:32 pm
I have finished updating all of my spreadsheets now, and so all of March has been entered. Even though today and next Friday both take place in March, all of it will go towards April bills since I have finished paying everything for March 2 weeks ago.
I was setting up the April budget and I realized that with two paychecks from March going to April and there being 3 paychecks in April, I'm actually dealing with an extra paycheck for all of April's bills. I think this happens twice a year, but I wasn't expecting it to be so soon.
Anyway, the great news there is that the extra paycheck is enough to pay off the BoA Master Card in total. We might have to do it in two payments, depending on the due date of the BoA VISA, but if the VISA isn't due until April 20th, we will be able to pay off the MC next payday. I just won't know until they put up the new statement online for the VISA. It's been running the 21st of most months, but I can't just take the shot until I see the statement. It should be up in a day or two as the MC statement just went up and it's got a due date of the 17nth.
If the due date is the 21st, then that means I won't have to take a VISA payment out of the paycheck cycle at all. Which means on the 20th I could make a payment out of the 20th's paycheck, and take the $1500 that doesn't have to come out of this cycle and put it on there, too. That whole $1500 will go to principal, as opposed to the usual payment which covers interest, airfare for DH to work, hotel for DH, miscllaneous travel expenses, food expenses while travelling to and from work, the cell phone, the health club, and eventually the tae kwon do payment when that gets transferred. Which comes to about $1125 for interest and new charges. So only about $375 goes to principal on that payment. When I no longer have to make the MC payment of $800 a month, that means that I'll be putting almost $2000 on that card and almost half of it will count to bring down the debt.
I am thinking when the BoA VISA is beneath $5000 having DH apply for a card with no interest for a year and then we can get it paid off even faster. Actually we still have a Citi card. It might have a deal going on. I'll have to have him look it up and see.
Being free of credit card debt is so close now. I just want to be done!
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March 19th, 2012 at 05:13 pm
Again, not too much going on right now. I added $10.16 to the coin jar today. I had given DD a $20 as she went to an all day thing yesterday and I knew she would need to eat twice. She brought back the change so it went into the coin jar.
I paid $100 on DH's 3 months same as cash for his glasses. That leaves $100 left on that to pay next month. I set it up online so that I can send it directly.
I paid a medical bill of $105.62.
I will be entering my info into all the spreadsheets I got behind on when my laptop died today. EF tracking, HSA tracking, Holding Tank Tracking, finishing entering the last week of Feb's expenses, create the March budget spreadsheet of the budget template and entering in everything that has been paid so far, which is everything. Also create an April budget from the template. I hate being so far behing, but I did not want to work with Open Office's Exel-alike program. They can say it's compatible all they want to, but things get lost.
Spent some time looking at "dream" houses this weekend. Calculated that they would also involve hiring a groundskeeper and a maid. And a person to clean the docks and the boat. Decided those particular dream houses can stay just that. LOL Though I really would like my own moorage and swimming area on the lake one day. *sighs* Or a condo there. The condos seem affordable for us when we no longer have kids at home. It'd be the HOA fees that would probably be the kicker.
I just don't want to buy a big house anymore. I mean, I want room, but DD goes to college in two and a half more years. DS goes in six and a half. And having a big house with lots of bedrooms encourages children to move back home after college. And I really don't want that. I want my kids to stand on their own two feet. And I really don't want to have a bunch of guest rooms that encourage people to drop in on us for weeks at a time, or some such after the kids are grown.
It seems silly to have a big house for ten years and then sell again and get a condo on the lake. But I know we can't stay here that long. Well, we can, but we'd go insane well before the sell-by date if we do.
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March 9th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
It is really nice to know that no more bills are due until April 1st. I have paid everything. It is such a good feeling to know that there is nothing to stress about until then. I had one medical bill come in today for $105.62 and I was able to sit down and write it out on the spot. It feels good to do that. The budget is sure running smoothly right now.
We are having a small, very small, birthday party for my son tomorrow. He turns 12 on the 13th, but his father leaves for work on Monday so we are doing it early. We are taking him and his best/sort of girl friend bowling. My daughter will be taking one friend as well. It is very low key, although it's during cosmic bowling so it'll be glow in the dark. Best/sort of girl friend's mother will be there, too. (I say sort of girl friend because at 12, they are too young to do anything like date, but they are sure sweet on each other to my discerning eye).
We won't be bringing in a cake because DS's friend is allergic to dairy/gluten and he is allergic to a couple of the ingredients in the gluten free/dairy free cake mixes and I am not a "good enough" mother to try to attempt an allergen free enough cake that will meet both their requirements, though I did find one online. Maybe next year. He'll have a homemade cake on his birthday and that will be that. They seem okay with it. They just want to hang out and bowl. I think it will be fun all around.
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March 2nd, 2012 at 02:37 pm
So I was pretty much off the internet yesterday (see previous entry) and didn't get to put in my pantry quest info. We had frozen hamburger and buns and cheese on hand, so last night we made cheeseburgers for dinner. I add about 4 tbsp of tomato sauce to my burger meat. It keeps the meat a bit moister while cooking. We had 1.09 pounds of meat and made five burgers with it (Mom ate with us). Each patty is sprinkled with onion salt and Lawry's seasoning. Delicious.
I also made up some simple cole slaw. Cabbage keeps for a long time until you cut into it and I have several in the fridge, so when I need a quick go to veg for dinner I make cole slaw.
DS added some dried mango slices, but no one else was really in the mood for fruit or had filled up too much on the cole slaw.
My favorite store has started one of its stupid game promotions. Now is a good time to be spending less time in the grocery store, that's for sure.
I will be paying my medical bill in full today as well as sending a payment ot AMEX and the mortgage and maybe one or two smaller bills as well. I wish I'd done this before my laptop screen busted. Now I will have to transport the Excel file into Open Office and set up the March Budget template in it and then transer it all back when I get my laptop back. If I hadn't procrastinated and done it earlier in the week that wouldn't be an issue now.
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February 24th, 2012 at 06:20 pm
Why is it just when you finally get one kid well enough to be back in school for a day or two, the next kid in line thinks it's time for them to be sick, too? All I really want is one day to myself right now. One day. Really. Is that so much to ask. One day where maybe I can sleep and get well and not be running around with a low grade case of the yucks? Or even, you know, one night of uninterupted sleep?
I am very glad payday is here. Not for any specific reason other than that it means another step forward on my march towards financial freedom. I have the propane bill to pay, but most of the money for that has been set aside already. The water bill for the old house is due I wish they would switch to metered already, they said they would five years ago when they installed the fancy new meters we had to pay extra for and we are still on a straight rate out there. Since no one is out there more than once a month or so the water almost never gets used. I'll turn it off as soon as we're done cleaning out there.
All of the autopays will come out the first few days of the month, the insurances, storage, and security system. I'll pay the AMEX and the mortgage. And I'll see what I can squeeze out for medical.
I need to do a minor grocery run for things like milk, brown sugar, yeast, potatoes and some fruit (still have most of a case of oranges from the last trip to Costco). Also a quick run to Trader Joe's for dried mango slices, additive free bacon, and additive free all beef hot dogs. I am well stocked on fresh veggies (red and green cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, peppers, broccoli, onions, scallions, celery). My freezer is doing great on protein. I am well stocked on chicken. I am well stocked on hamburger. I have one beef pot roast and some stew meat (for either stir-fries or chili). I have a couple of game hens.
I would like to get some codfish since they are having a major seafood sale for whatever that thing is that the Catholics do right now where they give stuff up (a lot of times beef, apparently) for a month. I was hoping for a good beef sale, but that's not in the cards right now. Maybe there will be a marked down for quick sale steak or two, but otherwise my grocery dollars are going to be as stingy as I can make them the next four weeks.
I think I will make baked potato soup today. I have all the ingredients and it is such a feel good food for such a nasty, rainy day with under the weather children. Either that or my all meat chili. Another feel good food for a day like today. If I make the potato soup today I will at least char the peppers as well for the chili.
I started my quest to eat mostly from the freezer/pantry right now last night. I made two Cornish game hens. We cut them in half and everyone ate half of one. We also had canned corn and canned green beans to round it out and an orange.
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February 23rd, 2012 at 02:42 am
I finally got billed for physical therapy from 1/1 to 2/16. It's a whopping $1689.32. I think I have 2 more sessions that have not been billed. I at least have today's which was my last one. The aquatherapy was a lot more expensive than the regular kind. I only did five of those this year. The ones I did last year were covered 100% since I'd hit my out of pocket cap for the year. Still, they cost $200 more per session than one on land. I really don't see why as you are using less equipment and not using the expensive machines.
Oh, well. All of it has done so much for me. I still have pain issues with standing for more than a few minutes at a time, but not with walking. And the standing will come in time if I continue to strengthen my back.
I have $1000 saved in my medical fund so I just need to come up with the $689.32. I will see what kind of payment plan the hospital offers. In the past for bills up to $1000 they have offered 90 days at low interest (3% or something) and then a higher interest rate (18%) after that. We can pay off the $689.32 in 3 months time. If not, I guess I'll take it out of the emergency fund. I don't want to, but if I do, it'll be my priority to replace it. I'd rather do that than take it out of the tax return or put it on a credit card (obviously).
The nice thing about having an emergency fund is having choices. With this bill I'm getting pretty close to the $2500 deductible. Things will get easier after that and I will also be able to start saving up for next year's deductible. I budget $500 a month for medical. Not all of it is processed through insurance (like the chiropractor, which we can claim on the HSA, but not on the insurance because we go with a family chiropractic plan that allows us weekly visits for each of us and not the one visit per month the insurance allows for). Once we are through with the deductible we'll be able to save $100 to $200 of that $500. The rest pretty much gets spent monthly.
Hmm. I did go to Costco and get the cash back for my Costco AMEX this morning. I was just going to put all of that in my emergency fund, but if I take that $177 then I will only need to come up with $512.22. That I can do in 2 months. Maybe I won't need to dip into the EF at all, just stop contributing the $100 each month I normally put in for 2 months. That leaves $312.22 and I can scrape that up. Just cut out our rare few meals out and cook more out of the freezer and pantry and less from the grocery budget for a couple of months. I think I can do it.
One of the great things about blogging is that sometimes I will see something like this bill that at first seems really hard and maybe a bit insurmountable, but if I reason myself through it, I realize it's doable after all.
Posted in
Medical Issues and Spending,
Is Budget a Four Letter Word?
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3 Comments »
February 16th, 2012 at 04:32 am
I have been procrastinating something fierce this last week, but finally sat down tonight and did the bills. I should have done them on Friday. It's not like anything was due before the 17nth and those are all bills I can walk in or drive-thru for. But I'm not usually this far behind. I feel like a ditz.
Okay, some of it has been severe stomach upset since Sunday night, but that doesn't account for not doing it on Friday or Saturday. I think it's time I go see a gastroenterologist because this has been happening too often to be just a virus or food poisoning. Maybe it's an ulcer or something else along those lines. I did have one when I was 20, I just don't remember throwing up all the time, just tons heartburn. This time I've got both and it's been pretty steady since the beginning of December. Maybe I can get something stronger than OTC fake Zantac. I'm really tired of barfing. And no, I'm not pregnant.
I hope this isn't going to be another expensive medical year. I'm so tired of medical. I had to get a prescription today and it's gone up $12 from last month. $106.05. Hopefully this will be the last month I need this one. I will be so glad when I hit my deductible again.
Anyway, I have balanced my checkbook and entered everything into the spreadsheet, so I shouldn't have to worry about anything financial again until the next payday on the 24th. Which is a good thing the way my brain feels.
Posted in
Paying the Bills,
Medical Issues and Spending,
Is Budget a Four Letter Word?,
When Life Happens
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3 Comments »
February 2nd, 2012 at 01:40 am
I am so tired, but last time I let this slide I didn't even end up posting it at all, so these are the bills I paid out of the most recent paycheck.
$600.00 AMEX
$375.86 Mortgage Old House
$261.00 Dental
___7.28 Doctor
$142.00 Storage
__32.70 Life Insurance Me
__37.61 Life Insurance DH
__41.25 Insurance for Old House
__83.98 Car Insurance
__39.37 Security System Old House
$104.22 Emergency Fund
$180.00 2 months of tae kwon do lessons
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1905.27
I have spent about $200 on groceries (did some stocking up on canned goods) and also did allowances to the kids. I have about $70 left until Friday.
Posted in
Paying the Bills,
Is Budget a Four Letter Word?
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0 Comments »
January 27th, 2012 at 02:39 am
Okay, so I had $2306.05 left over from the money that I saved up to cover the 4 week period with no paycheck in January. I finally decided what to do with it today.
I set $1000 aside for future medical expenses. I will use $1000 of it to go towards debt repayment. $23.05 went into the propane portion of the holding tank, and I added the final $283 to the Emergency Fund. I also added 10 cents in interest from the Safety Net account at the CU, that I forgot to add at the end of the year.
So that brings the grand total of the Emergency Fund to $3860.28. My goal for the EF was to hit $4000 by the end of March. I think I will revise that goal to hitting it by the end of February. Actually I might have to revise it more, since I will be depositing $31 to the Safety Net and $100 to the EF at ING out of the paycheck.
Oh, wait. I just did the math on that. I only need an additional $8.72 to hit $4000 then. Umm...okay, I'll deposit $108.72 tomorrow instead of $100 to ING. So that's that goal met. Okay, then. Let's see if I can hit $4250 by the end of February then.
I finished writing my February Budget Spreadsheet and updated my January one. Everything should be pretty straight-forward now, so long as I can keep my head on straight.
Posted in
,
Medical Issues and Spending,
Is Budget a Four Letter Word?,
Emergency Fund/Coin Jar
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3 Comments »
January 27th, 2012 at 01:18 am
I added $4.28 to the coin jar, which is what was left in my purse at the end of the day. I also found a $10 bill in my sock drawer, so I added that to the coin jar as well. I have $31 in bills so I will make a deposit in to the EF tomorrow. I just need to count up my coins and see if I have enough to roll anything. I'll probably have at least one roll of pennies and I think I was getting pretty close on nickels last time I counted them, so maybe those as well.
This is the first time I've added to the EF in quite some time. I should be able to send at least $100 out of tomorrow's paycheck as well.
I need to sit down and figure out how much of the leftover money I saved for the four weeks no paycheck time period should still be allocated for medical and how much should go to either debt repayment or the EF. Today's the first day I've even felt like looking at my spreadsheets so I should probably take advantage of that as who knows how I will be feeling tomorrow, especially after physical therapy.
I will make up the February Budget spreadsheet as well, and finish recording the Januray one.
Posted in
Is Budget a Four Letter Word?,
Emergency Fund/Coin Jar
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0 Comments »
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