Finding Financial Peace

LOOKING GOOD

2010-10-26T08:20:00.003-04:00

Well, things have improved dramatically over the past few months.

Hubby got a new job with a 25% raise in his base salary, and the potential to earn very significant commissions (though I'm no longer counting on commissions!).

Our Emergency Fund is back to where it should be ($30,000) and we have even started putting money aside for the kids for college.

My pendant business is going great! Two weeks ago I had my best craft show ever, and I made $2,700 on that one day! Other shows have been good too, and the last two months my income was actually higher than my hubby's!

I have to say that it feels good to have a plan, and even when we get off track, we can recognize that we are off track and have a blue print for how to get back on track. (I'm referring to Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps!)

Financial Trouble

2010-08-22T23:24:00.002-04:00

Well, things aren't going all that great. DH's new job isn't what we had hoped. He hasn't made a commission since he started 7 months ago. So, we have been living on just over 60% of what he used to make. Luckily I have been making some good money selling my pendants at craft shows, but our income is still seriously low, barely covering our monthly expesnes.

To make matters worse, we just got back from taking our family on a week long cruise. We had this cruise planned for months ago, and, in theory, we paid cash for it. That means, we paid cash when we initially paid for the cruise . . . BUT, there were lots of additional costs that I did not take into consideration.

Between everything, the bottom line is that our Emergency Fund is now down by $4,000 ($26,000 instead of $30,000). And what's worse is that it doesn't look like we'll be able to build it back up for several months - like probably not until next May! UGH!

DH is interviewing for a new job that would bring a substantial pay increase, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed - but still feeling very nervous in the meantime.

The road to Financial Peace certainly is a long one!

Baby Step 3 - CHECK!

2010-05-03T09:33:00.002-04:00

Well, it's official - we have completed Baby Step 3! 6 months of emergency funds ($30,000) saved. It feels great!!

The money is definitely tempting to my husband (who wants new windows, new patio furniture, to remodel and expand the house . . .) but there is no way I'm giving up this security! Luckily our short term savings is starting to grow now too - up to $5,000 already. So, we should be able to get him some of the things he wants soon.

I have to admit that this whole process has turned me from a spender into somewhat of a saver. I actually feel a little reluctant to even dip into the $5,000. It is so hard to prioritize what to spend the money on. I just want to be conservative and spend our funds wisely.

Now we can finally begin (much too late!) to focus on saving for college for our 3 daughters. Our oldest is already 13 and will be going to college in just 5 short years. Not a lot of time to save the hundreds of thousands that will be needed.

Isn't it crazy - just as soon as something is crossed off the list, it's time to work on the next step! It's like the finish line is always moving!

But, I have to admit, when we began this process 3 years ago - being where we are today seemed almost impossible. I am so grateful to Dave Ramsey and all my PF Blogger friends for showing me the way and encouraging me to stay on track!

I am truly blessed!

Looking Good

2010-04-13T09:51:00.002-04:00

Well, things are looking up a bit. May will be a big income month for us. My husband will get an extra paycheck (being paid every other Friday, with an extra Friday in the month); we are expecting a large tax refund of $7,500; I have several craft shows booked and am budgeting $500 (as most the money I keep in the business); we are getting a check from FEMA for $500 our flooded basement, and I have several babysitting days lined up accounting for another $200.

So, looks like we will be able to finish the Emergency Fund of $30,000 and put another $8,000 into short term savings!! I really can't believe it!

We will finally be able to start saving for college and do some much needed home repairs. The Dave Ramsey Plan really works!!! :)

BACK TO THE OLD WAYS

2010-04-07T08:07:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm embarrassed to say that I have not been paying attention to our finances lately. I have definitely sort of reverted to the old ways. We have a good amount of money in our checking account and I have just been using my debit card willy nilly. This does not feel good.

Our Emergency Fund is substantial, but not complete. I have not looked at our budget in weeks (maybe months?).

I could make excuses and say that life has been busy - and it hasbeen, but when is it not? I have spent a lot of time applying to Craft Shows and focusing on my pendant business (which is going well), but a lot of people work full time and manage to handle their finances. I need to get back on track.

I remember someone saying that Baby Step 3 (Finishing the Emergency Fund) is even harder than Baby Step 2 (Getting Out of Debt) - and when I was in BS2 I found that hard to believe, but now that I'm here in BS3 I think they might have been right.

Looking forward to re-focusing and catching up on my PF Blogger friend's blogs for some inspiration!

Can We Really Live Without A Credit Card?

2010-02-10T12:09:00.002-05:00

Well, we paid off all of our credit cards months ago. And we closed all accounts except one. Now the one we kept open is trying to charge us the annual fee.

I have no desire to ever use a credit card again, but I'm not sure I feel safe closing this last account. I know Dave Ramsey would advocate strongly to close the account. But something about having it does make me feel just a little more secure.

What do you think? Has anyone else closed all their credit card accounts?

February 2010 Budget

2010-01-27T11:12:00.003-05:00

Here is our budget for February.

My husband will actually be starting a new job on February 1st. His base salary will remain the same ($75,000) but his commission potential (on target earnings) will go up (to $150,000), so we will hope for the best but plan for the worst. In other words, to start out I will plan our budget without planning for any commission at all.

(On the other hand, he will probably be getting some extra money from his old job for vacation days he didn't take, etc. And, we are waiting to see how much his last big commission check will be - maybe as much as $10,000, which will finish our Emergency Fund with a little left over. So, we'll see how it all pans out.)

I have also budgeted low ($100) for my Jewelry Income. I am only doing one craft show in February (there aren't that many around) and I can't allocate too much of my earnings for income because I need a lot of money up front to sign up for the many craft shows throughout th year.

So, basically, I am planning our budget very conservatively.

The Misc. of $250 is for the bridesmaid dress I will be getting to be in my sister's wedding. The Kid's Misc. of $52 is for my daughter's dance lessons.

EXPENSES	Feb-10
AUTO-Excise Tax	$0
AUTO-BR Gas	$160
AUTO-Insurance	$119
AUTO-Maintenance	$0
CASH-Clothing	$0
CASH-Dining Out	$120
CASH-JR Gas	$120
CASH-Gifts	$160
CASH-Grocery	$450
CASH-Kids Allowanc	$48
CASH-Parties	$0
CASH-School Lunch	$36
CASH-Spending	$160
HOME-Cable/Phone	$160
HOME-Electric	$140
HOME-Mortgage	$2,345
HOME-Oil	$350
HOME-Water	$0
HOME-Trash	$0
HOME-Snow Plow	$40
KIDS-Bball	$0
KIDS-Misc.	$52
KIDS-Piano	$0
MISC.	$250
PERS-Cell Phone	$0
PERS-Contacts	$99
PERS-Life Ins.	$0
PERS-Newspap	$12
PERS-BR Nasacort	$0
PERS-BR Prilosc	$0
PERS-Cat Enalapril	$0
PERS-Braces	$100
PERS-BR Sports	$0
PERS-Vacation	$0
TRNSF-to EF	$0
TRNSF-to Savings	$0

TOTAL	$4,921


INCOME	Feb-10
1st Paycheck	$2,261
1st Commission	$0
15th Paycheck	$2,261
Church Pay	$0
Jewelry Pay	$100
Babysitting	$100
Other	$0
TRNSF from EF	$0
TRNSF fr SAVINGS	$0
TOTAL	$4,722

Still Working The Plan

2010-01-21T11:59:00.002-05:00

Well, I got a nice comment on an old post from a new reader. He asked me a little about my story and how we got out of debt. I told him a bit and suggested he look back through my blog by category (such as "debt", "earn money", etc.) - so I actually did this myself.

It was actually really fun and inspiring to read many of my old posts and to see how far we really have come.

We started on our journey in February 2008. We became debt free (except for the house) in April 2009. As of today, we are a little more than 2/3 of the way in saving our Fully Funded Emergency Fund of $30,000 (we have $22,500 so far).

My husband is expecting a very large commission at the end of the month, maybe close to $10,000 - so there is a chance we could finish the FFEF then! (This will only be the second commission check my husband has received in the last 6 months, and the last one was much much smaller.) So, I'm hopeful but trying not to count my chickens before they hatch.

The other problem I will be facing is - my husband.

Every week he talks about something else that we need to do around the house. He wants new windows, a new heating system, finish the basement, we'll both need new cars soon, etc. The list goes on and on.

I fear that when the big commission check comes in he'll want to spend it instead of save it.

In some ways this has been an ongoing problem. He isn't completely on board with the whole "get/stay out of debt" thing. He is happy that we are out of debt but I think he is skeptical about weather or not we'll be able to stay out of debt. (I am determined!)

Most likely, I will need to give in a little and spend a bit on some household upgrades that we do need (want) and are important to him. I'm just hoping that there will be enough money to finish the FFEF and do something he wants. :)

Simplifying Life

2010-01-10T19:20:00.003-05:00

. . . . aaaaahhh . . . . this is always one of my goals for the New Year - to simplify my life. Well, this year is no different. In fact, I think I need it more than ever!

I feel like my head has been spinning for the past several months. Trying to keep up with the schedules and activities of my three daughters, run the household and the budget, and keep my Scrabble Pendant business going - it has been busy, busy, busy.

I often feel an underlying stress pulsing through my body, when what I really crave is peace.

I don't have a set of goals outlined yet, to achieve this simplified life. But I know that I will begin by reading up on the subject.

Here are some of my thoughts in no particular order:

1. I need to improve my Calendar system. I am not prompt in recording things on the calendar and this results in things slipping through the cracks. (And causes much stress!)
2. I am not proactive enough. I leave too much for the last minute. I am overly confident about how much I can accomplish in a certain amount of time, usually resulting in frustration.
3. Frustrated and stressed is probably how my family would describe me a lot of the time - and this is NOT what I want. I want to be a source of peace for my family.
4. My Scrabble Pendant business has been a great source of pleasure and income for me, but I must put limits on the amount of time I spend on it and be sure the needs of my family are met.
5. I must plan carefully which craft shows I will attend, and more importantly, how many craft shows I will attend. Balance is essential.
6. I spend far too much time returning items, or organizing things to be returned. It is fiscally prudent to return items you don't want or need, but this is a time consuming and stressful process that needs to be weighed in terms of costs and benefits. Many returns result from things given to us by others (gifts, etc.) but many are self induced - and I must refrain from making purchases if I am unsure. I want to change my habit from "I'll buy it and return it if I decide I don't need it" to "I'll think about it and come back if I decide that I want it".
7. More attention needs to be paid to planning and reviewing the Budget!
8. Planning meals and grocery shopping regularly will help relieve Dinner Time Stress!
9. A clean (and organized) house goes a long way toward putting me in a peaceful mood. I need to make the time to clean (and organize)!
10. Less stuff means less clutter, less cleaning, less stress!

Well, that's a list that should keep me busy for most of 2010!

What are your goals for the new year?

Hello Blogging World

2010-01-08T19:13:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I really can't believe that it's been since November!

Things have been going pretty well. 2009 was a really good year for my Pendant Business. It was very enjoyable and profitable. I am looking forward to growing the business even more in 2010.

My record keeping hasn't been the best during this busy time of year, but I'll post the details when I get all my financial records in order for taxes.

I'd like to keep blogging and hope that I'll find (make) the time to do it. My finances will most likely revolve around my business, so I hope I'll have interesting things to share.

Many of you know that we became debt free in 2009. We are now working on building our Fully Funded Emergency Fund. Our goal is $30,000 and right now we are at $22,500. There is a chance my husband will be getting a very large commission soon that could boost us right up to our goal - but I'm trying not to count my chickens before they hatch.

With all the money I made selling at craft shows over the holiday season you would think that we could have contributed more to our FFEF, but my husband received very little in commission over the past 9 months - so my extra income largely just replaced the commission we had thought he would make.

I think 2010 is going to be a great year! Look forward to sharing it with you all and catching up on what you have been doing.

:)

Black Friday

2009-11-29T17:21:00.003-05:00

Well, I kept our family tradition and went shopping on Black Friday with two of my sisters. Yes, we are crazy. We left the house at 4:45am! We stood in long lines. It was pouring rain. But somehow, we find this fun. I guess because we do it together.

Anyway, we did get some good deals. I got a really good laptop computer for my daughters (to share) for $299, a printer/copier/scanner for $25, an ipod nano for $120, and lots more. I'm basically done my shopping now.

I had budgeted $1,400 for Christmas gifts. When we left in the morning I brought almost $1,000. (I was afraid to bring more after my "lost $1,000 cash incident" in Florida), and we had to stop back at the house because I ran out of money!

What does everyone usually spend on gifts? I budgeted $200 each for each of my 3 daughters, $30 each for my parents, sisters, and in laws, and $15 each for my nieces and nephews. My husband and I have opted not to exchange this year.

Anyway, we shopped from 5am to 5pm - and I am just about finished. And it does feel good knowing that I shopped with CASH!

I WAS ALMOST NORMAL . . .

2009-11-02T10:57:00.003-05:00

My it has been busy around here!

I have been super busy with a Craft Show every weekend, and it is only getting busier in the weeks to come when I often have more than 1 show a week - yikes! The shows have been going terrific and I am now averaging over $1,000 per show - yippee!

Unfortunately, we have not seen a great impact with all this extra cash. This is definitely in part because the busier I have been, the less I have paid attention to our money, and unmanaged money has a way of disappearing . . . The other reason is my husband's job. Times are tough there and he hasn't seen a commission in months. So, this extra money in a way has just replaced the commissions we are used to my husband receiving.

We even had to dip into our Emergency Fund this month because my husband mistakenly paid our mortgage payment (online) to our old mortgage company, instead of the new company that we refinanced with. This was a huge hassle and I'm hoping won't affect our credit negatively given that our new mortgage company didn't receive the payment on time. So, in the meantime I took $2,500 from our EF to pay the mortgage while we waited to get the money back from the other company. The check finally came, so I'm hoping to take a look at our budget for November and then transfer the $2,500 back to the EF. Ugh!

Anyway, the reason that "I was almost normal" has to do with my oldest daughter's 13th birthday. She has been wanting a new cell phone and I started to think "well, it is a milestone birthday" and "she does study hard and get straight A's" and "all her friends have fancy cell phones", etc. I actually went as far as making the purchase of the phone with a 2 year contract to the tune of $70 a month!!! and as I was driving home I realized how crazy I was being. (Luckily I had checked and made sure that I had 30 days to return the phone with no charges or penalties.) So, I returned the phone without ever telling my daughter about it. And we ended up getting her plane tickets to fly to Florida to visit her grandparents over winter vacation. She was thrilled and we paid cash up front and won't be adding $70 a month to our bills for the next 10 plus years!

It really is hard to NOT do what everyone else is doing! Score 1 for Financial Peace! :)

Kill Something And Drag It Home!

2009-09-29T13:15:00.003-04:00

Had another great craft show selling my pendants this past Saturday. I made $920! I'm so happy!
And I have another big show coming up this weekend. So, I'm feeling really good.

I got a call this morning from a woman in Florida that ordered a pendant and loved it and she wanted to rush order a bunch more. It felt great! It occurred to me this morning how much I really enjoy running this business.

I quit my job in 1996 when my first daughter was born so I could be a stay at home Mom. I love being a Mom and never had a desire to go back to work. I've never felt guilty about not earning an income. I know I've done a lot to contribute to the well being of my family. So, I am a little surprised by how great I feel about bringing home some extra cash.

It really does feel good to "kill something and drag it home" (as Dave Ramsey says)! :)

Emergency Funds Are Boring

2009-09-23T09:07:00.002-04:00

I think that's the bottom line with our current financial situation.

I enjoyed the post 11 Ways To Spice Up Your Emergency Fund over at Get Rich Slowly, but mostly I was just happy to see someone point out what I've been feeling for the past several month - building an emergency fund just isn't exciting.

Although Baby Step 2 was a long journey to pay off all our debts, it came with a tremendous sense of accomplishment each month. It was like Debt was the enemy and I was pumped up to fight fight fight until I won.

The fire seems to have fizzled considerably.

In one way this is surprising to me because I am a worrier. And in these bad economic times, I would think I would feel more pressure to build that emergency fund up and up and up, but progress seems slow. My husbands company isn't doing well right now and his comissions have all but dried up. This leaves very little "extra" money in the budget to put towards the emergency fund.

Now, I have been doing really well selling my pendants at local craft shows. Last weekend I made $550, the weekend before I made $220, and the weekend before I made $1,050 (my highest so far!) - so, you would think that our emergency fund would be growing, but - not so much.

I haven't been great at tracking all the reasons it hasn't, but the few that come to mind are 1.) had to repair car for $250, 2.) husband went on a weekend trip for $400, 3.) I bought new stuff for our bathrooms for $600 (yikes!), 4.) I spent too much on back to school clothes for the kids, and probably lots more that I can't think of right now.

I hate to say it, but I think I have to spend a little time thinking about the reality that we could actually NEED our emergency fund in the not too distant future. I might need a little reality check and a little FEAR to make me behave with money right now. And the reality is that sales are waaaay down at my husband's company. Last quarter (Q1) was the worst ever. This quarter (Q2) isn't looking any better. Q2 ends in November and some of the people who work under my husband will probably be let go at that time. At the end of Q3 (February), if things don't get better, teams will probably be merged and my husband's position could be in jeopardy. He has already updated his resume . . .

Given that I am a worrier with a very big security gland - I need to realize how important our emergency fund is and get it pumped up fast!

We currently have $20,000 saved (not $22,000 as I previously posted as some funds didn't ever actually make it in there), and we need to work fast to get it up to $30,000 (or more).

Wish me luck!

On The Rise

2009-09-13T08:13:00.002-04:00

Earning and spending that is. Both on the rise.

That's not good.

Why is it that the more I earn, the more I spend? Obviously I want earning to go up and spending to go down. But how to get there . . .

And more importantly, I need to get some FOCUS. I need to focus on our finances again.

I have so enjoyed running my pendant business. It has been a lot of fun and I have been earning a lot of money. Both great things. But our emergency fund has not been going up the way it should be. We have been doing some small renovations around the house, ordering take out more and more - things that shouldn't be happening until the emergency fund is complete.

I had a feeling that it might be harder to stay motivated in Baby Step 3 than Baby Step 2 - but this is ridiculous.

I'm actually thinking about taking the Financial Peace University class again just to get my focus back.

Difficult Questions

2009-08-31T15:28:00.002-04:00

I had a great craft show this past weekend. It was supposed to be both Saturday and Sunday, but Saturday was canceled because of the rain, so it was just on Sunday. And I managed to make $1,064 in sales! Yeay! I'm psyched about that.

I'm not so psyched about how much I spent on back to school clothes for the kids. I waited until the last minute and felt stressed - and just took them out and bought them what they wanted. I don't know the grand total, but it was definitely more than the $600 I budgeted.

Things have been very busy around here. I felt pressure getting ready for the craft show weekend, and the kids going back to school this week, and my parents are visiting from Florida and have been staying with me. My house is a mess - and things just basically feel out of control.

I REALLY need to de-clutter my house - especially the basement and the kid's clothes (that don't fit them anymore). I'm am struggling with the decision of whether to just give everything away or to save the stuff to try to sell it. My financial side obviously wants to sell the stuff. But I'm wondering if I will really get around to it. I basically have a craft show every Saturday between now and Christmas. I enjoy doing this and have made some good money at it - but I don't know if I'll have the time to do this and organize and sell all our junk.

The other decision I am struggling with is the kid's activities. My husband really wants all 3 of our kids to take piano lessons (and for our youngest to also take voice lessons). My middle daughter has an interest in theatre (she's been in several plays) and could possibly benefit from some voice lessons too.

My oldest enjoys playing piano and will happily take the lessons.
My middle daughter does not want piano or voice lessons at all.
My youngest daughter would like voice lessons, but not piano.

Piano lessons in my area are $23 for a half hour lesson.
A combo piano/voice lesson is $30 for a half hour lesson.

So, for 2 combo lessons and 1 piano lesson each week would be $83, or over $300 a month!

If I use the same teacher, I could possibly book a full hour and have each of the girls take 20 minutes of the lesson (not sure if this is possible, but it might be). This would cost me between $53 and $60 a week, or $240+ a month.

But I'm not even sure that $240 a month really fits into our budget. We still don't have our fully funded emergency fund (and it looks like it will take us almost to the end of 2010 to get it alll the way up to $30,000, at least on paper). And we haven't even begun saving for college - and my oldest is only 6 years away from starting college!

I dread discussing this with my husband. He is having a really bad time at work right now. Sales are down because of the economy - and pressure is high. I don't think he can really handle a realistic look at our finances right now. Even though I think we have been doing really well, he tends to look at the negatives - like how we will both need new cars soon, etc.

Yet I know he feels strongly about the girls having piano lessons.

I guess they don't have to start right at the beginning of September. I can wait a little till things settle down at his work - and then discuss it with him.

I hate to think that we can't afford this for our kids - but I bet Suze Orman would say "denied" if I called in to her "Can I Afford It" segment.

Oh - it's hard to know what to do.

Off Budget

2009-08-26T15:13:00.003-04:00

Well, I can't say that my cash envelopes for August have lasted. As of today I am officially out of cash and there is almost a week left in the month - and I need to buy stuff for the kids for back to school.

Let's just say that we have been less than gazelle intense lately.

I understand losing a little steam over time, but I wish we could get the Emergency Fund fully funded up to $30,000. Only around $22,000 right now.

I do have a ton of craft shows coming up, so hopefully I'll be able to use some of that cash to beef up the FFEF.

Just wanted to check in and let everyone know we're still here.

August 2009 Budget

2009-08-08T09:53:00.003-04:00

Aug-09
AUTO-Excise Tax $0
AUTO-BR Gas $160
AUTO-Insurance $130
AUTO-Maint $0
CASH-Clothing $600
CASH-Dining Out $180
CASH-JR Gas $120
CASH-Gifts $0
CASH-Grocery $500
CASH-Kids Allowc $62
CASH-Parties $20
CASH-Schl Lunch $0
CASH-Spending $200
HOME-Cable/Ph $160
HOME-Electric $115
HOME-Mortgage $2,345
HOME-Oil $0
HOME-Water $0
HOME-Trash $0
KIDS-Bball $0
KIDS-Misc. $0
KIDS-Piano $264
MISC. $0
PERS-Cell Ph $0
PERS-Contacts $99
PERS-Life Ins. $59
PERS-Newspap $12
PERS-BR Rx1 $0
PERS-BR Rx2 $0
PERS-Cat Rx $0
PERS-Braces $200
PERS-BR Sports $0
PERS-Vacation $0
TRNSF-To Sav $2,300
TOTAL $7,526

INCOME August
1st Paycheck $2,261
1st Commission $3,090
15th Paycheck $2,261
Church Pay $100
Jewelry Pay $50
Other $0
Trnsf fr Savings $0
TOTAL $7,762

CASH FLOW August
Beginning Balance $0
+ Income $7,762
Subtotal $7,762
- Expenses $7,526
Subtotal $236
Save Fr Nxt Mnth $236
Ending Balance $0

SAVINGS FLOW August
Beginning Balance $20,381
+ Trnsf to Savings $2,300
Subtotal $22,681
- Trnsf fr Savings $0
Subtotal $22,681
Ending Balance $22,681

New 2 Year Budget

2009-08-08T09:46:00.002-04:00

Well, we bought a new computer and were able to upload everything from the old computer from an external hard drive - but not before I redid my 2 year budget spreadsheet. I was just too impatient and couldn't wait!

Turns out it was a good exercise to redo the budget from scratch. I feel a new sense of gazelle and calm at the same time. We are in pretty good shape and are moving forward every month. I also saved it to google docs so that it won't be lost again and I can access it from anywhere. :)

Motivating A Reluctant Spouse (with cash)

2009-08-06T11:51:00.002-04:00

Over at llnoe.com there was a thread discussing motivating a reluctant spouse which is something I have been dealing with during our financial journey.

I started thinking about some of the things that we have purchased over the past couple of years, all for cash, and it made me feel kinda good. Some of these items were necessities and many were not. But the ones that were not were in a way, just to keep my DH on board with the plan.

Many of these things (or probably all) would have been purchased on credit in the past.

So, here's my list:

$500 - new laptop (old one broke)
$300 - video recorder (capture our children for memories)
$3,000 - Disney World vacation
$1,000 - new bedroom mattress
$500 - tear down overgrown shrubs and trees in yard
$400 - repair van air conditioner
$400 - replace rusted hood on van
$200 - gps for car
$1,000 - new dishwasher (old one broke)
$500 - hot water heater (old one broke)
$250 - mulch for yard

I'm Lost . . .

2009-08-04T18:59:00.002-04:00

. . . without my budget!

I had my 2 year budget spreadsheet on my computer - and my computer died two weeks ago. Ugh!

I have been lucky and have been able to use my husband's old work laptop (which we will probably have to give back, but until then I will use this), but I don't have a copy of my yearly budget. I don't even know what my August budget plan was. And here it is - August 4th. I know I should just get out a piece of paper and make a plan - but I don't want to. I like to see how this month will affect the whole year.

My only hope is that we did back up some files a while ago and hopefully my husband can help me look for my budget document.

Anyway, I know I'm whining . . . I'm just frustrated.

Not too much else to report. My Scrabble pendant website has been very slow. Haven't had a sale is about 2 weeks, but I guess that's not uncommon for on line sales in the summer. I should be making lots of stock for the 15 upcoming Craft Shows that I am doing.

Hubby's home - I'll post more later . . .

June Earnings Update

2009-08-01T07:13:00.004-04:00

Finally added up all my revenue for June 2009. I made $1,986 in extra income! Wow! I'm so psyched about that.

Updated my sidebar too.

Now if I can just get it up that high every month . . . :)

Keeping Up with My Sisters

2009-08-01T06:52:00.002-04:00

Ugh! I just did a long post that didn't save or publish properly. . .

Anyway, July wasn't a great financial month for my family. My computer died. We haven't gotten a new one yet but probably will soon.

I definitely did not budget appropriately for the summer months. We went away for almost every weekend in July, and although we stayed for free with friends or family each time, we did spend a lot on groceries we brought as well as for outings and restaurants while we were there.

I also spent a lot of time with my well dressed sisters with fabulously decorated homes. Hence, I spent some unbudgeted money on home improvements (re-did family bathroom decor) and clothes for me.

In the final analysis, I had planned to put transfer an additional $2,000 into savings in the middle of the month. That didn't happen and by the end of the month there was only around $600 left in the checking account. Not good.

I sure hope (and PLAN) to make August a better month for us financially!

Emergency Fund Progress

2009-07-09T11:51:00.002-04:00

We are on Baby Step 3 of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover which is to save up 3 to 6 months of expenses in a Fully Funded Emergency Fund. Our goal is to save $30,000 which is about 6 months of living expenses for my family.

Yesterday I deposited another $3,280 bringing our balance up to $20,310. After my husband gets paid on the 15th we plan to deposit another $2,220 which will bring our balance up to $22,530. This makes our total contribution for this month $5,500 which is less than what I had originally budgeted for.

Originally my husband expected his commission for this month to be $8,000 but it turned out to only be $4,900. At first this stressed me out but then he told me he expects next month's commission to be $3,000 where we had originally budgeted for $0.

I really want to get this FFEF done but on paper it looks it might take us until April 2010 to get the full $30,000 saved. I'm hoping we'll get it done before the end of the year.

July 2009 Budget

2009-07-06T23:53:00.002-04:00

Expenses	Jul
AUTO-Excise Tax	$0
AUTO GAS - BR	$200
AUTO-Insurance	$120
AUTO-Maintenance	$0
CASH-Auto Gas JR	$100
CASH-Clothing	$0
CASH-Dining Out	$120
CASH-Gifts	$0
CASH-Grocery	$400
CASH-Kids Allownce	$50
CASH-Parties	$0
CASH-School Lunch	$0
CASH-Spending	$160
DEBT-Equity Loan	$0
DEBT-Visa	$0
HOME-Cable/Phone	$181
HOME-Electric	$190
HOME-Water	$0
HOME-Furnace	$0
HOME-Mortgage	$2,345
HOME-Oil	$0
HOME-Trash	$0
KIDS-Bball	$0
KIDS-Misc.	$0
KIDS-Piano	$0
KIDS-Preschool	$0
MISC.	$0
MISC.	$0
PERSONAL-Cell Ph	$0
PERSNAL-Contacts	$0
PERSNAL-Life Ins.	$0
	$8
PERSONAL-Rx	$20
PERSONAL-Braces	$100
PERSNL-BR Sports	$0
PERSNAL-Vacation	$0


TOTAL Exp	$3,994

Total To Sav Total $9,494	$5,500


INCOME	July
1st Paycheck	$2,239
1st Commission	$4,900
15th Paycheck	$2,220
Church Pay	$64
Jewelry Pay	$50
Other	$0
Transfer fr Savings	$0
TOTAL	$9,473


CASH FLOW	July
Beginning Balance	$196
'+ Income	$9,473
Subtotal	$9,669
'- Expenses	$9,494
Subtotal	$175
Save Fr Next Month	$175
Ending Balance	$0

1st Craft Show Bust

2009-06-29T10:59:00.003-04:00

Well, it finally happened. I had my first disaster of a Craft Show this past Saturday.

I paid $45 to be in the show plus had to donate a raffle item with a retail value of $25, and the show was horrible! I stayed up until 2am on Friday night making sure I had enough stock for the show, then got up at 6am and drove for an hour to get there. Right after I set up all my stuff I made two sales to 2 of the vendors and those were my only sales of the whole day! Ugh!

And it wasn't just me. None of the vendors sold anything. It was a Family Fun Day type of event and there were a lot of people there but everyone was playing volleyball and basketball and eating their free picnic type lunch. The vendors were kind of across the field and nobody even came over to look.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

So, in total I made $34 for the day, which really was a loss after you account for the fee and raffle item.

I really don't have any more shows scheduled over the summer. Partly because there aren't a lot of summer shows and partly because we have a lot of weekend plans already planned. I might participate in a 2 day show at the end of August but I haven't decided yet.

Once September comes, I have a show booked for every Saturday in Sept., Oct., Nov., and a couple in Dec. In total I think I have 15 more shows booked. So, I figure that I hope to sell at least 100 pendants per show (hopefully much more) - so I will need at least 1,500 pendants ready to sell this fall. So, I plan to spend the summer making stock so that I will have enough for all the fall shows.

Now I need to get my July budget finished!

Update

2009-06-24T13:54:00.002-04:00

Still here plugging along.

Made $400 at the craft show this past weekend. Have another one scheduled for this Saturday.

So far this month, I have made $1,700 in jewelry sales at craft shows this month! I really can't believe it. It has kept me very busy making enough stock to bring to the shows. But boy does it feel good!

After this weekend things will slow down. I have not found many craft shows that I can participate in over the summer. I am going to try to do a 2 day show at the end of August, but that's about it.

Once September is here, I'll be doing a show basically every Saturday in September, October, and November, and maybe a couple in December.

I hope to use the summer down time to make tons of stock and spruce up my on line store.

Things are going pretty much as planned as far as the budget goes. My husband is still expecting about an $8,000 commission at the end of the month which will bring our Emergency Fund up to $25,000 - only $5,000 short of our $30,000 goal. After we get the commission I plan to open that checking account that pays 4.44% interest.

Over the summer I also plan to go through my basement and get rid of a bunch of stuff. I plan to make a section for items to sell on ebay and post some stuff every week.

So, that's what's going on with me. Sorry I haven't been posting often. I hope to keep up better. Hope you all are well!

This Week's Menu

2009-06-14T17:21:00.003-04:00

I was inspired by Money Funk to plan out my menus for the week. Here's what I came up with (all from out of my pantry and freezer):

Sunday - Rotisserie Chicken
Monday - Chicken Fajitas
Tuesday - Chicken Noodle Soup
Wednesday - Pasta
Thursday - Shepherd's Pie
Friday - Homemade Pizzas
Saturday - Eat Out

Have you planned your meals for the week?

The Prioritizer

2009-06-14T16:38:00.002-04:00

I learned about this great tool called "The Prioritizer" over at I've Paid For This Twice Already.

The Prioritizer is a calculator that helps you rank a series of goals or options which are most attractive to you.

Here is a list of my goals that the Prioritizer put in order for me:

1.	New Hood for Van	100
2.	New Windows	85.7
3.	New Heating System	71.4
4.	Re-do Bedroom	57.1
5.	Tie: Paint House New Deck Deck Furniture	32.1
8.	New Roof	0

I'm looking forward to using this tool. You should check it out!

Mid June Update

2009-06-08T09:16:00.004-04:00

June is starting off well!

I had an outdoor craft show on the past two Saturdays.

The one on June 6th was the first time that I did an outdoor one all by myself - and I did great! It was in Providence, RI, and it was a really good show. And, I was able to lug all my stuff, and set up the 10' x 10' tent all by myself. It was a bit exhausting and I was definitely sore on Sunday, but I'm happy that I will be able to handle these shows by myself. At the end of the day I had made $320 in sales. Not bad.

Then this past Saturday, June 13th, I did another show in Wakefield, MA. It was great! I was busy all day and made a ton of sales. I probably would have made even more if I had had more inventory. (I completely sold out of my adult size ribbon necklaces!) I ended the day with $750 in sales! Yay! I am psyched!

So, I have already surpassed my $1,000 of extra income goal! I'm at $1,070 and the month is only almost half over!

The FFEF (fully funded emergency fund) will be filled before I know it!! :)

MAY 2009 Extra Earnings

2009-06-01T23:05:00.005-04:00

May was my best month so far for earning extra income! My goal is to earn $1,000 of extra income each month - and in May I actually surpassed my goal by almost $300! Yeay!

I'm hoping that with all the Craft Shows I have signed up for, that this will be an ongoing trend.

May 2009 Extra Income
Jewelry Sales: $559
Blog Ads: $600
Assoc. Content: $6.42
Church Nursery: $128
Savings Interest: $5
TOTAL: $1,298.42

This brings my year to date total to $3,354. I'm feeling very good about that! :)

Craft Shows

2009-05-26T19:01:00.005-04:00

I signed up for 19 Craft shows between now and the end of 2009!! (This is a photo of my booth.)

I paid a lot to be in these shows and hope that I get a really good return on my investment.

I better get really busy getting enough product ready for these shows.

New York Times Magazine Article

2009-05-21T22:02:00.001-04:00

Check out this very interesting article about credit card companies.

Today

2009-05-21T12:45:00.002-04:00

Definitely have my mind focused on money this week!

DH has been having a rough week at work it is end of quarter/end of fiscal year. He is under a lot of pressure to bring a lot of deals in by the end of the month, and a lot of them are just falling apart. He is very stressed. It's not good to have a really bad Q4, and if it really turns out that bad I'm not sure if his actual job would be in jeopardy. He says stuff like "if I still have a job". I'm pretty sure he's just blowing off steam, but it does stress me out . . .

I have been looking far and wide for Craft Fairs to sign up for, and then yesterday I saw a sign for a Craft Show in my own town this weekend! I called and was able to get a booth for Saturday. So, I will spend the next 2 days prepping for that.

I called on the Checking Account with the 4.44% interest rate, and I think I'm going to do it once we have saved $25,000. We are at $17,000 right now and should hopefully be up to the $25,000 when (if) my husband gets his big end of the fiscal year commission check (of course, now that Q4 is not looking so good, the commission could be much smaller than expected) - but we'll see.

I asked every question I could think of about the checking account and it seems do-able. Basically I'll need to make 15 debit card transactions each month (atm withdrawals don't count), and make one direct deposit each month (any electronic deposit of money counts). So, I think I can handle that - though it does messy up our accounts a little bit.

Here's how I think I will do it:

- 1st of the month - instead of withdrawing our "cash" for the envelopes at the beginning of each month, I will instead electronically transfer (deposit) funds from our regular checking account to this new account.

- I will then use the new debit card (instead of cash) to pay for what used to be our cash categories: Groceries, Gifts, Clothing, Dining Out, Auto Gas. (I think we'll still use cash for "Blow".) I will try to do as many transactions at the beginning of the month to be sure to fulfill the 15 transactions requirement. I plan to stop for gas a bunch of times and just add $5 each time and then to do a few transactions at the grocery store each time.

The 15 transactions part is a bit of a pain, but if we put in $25,000 of our FFEF, 4.44% interest on that will be over $90 a month! That's worth a bit of inconvenience to me. I'm looking at it like another part time job. I make $32/hour at the church nursery, so this should take less than 3 hours and earn me the same.

Update

2009-05-18T20:01:00.004-04:00

Hello! I don't know why but lately I feel like I don't have much to blog about.

We have increased our Emergency fund to $17,000 - so we are on our way to our goal of $30,000.

I spent the day filling out applications for craft fairs. I hope to do about a dozen of them by the end of the year. It's a bit hard committing to dates this far in advance, and to shell out the booth fees (usually around $100) - but every show I've done so far has been worth it, so I'm hopeful.

I received a payment from Associated Content this week. It was for $6 and some change I think. I really do like getting that passive income, even if it is small. I have been thinking about starting to write a little for them again. I also noticed that several people signed up using my referral link (thanks to anyone who did!) - but many of those people haven't written any content yet (start writing! lol!), although one person has written 39 articles - wow!

I had some fun playing around with this calculator:

You can play with the numbers and figure out hold old you will be when your income from investments will be greater than your income from your job. It's kinda cool.

That's about it. I'll try to update my totals and post some more this week.

Hope you all are well!

P.S. I have been going on the llnoe.com forums a lot lately. Gets addictive!

Is This Worth It? 4.44% APY

2009-05-14T22:16:00.001-04:00

I saw an ad on t.v. today for a local bank that is offering an on line savings account that pays 4.44% APY (on balances up to $25,000).

Here are the stipulations:
Sign up to receive monthly e-Statements
Receive at least one direct deposit per statement
Make at least 15 debit card purchase transactions per statement
Use Home Banking and Bill Pay at least once per statement

I was thinking of maybe keeping my FFEF in here. My FFEF goal is $30,000.

The hard part of those requirements are making 15 debit card purchase transactions per statement. It seems (though I'm not sure) that just withdrawing the money from an ATM wouldn't count. (Although they do offer free ATM withdraws from their banks and refund up to $10 per month of any ATM fees that other banks charge.)

Anyway - it's not like I want to make 15 purchases every month - but 4.44% interest on $25,000 is like $94 a month.

Do you think it's worth it? Any suggestions on fulfillling the purchase requirements easily?

Thanks for any input!

Daily Progress

2009-05-11T15:01:00.002-04:00

The Good:
- I cut coupons for groceries today. It's been a while since I did this. I used to really be good about scouring the flyers for coupons and sales and combining them to get the best deals. I used to really enjoy it and want to get back into it again.
- I had a good jewelry order for 10 pendants today. Yeay!
- I packed a lunch for my two daughters to bring to school today. Much more economical than paying $5.25 (for the 2) for lunch.

The Bad:
- I threw out some spoiled food from the refrigerator. A reminder that I need to do a better job at
managing our food consumption and plan the meals around leftovers and food that will expire soon.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

2009-05-10T21:17:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to wish all my blogging friends a Hapy Mother's Day!

We just got back from spending the weekend in Newport, RI. My mother in law has a time share there. She was planning to go but couldn't at the last minute, so she asked us if we would like to us it. I wasn't about to pass up a "free" weekend in Newport.

Well, it's true that we didn't have to pay for the hotel (time share condo), but the weekend certainly was not free. We let my daughter invite one of her friends, so it was me, my husband, our three daughters, and one friend. We brought food for breakfast and snacks but did eat out one meal each day - and it adds up fast! Then we took my Mom out for dinner for Mother's Day today. So, between Friday and tonight (Sunday) we spent $400!! Yikes!!

Also spent a little time discussing money with the hubby over the weekend. I reminded him that we are doing so great and that in another couple of months we will have our 6 month emergency fund fully in place. He said that's fine, but we NEED to replace the windows in our house and "we are doing it this summer!". Um, we can do it once we save up for it I said. Why can't we just finance it he said? UGH!!!

Over two years we have been doing this and he still doesn't see why we shouldn't finance the new windows. sigh.

I can probably stall him on the windows until we have the cash, but it is so frustrating that I can't seem to get him fully on board. Now that we are finally debt free (except for the house) - I never want to get in debt again.

Do any of you have a spouse that is concerned less about being debt free than you are? Any advice for how to convince a reluctant husband?

February 2009 Extra Earnings

2009-05-07T13:18:00.007-04:00

Catching up with more updates . . .

February 2009 Extra Earnings:

Jewelry Sales: $336
Assoc. Content: $4.89
Cash4Books: $9.86
Blog Ads: $10
Savings Interest: $4.18
Church Nursery: $120
TOTAL: $484.93

March 2009 Extra Earnings

2009-05-07T13:04:00.009-04:00

More catching up with updates . . .

March 2009 Extra Earnings:

Jewelry Sales: $275
Savings Interest: $5.66
Blog Ads: $10
Church Nursery: $160
TOTAL: $440.66

April 2009 Extra Earnings Update

2009-05-06T23:42:00.002-04:00

Well, I did get paid for the blog ads, so that bumps my April extra earnings income up to $774.16! Yeay!!!

Jewelry Sales: $403.17
Savings Interest: $4.18
Babysitting: $85.00
Church Nursery: $64.00
Cash4Books.net: $5.15
Assoc. Content: $12.66
Blog Ad Income: $200.00
TOTAL: $774.16

May 2009 Budget

2009-05-02T21:32:00.004-04:00

(Well, I'm trying out a new background that I got from thecutestblogontheblock.com after seeing the cute one over at Won't Go Down Without A Fight. Let me know what you think!)

Here is our budget for May.

The expenses are pretty normal except for the closing costs for our refinance and the final payoff of our Florida trip and the large amount we are able to "pay" to savings (because of high income this month).

Our income this month is nothing like normal due to our very high tax refund and my husband's very large commission check this month.

Expenses	May
AUTO-Excise Tax	$0
AUTO GAS - BR	$200
AUTO-Insurance	$120
AUTO-Maintenance	$0
CASH-Auto Gas JR	$100
CASH-Clothing	$0
CASH-Dining Out	$120
CASH-Gifts	$65
CASH-Grocery	$400
CASH-Kids Allownce	$50
CASH-Parties	$0
CASH-School Lunch	$45
CASH-Spending	$160
DEBT-Equity Loan	$0
DEBT-Visa	$0
HOME-Cable/Phone	$181
HOME-Electric	$180
HOME-Water	$0
HOME-Furnace	$0
HOME-Mortgage	$0
HOME-Oil	$300
HOME-Trash	$0
KIDS-Bball	$0
KIDS-Misc.	$0
KIDS-Piano	$0
KIDS-Preschool	$0
MISC. (REFI)	$980
MISC. (FL PAYOFF	$2,180
PERSONAL-Cell Ph	$0
PERS-Contacts	$99
PERS-Life Ins.	$0
PERS	$8
PERSONAL-Rx	$10
PERSONAL-Braces	$200
PERS-BR Sports	$0
PERS-Vacation	$0
TO SAVINGS	$15,300

TOTAL	$20,698




INCOME	May
1st Paycheck	$2,239
1st Commission	$6,908
15th Paycheck	$2,220
Church Pay	$120
Jewelry Pay	$470
Other (TAX REF)	$8,500
Transfer fr Savings	$0
TOTAL	$20,457


CASH FLOW	May
Beginning Balance	$400
'+ Income	$20,457
Subtotal	$20,857
'- Expenses	$20,698
Subtotal	$159
Save For Next Mnth	$159
Ending Balance	$0

I have updated all my sidebars to reflect our current actual debt and savings balances.

I'm feeling pretty good!

Debt Free Except For The House!!!!

2009-04-28T21:25:00.002-04:00

Well, it's official. We are debt free except for the home mortgage!

We closed on the refinance and everything went well. The out of pocket expenses were less than I had expected ($950) and we won't have a mortgage payment due in May. The first one will be due June 1st. So that is pretty sweet!

And, my husband is expecting a large commission check on May 1st, plus our nice big tax refund should be coming soon. I'm feeling really good!!

So, we were officially in Baby Step 2 for 26 months and we paid off $23,000 during that time.

What's really exciting is that I firmly believe that we have finally figured out how to stop living from paycheck to paycheck. We have finally figured out how to do our budget with an irregular income. It feels so good to know that we are moving in the right direction and things should get better and better.

I have been married for 18 years and during that time we have always struggled with debt. We did not live below our means. Several times we would "pay off" our debts (by adding our debt to a refinance, or when we took out a 401K loan, etc.) but we never changed our ways and eventually got right back into debt. Most years I found that we spent about $10,000 more than we earned - no matter our income.

Things are different now. We forecast our expected income and our expected expenses. We follow a budget. We spend with cash.

Even our mortgage broker complimented us on our finances and said we are doing much better than most people our age that he works with. I know we still have a long way to go, but it did make me feel good. I finally feel like a grown up. I know how to delay gratification. And the more I delay, the more I realize how little I need to feel satisfied. :)

Hello, Hello

2009-04-26T21:36:00.003-04:00

So, here's what I have done to earn extra money this week:

Church Nursery: $32
Blog Ads: $200
Jewelry Sales: $127
Babysat Neighbor Child 2 days: $85
Total: $444

I definitely need to start focusing on SAVING money again too though. Best to tackle the finances on the saving and earning sides!

The Cost of Tonight's Dinner

2009-04-21T22:39:00.002-04:00

I have been craving going out to eat, but for the benefit of our budget I have been trying hard not to. So, I decided to calculate how much my home cooked dinner cost.

Here goes. We had Chicken Marsala with rice and mixed vegetables for 5 people.

Boneless Chicken: $3.33 (1/3 of a $10 family pack)
Marsala Wine: $1.00 (1/4 of $4 bottle)
Flour: $ .10
Butter: $ .25
Mixed Veggies: $ .75 (3/4 of $ .99 bag)
Rice (store brand Rice A Roni): $ .59
TOTAL: $6.02

So, the total for dinner at home for 5 people was $6.02. If we had gone to our family's favorite local restaurant, the bill for the 5 of us would have been about $46.00!

Grade Your Finances

2009-04-21T14:38:00.001-04:00

Check out this cool calculator at CNN Money. Answer some questions and get a grade on your finances. (I got a C+, but this should improve drastically over the next few months.)

Moving On To BS3

2009-04-16T21:24:00.003-04:00

Well, we are still plugging along.

We have been approved for our refinance, we're just waiting to get our closing date. Our new mortgage will be a 15 year mortgage for $240,000 at 4.5%. This will cover (pay off) our Home Equity Loan and get us "debt free except for the house". Yay!

We will then move on to Baby Step 3 - save 3 to 6 months of living expenses as our Fully Funded Emergency Fund.

Here is what I come up with as our bare bones monthly living expenses:

Auto Gas: $200.00
Auto Insurance: $120.00
Grocery: $400.00
Home-Cable/Phone/Internet: $150.00
Home-Electric: $180.00
Home-Mortgage: $2,250.00
Home-Oil: $350.00
Home-Trash: $22.00
Personal-Braces: $100.00
TOTAL: $3,772.00

If I round up to $3,800 and plan to save enough to cover 6 months, that would be $22,800.00. I didn't include COBRA insurance payments (and I really don't know how much that would be) but I also didn't count on receiving "unemployment" money (which I also really don't know how much it would be or how long we would receive it for) - so I'm hoping those 2 will cover each other and cancel each other out?? (Anyone know more about these things?)

You might also notice that I left our cable/phone/internet rather high at $150 a month, but I figured we'd need the internet for me to continue my on-line business and for my husband to job hunt, and I figured we would want the cable as our only entertainment. (I fear that if we were to cancel it we might snap and go back into debt.)

Miraculously, we are expecting a large tax refund (even though we changed our withholding last year, guess we need to change again), and a large commission check in May and July - soooooo, we could actually have our FFEF by this July!!! This is amazing to me!!

This would mean that in just a few short months we could actually move on to Baby Steps 4 and 5 - and not a minute too soon as my oldest daughter is 12 and we need to really focus on college savings.

So, I'm feeling pretty optimistic tonight.

How did you all figure how much to save for your Emergency Fund?

Hi

2009-04-14T09:00:00.003-04:00

We're back from my sister's wedding in Florida. We had a great time, but there was one major unfortunate incident. I lost $1,000 cash.

Well, not exactly lost. The day of the wedding we had a lot of setting up to do. My husband dropped me off to help my Mom set up for the wedding and I had the cash in my purse. I never thought to give it to my husband at that time. Then I didn't quite know what to do with my purse. We were setting up at the poolside clubhouse of their development. It is a public place so I was afraid to leave my purse around with all that cash while I was busy putting centerpieces on tables, etc. So, I put my wallet full of cash in my front pocket of my pants. I spent the day setting up and then we drove back to our hotel. Well, my wallet must have somehow fallen out of my pocket as I walked into the hotel. A half hour later the front desk called to say someone found my wallet. We retrieved the wallet that was empty of all cash, and just like that we were out $1,000!

This was only a half hour before the wedding started and I couldn't stop sobbing. My husband was mad at me, but not more than I was at myself. I pulled myself together and got through the wedding but couldn't sleep those first few nights. I'm trying to get over it but I still have a knot in my stomach.

I might rethink using cash from now on. Or at least carry around less at any given time. (I usually do withdraw about $1,000 cash at the beginning of each months fro the envelopes for groceries, gas, gifts, clothes, etc.). Maybe just carry around one week's worth at a time.

Update

2009-03-22T16:03:00.003-04:00

It's been a difficult month. We have been getting ready for my sister's wedding. I definitely did not budget enough for this. We will be flying to Florida for the wedding and all 3 of my daughters are in the wedding. Dresses, shoes, sashes, hairbows, etc. It all adds up. Not to mention the need for new sneakers, bathing suits, sandals, etc. That stuff we would have needed anyway for the summer, but I didn't really plan for enough money to get it all now.

I am also fighting my usual impulses to get a whole new wardrobe for the trip. Yes, I needed a new dress for the wedding and probably for the rehearsal dinner, but I am trying to restrain myself from more than that. I have the urge for a haircut, manicure, pedicure, and spray tan.

And as the wedding gets closer (less than 2 weeks away now!), everything seems more pressing. Being frugal requires careful planning. Rushing does not lend itself to getting good deals.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to the trip and trying not to let the high expenses take away from it.

On other news, I did well at a craft show last week. I made $320 in sales. So that was good.

Also, looks like the refinance might be back on. I'm happy about this but also feel a little stress about spending on the closing costs, appraisal, and all the other charges that come up for a refi. We only have about $5,000 in savings right now, and the costs will probably take a very big bite out of this. Next month will (should) be a high commission month that will most likely beef up the savings, but still.

I have to keep reminding myself of the big up side of refinancing - it will make us "debt free except for the house"! This is because we will need to include the Home Equity Loan in the refinance, thus paying it off, and basically rolling it into our new mortgage. The new mortgage will also be slightly less expensive each month (like $50-$100). So, at that point we can move on to Baby Step 3 and finish building up our Fully Funded Emergency Fund of 6 months of living expenses, which for us will be $30,000.

I'll keep you posted. (And try to post more regularly!)

March 2009 Budget

2009-02-25T10:54:00.004-05:00

For March, our projected income is $6,590. This includes $600 that will be transferred from our Savings account. It also includes $150 from jewelry sales, which is $100 more than the usual $50 that I budget. This is because I will be doing a big craft show and anticipate making some extra cash. It also includes a commission in the amount of $1,300.

Our projected expenses is $6,527. This includes all our regular expenses including $200 towards our last debt (HELOC) and $1,000 to our "Snowball Savings Account". (We are putting this money aside because of worry about the economic situation in our country. If the storm passes, we will eventually put all this money on our last debt.)

This month's expenses also includes an additional $125 for a charity fundraiser we will be attending to benefit autism (listed under Misc.). It also includes $100 for new clothing for the children for spring clothes and shoes. (This might be a bit low, but I do have another $300 budgeted for summer clothes in June.) It also includes $300 for my daughter's braces because I had forgot my checkbook in Jan. and we missed our appointment in Feb. It also includes $50 for my cell phone as I will need to add some more minutes. (I use a prepaid phone only for important calls.) It also includes $256 for life insurance (which we pay annually instead of monthly).

Our projected savings by the end of March is $5,900. Of this, $4,400 will be in our Snowball Savings Account and $1,500 will be in our Regular Savings Account (and the $1,500 is including the $1,000 BEF).

Expenses
AUTO-Excise Tax	$0
AUTO GAS - BR	$200
AUTO-Insurance	$120
AUTO-Maintenance	$0
CASH-Auto Gas JR	$100
CASH-Clothing	$100
CASH-Dining Out	$120
CASH-Gifts	$0
CASH-Grocery	$500
CASH-Kids Allownce	$50
CASH-Parties	$0
CASH-School Lunch	$45
CASH-Spending	$200
DEBT-Equity Loan	$200
DEBT-Visa	$0
HOME-Cable/Phone	$181
HOME-Electric	$180
HOME-Water	$0
HOME-Furnace	$0
HOME-Mortgage	$2,327
HOME-Oil	$400
HOME-Trash	$65
KIDS-Bball	$0
KIDS-Misc.	$0
KIDS-Piano	$0
KIDS-Preschool	$0
MISC.	$125
MISC.	$0
PERSONAL-Cell Ph	$50
PERSNAL-Contacts	$0
PERSONAL-Lif Ins.	$256
PERSONAL	$8
PERSONAL-Rx	$0
PERSONAL-Braces	$300
PERSONAL- Sprts	$0
PERSONAL-Vaca	$0
TO SAV E.D. Snowb	$1,000
TO SAV ING	$0
TOTAL	$6,527




INCOME	March
1st Paycheck	$2,220
1st Commission	$1,300
15th Paycheck	$2,220
Church Pay	$100
Jewelry Pay	$150
Other	$0
Transfer fr Savings	$600
TOTAL	$6,590


CASH FLOW	March
Beginning Balance	$0
'+ Income	$6,590
Subtotal	$6,590
'- Expenses	$6,527
Subtotal	$63
Save For Next Month	$63
Ending Balance	$0


SAVINGS FLOW	March
Beginning Balance	$5,500
+Transfer to ED sav	$1,000
+Trnsfer to ING sav	$0
Subtotal	$6,500
'- Trnsfer fr Savings	-$600
Ending Balance	$5,900

SAVINGS BALANCES
E.D. Snowball Total	$4,400
Ing Savings Total	$1,500
Total Savings	$5,900

Update

2009-02-24T10:37:00.002-05:00

Current Savings: $4,500

Current Debt: $23,000

Current Mortgage: $219,000

Current Snowball (to Savings): $1,200

Extra Earnings This Week:
- Jewelry Sales: $80
- Church Nursery: $34
- Book Sales: $.75
Total: $114.75

Refinancing Reconsidered

2009-02-24T10:13:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. Just seems like I haven't really had anything to report lately . . .

Today we did get an email from our mortgage broker checking in about refinancing, asking us if we wanted to go ahead. At first I assumed that meant the rate had gone back down to 4.5% (for a 15 year fixed) - but he said he would get back to me on that, so . . . we'll see.

I do feel a bit better about the idea of rolling the HELOC into the refinance because I was watching the Dave Ramsey show this morning (on dvr) and he just recommended that to a family that is in a similar financial situation as my family. He noted that they could then move past BS2 and work on building up the FFEF - which is what I really want to do.

So, I'm hopeful once again that maybe this will happen and get us moving forward again.

I know that we aren't really "stuck" right now, but it does feel a little like that. With us putting the snowball money into savings, it just doesn't feel like we're moving closer to our goals, even though I know inside that we are.

I guess it's just a tug of war between wanting to feel the security of having a lot in savings ("just in case") and the feeling of freedom from being close to debt free.

Daily Progress Report

2009-02-12T09:22:00.002-05:00

THE GOOD:
Extra Earnings:
Associated Content: $4.89

COULD DO BETTER:
- 2DD bought lunch today. I should have made it for them.
- Going out to dinner for DH birthday today.

Want To Save On Your Electric Bill?

2009-02-11T09:47:00.003-05:00

In recent months we have done a good job at lowering our electric bill by being diligent about turning off and unplugging electrical items when not in use.

In order to find ways to save even more, I decided to research the cost of using ordinary electrical appliances. I used a great tool called "Calculate Your Electric Cost" over at the Saving Electricity site. (I used $.12 as the cost for the electricity, which is the national average. Your cost could be different, but the list below will still be helpful in noticing which appliances cost the most to use.)

Clothes Dryer - $.48 per hour
Oven - $.48 per hour
Dishwasher - $.40 per hour
Toaster - $.15 per hour ($.01 per 5 minutes)
Microwave - $.15 per hour ($.01 per 5 minutes)
Coffee Maker - $.10 per hour ($.01 per 5 minutes)
Stove Top Burner - $.09 per hour ($.01 per 5 minutes)
Refrigerator - $.03 per hour ($.79 per 24 hours)
60 Watt Light Bulb - $.01 per hour ($.06 per 8 hours)
Laptop Computer - $0 per hour ($.04 per 8 hours)
Clock Radio - $0 per hour ($.01 per 24 hours)
27" Widescreen TV - $.01 per hour

Starting A New Price Book

2009-02-10T11:03:00.002-05:00

I have decided that since Grocery prices have gone up considerably over the past few years, I really need to do a new Price Book.

They way I do a Price Book is to make an alphabetical list of all the items I normally buy at the grocery store. I then record the lowest price I have purchased each item for. This price becomes my target price. I try to never spend more than the target price for any item. I try to purchase enough at the lowest price to last me until it goes down to that price again.

Here are some of the low prices I know by heart and aim for at the grocery store:

butter: $1.50 lb
chicken/boneless: $1.79 lb
Doritos: $1.50
Hunts spaghetti sauce: $ .79 can
Old Spice deodorant: $1.50
paper towels: $ .50 each roll
paper plates: $.99 per 72 ($.013 ea)
pasta: $ .79 lb (gone way up!)
sandwich bread: $ .50 each loaf
Secret deodorant: $1.50
toilet paper: $ .19 each roll
wheat thins: $1.50 a box

Extra Earnings Progress

2009-02-10T10:52:00.002-05:00

This week (so far), my extra income earnings are:

Jewelry Sales: $106
Church Nursery: $34
Ad Revenue: $ .75
Book Sales: $10
Ebates: $5
TOTAL: $155.75

I have decided to put a monthly balance of Extra Earnings Savings near the top of my sidebar to track my progress prominently (and inspire me to make more!).

Cash 4 Books!

2009-02-06T09:42:00.004-05:00

I found this great site for selling your used books. It's called Cash4Books. They tell you up front which books they will accept and how much money they will give you for them. And, they pay the shipping costs to send them the books.

You just log on to their website, enter the ISBN number (number below the bar code) of your book, and it will tell you immediately if they will accept that book and how much money they will pay you for it! It's great!

After they receive you books and they inspect them for condition (they must be in good condition), they will either send you a check or deposit the money into your Paypal account (and you get a 3% bonus if you choose to use the Paypal option).

They also offer an Affiliate Program, where you can earn $5 for each person you refer to their site. (If you decide to join, please click on my referral link - the graphic above.)

Yesterday I checked on about 20 books and they only wanted 2 of them. But I'm going to get paid $10.00 for those books. I think that's pretty cool!

January Reflections

2009-02-04T13:30:00.003-05:00

Now that January is over, I thought I'd take a look and see how I did for the month.

My jewelry sales were down, I know. I only made 5 sales totaling $104. I need to work on taking new photos and listing new items.

Noticed that the interest rate for ING has dropped to 2.178%. Emigrant Direct is still at 2.37%.

I haven't written anything for Associated Content for a long time. The $3.62 is just passive income from views to articles I already wrote (which is sweet!).

Extra Income:
Jewelry Sales: $104
Associated Content: $3.62
Ad Revenue: $16.01
Church Nursery: $120
Savings Interest: $9.45
TOTAL: $253.08

Not that close to my goal of $1,000 a month in extra income. Need to get focused!

February Budget

2009-02-03T15:51:00.002-05:00

Expenses
AUTO-Excise Tax	$0
AUTO GAS - BR	$200
AUTO-Insurance	$120
AUTO-Maintenance	$0
CASH-Auto Gas JR	$100
CASH-Clothing	$0
CASH-Dining Out	$120
CASH-Gifts	$0
CASH-Grocery	$400
CASH-Kids Allowance	$50
CASH-Parties	$0
CASH-School Lunch	$45
CASH-Spending	$160
DEBT-Equity Loan	$100
DEBT-Visa	$0
HOME-Cable/Phone	$181
HOME-Electric	$190
HOME-Water	$0
HOME-Furnace	$0
HOME-Mortgage	$2,327
HOME-Oil	$550
HOME-Trash	$0
KIDS-Bball	$0
KIDS-Misc.	$0
KIDS-Piano	$264
KIDS-Preschool	$0
MISC.	$160
MISC.	$0
PERSONAL-Cell Ph	$0
PERSNAL-Contacts	$99
PERSNAL-Life Ins.	$0
PERSNAL-Newspap	$8
PERSNAL-Rx	$10
PERSONAL-Braces	$200
PERSNL-BR Sports	$0
PERSNAL-Vacation	$0
TOTAL	$5,284
TRANSFR To Sav EXPENSES+To Sav	$1,700 $6,984

INCOME	February
1st Paycheck	$2,217
1st Commission	$0
15th Paycheck	$2,220
Church Pay	$100
Jewelry Pay	$50
Other	$80
Transfer fr Savings	$0
TOTAL	$4,667


CASH FLOW	February
Beginning Balance	$2,523
'+ Income	$4,667
Subtotal	$7,190
'- Expenses+To Sav	$6,984
Subtotal	$206
Save For Next Mnth	$206
Ending Balance	$0


SAVINGS FLOW	February
Beginning Balance	$4,500
'+ Transfer to Sav	$1,700
Subtotal	$6,200
'- Transfer frm Sav	$0
Subtotal	$6,200
Cash In Home	$0
Ending Balance	$6,200

We started out this month with $2,523 in our checking account. This is unusual. We usually begin each month very close to zero (on purpose, because of our zero based budget). This $2,500 would normally have been transferred to our savings account in January, I just didn't get around to making the transfer. Then, February would have had us transferring money from our savings account. So, since I hadn't got around to it, it just made sense to leave those funds in there for the start of February.

Our income for February should be $4,667. Our expenses should be $5,284. So this is one of those months where our income from the month doesn't cover our expenses for the month. In the past this would have had us using our credit card to get by. Thank goodness those days are gone!! With a little planning, we can get by just fine. So, we have $2,523 leftover from last month, which will fill in the gap for this month and leave us with $1,700 extra that we can put into savings.

Deals This Week

2009-01-28T23:05:00.002-05:00

Deals this week:

WALGREENS:

01-11 RP	Suave Deodorant 1.4 oz (see Grocery Coupon Database for additional cpn) -- charity!	3	$0.94	$0.27	71
01-11 RP	Suave Hair Care 15 oz (see Grocery Coupon Database for additional cpn) -- charity!	3	$0.89	$0.22	75
01-11 S	Kotex Pads 14-24 ct	1	$2.94	$1.94	34
01-18 PG	Gillette Mach 3 Razors 3 ct	2	$6.12	$3.06	50
01-18 RP	Hellmanns Mayonnaise 18 oz (see Grocery Coupon Database for additional cpn expiring 2/1)	1	$2.00	$1.40	30
01-18 RP	Lipton Recipe Secrets Mix 2 pk (see Grocery Coupon Database for additional cpn)	2	$1.22	$0.92	25
01-18 RP	Quilted Northern Bath Tissue 6 dbl roll	1	$4.12	$3.12	24
01-25 S	Post Honey Bunches Of Oats 17-19 oz	2	$2.68	$2.18	19
Total Price:	$20.27		Total Savings:	41%

CVS

Cpn. Out Description Qty. Sale Price Final Price % Saved

Pepsi Products, 12 pk 12 oz cans -- qualifies for $10 Extra Bucks with $20 PepsiCo purchase 1 $3.33 $3.33 26

Pepsi Products, 2L bottle -- qualifies for $10 Extra Bucks with $20 PepsiCo purchase 1 $1.25 $1.25 21

12-14 PG Pantene Restoratives shampoo or conditioner, 8.5-14.2 oz -- final price is after $3 Extra Bucks -- limit 5 --- charity! 1 $1.99 FREE 100

01-04 GM Nature Valley Granola Bars Twin Pack - final price is after $3 Extra Bucks (limit 3) 1 $3.99 $3.49 30

01-11 S Kotex Pads, 16-20 ct with Bonus Pantiliners, 16 ct - final price is after $2 Extra Bucks (limit 5) -- Charity! 1 $2.00 $1.00 80

01-18 PG Gillette shampoo or conditioner, 8.5-14.2 oz -- final price is after $3 Extra Bucks -- limit 5 (see cpn database for additional cpns) --- charity! 1 $1.99 FREE 100

01-25 S Post Cereals: Trail Mix or Crunch 17 oz, Shredded Wheat 16.4 oz, Honey Bunches of Oats 14.5 oz Cocoa or Fruity Pebbles 13 oz - BOGO (see cpn database for additional cpns) 2 $2.30 $1.80 61

Total Price:
$12.65 Total Savings: 64%

Walgreens

2009-01-28T22:11:00.002-05:00

I have been focusing on being better with my grocery and household shopping.

I always remember Amy Dacycayn saying in her book The Complete Tightwad Gazette, that she used her price book to figure the best price on every item and that nothing would induce her to pay more than that price.

That is my goal. Stop paying more than my lowest price.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Walgreens to take advantage of these specials:

Walgreens Cold/Flu Liquid - coupon $3 off
Walgreens Ibuprophen 50 - coupon $1 off
AutoExpressions Elite Auto Air Freshener - FREE after rebate
Revlon Matte lipstick - $1 off coupon from newsp - FREE after rebate (up to $10!)
Orajel Cold Sore med - FREE after rebate
Walgreens Cold med - buy 3 get $5 rebate - buy 5 get $10 rebate
Kraft products - spend $15 get $5 rebate
Electrasol - $1.50 rebate
Paper Plates 72 - $.99 w/coupon lt. 2
Lays Chips - $2
Cheez It - $1.99
Quaker Chewy Granola 18 - $7
Walg Zip Sandwich 50 - $ .99 lt. 2
Walg Pain Relief - 2/$4.99
Walg Cold Allergy - BIGI Free (plus rebate)
Walg Chap Aid - 2/$1 w/coupon
Kellogg's Cereal - $1.99 lt. 4
Walg Ibuprofen - BIGI Free
Colgate toothpaste - $2.99 - $2 Register Rewards = $.99

Our Investments

2009-01-28T19:43:00.002-05:00

I know that everyone's investments are down right now, obviously, with the current economic situation. I just didn't know how badly our own personal investments were hit. Until now.

We got our end of the year financial statements and our Retirement Account has lost $60,000 since the end of 2007! Yikes!!

I knew it would be bad, but I honestly didn't expect it to be THAT much!!

Luckily we have another 15 years before retirement.

The Refi . . .

2009-01-28T19:40:00.002-05:00

Well, looks like we may have missed our chance. We filled out all the paperwork and emailed it to our broker - but we may have been too late. I don't think our rate was locked in yet, and yesterday I believe they went up to about 6%.

We haven't heard from our broker yet, so we'll see.

I'm okay with it either way as it changes our financial picture by very little.

Keeping A Spending Diary

2009-01-27T19:59:00.003-05:00

I am inspired to try (yet again!) to track our monthly spending - by reading No More Spending's post on how she does it.

Part of how she does it, is by using a beautiful Moleskin notebook. I was very tempted to buy one of those beautiful notebooks when I came to my senses and realized that any notebook would do. Aren't I supposed to be reducing expenses here?

How We Divide The Financial Responsibilities

2009-01-27T09:50:00.002-05:00

In my family - I am the nerd. I like making spreadsheets of our finances. I like looking at different scenarios of how our savings could grow. This gives me a sense of control and security.

My husband hates looking at the big picture. Or talking about it. Or thinking about it. As long as he has a bit of spending money in his pocket - he feels fine.

I guess he's the "free spirit" - but he is not a big spender. He rarely buys himself anything (where I have been know to splurge on clothes for myself, etc.).

He is also more organized than I am. I don't think he has ever paid a bill late (and I can't make that claim).

So, after 20 years of marriage - we finally figured out what works for our family:

My husband handles the paying of the regular monthly bills.
I handle the long term financial planning (yearly budget, projected savings, projected home payoff, etc.).

How do you handle it in your family?

The Refinance Is On (again)

2009-01-23T17:49:00.002-05:00

We have gone back and forth on whether or not to go ahead with the refinance, and I think we are going ahead with it after all.

We are refinancing to a 15 year mortgage, so the loan payoff date will be 1 year (actually 9 months) later than if we didn't refinance - but we are hoping to pay off the mortgage early in either case.

When we refinance, our new mortgage will include the amount of our current mortgage plus the amount of our home equity loan. Because of this, our actual mortgage payment will be about $30 more than it is now - but we won't have a home equity loan payment to deal with. (If you take into consideration the minimum payment on our home equity loan plus our current mortgage payment, the refinanced payment will be $44 less.)

Part of me still feels unhappy about making the home equity loan a long term debt - meaning that by rolling it into our mortgage, we will take 15 years to pay it off (turning a short term debt into a long term debt). But the truth is, we are currently only paying the minimum on this debt right now (to stockpile cash savings) - so it is questionable how quickly we would pay it off.

By refinancing now we will effectively be "debt free except for the home mortgage" - this will allow us to move on to the next step of funding our fully funded emergency fund (which, because of the current bad economy, is what I have really been doing for the past few months, instead of putting that money to our last debt).

So, if everything goes smoothly with the refinance, my projections show we could have our Fully Funded Emergency Fund in a little over 2 years. Then, we can FINALLY move on to saving for my daughter to go to college (she's 12 right now - so we are very behind!).

Update

2009-01-21T09:55:00.002-05:00

Well, not too much to update.

We looked into refinancing and I think we have decided against it for now. We only have 14 years left on our current mortgage and even with lowering our interest rate from 5.375% to 4.5%, our monthly payments would stay the same because we would be including our home equity loan in the refinance. This would mean dragging out the equity loan over the next 15 years, instead of having it paid off within the next 1 to 2 years. Plus, with the closing costs and other out of pocket expenses we would need to deplete our savings to almost nothing to go through with the refi.

So looks like we're going to hold off for now.

I was pleased to see that finally almost half of our mortgage payments are going toward principle.

This does leave us with the $22,000 home equity loan to deal with before we move on to saving our fully funded emergency fund. This doesn't make me happy. My oldest daughter is 12 and we need to get serious about saving for her for college! Ugh. I don't know. Every time I think I've made up my mind I start to question my decision again . . .

Ideas Of What I Will Sell On Ebay

2009-01-06T19:37:00.004-05:00

I plan to increase my earnings this year by selling more jewelry and selling more on ebay.

This is just my personal list of items in my house that I may be able to make some cash by selling on ebay.

- First Things First book
- Financial Peace University Kit
- The Secret dvd
- Lands End winter coat and snow pants
- lots of Gymboree baby clothes
- Mr. Potato head collection
- Bratz dolls collection
- Pez collection
- Barbie dolls and accessories
- Dress Up clothes
- Halloween costumes
- Christmas dishes collection
- Maternity work clothes/suits
- Fur Real Friends stuffed animals
- Princess/Barbie books
- LL Bean backpack
- Computer and Video Games

Happy New Year To All My Blog Friends!!

2009-01-01T10:58:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

Your support meant so much to me in 2008. I am looking forward to a fabulous 2009!

So, it looks like we are planning to try to refinance our home mortgage and our home equity loan. We are hoping to refinance to a 15 year mortgage, which is how much we currently have left on our 20 year mortgage. We are hoping to borrow $240,000, which is currently how much we owe on our mortgage and our home equity loan combined. We are hoping to get an interest rate of 4%, which is even better than our current interest rate of 5.25%.

I found this rate on line and am looking into it. We will have to pay 1 point (about $2,400 I think) and come up with closing costs (about $1,000 I think). This will bring our savings balance down to $1,500 which does make me a little nervous, but I think this is the right thing for us to do.

We will then be debt free except for the home mortgage (which does feel a little bit like cheating since the home equity loan won't actually be paid off, just rolled into our mortgage). And our monthly mortgage payment will go down by $150, and we will no longer need to make payments on our equity loan - so that will save us another $100 a month.

And, we can get right to saving our Fully Funded Emergency Fund. (Oh how I can't wait to be on Baby Step 3!) Our goal for the FFEF is $30,000. On paper, it looks like it will take us 2 years to save this amount, but I am hoping we will acomplish it sooner. My oldest daughter is 12 and we NEED to start saving for her for college!

Anyway, this is where we are at right now.

Feeling hopeful for the New Year and wishing you all the best!

About My January 2009 Budget

2008-12-26T20:40:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to point something out about my January 2009 Budget that might not be obvious at first glance.

It appears that my expenses are greater than my income in this month:

Beginning Balance - $850'
+ Income - $7,590
Subtotal - $8,440'
- Expenses - $8,129
Subtotal - $311
Save For Next Month - $311
Ending Balance - $0

But, my "expenses" includes $2,500 that I will transfer into our savings account to save for future months.

January 2009 Budget

2008-12-21T01:38:00.002-05:00

Expenses- Jan
AUTO-Excise Tax - $0
AUTO GAS - BR - $250
AUTO-Insurance - $120
AUTO-Maintenance - $50
CASH-Auto Gas JR - $100
CASH-Clothing - $0
CASH-Dining Out - $120
CASH-Gifts - $0
CASH-Grocery - $400
CASH-Kids Allowance - $50
CASH-Parties - $100
CASH-School Lunch - $45
CASH-Spending - $160
DEBT-Equity Loan - $103
DEBT-Visa - $0
HOME-Cable/Phone - $181
HOME-Electric - $160
HOME-Water - $0
HOME-Furnace - $0
HOME-Mortgage - $2,328
HOME-Oil - $300
HOME-Trash - $0
KIDS-Bball - $120
KIDS-Misc. - $0
KIDS-Piano - $264
KIDS-Preschool - $0
MISC. - $300
MISC. - $350
PERSONAL-Cell Phone - $0
PERSONAL-Contacts - $0
PERSONAL-Life Ins. - $0
PERSONAL-Newspap - $8
PERSONAL-Rx - $20
PERSONAL-Braces - $100
PERSONAL-BR Sports - $0
PERSONAL-Vacation - $0
TRANSFER-To Sav - $2,500
TOTAL - $8,129

INCOME - January
1st Paycheck - $2,220
1st Commission - $3,000
15th Paycheck - $2,220
Church Pay - $100
Jewelry Pay - $50
Other - $0
Transfer from Savings - $0
TOTAL - $7,590

CASH FLOW - January
Beginning Balance - $850
'+ Income - $7,590
Subtotal - $8,440
'- Expenses - $8,129
Subtotal - $311
Save For Next Month - $311
Ending Balance - $0

I Think I'm On The Naughty List

2008-12-19T20:59:00.002-05:00

Oh - it's so hard to blog when you've been bad!

I want to be gazelle - but the reality is that it's just not happening right now.

Every month I make up the budget. But I have been making a lot of extra money with my jewelry shop - and that extra money hasn't been going where it should. It has been slipping through the cracks. Lots of presents for the kids for Christmas and lots of clothes for me (I'm embarassed to admit).

I had great plans to put all the extra earnings into our new "Snowball Savings Account" (ING Direct). I had hoped that opening this account would inspire me to keep depositing every extra penny so I could watch it grow (and eventually, barring any major financial setbacks, using it to pay down our last debt).

Ugh.

I guess there'll be New Year's Resolutions (yuk!).

And my husband wants us to refinance - and include our last debt (home equity loan) in the refinance. This would technically have us being done with Baby Step 2 - which would be great - but somehow it feels like it would be cheating. I'm just not sure it's the right thing to do.

In any case, if we do refinance, it would be to a 15 year mortgage (we currently have 15 years left on a 20 year mortgage) and it would be at a lower interest rate (obviously) - just not sure about the equity loan. But I think we might have to because I don't think you can refiance if you have an equity loan outstanding - but I'm not really sure.

Anyway - so sorry that I haven't been around for all my blogging friends. I'm still here and I'll be here for the long haul. Hopefully I will be posting more often though.

Off to catch up on all of your blogs and all the Carnivals I have missed.

Hope you're all enjoying the Holiday Season! Hope to have better news in future posts!

6 Things About Me

2008-11-24T19:58:00.004-05:00

I was tagged by Won't Go Down Without A Fight to share 6 things about myself, so here goes:

1. My husband was my high school sweetheart! It's almost embarassing to have met your husband in high school, but we did. We dated for six years and got married when we were 23. That was 17 years ago!

2. I love amusement park rides. The scarier the better! I never get tired of the theme parks in Florida. We are going in April and I can't wait!

3. I am a self help book junkie. I am always reading books about how to improve myself. I read fiction too and belong to a book club, but non fiction self help is my favorite.

4. I can speak French and Spanish. I spent my Junior Year of college in Paris and spent two summers in Spain.

5. I am one of those crazy Black Friday shoppers that stands in lines at 4 o'clock in the morning. I go with 2 of my sisters and it has become sort of a tradition. The sales aren't usually even good enough to justify the early hour and crazy lines, but it is realy fun in a weird way. Only 4 days away - I can't wait!

6. I am a Diet Coke addict. (Many of you probably already know that.) And I drink anywhere from 6 to 12 cans a day (I am embarassed to say!).

I tag:

Paid It Down And Moving Forward
Nine Circles of Debt
No More Spending

Update

2008-11-24T09:09:00.003-05:00

Things have been busy for me. Mostly with the jewelry business. Had a really good Craft Show this past weekend and earned $300! Whoo-hoo!

On line sales have been picking up as well, so I'm really happy with how that's going.

I've done a lot of Christmas shopping already. I am doing well staying within the budget for everyone except my oldest DD. Most the things she wants are really expensive. I had planned to stay under $200 for each of my 3 daughters, but I have decided to spend a little more on the oldest. Two of the items I want to get for her are a new winter coat and a pair of boots. Both things she needs. Of course, I'm sure I could get her ones cheaper than from Hollister and Uggs, but those are the ones she will like. So, I'm glad I have earned a little extra money to be able to get her a little extra. She's such a good kid (and hasn't even asked for these things though I know she will like them) and she got straight A's on her report card!

I did have a scare with having my cash envelopes this weekend. I have all of my usual cash envelopes funded (grocery, clothing, auto gas, spending $, dining out) but this month I also have my Christmas $ envelope - and it has over $1,000 in it. And while I was at the cast party of DD2's play, I left it unattended on my chair for a while, and then couldn't find it! I was in such a panic! I don't know what we would have done for Christmas if that had been taken. Luckily it was just underneath a bunch of coats. But it did make me realize that I shouldn't have all that cash with me all the time!

Other good news is that I noticed on our mortgage bill that our balance is down to $219,000. That's not terribly low I realize but in all my calculations I had us owing $240,000 - so we are in a little better shape than I thought. And I'm pretty sure that we refinanced to our 20 year mortgage in 2003, so that was almost 6 years ago, so I think we'll only have 14 years left on our mortgage. (I know 14 years is a long time, but it is a lot better than 30 years - and in our last house every time we refinanced we started over on a 30 year mortgage!) Hopefully we will follow Dave Ramsey's plan and get it paid off even earlier. Ideally we will have it paid off before my oldest daughter goes to college in 2015, although that's only 6 years away so it might be pretty tough to accomplish, but you never know.

The bad news is that there are rumors of layoffs at my husband's job. He doesn't think he would be affected - but you never know. The rumors are they will start on Dec. 15th. This had put a bit of a knot in my stomach but I am doing my best not to focus on that. We are doing everything we can to improve our financial situation, so we'll just hope for the best.

Update

2008-11-19T21:15:00.003-05:00

November Extra Income

Jewelry Sales: $439.50
Craft Fair: $57.00
Associated Content: $5.00
Blog Ads: $100.00
TOTAL: $601.50

Update

2008-11-10T10:53:00.002-05:00

Income:
Craft Fair: $57

Expenses:
Craft Booth Fee: $20

Net Profit:
Craft Fair: $37

Craft Fair this weekend wasn't as good as I had hoped. But earned a little cash.

Also closed 2 credit cards that had zero balances this morning. Hope that was the right thing to do and won't affect our FICO score too much. We now only have one credit card left and it has a zero balance. I don't think I will close that one. I just feel better keeping it around in case of emergencies. After all, our Fully Funded Emergency Fund isn't in place yet. I know Dave Ramsey wouldn't approve, but it makes me feel safer.

I did open an ING Direct account. Got a $25 bonus just for opening the account (with an initial deposit of at least $250). My plan is to use the ING Direct account for our "extra funds" from high commission months, our $1,000 Baby Emergency Fund, and money we are saving to replace the heating system, etc. All this kind of stuff. The balance will go up and down as we move funds in and out of the account.

I will keep our Emigrant Direct savings account to put all the funds that would normally be in our Debt Snowball paying off our last debt ($23,000 Home Equity Loan). Our target "snowball" amount is $1,100 a month. We are temporarily not paying it to the debt but instead putting it into savings "just in case" (i.e. due to the bad economy - no commissions, or God forbid - a layoff, etc.). The reason I decided to put this money in a separate account is that I need the gratification of watching an account go up and up month after month (like watching the debt amount go down and down month after month). And this way, any time I earn a little extra cash I can funnell that extra money into this account. I am hoping this will give me the extra momentum that I need right now. It was driving me crazy watching our 1 savings account go up and down all the time - not giving me any real sense of accomplishment. Now I can focus on growing this account as large as I can. I hope to "get gazelle" about it!

I Like Some Money More Than Others

2008-11-06T16:05:00.002-05:00

I have been feeling down because my jewelry sales have been very slow lately. I do have another Craft Show this weekend, so hopefully that will pick things up.

I was thinking about some of the things on my To Do List. I have several items that I need to return. This will put quite a bit of cash in my pocket (or back in the bank), yet I can't seem to get around to doing it. These returns are worth $60+, so I really need to do it.

I was thinking about how much happier I would be with $60 in jewelry sales. I would be psyched. Now, $60 is $60. But it's funny how different it can feel.

Step #4 (Continued)

2008-11-02T21:32:00.009-05:00

Forget The Joneses Project
I am participating in the Forget The Jonses Project (started by the MommySavers Forum), which involves 100 steps to get back on track financially, simplify, and add more meaning to your life. (You can read an outline of Steps 1-50 here.)

Step #4 - Create An Approved Spending List

I wrote about creating an approved spending list her e. But now, here's a look at the approved spending list I have created: (I will be the first to admit that everything on this list is a want, not a need. I am clearly cheating on the 21 day spending freeze. When I first learned about the Forget the Joneses project about 6 months ago, I actually did complete a very successful 21 day spending freeze. Even though I am not being as strict this time, I still think this is a worthwhile exercize and I want to move on the the other steps, so, here it is:

Special Outings (already planned) - $350
This includes a lot of activities for me this month, including going to a concert with my husand and some friends ($100), going on a day trip to New York City with some friends ($100), buying tickets to see my daughter in a play ($50).

Halloween candy - I bought this a couple of days ago as I had none to give out to Trick-or-Treaters. $8.00

Meeting a friend for lunch - $20. I haven't seen this friend in a while and we made plans to meet for lunch on Thursday. I will need to pay for my 5 year old daughter also.

Side Bar Goals - Update

2008-11-02T09:09:00.003-05:00

I thought I should take a look at the Financial Goals I had set in my sidebar and see how I'm doing on each one. Here were the goals I set:

1. - Be Aware of Financial Dangers (sisters)
2. - Plan Ahead Better (Florida trips)
3. - Start Diet & Exercise Routine
4. - Become Better at Budgeting
5. - Start Next Year's Budget Now
6. - Focus on Finances 1xDay
7. - Sign Up For FPU
8. - Pay Debts At Beginning of Month

1. Be Aware of Financial Dangers (especially hanging out with my sisters) - This one is a little hard to measure, except the part about my sisters. I haven't really gone shopping with my sisters, so in a sense I have avoided that danger. The real test will be to go shopping with them and to be successful (like only buying things on my list). A test of this will be coming up as I always go Christmas shopping with my sisters on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). I enjoy this tradition but will only be successful if I stick to my list and only buy gifts for others (nothing for myself) and stick to my pre-made Christmas budget. So, we'll see.

2. Plan Ahead Better (Florida trips). Well, we do have another trip planned, but this one is for my sister's wedding. We are going in April for a week. We already paid cash ($1,000) for the plane tickets for my family of 5. I have budgeted $2,000 for spending money for the trip. It's a little early to start packing yet, but I will definitely need to plan my clothing early and hopefully avoid the urge to buy all new clothes for the trip!

3. Start Diet and Exercise Routine - nope. Not at all.

4. Become Better At Budgeting - I think I am on my way here (finally). Realizing that I need to use my calendar (as explained in this post) was a huge step forward.

5. Start Next Year's Budget Now - I have done a complete budget for 2009 (which you can view here). I do still need to remember that if something comes up in this month's budget, I might need to remember to add it to next year's budget.

6. Focus on Finances at Least Once A Day - for the most part I have been doing this. I have been posting about every other day. I have been reading the financial carnivals and other pf blogs. I have been checking my on line accounts often.

7. Sign Up For Financial Peace University - done. I am about half way through this class that meets every Tuesday night. I am enjoying the refresher.

8. Pay Debts At The Beginning Of The Month - Well, we have temporarily stopped paying extra on our debts. We are instead putting all the extra cash into savings. The reason for this is that we are nervous about the unstable economy and how it might affect my husband's job. His commissions could be much lower than we have budgeted for and we want to be prepared for that. (And God forbid if there were layoff's at his company!) I do think I could fine tune this plan, though. I don't like having our "extra money" (the money that would have been paid to debt) mixed in with our other savings. The reason is that we sometimes need to take money out of this account for daily living expenses. We put in extra money on high commission months and take out money on low commission months. I feel we could have more control and feel more of a sense of accomplishment if this "extra money" was in a separate account that grew every month (rather than go up and down). So, I need to give this some thought and maybe open another savings account.

So, not a perfect score, but not too bad either.

I think we are at least moving in the right direction. ;)

Side Bar Updates

2008-10-29T09:42:00.004-04:00

I have updated some of my Sidebars.

Debt Payoff Progress

Starting Debt: $44,000
Current Debt: $23,144
Total Paid: $20,966

I'm a little disappointed that it's been 20 months and we have only paid off $20,966. I would have thought that we would be more than half way to having these debts paid off by now.

I guess I can be happy that at least we are moving in the right direction.

And I do remember that during this time we have also taken a vacation to Disney World (planned with the children prior to starting our debt free journey)and paid cash (about $4,000), and we bought tickets (with cash) to take my whole family to Florida for my sister's wedding (about $1,000), and we replaced our very old mattress ($1,000), and we replaced our broken dishwasher ($1,000), and we replaced our old and broken water heater ($1,000).

And on top of that we are paying cash monthly for our daughter's braces ($100/month). And we have almost $5,500 in savings.

I guess that's not too bad. Definitely an improvement over how we were living and spending before February 2007!

Savings Progress

Emergency Fund: $1,000
Jewelry Biz Earnings: $994
Other: $3,500
Total in Savings: $5,494.00

Our monthly savings total varies quite a bit from month to month. Here is my savings projections for the next 14 months. (Keep in mind that we have temporarily stopped paying extra on our last debt, a HELOC for $23,000, to put extra into savings due to the uncertain economic situation in our country.)

Savings Projections
11/08 $5,494
12/08 $4,794
01/09 $7,694
02/09 $8,694
03/09 $7,694
04/09 $7,194
05/09 $7,494
06/09 $7,994
07/09 $19,394
08/09 $18,894
09/09 $17,894
10/09 $19,894
11/09 $18,194
12/09 $17,794

Extra Earnings

Starting in November I am also going to once again begin tracking all extra income that I am able to earn. This will include tracking income and expenses (thus profit) for my jewelry business.

Finding Meals In My Pantry

2008-10-29T00:13:00.006-04:00

In conjunction with the Forget The Joneses Project and the 21 Day Spending Freeze, I am going to take a look in my pantry and freezer and see how many meals I can come up with.

I tend to buy in bulk and freeze a lot of things so I can hopefully come up with a lot!

1. Frozen Chicken Pot Pie
2. Pasta, Sauce, Frozen Meatballs
3. Pasta, Sauce, Frozen Meatballs
4. Pasta, Sauce, Frozen Meatballs
5. Kielbasa, Rice, Frozen Vegetables (frzn kielbasa, rice, frozen veggies)
6. Steak, Rice, Frozen Vegetables (frzn steak, rice, frozen veggies)
7. Tacos, Tortilla Chips, Salsa (frzn hamb, seasoning, tortillas, shells, cheese, salsa,*s. cream)
8. Chicken, Broccoli, Ziti (frozen chicken, frozen broccoli, ziti, parmesean cheese, butter,*milk)
9. Chicken, Rice, Vegetables (frozen chicken breasts, rice, frozen veggies)
10. Homemade Macaroni and Cheese (elbow noodles, cheese, *milk)
11. Homemade Macaroni and Cheese (elbow noodles, cheese, *milk)
12. American Chop Suey (elbow noodles, tomato sauce, frozen hamburger)
13. Homemade Pizza (frozen dough, tomato sauce, cheese)
14. Chicken Noodle Soup (frozen chicken, canned broth, egg noodles, frozen veggies)
15. Lasagna (noodles, mozzarella cheese, canned sauce, parm. cheese, *ricotta cheese)
16. Mexican Casserole (flour tortillas, cheese, canned enchilada sauce, green chiles)
17. Chicken Fajitas (frozen chicken, onions, seasoning, cheese, salsa, *s. cream, * flour tortillas)
18. Chili (frozen hamburger, seasoning, beans, cheese)
19. Beef stew (frozen beef, canned beef broth, seasoning, frozen veggies, *potatoes)
20. Chicken Picata, Rice, Frozen Vegetables (frozen chicken, lemon juice, capers, flour, butter)
21. Chicken Picata, Rice, Frozen Vegetables
22. Chicken Marsala, Rice, Frozen Vegetables (frozen chicken, marsala wine, flour, butter)
23. Chicken Marsala, Rice, Frozen Vegetables
24. Ravioli, Tomato Sauce (frozen ravioli, canned sauce)
25. Ravioli, Tomato Sauce

I have a total of 21 frozen chicken breasts in my freezer.
I have a total of 6 lbs of hamburger in my freezer.

* I will need to purchase these items: s. cream, potatoes, ricotta cheese, milk.

So, it appears that I have enough dinner meals to make it through the 21 day spending freeze.

How many meals can you find in your pantry?

A Surprising (But Essential) Budgeting Tool

2008-10-28T22:49:00.011-04:00

(This article was included in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance!)

As I realize that I have not done a terrific job of budgeting over the past couple of months, it has become clear to me that I have neglected to use an essential budgeting tool - a calendar.

Use A Calendar!

Up until now, I have thought about each months expenses in an almost abstract way. Wouldn't it be better to actually look at the commitments we have scheduled and go from there?

I think the reason that I haven't done this in the past is because I want to decide in advance how much I will spend on a category - and then force myself to stay within that limit, rather than plan everything I want to do and use the cost of those plans as my budget figure.

I think that true success is probably found somewhere in the middle.

My November Plans

Let's look at my November plans and budget as an example.

Normally, I budget $20 each for my husband and myself for spending money each week. On top of that, I budget $120 for the month for dining out.

Now, I will take a look at the commitments I have already scheduled for November.

11/1 - We have plans to go out to a concert with friends. We are leaving at 5:45pm and will return probably around midnight. I will need to pay a babysitter for about 6 hours at a rate of approximately $10/hour, for a total of $60. The event is byob and food. We have some left over beer and wine from our Halloween party last weekend, so no extra cost for drinks. I will need to bring some food, but that can come out of our regular grocery budget. We will need to pay for the concert tickets which will be $20 each, for a total of $40. So, the total amount I will need to budget for this event will be: $100.

11/8 - I have plans to go on a one day bus trip to New York City with a few girlfriends. The cost of the bus is $45. We leave very early in the morning and will get home very late in the evening, so I will need to purchase breakfast, lunch, and dinner (yes, I can bring coffee from home and a muffin and some snacks), but I should plan maybe $5 for breakfast, $25 for lunch, and $35 for dinner. (These are high figures, but it is NYC so I would rather over estimate than under estimate.) And we will of course be doing some shopping in the city. I don't plan on buying anything for myself, but I will be on the lookout for Christmas gifts. This won't require any extra money as I will just use the money from the Christmas budget. So, the total amount I will need to budget for this event will be: $110.

11/16 - My book club is planning a trip to the Mayflower and dinner out. I'm not sure how much the tickets for the Mayflower will be, I'll guess $20. And I'll plan $30 for dinner (a high estimate, but sometimes in a group the bill will just be divided equally, so just to be safe). Total: $50.

11/22 & 23 - My daughter is in a play that I will be bringing my family to see. I think the tickets are $10 each. I will probably go to both shows. I guess we'll need to budget $50 for the tickets. There is a cast party that we will probably need to contribute money to. Maybe $20? They will be collecting money for a gift for the organizer, probably another $20 (maybe less). So, another $40. Making the total amount I will need to budget for this event: $90.

11/27 - I will be hosting Thanksgiving for my extended family. I have already budgeted an extra $50 in our "party" category to cover the extra food (in addition to our regular grocery budget). This will hopefully be enough. My extended family will be in town for several days and I'm sure we'll all go out for dinner together at some point, so I should budget another $50 for this event.

Conclusions

So, for the events that I have already committed myself to for the month of November, the total amount needed will be: $400. (Wow!) This is a lot more than the $120 dining out money plus the $80 blow money ($20 each week for me), that I had previously planned for.

So, simply by using my calendar, I have realized that I need to either increase my budget by $200, or change some of my plans for the month.

I'm very excited about the realization of how helpful a calendar can be when planning a budget. Hope it helps you too!

(Note: I am amazed at how many plans I have scheduled for November. Seems like a lot more than usual. This is going to be a challenge given my plan for a 21 day spending freeze in conjunction with the Forget The Joneses Project!)

Step #4

2008-10-28T21:25:00.006-04:00

Forget The Joneses Project
I am participating in the Forget The Jonses Project (started by the MommySavers Forum), which involves 100 steps to get back on track financially, simplify, and add more meaning to your life. (You can read an outline of Steps 1-50 here.)

Step #4 - Create An Approved Spending List

Notebook Assignment

MommySavers says, "Write down all the things you think you will need to purchase in the next three weeks. You are only allowed to purchase the bare-bones minimum, things you cannot get by without. This isn’t the time to hit the Target clearance rack (you can do without gift wrap for next Christmas) or to stock up on kids’ clothing for next fall (chances are they’ll have enough anyway). This is a time for you stay out of the stores and to question what is truly a necessity."

"Now get going… write down everything that is on your “approved” spending list between now and the end of the freeze. As things come up within the 21-day period, decide whether or not they belong on the “approved” spending list. You may unexpectedly run out of deodorant. It’s OK to add it to your approved list when the need arises."

****
I'll get to work on my list . . .

Step #3

2008-10-28T21:12:00.005-04:00

Forget The Joneses Project
I am participating in the Forget The Jonses Project (started by the MommySavers Forum), which involves 100 steps to get back on track financially, simplify, and add more meaning to your life. (You can read an outline of Steps 1-50 here.)

Step #3 - Question The Difference Between Wants and Needs

MommySavers says, "During your spending freeze, you will need to question the difference between wants and needs. Some things will be more clear than others. Yes, chances are you need gas to get to work. No, you don’t need a new necklace to match the sweater you got for Christmas."

"… But what about the things that aren’t so obvious? Do you really need to birthday card for you brother-in-law, or can you make one? Do you really need to get your hair colored? Those gray areas (pun intended) are where your challenges lie. Try to anticipate the decisions you’ll have to make in the next three weeks. Are you going to be invited out to lunch? If your child needs money for school lunch, will you have him brown-bag it instead? What will you do?"

***
So, the items I purchased today were: crystals for a pendant order (I think that qualifies as a need as someone ordered and paid for a pendant with a crystal and I didn't have any more of them), some glue for my jewelry business (another need to keep my business going), and some modeling clay for my daughter's school project (I guess the modeling clay isn't technically a need, we could have maybe found something else around the house for her to use for her project).

So, Day 1 of my spending freeze and after a little thought it looks like I already made one purchase that was a want not a need.

This is going to be really hard!

Step #2

2008-10-28T20:19:00.012-04:00

Forget The Joneses Project
I am participating in the Forget The Jonses Project (started by the MommySavers Forum), which involves 100 steps to get back on track financially, simplify, and add more meaning to your life. (You can read an outline of Steps 1-50 here.)

Step #2 - Go On A 21 Day Spending Freeze

What is a spending freeze? MommySavers says, "To put it simply, no more spending. Zip. Zilch. Nada. You’re not allowed to spend money on anything but necessities. Use up the food you have in your cupboards. Your grocery budget is now limited to what you must buy (milk and toilet paper, for example). Think of it as “Mommysavers Survivor” except the only prize at the end of the game is the money you’ve saved."

"Why 21 days? Research shows it takes approximately 21 days to make something a habit. During these three weeks, the habit of questioning wants vs. needs will be reinforced."

****
So, today was Day #1 of my 21 Day Spending Freeze. I did buy a few supplies that I needed for my jewelry business. I really wanted an Egg Sandwich from Dunkin Donuts, but I stayed strong and came home and cooked up some eggs and homefries instead.

The freeze for me will last from today, October 28th through November 17th.

This is going to be hard!

Step #1

2008-10-28T19:55:00.021-04:00

Forget The Joneses Project - Steps 1 thru 50

2008-10-28T00:54:00.008-04:00

I am participating in the Forget The Jonses Project, which involves 100 steps to get back on track financially, simplify, and add more meaning to your life. (This project originated at the MommySavers Forum. It is a great site. Feel free to join and participate in the project there.)

Below is an outline of Steps 1 through 50. Follow along and watch my progress in future posts.

PHASE ONE: THE SPENDING FREEZE

#1 Grab a Notebook
#2 Go on a 21-Day Spending Freeze
#3 Question the Difference Between Wants and Needs
#4 Create an "Approved Spending" List
#5 Get Support
#6 Track Your Temptations
#7 Celebrate Your Victories
Step #8: Get a Clear Financial Picture/Calculate Your Net Worth
Step #9: Reflect Upon What You've Learned
Step #10: Track Your Spending
Step #11: The Modified Spending Freeze
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHASE TWO: DREAMS AND GOALS

Step #12: Dream a Little
Step #13: Analyze Your Dreams
Step #14: Organizing Your Dreams
Step #15: Turning Your Dreams into Goals
Step #16: Supercharging Success
Step #17: Accept Responsibility, Gain Control

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHASE THREE: BUDGETING

Step #18: Gather Your Records
Step #19: Calculate Your Cost of Living
Step #20: BONUS STEP Create a Vision Board
Step #21: Calculate Your Income
Step #22: Re-Evaluate Expenses
Step #23: Avoid Budgeting Mistakes
Steps #24 & 25: Wrapping Up Your Budget

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHASE FOUR: PAYING IT DOWN

Step #26: Know Your FICO Score
Step #27: Analyze Your FICO Score
Step #28: Get a Handle on Your Debt
Step #29: Prioritize Paydowns
Step #30: Accelerate Paydowns
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHASE FIVE: PURGE

Step #31: Create a Vision
Step #32: Plan Your Piles
Step #33: Create Room for What You Want in Life
Step #34: Think About Why You Hang Onto Things
Step #35: Get it Done!
Step #36: Organize
Step #37: Freshen Up!
Step #38: Maintain

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHASE SIX: MINDFUL SHOPPING

Step #39: Identify Shopping Mistakes, Weaknesses and Triggers
Step #40: Come up with Coping Mechanisms
Step #41: Put Your Money Where Your Priorities Are
Step #42: Be Wary of Spaving
Step #43: Spending with a Purpose
Step #44: Be Wary of Rationalizing Purchases
Step #45: Fun Money

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHASE SEVEN: KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE

Step #46: First Things First
Step #47: Delay of Gratification
Step #48: Determine Underlying Wants
Step #49: It's About the Feeling
Steps #50 & #51: Energize Your Goals

Forget The Joneses Project - Overview

2008-10-28T00:37:00.004-04:00

I have decided to revisit the "Forget The Joneses Project" that is happening over at the MommySavers Forum.

The Forget The Jonses Project is a series of 100 Steps for you to follow to get back on track financially, simplify, and add more meaning to your life! Sounds like a good plan to me!

If you would like to participate in the Project over at MommySavers, you will need to sign up as a registered user (it is a very nice site), or you can just follow along with me.

I have outlined Steps 1-50 in my next post.

I will go into each step in more detail as I go along and share my progress with you.

Wish me luck!

Thinking Through A Large Purchase

2008-10-28T00:04:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago our dishwasher broke. It is very old and was beyond repair.

The most frugal thing to do would be to not replace the dishwasher and to wash all the dishes by hand. A very good friend of mine voluntarily lives without a dishwasher. She built a new home about 5 years ago and actually chose not to put a dishwasher in her new home! She says she has always hated emptying the dishwasher and finds it easier to just wash the dishes by hand. So, I guess it can be done . . . just not by me. Although a dishwasher isn't an actual necessity, I personally feel that it is very close to being a need (rather than a want).

So, we had decided we would purchase a new dishwasher.

We just had to decide how much we were going to spend.

If you haven't shopped for a dishwasher in a while, they vary greatly in price and generally range in price from about $250 all the way up to $1,500 and more.

The way I saw it, we first had to think about our kitchen and decide if we would ever do a major kitchen renovation before we could decide which dishwasher to purchase.

Although we have no immediate plan to renovate our kitchen (as much as I would like to), I do dream of a new kitchen. In my dreams, we would enlarge the kitchen (extending into our large back yard) to include a large area for a table (making it an eat in kitchen) and get all new cabinets and appliances. Given our current financial situation and the fact that I would like to pay for my 3 daughters to go to college, this kind of a kitchen renovation is probably unlikely.

More likely, we would update our current kitchen keeping the existing floor plan. We would update all the appliances, the counter tops, and maybe new cabinets (or reface the existing cabinets), and get a new floor.

Deciding on if and when we would ever renovate our kitchen as well as to what extent we would renovate became crucial as we contemplated the new dishwasher.

Basically, we had 3 options to consider.

Option 1 - Real Cheap Dishwasher
My mom was for this option. She felt that we should get a real cheap dishwasher. Then, when we renovate out kitchen (someday) she advised we could just get rid of the cheap dishwasher and put in a nice one.

I thought about this but decided that ideally I would like to do some upgrading to our kitchen within the next 5 years and it would not make any sense to throw out a dishwasher that was less than 5 years old.

Option 2 - High End Dishwasher
My best friend felt we should purchase a dishwasher that would be able to be "integrated" in our kitchen once it is renovated. This would mean that it would be like a regular dishwasher now but when we get new cabinets, the front of the dishwasher would be able to be covered with the same cabinetry as our cabinets (making it integrated). Though I love the look of this, when I really thought about it I came to realize that I don't think this kind of a very high end kitchen is really realistically in my future (given the other financial goals that I would like to achieve). So, I decided against spending over $1,200 on a dishwasher for this reason.

Option 3 - Mid Priced Dishwasher
Ultimately, I decided to get a mid priced dishwasher ($550 after $150 rebate) in stainless steel. I think I will eventually upgrade all my appliances to stainless steel, so getting a dishwasher now that we can keep even in our renovated kitchen seemed to make the most sense to me.

It's funny how much a simple dishwasher made me think about our future financial goals and plans. A renovated kitchen of varying magnitudes has always been a far off dream. Even though the high end dream kitchen was fun to fantasize about, I actually feel more excited about a modest kitchen renovation that could actually happen within a decade.

Contemplating Christmas

2008-10-27T10:28:00.002-04:00

I would like to keep the Christmas budget low this year. Actually, I'd like to keep our total Gifts Budget a bit lower than it has been - but I'm finding it difficult.

The problem I am facing is that our friends and family spend too much on gifts. This puts pressure on me to spend too much in kind.

This past weekend I had a joint birthday party for 2 of my daughters that have birthdays close together. The average gift for each daughter was $25, including actual gift cards and cash in that amount.

This puts pressure on me to give birthday gifts and Christmas gifts back to these people in the amount of $25. (Actually, some of my friends have argued that I should be giving more in some cases. They believe that if my cousin, who has 1 child, gives each of my 3 children a $25 gift for their birthday, that I should give that cousin's child a $75 gift on her birthday! This is completely outside of my budget, so I don't even get in to considering this. I would prefer that my cousin got my kids an $8 gift - but how do I do that?)

On the surface, everything seems fine. They give my kids $25 gifts. I give their kids $25 gifts. And everything is equal. The problem is that I can't really afford to spend this much money on gifts. It's not like I take the cash from my kids (even when the gift is cash). The truth is that all the kids have too much money tied up in lots of toys and stuff that they don't need (including my kids). All these $25 gifts add up to a lot of money. Money that I would rather spend paying off debts, putting into savings, paying for my daughters to go to college, investing, etc.

I have tried, especially with my 3 sisters, to get them to give less expensive gifts, but it hasn't had much of an effect.

I know I should just give what I feel is appropriate and that I can afford, and not worry about how much they spend on my family - but that is easier said than done.

C'mon - Win This!

2008-10-27T10:25:00.003-04:00

I am doing another pendant give away! And I would LOVE to give it to one of my blogger friends! Won't you guys leave a comment on this post for a chance to win? It would make a cute holiday gift for someone on your list. C'mon! :)

After Holiday Sales - How To Make Them Work

2008-10-21T22:40:00.004-04:00

This post was featured in the Festival of Frugality #149 as an Editor's Pick this week!

I am a big fan of shopping for clearance items after a holiday.

Every year I host a huge Halloween party to celebrate the birthdays of two of my daughters that have birthdays near Halloween. We do an elaborate Haunted House, so I am always on the lookout for cool new Halloween novelties. After Halloween, I can usually find a bunch for 90% off!

This is terrific. But there is another step that I seem to forget every year - and that is to check out what you bought last year before you purchase anything new this year!

This bit me twice so far this year.

First, I let my five year old get a costume that she fell in love with at CVS last week. It was on sale for 25% off, and I had $7 in extra bucks, so I went ahead and purchased the costume (for $11 before using the xtra bucks). What I had not remembered was that I had purchased her a costume (actually 2 costumes!) on clearance after Halloween last year! Of course I could return the unused costume to CVS but my daughter is already really in love with it. (She does like the other costumes, but prefers this one.) So - I'm going to let her keep it. I'm sure all of these costumes will fit her again next year (and hopefully I'll remember before purchasing another one next year!).

Second, I purchased a Halloween pinata on sale at Target and later found one that I had also purchased on clearance after Halloween last year. I returned the new pinata to Target, but lesson learned.

I hope to remember this lesson at Christmas time - and check to see what I have (probably bought on clearance last year) before purchasing anything new!

Where's My Gazelle?

2008-10-18T16:43:00.003-04:00

Not sure what I have to update really.

The Financial Peace University class has been going well. I do wish that the discussions were a bit more personal though. No one discusses their actual amount of their debts, or their budgets, envelopes, etc. I understand that not everyone wants to share this kind of "personal" information, but I think everyone would get more out of the discussions if they talked about specifics.

It has been good for me to focus on finances for a solid 2 hours every week. In the past I easily spent 2 hours a day focusing on finances, but I find that I'm doing it less so now. So the FPU class is good for that.

Since we aren't doing the Debt Snowball right now (and rather putting that money into Savings in anticipation of "storm clouds") I am finding that I don't get that same sense of satisfaction of paying large chunks towards a goal. Our savings balance goes up and down due to saving money from large commission months and using the money for low commission months - so it's not like the savings account is steadily growing. The ups and downs just aren't as gratifying, and I fear that we have not been sticking to the budget as closely as we should.

I think that maybe I should separate our savings. One account for money that goes in and out of our checking account as needed, and another that is for the more long term savings and rainy day/snowball. Most people would probably keep the in and out money right in their checking account - but I have found that that doesn't work well for us. If the money is in our checking account we tend to spend it. I find it works much better for us to only keep exactly what we will need for the month in their (zero based budget).

The benefit of having another savings account that would just continue to grow would be that we would get a much better sense of accomplishment I think, by seeing a balance go up and up (in the same way that it was so gratifying to see our debt balance go down and down).

I don't know. I just know that I'd like to get some of that gazelle intensity back.

Bare Necessity Expenses

2008-10-10T11:40:00.002-04:00

I decided that I should figure out what our actual "bare necessity expenses" are for one month. These are the expenses we couldn't get rid of, even with a job loss, or something like that.

The total of our necessary monthly expenses comes to $3,965.

It is somewhat interesting to me because my husband's salary (without commission) is $4,400. I actually had thought that his base salary would NOT cover our basic expenses, but I guess it does. Well, pretty close anyway. In this list I have lowered our auto gas figure considerably if my husband wasn't commuting to work.

So, if my husband lost his job, we would have to earn a minimum of $4,000 a month Expenses
AUTO-Excise Tax
AUTO GAS - BR	150
AUTO-Insurance	120
AUTO-Maintenance
CASH-Auto Gas JR
CASH-Clothing
CASH-Dining Out
CASH-Gifts
CASH-Grocery	200
CASH-Kids Allowance
CASH-Parties
CASH-School Lunch
CASH-Spending
DEBT-Equity Loan	103
DEBT-Visa
HOME-Cable/Phone	181
HOME-Electric	190
HOME-Furnace	0
HOME-Mortgage	2328
HOME-Oil	550
HOME-Trash	20
KIDS-Bball
KIDS-Misc.
KIDS-Piano
KIDS-Preschool
MISC.
MISC.
PERSONAL-Cell Phone
PERSONAL-Contacts
PERSONAL-Life Ins.	23
PERSONAL-Newspap
PERSONAL-Rx
PERSONAL-Braces	100
PERSONAL-BR Sports
PERSONAL-Vacation
TRANSFER-To Sav 2
TOTAL
	3965

So, if my husband lost his job, we would need to come up with $4,000 a month to survive (at least in our current house). For one person working 40 hours a week, that would mean an hourly wage better than $25 an hour. That might be hard to come by in a bad economy.

Right now we have $8,000 in our savings account. That would get us through 2 months. By the end of the year we will have $20,000 in our account. That would get us through 5 months.

I'm not sure if I feel better or worse, but I think it is good information to know.

Do you know what your "Bare Necessity Expenses" are?

Win This Breast Cancer Awareness Pendant

2008-10-10T10:59:00.006-04:00

Hello my blog friends. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month I wanted to give you all the chance to visit this blog post at Sarah's Surprises for a chance to win this Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Awareness Pendant.

Just leave a comment on that post. A winner will be selected on the morning of October 13th. :)

Saving On The Electric Bill

2008-10-10T00:31:00.002-04:00

I saw an episode on Oprah this week where a woman said she lowered her electric bill from $264 a month to $60 a month. She said the main thing she did was to unplug everything when not in use because these "phantom charges" really add up.

Then I read about using most of your appliances mostly during off peak hours as there is a big price difference between peak time and off peak time. So, I looked up the prices for my electric company and here is what I found:

Peak Hours:

January 1—March 8: 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
March 9—April 5: 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.*
April 6—October 25: 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
October 26—November 1: 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.*
November 2—December 31: 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Distribution Charge
Peak Hours
Off-Peak Hours
6.525¢/kWh
0.419¢/kWh
Transmission Charge 1.256¢/kWh
Transition Charge
Peak Hours
Off-Peak Hours
0.703¢/kWh
0.059¢/kWh
Demand Side Management Charge 0.250¢/kWh
Renewables Charge 0.050¢/kWh

So, seems like it could make a real impact if I did laundry and such either early in the morning or late at night.

Going to give it a try.

Surviving An Economic Depression

2008-10-09T17:39:00.002-04:00

Yes, I'm in a little bit of a panic.

I spent the past several hours reading about preparing for an Economic Depression. I know this may be a little premature, but let me tell you, do a google search for "preparing for economic depression" and you will get pages and pages. Many people think this is going to happen.

So, here is what I am thinking about doing to prepare:

1. Stop extra debt payments (as mentioned in my last post). Although many articles I read suggest paying off debts as quickly as possible, I am afraid of being cash strapped. (Of course, if the dollar loses all value, cash won't be worth anything anyway.)

2. Stock my pantry. When I began paying attention to my finances I started with stockpiling groceries. It is a great way to save on food and be prepared for the unexpected. As I have gotten busier I have not stockpiled as much. I plan to start now and fill my pantry with as many non perishables purchased at the lowest price possible. I am thinking: rice, flour, sugar, salt, oatmeal, pasta, tomato sauce, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent.

3. Stock up on water. My husband will think I'm crazy but I'd feel better with 25 gallons of spring water in the garage. I'd also like to look into getting water purification tablets. Can't hurt.

4. Keep some cash in the house. I'm not talking about taking all my money out of the bank, but I think I would feel better if I had $1,000 to $2,000 in cash in the house.

I think those will be my first steps.

Do you think I'm crazy?

I Am Letting My Snowball Melt

2008-10-08T17:03:00.002-04:00

So, it's been decided. I am no longer trying to pay off my debts (well, debt - only one left). No more debt snowball.

I know. It's radical.

No - I have not given up. I just see "storm clouds" on the horizon and I want to be prepared.

With the economy the way it is (in bad shape), there is a very real chance that my husband's commission could go down - waaay down. Now, they might not - but I want to be prepared. So, to be prepared, instead of making extra payments (snowball) to our debt, I will be putting that money in our savings account. If things get bad, we will have those funds to rely on. If they don't, we can take all the money we saved up and make a big payment to our debt.

We still owe $22,000. I wish we owed nothing but it is what it is. We will eventually get to "debt free" but right now we need to be prepared for the worst.

Fearing Tough Economic Times

2008-09-30T13:23:00.002-04:00

I really have to stop watching the news. (Hard to do right now as my parents are still staying with us and have it on every morning.)

I have so much anxiety over the US Financial Crisis. The fact that the bailout didn't pass Congress yesterday has my stomach in knots.

I'm not even sure exactly what the effects of all this will be, but it all has me soooo nervous!

I so wish that we had all our debts paid off and had our 6 month Fully Funded Emergency Fund.

Oh well . . . coulda, woulda, shouda . . . - doesn't really help now.

I know that my family is in a much better financial position than we were a year and a half ago. But we still have a long way to go. We still owe $22,000 - and that is a lot of money.

We do have a lot in savings right now - $8,000 - but it is all earmarked for things. New heating system or windows ($5,000), DD's braces ($1,200), Sister's wedding ($4,000), plus low commission months. The way I have the yearly budget worked out right now, we will end the year (Dec. 2009) with $2,700 in savings. This would be for $1,000 emergency fund, and $1,700 (I prefer to always have $2,000) to cover for future low commission months.

So, on paper, this all works out.

What has me in a panic is the financial crisis. It could have a very real affect on my husband's commissions. They could possibly be 30-50% less than what we have budgeted. What will we do then?

I think that for my own peace of mind I need to do up a PLAN B BUDGET to plot out the worst case senario. I do have us snowballing a lot of money most months (though several months I had to go lower than the $1,100 that I would like to snowball, just to get the budget to "work").

Here is what I have planned to snowball each month:

Sep -$700
Oct - $1,100
Nov - $500
Dec - $500
Jan - $100
Feb - $100
Mar - $100
Apr - $1,100
May -$1,100
Jun - $500
Jul - $4,100
Aug - $1,100
Sep - $1,100
Oct - $1,100
Nov - $1,100
Dec - $1,100
TOTAL = $15,400

Now that I am looking at it, it's actually making me feel a little bit better. Originally I was very upset because we still owe $22,000 on our Home Equity Loan, and even with this payment schedule, we still won't have it paid off at the end of next year.

Now I am thinking that there may be some Storm Clouds coming - and maybe we need to stop our giant Debt Snowball temporarily, to see what happens with the economy and my husbands commissions (pay).

Our minimum payment on our HELOC is only about $100 a month. So, if we only paid that, we could put the rest into savings. That would be close to $14,000. That would make me feel A LOT better.

I hate to stop the debt payments, but I need to be able to sleep at night. If the storm clouds don't come, we can just take the large sum from savings and pay it directly to the HELOC. And if they come, at least we'll have an umbrella.

And there is also my jewelry business to consider. It has really been going quite well. I have been making close to $500 a month, getting busier each month. I have only budgeted $50 a month from my jewelry towards our family budget, but the fact is that I may be able to contribute more on that front.

Now that I think about it, maybe I can just use any "extra" jewelry money for the debt snowball. So, I would just pay the minimum payment, plus any extra jewelry money I can towards the debt. That way at least we would be paying something extra to the debts.

Well, I feel a little bit better now. :)

I'm Still Here

2008-09-25T10:53:00.002-04:00

Wow. It's been over a week. The busy excuse just doesn't cut it.

A lot has been going on. Our current major decision is about heating our home this winter. We did set aside money to replace our heating system. We ear marked $5,000 for this and it was supposed to get done over the summer. We did some research and couldn't decide if we should replace with a new Oil system (forced hot water) like we have now - or with the outrageous price of oil, if we should do a Propane or Electric (new type) system to try to save on heating costs.

Then my husband started thinking that maybe we should replace our very old windows this year, and replace the heating system next year.

I just don't know.

With the economy the way it is, I am feeling very unsettled and am reluctant to spend the money we have set aside. I feel like we may need that money for food and the mortgage.

The financial institutions crisis may have a very real effect on my husband's commission. About 50% of his account base is made up of financial institutions (including AIG and Meryl Lynch). This could mean a very real drop in our income this year. My security gland is nervous!

Then there is my sisters wedding to consider. The plan is for her to have her wedding in Florida in April. This will require my family of 5 to fly down to Florida. This will be expensive. I am thinking around $4,000.

The way I have everything laid out in the budget, it might all work, assuming my husband's commission at a certain level.

So, we have a lot of decisions to make right now and it is causing some stress and arguing in my marriage. It doesn't help that my parents have been staying with us for over a month and my husband is tired of having company here.

So, even though I haven't been posting - finances have definitely been on my mind.