Is it really that hard to put a receipt in a jar?

We are entering the last day of January, and I am excited to say we made it through our first month. I will have a full income statement report later in the month, when the rest of the statements come, but I thought I would highlight what we can assess now. Overall, I am proud of our first month's effort.

We ended up with quite a bit of money left in the cash jars this month, I was surprised. The jar I was most concerned with was the gas jar, but in the end we still had $10 in there. I really thought I was going to run out of gas money. I haven't had a full tank all month, and gas prices went up a bit, but I have filled about $20 a week all month. My husband - who works from home most days - only had to fill once.

We only ordered in twice - pizza once and chinese once. We got the chinese on Thursday when we didn't feel like cooking, it was the end of the month, and we still had money. That cleaned out the takeout jar, which I also used to go on two lunch dates with friends this month - spending $6 on one and $5 on the other.

Supply money was spent on much needed furnace filters, lightbulbs, and some shipping supplies (as I have been selling some doll items). We were left with $6 and some change in that jar. Miscellaneous was spent on a birthday card for my cousin, post office, the work lunch (I opted out of a second work lunch) and my husband's emmission inspection. There was $10 and some change left in that jar. Our grocery total was $183 under the budget, which was excellent! I guess my husband had a point about the holidays hiking the amounts, plus we did not go to costco this month, which is $100-200 normally. He was very good about only going to the store once a week, which I also doubted, and did a very good job tracking our food purchase and use. I will also admit he spent the most on the trip that I accompanied him. This is why I have to stay out of the store.

Where I have run into trouble with him is in replacing the money with a receipt. I was missing a Kroger receipt (which I later found in the kitchen), the pizza AND Chinese receipt, and an indication of his emissions expense. It took a while to figure out where that money had gone. He is also griping about having to use cash instead of his debit. I like not using the debit - especially while we are getting out of debt - for two reasons. First, I think you spend less, and second, you have a visual indication of how much money there is left for the month. When I went to staples to get shipping supplies, I had $20 with me. I had to make that stretch. And there were several things there that I know would have found their way into my cart if I was using my debit or credit card.

I still have money in my discretion jar, and he does not. It is discretionary, so no receipts required, so I have no idea where he spent that money (he had some money in his wallet that he had added to the jar, so it ended up more than $13). I have $13 of my $25 left. I spent it on secondhand books - one being Financial Peace, and a couple of book club books. HOWEVER, I did paypal a few things to my bank account. So, I spent more than my limit, but I knew I had the money in my account to cover and I did not charge them. My husband also charged $700 in car repairs this month as well. A bit of a setback.

The extra amounts have been added to a "sinking fund" which is an envelope, because my husband recycled the jar I intended to use. But that is ok, because I wrote the amount for the month on the front of the envelope. We can use this money for our hotel in May, for Christmas, for surprise expenses. Its like an emergency fund for our emergency fund.

Cash Jars: Budgeted: left over:
Gas 125 10
Supplies 50 6
Miscellaneous 57 10
Grocery 500 183
Takeout 60 1

Sinking fund January total : 210

Semi-Official Go numbers

I have been wanting to post our starting debt numbers. I was waiting for some statements. I am also still waiting for the school to send back my money to the student loan people. They have still not done that, plus I don't know how long that takes to clear. But they probably just haven't done it yet. I will have to call again. I hate that.

So, our starting debt numbers are only semi-official, because the one loan amount is not entirely accurate. I have decided to go ahead and use the numbers we have currently, and if/when I get the refund, I will just adjust accordingly or enter it as a "payment".

cc1: 376.06
cc2: 600.38
cc3: 1412
cc4: 4035.31
cc5: 5294.84

Total: 11,718.59

Student Loan 1: 5011.84
Student Loan 2: 12267.85
Personal Loan: 13471.85

Total: 30,751.54

Grand total: 42,470.13

December Income Statement

All the December statements finally came and I was able to make the December income statement this weekend. Some problems with my computer held up my scanning abilities.

Income: Other income includes my bonus from work, which I didn't know I was going to get. I used it to pay for my doll.

Fixed Expenses: Charged for three insurance installments again this month, also renewed triple - a.

Debt Repayment: Pretty standard. Paid off cc6.

Variable Expenses: December is the month of gift - giving, and we spent nearly $400. And that was me giving bare bones. Ugh. No pet expenses for the first time in a long time. My husband had to pay $20 each way to take a bag to visit his parents *BS*. The doll expenses include my expensive custom doll I wrote about before, and also Karito Kids showed up at Tuesday Morning at 70% off, so I went wild buying those up. The clothing is my bridesmaid dress for the wedding in May. I sponsored an Angel Tree child, and that was my December charity. Med is my birth control, which I had to pay out of pocket, because I had used up my flex card. Cash was cash for my husband's taxi to his parents' and also my December lunch/vending/spending money.

Summary: If we took out the gifts and the dolls, we still don't quite balance, but its a lot closer. I was surprised it was as off as it was. Looking at October - December, I think it is safe to say we were probably overspending by approximately $1000-$1500 a month. However, we may have actually been balancing on my old salary, and just hadn't made the adjustment to less income. Can't wait to see how January looks!

on the complications of social work ettiquite.

In making our budget I did not consider my job could complicate some things. I learned this week that we "celebrate" the birthdays of people on our team by ordering food and paying for it ourselves. Nevermind that I am constantly writing out checks for various lunch events my firm hosts. We have to pay for our birthday lunches (except the bday kid). God forbid the event happens off site - then we have to clock out and have no control over how long it takes. (Still have to clock out anyway, but at least people start getting antsy once the half hour is up and we can trickle out).

This revelation sent me in a real spiral. I was very tortured over this decision. Sure, I could choose not to order but still show up with my own lunch. And now that seems like the obvious answer. I have so much social anxiety. When we had the work Christmas party, I was having headaches and stomach aches all day beforehand. I was scared to go. I am so insecure and I have a hard time conversing with people I don't know, which makes making friends really hard. I tend to keep to myself, which might make me look like a bitch, I donno. I just like to stay out of the way and do my thing. But when I do have a conversation that seems to be going well, I get so excited and go into overdrive and can say some crazy things, or be unable to shut up. So, I keep my mouth closed in uncomfortable situations.

Anyway, all this anxiety about a work affair and the unknown played into it. After being in a frenzy to my husband over it, he suggested I take the money from miscellaneous. I was still tortured about it, but I did, and ordered a $7 turkey burger. However, after tax, tip (why are we tipping with take-away?) and probably a dollar for the birthday-boy's meal, it was $10. Two people did not order - one being my boss. (she eats turkey on rice cakes. It grosses me out). A third ordered from the restaurant in the building instead. We all sat at a table together and kibbutzed a little bit. After about a half an hour, things broke up. I only ate half my sandwitch so I was able to eat the other half the next day for lunch.

I learned that there are two more birthdays and a goodbye coming up in the next couple weeks. I can't be spending money every time. So I will have the confidence now to bring my own lunch and still show up. Just showing up is a huge effort for me. It gives me so much anxiety and I really have to force myself to do it. It is rediculous that at my age this is still going on. I have an event tomorrow that I have been planning to go to for a couple of months. A few days ago I started coming up with all kinds of reasons why I couldn't/shouldn't go. That's when I know I have to force myself. Sometimes I give in, sometimes I don't. I am just nervous because I don't know anyone there and I am going alone. The money thing just seems to give me more excuse to skip things. Interestingly, I have also managed to set up dates with three friends over the next few weeks. Again, not good for the wallet, but a necessary evil for me. I enjoy seeing them when I am there... but I get so nervous beforehand. And when I burrow, months can go by and I won't see or communicate with friends. Then they start to think I don't care or I am mad. It is important to have the social connections, I really want to have good friends in my life, it is just a real effort to put myself out there.

...not entirely about money. I am just analyzing my relationship with money and it leads to these other revelations.

Some good luck?

My husband told me, after paying the mortgage, that we still had $1400 in the checking account. This made me nervous first (that what didn't I pay/ what hasn't been cashed feeling), but should be accurate. A little bit of it was Christmas money and some refund checks he deposited. The rest must just be accumulated. He likes to leave more money in the account than I do. I thought a bit about what to do with this money. I decided 500 extra should go to the cards, 500 should be put aside for our plane tickets for the wedding in May (it has been stressing me out where that money would come from - plus I think we need to pay for a hotel too, and I still need shoes). He also wants a spaceheater for our basement, as we are having record breaking cold temperatures. My objection to that is more about safety than money, but as the Christmas money was to him from his mom, I figure he is entitled to spend a little of it on something he wants. And the rest will seed the account for now - I fully expect some high power bills coming, and we still haven't cut the cable or the server.

Then I finally cracked my Direct Loans online account and got to see where that is for the first time in months. And I about had a heart attack. The school was instructed to return any extra over tuition and books. And I only had two classes the last quarter. Nothing had been returned to the loan since my first quarter. I called Finaid at my school. He told me, "You are absolutely right." Then said something lame about how he is doing the yearly tax thingies you get from your school, but he hadn't gotten to me yet, so he didn't know. I have a $4000 credit at the college. How do you not notice that?? Seriously? Aren't you supposed to be returning it quarterly? Anyway. Hopefully that will get cleared right up now. I estimate the loan will still be around the $10000 mark once all is said and done.

Today, my sister found killer airfare for the wedding. $179 total, round trip. A few days ago it was $250 pre-taxes. We have all pounced on these tickets, so we are all booked and I can stop worrying about the flights and prices now. I paid with cash from our account. And it cost less than I thought it would.

Meanwhile, they make it as difficult as possible to cancel things. I have been trying to cancel my Bally's membership for a couple days. The first time I didn't have my membership card, so didn't know my membership number. Today I got stuck in digital menu land. Apparently, you can only cancel your membership for reasons of medical, no Bally in your city, or buyer's remorse. I do not fit any of these. I paid off my "contract" years ago and have just been getting charged $12 a month membership fees. I just want to cancel that membership. Pushing 9 or 0 does not get you a real person. So, I went with buyer's remorse. A long tirade about under what circumstances you can cancel your contract goes on and then finally, at the end, it gives me an option to speak to a representative. I was on hold for a couple minutes, then told that they had excessive hold times and I should call back again and it hung up on me. Seriously. More than 15 minutes of my work day wasted on this, and no result. I don't like confrontation, which is admittedly one of the reasons I have put this off for.... years. But now I am just pissed.

Here we go!

In the last weeks I have gathered jars for our cash budget categories. Between my job teaching, and our recycling tendencies, I had no problem finding jars around the house to repurpose. For fun, I printed out labels with the category name and the amounts. On the right you see the credit card jar, which I put all my credit cards into, but not my debit card, because it just scares me right now to have no emergency safety net. In the back you can see our super huge jelly belly jar which we dump our coins into, and have been doing that for years (I have another one upstairs for when I do laundry). The grocery and supplies jars used to be garlic jars, and I love the smell when I open them. I wonder if the money will soak that smell.

I went to the bank this morning and took out $950 in cash from my account. That was terrifying, but they didn't even blink. They gave me exactly what I wanted just how I wanted it. I don't think I have ever had that much money in my purse. I took it straight home, entered it in WG? and divvyed it up in the jars. As we spend this month, we will need to take the money out of the jar ahead of time, bring back change and receipt. Then, at the end of the month, I will use the receipts to help me track what we spend for our income statement. In our best case scenerio, we will still have money in the jars at the end of the month. We are discussing if we want to carry that money over to the next month, or transfer it to a travel jar. Coins to the coin jar.

So here we go. Wish me luck.

Where's George

Excuse my head shadow in the shot :)

I just want to put out a plug for Where's George. I think it is a really cool idea, and somehow I have only come to it recently. Where's George allows you to enter and track your money. You enter your money on their website, then you mark your bill to tell other people who get it to go to the website and enter it again. If you are lucky, they will tell you where they got it or how they are spending it. But it shows you how far your money went in how many days.

I have been using WG about a year and a half. I was getting out 50 - 100 $1 bills from the bank every month - generally for my vending machine habit or when you have to pool for gifts at work and so forth. I entered, marked, and spent. In that time, I have gotten about 170 hits and entered 1500 bills. I am ranked in the top 100 for my state. I have had some interesting comments. I have had bills with repeated hits. I really enjoy it.

So, now going to cash only, and not just petty cash I am entering the bills in WG. I have a lot larger bills now, because I don't want to take out, enter, stamp or spend $1000 in ones a month. I am excited to have more entries in WG. At the same time, I don't mark up the big bills quite as much as my ones. I have a mystery stamp from stamp-connection.com which I use to mark the 100 and 50s on the back and the 20s and 10s on the front. 5s and 1s I mark all to hell (I also have a "signature"stamp I use on $20 and under). I just am not used to passing large bills like that, and it makes me nervous that they will think they are counterfeit. I've had people question my 1s in the past, and I am nervous enough just carrying and spending those big bills. Maybe I will get more comfortable. Stamp-connection has a lot of cool stamps and I have added to my collection as I have gotten more into it, but if you want to start up cheap, they have a stamp for $4 with free shipping. They have shocking fast shipping. Or, you can always just write on your bills.