February Income & Spending

Okay, it is officially 1/31/08, not technically the first day of the month of February, but since my husband get's his check on the last day of the month and we use it to pay the bills due at the beginning of the month, so I decided that I would count the last day of the month towards the following month. So, February's Income and Spending will include all money in and out from 1/31/08 through 2/28/08.

So, here goes my attempt at tracking everything:

Today's Income:
$2,337.47 - DH Paycheck
$729.43 - DH Commission Check
$57.74 - Return (check from AmX for credit balance)
$20.00 - JR Babysitting $

Today's Spending:
$5.66 - Food Treat (took dd to McDonalds)
$72.02 - Groceries
$7.00 - Newspaper(monthly)
$10.00 - Debt Payment (Capital One, min. pay - not full snowball payment yet)
$45.00 - Snowplow Payment
$361.25 - Oil Bill (monthly)
$1.88 - Coffee Treat (Dunkin Donuts on the way to town meeting)

1/30/08 - Daily Progress Report

Did a few returns today. Two large Littlest Pet Shop playhouses that I had got two of my daughters for Christmas that were still unopened - $20 each. Some socks my daughter didn't like - $6, and another unused Christmas gift - $6. For a total of $52 dollars returned!

I still have a couple more things from Christmas that I know I need to return. And I'm sure if I looked around a bit I could find still more things around the house that we bought but later found that we didn't need. Returning things is one of the easiest ways to "earn" extra money, I find.

Okay, I did buy myself a couple of things - a new shirt, socks, and earrings. These are to wear on my 40th birthday this weekend, and I used a Target gift card we received for Christmas.

The kids have a half day today so it will be a noisy afternoon!

New Addition To The Family

Well, I haven't posted about it yet, but Santa brought us a kitten for Christmas! She is very cute and a welcome addition to our family. But having a pet does cost money. We had figured on the monthly food and kitty litter, but we hadn't planned on monthly medicine.

Turns out our new kitty has a serious heart problem that requires daily medication for the rest of her life! We had been told originally that the medicine was a nominal cost. Well, today we found out the actual cost is $15 + $7 shipping for a total of $22 a month. That's not what I consider nominal. I was expecting like $3 or $5.

Not too much we can do about it though. She's a family member now and we love her.

Good thing I have that extra weekly babysitting money coming in ($40 a week). I think I need to get back to my goal of earning an extra $1,000 a month. I was able to do it a few times over the past year. I just need to keep at it. I do have stuff to sell on ebay so I think I need to get a bit organized and plan one day a week to post stuff. Need to focus on my jewelry business too.

Anyway, we love our new kitten and feel she is worth these extra costs.

1/28/08 - Daily Progress Report

Well, I'm gearing up for February 1st - Planning to start tracking every cent that comes into or goes out of my life. Going to give it a try for at least a month. This is going along with the "Your Money or Your Life" program. I did give this a try many months ago - and it was A LOT more difficult than I had anticipated.

Also gearing up for my 40th birthday this weekend. :( Yeah - can't say I'm too excited about turning 40. I think my life should be in better shape by this age. I have weight to lose, debts to pay off, and things to save for. But, I'm on the right track, so I guess things could be worse.

That reminds me of a great blog post I read recently (can't remember which blog, sorry!). It was about learning to be content as the best way to keep from overspending. I think this is SOO true! Learning to be content is definitely on the top of my list of things to work on. And I do have a lot to be content about! Great family, good friends, nice home - the list goes on and on.

I just have to remember to keep remembering that! :)

1/27/08 - Daily Progress Report

Wow! It's been over a week since I have posted! I can't believe that.

Anyway, I was away for the weekend, scrapbooking with a group of friends. It is a yearly trip and is a lot of fun. Scrapbooking can be an expensive hobby though. Luckily this whole trip was paid for last year. It was great looking at all the photos of my 3 daughter's when they were babies. Boy the time does go by fast! Gets me thinking about how quickly the time will come when they will be going off to college. That thought makes me both want to save, save, save to have enough for college. And also to spend some making more wonderful memories - creating a fun childhood for them. I guess fun times can be had without spending money, or without spending a lot of money. So, for the next few months I'm planning to spend some time planning some fun activities - at least one per month. Bowling, skiing, movies - whatever. But I think we have cut our entertainment spending too much. And I want to align my spending closer to my values. So, spend more on fun for the kids, and cut back somewhere else. Need to think more about where we can cut back . . .

1/19/08 - Daily Progress Report

My three daughter's had a birthday part to go to today. Luckily I was able to re-gift several nice toys that my daughter's had received for either their birthday or Christmas that they didn't need or want. So we didn't need to spend any money and we were able to give 3 nice, new, appropriate presents to the birthday girl.

I also did a return of a gift that I had received for Christmas and have a merchandise credit that I will use later this year to buy a gift for my sister for her birthday.

So I think I managed not to spend any money today.

I must admit though that I have not been tracking all of my expenses daily, which I had planned to do (as outlined in the steps of the Your Money Or Your Life program). This sounds like an excuse, and maybe it is, but it seems odd to start in the middle of the month, so I plan to start tracking everything to the penny starting Feb 1st.

I'm also a few days behind in posting my earnings. So here's the update since my last earnings posting:

Earnings:
Associated Content: $1.20
Babysitting: $45
Rebate: $5
Returns: $10.50
Ad Revenue: $ .98
TOTAL: $71.68

The Value of Long Term Planning

" Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true." Lester R. Bittel, The Nine Master Keys of Management.


Most of us who are interested in Personal Finance have well defined short term financial plans. Many, like myself, have a short term plan to get out of debt. These short term goals are great because they take a relatively short time to accomplish, and because we are all influenced by the lure of instant gratification, this allows us to use that desire in a positive way.

There is also tremendous value in long term planning. I find that often it is my long term financial plans that keep me inspired to stick with my short term ones.

Write out a list of your long term goals.
There is something magical about writing things down. When you write down a goal, you are more likely to achieve that goal. The simple act of writing something down can magically transforms a wish into a goal.

Your financial goals could include anything you want to accomplish in the future that will require money. This could include paying for yourself or your children to go to college, paying for your wedding or your children's weddings, paying off your home mortgage, saving for retirement, buying a vacation home, or even traveling around the world. Whatever financial plans you have for the future, write them down.

Decide on a time frame for your goals.
Next to each of the goals you have outlined, write down the year that you would like to achieve the goal. If you have a ten year old daughter and you would like to pay for her to go to college, you will need the money for her first year of tuition by 2018. So, next to the goal of "pay for daughter to attend college" you would write in "2018". If you would like to pay for your children's weddings, you could estimate that they might get married at age 26 and write in the corresponding year.

Figure out the amount of money you will need for each goal.
You probably won't know the exact amount of money you will need for each goal, but write down your best estimate. (There are also a lot of on-line resources that can help you figure out how much some things might cost in the future. A good resource to determine the future cost of a college education is available at The College Board website.)

Plot your goals on a time line.
It can be very helpful to do out a time line of the next 30 or so years of your life. Plot out all of your financial goals on the timeline along with the amount of money required for each goal. In this way you can clearly see how much money is needed and how much (or little) time you have to save for it.

Here is what my "Major Life Expenses Timeline" looks like.

Our major plans include paying off our debts, saving a fully funded emergency fund, paying off our home mortgage, sending each of our 3 daughters to college, paying for each of our 3 daughter's weddings, and retiring with enough money to live off our investments at age 65.

2008
2009 - (May) Debts Paid off ($36,000)
2010 - (June) Fully Funded Emergency Fund ($30,000)
2011 -
2012
2013
2014
2015 - (Sep) DD1 College-1($54,000)
2016 - (Sep) DD1 College-2($54,000)
2017 - (Sep) DD1 College-3($54,000) + DD2 College-1($54,000) = ($108,000)
2018 - (Sep) DD1 College-4($54,000) + DD2 College-2($54,000) = ($108,000)
2019 - (Sep) DD2 College-3($54,000)
2020 - (Sep) DD2 College-4($54,000)
2021 - (Sep) DD3 College-1($54,000)
2022 - (Sep) DD3 College-2($54,000) + DD1 Wedding ($40,000) = ($94,000)
2023 - (Sep) DD3 College-3($54,000) Pay Off Mortgage
2024 - (Sep) DD3 College-4($54,000) + DD2 Wedding ($40,000) = ($94,000)
2025
2026
2027
2028 - DD3 Wedding ($40,000)
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035 - DH Retire at 65 ($1,000,000)

Next determine the amount of money you might be able to save for each event.
You won't be able to guess everything precisely, but you can get a pretty good idea of how much money you'll be able to save before each event.

If you are starting out in debt, you can figure out how long it will take you to pay off your debts by using a debt snowball calculator. When you are ready to begin saving you can use a savings calculator to determine how much money you will be able to save before your next big event. Each time that you do the calculation, use the length of time that you have before your next event. Then subtract out the amount you use for the big event, and calculate again using the length of time you have until the next event.

When determining what interest rates to use for your calculations, you will need to make note of how much time you have before you will need the money. If you do not have a lot of time (like less than 5 years), you should count on a lower interest rate, like maybe 5%. If you have more time, you should be able to use a higher interest rate. (I used 10% when I had more than 5 years to save. According to Dave Ramsey you can expect this type of return on long term mutual funds.)

Enter the amount you believe you will be able to save onto the timeline in bold.
This will show you whether or not you will be able to reach your goals with the amount of money you project you'll be able to save.

Here is my timeline with my projected savings in bold:

2008
2009 - (May) Debts Paid off ($36,000)
2010 - (June) Fully Funded Emergency Fund ($30,000)
2011 -
2012
2013
2014
2015 - (Sep) DD1 College-1($54,000) {$252,340 - $54,000 = $198,340}
2016 - (Sep) DD1 College-2($54,000) {$261,849 - $54,000 = $207,849}
2017 - (Sep) DD1 College-3($54,000) + DD2 College-1($54,000) = ($108,000)
{$272,438 - $108,000 = $164,438}
2018 - (Sep) DD1 College-4($54,000) + DD2 College-2($54,000) = ($108,000)
{$224,100 - $108,000 = $116,100}
2019 - (Sep) DD2 College-3($54,000) {$170,276 - $54,000 = $116,276}
2020 - (Sep) DD2 College-4($54,000) {$170,472 - $54,000 = $116,472}
2021 - (Sep) DD3 College-1($54,000) {$170,690 - $54,000 = $116,690}
2022 - (Sep) DD3 College-2($54,000) + DD1 Wedding ($40,000) = ($94,000)
{$170,933 - $94,000 = $76,933}
2023 - (Sep) DD3 College-3($54,000) Pay Off Mortgage {$126,644 - $54,000=$72,644}
2024 - (Sep) DD3 College-4($54,000) + DD2 Wedding ($40,000) = ($94,000)
{$154,073 - $94,000 = $60,073}
2025
2026
2027
2028 - DD3 Wedding ($40,000) {$412,637 - $40,000 = $372,637}
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035 - DH Retire at 65 ($1,000,000) {$1,412,749}

What if you won't have enough money to reach your goals?
If you determine that you will not have enough money, don't be discouraged. It is better to find this out now than at the time of the event. You can decide to make some different financial choices (spend less or earn more), or you can decide to revise your goal (maybe pay half of your children's college costs).

Take some time for long term planning. If you do you will have taken the first step to "help make elusive dreams come true".

This article has been included in the Carnival of Personal Finance #136 over at Green Panda Treehouse.

American Express Tempts Me Again!

Okay. First they offer 25,000 membership reward points (equivalent to $250 in free gift cards) just for signing up. So I did.

Then they offered another 5,000 membership reward points (equivalent to $50 in free gift cards) to sign up for their extended payment option. So I did.

Now they are offering another 5,000 membership reward points (equivalent to another $50 in free gift cards) if I add two additional users to my account. Which I am thinking of doing.

I know, I mean know, that the credit card companies are snakes and that they bite many people trying to take advantage of these offers. I know everyone thinks they will cancel the card before the free first year is over, but many do not. I know everyone thinks that the extended payment option won't matter to them because they will pay the card off in full, but many do not. I know that everyone thinks they can add two additional users to the account with no problem, etc.

There ARE risks. But in light of such incentives, the risks seem worth it to me.

We'll see . . .

UPDATE: I decided not to "take advantage" of their last offer of adding up to two users to my account as this requires each one fill out an application, etc. Doesn't even seem worth it to add my husband. But they sure do know how to tempt me!