Thoughts as we come to the end of the year...

Heh. The first one is, I made it! I haven't used the credit card for over a year. And, until maybe this month, I haven't even been tempted. Living on a budget works.... if you stick to it. We have come a long way. I am proud of what we have accomplished, though at the same time, I feel beaten up. It is hard, now especially, to stick to the budget, and I have been overspending lately.

We found out we are having a boy. Even though I wanted a girl, just knowing this suddenly made the pregnancy so much more real. I also started feeling him move in the last few weeks, and have started really showing in the last week or so (though I really just look really fat, I think). I am wanting to buy stuff for the baby and worrying about big ticket items. I have been going over budget and my account is suffering for it. BUT I drew the line at the credit card. I did spend some money that was sitting in my account for car repairs, though. And it isn't like I went crazy... I bought some clearance clothes at Target and some cloth diapers and I am making the nursery linens, so I bought fabric (which I still don't have enough of). But when you are on a tight budget, and when I really have myself focused on being able to pay a lot off this summer, it is hard to carve out even a little bit.

We have also gotten hit at work - Neither one of us got bonuses or raises. Although, my husband's job has "promised" retoractive raises and bonuses in June. He thinks this means layoffs are coming, though it is unlikely he will be laid off. In addition, our insurance premiums are skyrocketing. They are going up $150 in January and another $150 when the baby comes, so we are essentially taking a big paycut. I don't know what is up with my job. They refuse to admit we are hurting, but it is a huge deal that we got screwed in both raises and bonuses and we saw several large rounds of layoffs this year. I also feel I am terribly underpaid for what I do for them, and feel I deserve an additional raise to balance that out. I was surprised I didn't get it, and am debating at what point I need to ask for it. I just feel I am not in a bargaining position right now. That may change next fall. I really think I will be looking for another job by then, not just because of money but also because I spend 2-3 hours commuting everyday. I am having a hard time justifying that knowing I will have a baby this time next year. I keep playing with the stay at home scenario budget, but I just can't do it. Not only do I not really want to be a stay at home mom, we would be cut to nothing. I don't think it is worth it. It is worth it to find a better paying and/or closer to home job though, even though I ultimately love my job and am very comfortable there.

Making things worse, my laptop finally gave up the ghost this weekend. My husband keeps talking about getting me a new one, but I hate spending that money. All I can think about are all the other expenses we have coming up.

Looking back, I said there were three things, I think, that I wouldn't be able to do and still pay off debt:

1. Buy dolls: Well, I did. I am not entirely sure, but I think I bought three dolls this year, and minimal doll accessories. While this is certainly more than zero, it is a whole lot less than the several hundred dollars a month I was spending before. There have been many things I have had to pass on and watch retire, even though I really wanted it. There's always ebay? It did get easier once I got pregnant, though. It is a lot harder to justify these sorts of purchases knowing I need things like cribs and bottles.

2. Get a dog: Well, I did. Barely made it a few months on that one. He was expensive initially, and has been lately because I am taking him to training classes before the baby comes. But, overall, he has not been an overwhelming financial impact. I think after having such an old, sick, expensive dog for so long, I forget that the younger ones aren't generally as expensive. We have also built up a good savings fund for pet expenses. With everyone's shots coming due in the next few months, I am much more calm about handling that than I was this time last year.

3. No 5th anniversary in Hawaii: Yeah. We had to let this one go. There was no way. We did spend a nice week at my parent's beach house using money we saved for that purpose. I spent a lot of time on the beach, reading books, and getting pregnant. :) Maybe for our 10th we can do Hawaii?

4. No baby: Well, I did. Well.... I will. My arrangement with myself was that we would start trying once the credit cards were paid off, which is what we did. It took a few months to get pregnant, which allowed me to also pay off one of the loans. It did not take anywhere near as much time as I thought it would though. I thought we would be seeking medical treatments at this point, but I guess we were very lucky that it did not come to that. It does, however, throw off my 14 month to debt freedom plan, and I have had a hard time dealing with the realities of that. I hate stretching the money stuff out so much longer, and baby expenses, daycare, and maternity leave are all going to make it even longer.

So. I guess the lesson here is that even though you get on a budget, and by definition you have to sacrifice, you do not have to pass on the important things. I was still able to get some fun things - not as much as I wanted to or would have a year ago, but didn't have to give it up entirely. And the important things, like animals and babies, can still be worked in and worked around. You just have to be flexible and plan.

I think back to the first few months, when we were really getting by on nothing. When buying my book club book was my entire "fun money" allotment. When a month with five weeks cropped up and we ran out of gas and grocery money. When I had to pay vet bills with no pet fund cushion. When a leaking roof was the end of the world. When a hotel and plane for my cousin's wedding was a huge deal. I am griping about how low our sinking fund is now that we used it for it's purpose: Christmas gifts. But I am still entering January with around $300 in it, which is $300 more than I had last January! We have been through a lot, and we have come a long way, and we have been able to increase things, like gas and fun money, as things have been paid off or income increased (fat chance).

This has gotten long, so I suppose I will post my looking ahead thoughts separately.

September Budget

September

Hi, yes, I know what month it is.

Things, as always, are crazy. My mother had major foot surgery over a month ago and I have been staying with her to help take care of her. Time at home has been intermittent and filled with laundry and not much else.

We are also slowly trying to prepare for Baby so, while I am home this weekend, we have been cleaning out the garage and the office, into which I am (hoping) going to move all the doll stuff, as the baby is going to go in the doll room. We have so much crap. I don't want to tell you how many HUGE boxes of packing peanuts I took out of my garage. Not to mention all the cardboard, aluminum and paper. By the time we got to actual boxes with actual stuff in it, we were beat and called it a day. I put the stuff on freecycle, and what isn't taken will go into recycling over the next few weeks. We had a crappy curbside recycling program until this summer, so we used to haul it ourselves. We stopped doing that regularly, and it started piling up. When our trash service got changed to one that would take these things, we were just putting out what we were actually accumulating on a weekly basis and never got to the stores of stuff in the garage.

So, anyway....

Income: as normal

Fixed Expenses: Power has been high. No Termite or insurance this month, so extra money in other areas.

Debt: Just down to the last two. Large payment to the student loan.

Variable: I finally have a clothing fund. We had our convention, so I had some money for that. Smugmug renewal. I cut the amount for our lawn boy, as we probably won't be seeing him again til spring.

Our account balances were getting low, so I set some money aside to build them back up again. Somehow, that didn't work out quite as I planned, as my account is still reconciling negative. Hoping to float til the holidays, when we should see some extra money.

August Budget

Revenue:

I had an extra paycheck this month.

Fixed Expenses:

I was being ridiculously optimistic about power. Termite due this month.

Debt Repayment:

Pay off Student loan #1! Minimum payments to #2 and my dad.

Variable Expenses:

I gave us raises on our personal amounts this month. I put in a clothing budget (finally!!). I am desperate for new underwear. My panties all have holes and are unravelling. My underwire has popped out of my bra and is giving my bruises in my arm. Also, as we approach fall and winter, I desperately need work appropriate winter clothes. I wore the same four sweaters from November - March last year.

Funds:

Lowered our repair amount to help cover our trip and the clothing. I wanted to put all of my extra paycheck into savings, but gave some of it to cover other things.

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.

June's Budget

HAHA! Look at that! The budget up on the first day of the month! I do want to point out that I have the budgets done ... usually two months ahead of time *blush* they get tweaked a bit as time gets closer. So, its not that I am not doing them... It is that I am not getting them posted in a timely manner. Part of it is that a lot is going on at home. I have been working out after work so I get home late, and pretty much eat dinner and go to bed. The weekends have been crazy. Work no longer allows me to access blogs of any kind. And, as we got closer to the wedding, the less time I had for blogging. I am committed both to doing and posting, so it will get done. I just wish I could still do blogs from work.

Revenue

No surprises.

Fixed

My insurance installment is due again already. That surprised me. I thought I had til July. So, that took some reworking to fit that in. Power is going down, and I am really trying not to blast the AC til it gets brutally hot. Our trash may or may not be due. It normally would, so I put it in the budget, but they are saying they are going to change the trash system in our county so that it comes out of our property taxes. The bonus, though, is that there will be a ton more curbside recycling which will be amazing. So. I am hoping that is the case. But then I am not sure what, if anything, the trash bill will look like this month.

Debt

WE WILL PAY OFF THE LAST CREDIT CARD THIS MONTH!!!!!!!!!
That was my first and most important goal. I am so excited. And the first student loan should fall two months later in August, so this is really going to be an exciting few months coming up.

Variable

Expenses:

I have set aside extra money for an outing to celebrate being credit card debt free. I feel like everyone carries me a lot - We always get our dinners and stuff paid for by my family, because they know we can't/won't be able to participate in family events otherwise. It may just be a token, but I want to take them all out for dinner and drinks on me at my favorite restaurant when we pay off the credit cards. I believe we deserve a paid for in cash celebration! And it is important to me to make an effort to pay them back and a display of how responsible we are getting and turning our life around.

Funds:

Our lawn boy upped his rates this summer, and we have already burned through all the money we had saved up for him! So, I have to cash flow him. I lowered the travel and repairs funds to help cover some of the other higher expenses this month.

Don't worry too much about the notes on the side. For the most part, my fund jars were all off. I had too much in some, and not enough in others, and the bank accounts were running low because we were just paying with the debit card instead of with the cash we had set aside. So, I resorted all the money in the jars to match what should be in them, and didn't pull that money from the bank accounts in order to repay them what they were owed. Sort of. They are still going to be low, but not as.

April Income Statement

April Income Statement

Revenue:

I got an extra week's paycheck at the end of the month, which was actually brought forward to pay for the hotel in May. My inlaws paid my husband back for his expenses to travel there.

Fixed Expenses:

Power is finally going down a little bit. We couldn't find the cable bill, and even though we pay the same amount every month, my husband overpaid on purpose. Insurance is super high because we got charged 3 installments on our auto insurance and my husband and I both got life insurance. I had thought we would be charged monthly for that, but we were charged quarterly.

Debt:

We paid the planned $2000 to the last credit card, as well as the $800 for the travel expenses which were put on the card.

Variable:

We were able to include a travel fund again. The pet amount includes the $150 for the fund as well as $200 spent at the vet on the dog for his shots and grooming. We forgot to take cash. I sorted all the funds out in May. I keep a separate spreadsheet with their ins and outs and actual totals. Supplies was high this month. We did some work on our basement, which required some supplies and I needed some supplies for other projects. Bank fee was the finance charge on the credit card. My husband's discretionary was super high. He got his WOW renewed for 6 months. He also cancelled a subscription, but in the process had to pay for several issues at once. Or something.

Savings:

Not surprisingly, we had nothing for the sinking fund this month. $900 in the bank account was earmarked for repairs.

April special circumstances:

A couple of my husband's charges from his parents carried over onto the April statement. We owed $2000 to the federal taxes. We moved money out of savings to pay for that. Then we got $874 back from the state. I want to pay back the $2000 to savings, but as of yet we have not. I have really just been holding my breath to get through May, but now will look at that.

May Budget

...better late than never? I am glad this month is over, that's all I can say.

Revenue: Includes my husband's raise, and my extra week paycheck for this quarter.

Fixed: Termite bill due.

Debt repay: Typical amounts all around.

Variable: I have split this section up into the categories we are actually spending each month and the categories we are funding, and may or may not actually be spending. It makes it easier for me to read, plan, and analyze.

We gave ourselves a small raise in our discretionary spending. This is financed by my husband's raise, but also well deserved after a full quarter of really having no spending money, and making good debt progress. As I have started to work out more, I had wanted to buy new sneakers, but that money ended up buying mother's day flowers :/ The rest of the expenses are the same as any month.

For the funds, my husband's raise allowed us to add a car fund category. My hope is that this will build toward a new car when needed, but may end up going to car repairs if necessary. All of my extra paycheck this month was earmarked for our wedding expenses, including our stay and parking.

UGH

Work has blocked blogger. This is new this week. I cannot post or read any bloggers from work anymore. How annoying.

We got our roof fixed. I don't have to worry about that anymore. It is done. I am glad. Onto the next thing.

My cousin called me up last minute and asked me to make wedding programs for her. At first I was going to say no (mostly for the time crunch), but I ended up saying yes. I have already spent maybe $75 on supplies, and I have run out of ink so I need to buy more. This is money I hadn't planned on spending. This is going to have to be her gift. Tight month gets tighter. We leave next week.

We are on track to pay off the credit cards mid June.

March Income Statement

March:

Income: Standard.

Fixed: Power is still high. Trash bill this month. My husband says they are redoing the trash system here so that it will be included in property tax and will also pick up more recyclables, which will be fabulous. They tried this last year, and it failed, so we are hoping it passes this year. Water was high. We have some plumbing problems we haven't addressed yet, and some leaky toilets. But, it's only like $5 more than usual... Our insurance (car) was crazy low this month. With all the roof stuff, my husband also spoke with them about some discounts he thought we should be getting, and reduced our price. I guess they were crediting us back or something? I really don't know.

A note on Bally's: I have started going back. I am trying hard to lose weight (for the wedding, and pre-baby) and am working out 4 days a week now. 2 at Bally and 2 at the gym at work. I'd like to also do wii fit on the weekends, but haven't gotten to do that yet. It's been pretty busy. I have lost 4 pounds so far. So, I am keeping Bally's for now.

Debt: Paid off my credit card. I now own a lot of veterinary work and all my dollstuffs and my transmission. Only $1000 to cc5, to allow for us to save for the roof repair. Minimums all around.

Variable: My car renewal was due. Two cats got shots. The repair is for the power guy who came out when my house lost power. I spent some extra money going out with work and friends this month. Bank fees are finance charges, as usual. Our Misc. was high this month, too, and I don't remember why now. (my book is downstairs)

Saving: $59 to sinking fund. $900 for the roof.

Highly unusual expenses which get their own category this month: My husband spent money to be with and help out his parents. They paid him back for this (but not until April). I bought and mailed invitations for my cousin's rehearsal dinner, which I had budgeted money for. I also bought shoes for my dress.

And, we still made it out with $20 to spare.

Payoff Month 4

March:

cc1,2,3,4: 0

cc5: 6048.51

Loan1: 4637.26

Loan 2: 11477.91

Loan 3: 12351.85

Debt: 34515.53

Paid last month: 1424.72

April

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 6105.14 *

Loan 1: 4542.19
Loan 2: 11437.74
Loan 3: 11401.28 **

Debt: 33486.35
Paid: 1085.81

Total Paid: 10421.53

* Yeah, I know that is higher this month. Here's the deal. When my husband went to take care of his parents, he had to buy them a lot of stuff and run a lot of errands for them, plus buy the plane ticket. He used his credit card. His dad has since paid him back, but that isn't going to show up until the next statement. So, while that is a false total, it is what it is, and I am dealing with printed statement totals. About half of that should be gone next month.

** This is the loan to my father. I have done some reworking and decided to pay this off before my other student loan. Doing so not only allows me to hit my student loan fast and hard (because my payment to my dad is higher) but also allows me to pay my dad off by the end of the year, which is really appealing. The total owed changes, then, because I will owe less interest to him in the end, so this is lower than it was for those reasons.

So, while not a great month in the payoff department, we did surpass $10,000 paid, we are still on track for our payoff dates, and we should show some big losses in next month's report.

Mid month update

Happy tax day!

We had to pay $2000. But we are also getting $800 back from the state. Had to dip into savings for this. I think this has something to do with our mortgage set up right now. If'n we refi soon, maybe it will straighten itself out. I have tabled the refi for now.

We have had an estimate for our roof, and another one coming next week. They think it was a bullet! I forget exactly, but it was around $850. The people coming next week can also do our siding repair (which is probably from settling), so I am waiting to see what that looks like. We have about $1000 saved for this, and I want it done already.

Counting down to my cousin's wedding. I get an extra paycheck this month, which should cover the hotel. We also have $200 in the travel fund, and the $400 in the sinking fund to cover any other expenses. I don't expect many, but we will have parking and miscellaneous spending. I still need to get a gift, too.

My husband needs new tires. Like, one if his tires is literally completely flat. I still haven't worked out how we are going to pay for this.

The good news is, my husband's boss called him last week and gave him a promotion and an 8% raise. It seems to amount to about $360 more take home a month. It was shocking how quickly I found places for that money to go. I had so many things I wanted to fund, and hadn't yet, that the whole thing is not going to debt repayment, as I might like. Starting in May, We will begin a car fund. Both our cars are old, and I am holding my breath that they will both make it another year (let alone long enough to save for another one). My husband's car is ten years old and has over 150,000 miles. I gave us each a raise in our personal money. I think we deserve it. We have had very little fun money. Now we are up to an amount we can actually use for something we want. I doubled what we are saving for our lawn boy - both because we are going to start needing him again, and because I expect his rates to increase again this year. The rest seems to be ironing out things that were getting ignored in the budget, such as the bills being charged on our cards and the quarterly bills. It doesn't last long. But it is good to have. I am just disappointed, because somehow I thought we could get our debt repayment up to 2900 a month, but I guess that was not a realistic figure. I was not accounting for things properly.

I am also struggling with the fact that I am "saving" about $500 a month into these funds. I could pay things off faster if I didn't. But I feel better knowing that we are building money towards these things, should they happen. Our travel and pet funds are about to take another hit. The repairs we have are outpacing what I am saving for them by far. I have decided to put caps on some of these things. If I manage to hit the cap, then I can cut back the saving there until I have to use the money.

April Budget

April Budget

Fixed

I anticipate a drop in power this month. We have taken out life insurance, so I expected to pay about an additional $60 in the insurance category a month, starting in April.

Debt

Cards 1-4 are paid off, so we are pounding on my husband's credit card now.

Variable

I can finally start my travel fund. Continuing the repair fund. Everything else appears to be the same as any other month.

Short and sweet :)

February income statement

February income statement

Revenue

I got an extra week's pay in one of my paychecks. My husband deposited some birthday money. I believe some of the bank balance is for our March mortgage, but I am not quite sure. It just seems high to me.

Fixed

Power was super high. Just look at that. Ugh. We had some snow and some very cold days. We are finally seeing the lowered cable price, though that does include a partial refund for the month, so future cable should be around $80. I still think that is super high for the basic stuff. We had our termite bill for the quarter.

Debt repayment

Just when I thought #2 was paid, it hit me with a $5 interest charge from the previous month. I now have that paid off again. I own my carpet (#3). We paid off most of cc#4 which is my main card. I was going to pay the whole thing, but then the fiasco with the roof, and I opted to save some money for that instead. That was a very hard decision to make. Minimums to all else.

Variable

Most of these are discussed in the cash jar post. Some highlights: Pet. Is very high, because we adopted our dog, and purchased items for him. This figure includes the money we also still set aside for the pet jar. The only thing I can say for myself, is I did that all with cash. Mostly money from my extra paycheck that month. We bought our convention tickets for this summer, so that is set. Bank fees are finance charges. Other than the dog, we really stuck to (or below) our budget for this month.

Savings

We added $120 to the sinking fund from the cash jars for the month. We saved $500 towards our roof repair, instead of paying off a credit card.

Looking back, I am not sure I calculated the bank balances properly, and we way overspent on the pet category (and power!) but we came out positive and did really well overall, I think.

Month 3: Statement totals

Ugh. I know I am behind. This month ate my head. It was (and continues to be) a long and hard month. I hope to get everything up this weekend.

March Payoff:

February:

cc1,2,3: 0
cc4: 644.17
cc5: 6070

Loan 1: 4730.83
Loan 2: 11604.46
Loan 3: 12911.85

Debt: 35961.30
Paid: 4211.39

March:

cc1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 6048.51

Loan 1: 4637.26
Loan 2: 11477.91
Loan 3: 12351.85

Debt: 34515.53
Paid: 1424.72

Total paid: 9335.72

Flu and roof

I have the flu. This sucks. I have to take several days off work. I don't want to waste time off on being sick!! I have fever and aches and insane coughing. Not sleeping well. My mom keeps yelling at me because she thinks my doctor is wrong, so no sympathy there. My husband says he is getting sick, now, too, so no help there either. Stealing my thunder.

The roof insurance adjuster came out today. He says that other than our porch which is rotten, the roof is actually in remarkably good shape. The flashing is missing on that pipe, but that is an easy fix. He found a couple of spots where the shingles are coming up. The good news is that this is probably going to be a $500-1000 fix (the porch and the damage in the bedroom ceiling) instead of $4000. We also have an area that is worrying me- where siding is pulling away from the house and there is a noticable gap. I don't know if that is something the same person who fixes the roof can do.

February cash jars

We did not cut it as close in February as I thought we would. It seems like we want to spend a lot of money the first weekend of the month, but then can hold off the rest of the month.

Miscellaneous: I got a haircut and waxed my eyebrows. I mailed some stuff at the post office. Last weekend we did a gaming event which was $5 entry fee each.

Takeout: We got pizza once and Chinese once.

Supplies: I am shocked that the only thing we got out of supplies this month was a lamp for my office, which I have been meaning to get for months. As I haven't been feeling well the last couple weeks, it has gotten a lot of use.

Gas: I got gas 4 times, my husband didn't get any.

Grocery: 4 trips, plus a rather cheap trip to Costco. We still had leftover, even though I slashed the amount by $100 this month.

We both ran into "forgetting to take money" problems this month. I forgot gas money and my husband forgot grocery money. The way I handled this was to use the debit card for the purchase, then carry the cash over to March. So, I got $x less out of the bank for March and reused the money that was "spent" but left in the jars in February.

Jar: Amount: Left:
Misc 57 4
Supplies 50 32
Gas 125 30
Grocery 400 54

Added to sinking (roof) fund: 120 Total in fund: 330

January Income Statement

Revenue: In addition to our income from our jobs, we also discovered we had an $1800+ balance in our bank accounts. We had gift money as well.

Fixed Expenses: Power skyrocketed to $300. Comcast raised our cable bill. We hadn't canceled the server.

Debt Repayment: I now own my computer, phone and work clothes! We paid off credit cards 1 and 2 and a huge amount of the balance on 3. The rest of the cards and loans got minimal amounts.

Variable: My husband's car is the main expense here. He had to register it, and before doing that, had $700 of work done on it. We did put that on the credit card, but I am sorry that we did. I feel we are having Karmic retribution now (see previous post). Travel is our plane tickets for the wedding in May, which we paid cash for. Bank fees include finance charges and a late fee incurred while I juggled around our new payment schedules. My "doll" budget includes the money I spent from my discretionary jar, an order made this summer that was sent off backorder, and some eyes and faceups (in cash) for my BJDs. I believe the rest of these expenses, including our sinking fund, were discussed in the Jan cash jar post.

We had a net income of almost $2500. Overall, a win. While we would not have come out positive just based on our income, I increased debt repayment and some other expenses upon learning we had more money to work with (as can be seen if you look back at the original budget). So, as the income increased, so I increased the outgo. This gave us a great starting momentum.

February budget, a little belated

My husband finally got my computer working. He says it was a bad stick of ram which corrupted the hard drive and os. So he took out the ram and we had to order a recovery disk, because apparently computers don't come with them anymore. We had to wait for that to arrive, then install it and I have spent the last couple of days trying to set my computer back up how it was, less some ram. In the end, a $20 fix.

The budget:

Income - My mother gave me money to pay for my holiday gift, and when I opened it, there was quite a bit extra in there. A nice surprise. It goes straight to the credit cards, and puts me quite a bit closer to my April 11 goal. Another $200 from birthday money for my husband (which he has STILL not deposited).

Fixed Expenses - Our power bill jumped up to almost $300 in January, which blew me away. I knew it was going to go up, but really. So I budgeted the same amount for February. We cut our cable back a level so my guess for that is $75. At the time I made this budget, my husband had still not canceled the server service, so I was anticipating another month for that (as it turns out, we were already paid through March).

Debt Repayment - We paid off credit cards 1 and 2 in January (YAY!) and only had $212 left on credit card 3, so will pay that off. That brings us to cc4 which will get the anticipated $1500 plus the $2000 from mom. That brings it to within $600 of being paid off. Minimum payments to cc5 and the loans.

Variable Expenses - We had some expected expenses this month, so I reduced our grocery money from $500 to $400 since we had so much left over in January. (My husband: Is this like the government where I have to use the money even if I don't need to or I lose my budget?) We have a convention we go to every year, and if we bought tickets by Feb 15 (we did - paid with debit) it was $140 for both of us. Price goes up every month afterward. My husband talks about going back to school - his job will reimburse him. But he tends to be pretty lazy about getting things done - like actually applying on time. I think that cost him his admission last year. He told me when we were going over the budget to put in his admission fees, so I did. He has still not applied as far as I know. It's on him. I am not going to hound him like I am his mom. If he wants it enough, he will get off the computer games and do it. The money is there.

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