Payoff: Month 7

June:

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 1702.95

Loan 1: 3960.03
Loan 2: 10413.44
Loan 3: 11271.30

Debt: 27347.72
Paid: 2941.27

July

cc 1,2,3,4,5: 0

Loan 1: 1961.64
Loan 2: 10111.85
Loan 3: 11171.67

Debt:23245.16
Paid: 2399.61

Total Paid: 20662.72

Yay no credit cards!! My husband made the comment when he got his statement that he didn't think he had ever seen a 0 interest amount on a statement. We also crossed the $20,000 debt paid mark and are a couple thousand from the halfway mark. On the one hand, that makes it feel much more doable, but it still seems really daunting. Is it possible that the first half is easier than the second half? Maybe because the two debts left are so large and we aren't going to see as fast results. The little loan will be paid off in a couple of weeks. I think I have recommitted to paying the student loan before my dad, which means we won't see another payoff til February, at the earliest. I also readjusted the amount due to my dad to reflect this change.

Mid month check in

Lots of things going on in my life, wrapped with crappy access to the web from work and little time for updates from home.

The first thing is that I got a small raise this week. This is exciting because I did not think I was eligible for a raise this year. However, the whopping $40 isn't going to make a huge life change like my husband's raise did. At this rate, I will be back to my teaching wage in 14 years.

Work is keeping us super busy. There have been a lot of layoffs, and as a precausionary measure, my boss has started giving us all extra work to do from other departments to make us more integrated, invaluable and necessary. I don't believe any of our positions were at risk in the first place, but I appreciate the concern. I love having work. The problem is we all feel overly swamped now. And all the new stuff seems to be WE NEED THIS DONE RIGHT NOW!!! So my normal duties seem to be shoved to the side. I am a couple months behind on some bank recs because I just haven't had time to look at them. I want to ask who was doing all this super important need it now stuff, but it seems the answer is nobody, and that is the problem.

Today they informed me that I am going to start doing payroll for some of the employees. Uh... isn't that HR? Don't get me wrong, I am actually excited to do this, it just seems really random to me. We have two HR people. People have been getting their paychecks. So why does HR suddenly need to move this off their sholders? I hadn't noticed them seeming that swamped til recently (but our number of employees is going down?) but like, I'm not. Well, as I have been here now for 9 months and still haven't had a 30 day review, I take all this as good signs, at least.

On the home front, my husband and I are offically TTC (trying to conceive, for the non-baby minded). This is our second month, and I am in the "I don't know one way or the other" part of the cycle. Being the control freak I am, I have taken a very scientific approach to it all. I am charting, temping, taking ovulation tests, and a lot of other stuff you don't want to know about. Getting pregnant is not as easy as young virgins are led to believe, it turns out. And, it isn't cheap either. I have bought: a miracle baby making lube which my husband turned out to be "allergic" to, ovulation kits, pregnancy tests, a fertility bracelet, a thermometer, a subscription to a charting website (it has a cool iphone app! There really IS an app for everything!), all kinds of vitamins and medications, I have also heard geritol or robitussin work, but haven't tried those yet. Yeah....

I also have 16 million spread sheets going based on when or if we get pregnant. I am really praying we can do this on our own. And trying not to worry about that part too much yet. I am giving it til January. So I am rethinking our payoff schedule. As we are paying off the little student loan in a month, I have to know now which of the two big loans we are going to attack first. Initially, it was going to be the student loan, because that was smaller. But the payoff to my dad is bigger, so that one is smaller now. Plus, I really wanted to have him paid off. However, if we do get pregnant, our debt repayment is going to grind to a halt. We are going to have to save up til the baby comes, and after it is here, most of that money will pay for daycare and baby expenses. (This is why I really wanted to be debt free first). I feel like I want to try to pay off the student loan in this case, because if we get in a bind or have a baby, my dad is going to be a lot more understanding and forgiving than Direct Loans.

May Income Statement

I really have to say, at this point, after doing this for a few months, that I really don't understand how we keep having such large net incomes. It isn't like we are gaining $2000 a month. I suppose it is from our bank balances, but even those aren't really that high. We each maintain about $350 in our accounts throughout the month. Maybe it is because we get paid at the end of the month, and haven't spent that money on bills yet when the statements are mailed? It does make sense that the end amount is $400 less than the beginning balances, because I think I got paid an extra $400 at the end of April, which we saved to pay for our hotel in May. I don't know... I just don't want to give the false impression that we are rolling in dough or that we aren't busting our budget every month, which we usually are.

Extra revenue: Birthday money

Expenses:
Yay low power! We over paid cable last month, so it is a little under this month. Termite due this month. I think netflix was double paid last month, or else I just missed it on my statement.

Debt:
Standard stuff here.

Variable:
Restaurant was high because we were out of town and had a couple of unplanned lunches. Most of our meals during the trip were covered by one relative or another. Supplies were high ... I have gotten into CVS ing. Unfortunately, some trips I get out of there for under $1, some are more like $20.

Additional expenses:
I spent almost $200 making my cousin's programs for her wedding, but my aunt offered later to reimburse me for that, which was great! That will show up in July, I think. The rest of the expenses for the wedding included our hotel, parking at the airport, and some last minute outfit additions.

Fund activity:
I have been struggling with how to handle planned expenses in the budget. I keep a separate spreadsheet with the tallies for our funds. Most things I just leave off altogether, like the boy who cuts our lawn, or our cleaning people (which my mom paid for as our Christmas gift). But I feel that I need to keep a true account of our expenses, and I also want to celebrate the fact that we actually were prepared for some things. The money isn't technically coming out of our monthly income, it is coming from our savings funds for that purpose. So, I have added "fund activity" at the bottom of the IS.

This month we took from two funds: I show the balance of the fund, the amount removed, and the new balance.

From repairs, we paid for our roof repair (YAY!) and also 2 new tires for my husband's car, since one was completely flat. From pet, we paid for my dog's boarding for our trip, which somehow tripled in planned amount, because he also had a checkup and some medicine added on.

July Budget

Happy 4th!

Income: Standard

Fixed Expenses:

My husband's life insurance is due this month. I think that is the only unusual item here.

Debt:

We have paid off all the credit cards at this point, though some bills are still being charged to the last credit card. For now, We will just continue to pay off that card, but not use it otherwise. We are now working on the little student loan, which should be paid off in August.

Variable:

The main change here is that I upped our discretionary spending. As I have said before, after months of no fun spending and not getting items we want I feel we can finally loosen up now that the credit cards are paid off. Unfortunately, because the high insurance bills are due this month, it meant some of the funds had to be lowered as well.

A note on the June cash jars:

We spent everything this month, and then some. We have very few receipts to show for it. I am not even going to bother with this this month. We had $1 left over, which I am just throwing in for this month. Every month I say we are going to be better about this, and then things get crazy, life happens and we just aren't, and I end up pulling my hair out at the end of the month.