Happy New Year ~

Here is what I hope is a 7 month recap and not 7 months worth of excuses :)

our life
The baby finally came the end of May. My son is now 7 months old, and wonderful. We had a very rough start - my delivery did not go at all as planned and I was sick and recovering for the first couple of months. He was also a very demanding baby and I spent a lot of time sitting and holding him. So not much at all got done the first few months. Now that he is napping and playing on his own more, I am working on getting life back to normal. I have been working on cleaning out the house, starting to sew again, I am trying to get a handmade business going. I've been spending a lot of time in Florida with my mom. My sister got married in September, and that took up a lot of time and planning as well. I feel very lucky our two elderly cars didn't give us trouble this year, but we are anticipating replacing a car in the not too distant future. We need a bigger car now anyway.

work

I had a meeting with work about two months in. I was still real ill and adjusting. I asked if I could go part time or work from home. My commute and pay did not make continuing to work (for them at least) continue to make sense. Additionally, the baby wakes up and stays up frequently in the night (he still does even now - I am exhausted) They told me that wouldn't work, and severed my employment with them. A couple months later, I got an email asking if I was still interested. So, I have been working part time from home. Some weeks more than others. My accounts hadn't been touched since I left, so I have been catching them up for the year. I have mixed feelings about it. I loved my job, and having some money come in is helpful. I miss really working though. I miss going into the office and all the components of my job. I am rather jealous of the girl who replaced me. It just wouldn't work though. I'd be working for daycare, and I can't imagine daycare raising my baby. Don't get me wrong - I never in a million years believed I would be a SAHM. Until I was. I never understood why people would give up their jobs to be moms. But there are lots of reasons to do so. It also doesn't mean I don't miss the socialization and accomplishment of work, either. I just can't do it all, after all.

The money

Here I wish I had kept up the blog. I think I could have used a place to sort things through and would have appreciated the recording of it. However, after April budgeting kind of went to hell. After I had the baby, everything did for a while. It was enough just to get to and from the bathroom for a while. I kept an eye on the bills but couldn't go to the bank. So we started using debit cards, and my husband signed us up for our grocery/gas credit card. We had a bunch of money sitting in our accounts that should have been put in savings. We have been going over budget and spending more freely again.

We were very lucky in that my family really provided us with most everything we needed. However, as I spent most of my days sitting on my couch holding the baby and watching game shows I also developed quite the addiction to online shopping. What else could I do one handed and sitting? Every little baby trinket or cloth diaper that appeared on a DOTD site I was buying. I didn't use a credit card, at least, but I have spent quite a bit of money earmarked for other things. I am still spending, and really that is one thing on the list for this year - get back on track. With everything - the budget and the spending. As well as try to find ways to make money.

The medical bills were far above what we had planned. I had a horribly emergency last minute C section and a lot of tests. Between me and the baby, we had about $40,000 in hospital bills. We paid oop (after insurance) $2500 in the end ($900 to an anesthesiologist I had never even planned to have!). That's 5 times what I planned on though. But it is all paid for. We had the money.

When I was going to the bank and taking out our monthly cash, we had accumulated over $3000 in cash savings funds I was keeping in my linen closet. I started having horrible nightmares about us getting robbed and killed. We finally took most of that cash and opened another savings account for short term savings. Now I just transfer the money every month.

I paid off the loan from my father on his birthday in September. All we have left is around $4000 on my student loan. We had a large "gift" for the holidays and we additionally have about $15000 in savings. I just have to sit down and think it all through but regardless, I should be debt free this month. 9 months later than originally planned. Not working has obviously slowed us down and I just have a lot harder time not having a lot of savings now with the baby. How funny when I lived most of my life with a couple hundred in the bank and thousands in debt and never thought twice about it.

Payoff: Month 16

March:

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


Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 5631.85
Loan 3: 8471.92

Debt: 14103.77
Paid: 758.34


April:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 5071.85
Loan 3: 8264.50


Debt: 13336.35
Paid: 767.42
Total Paid: 30571.53

Added to savings: -5000
Total savings: ~13600

YAY! for crossing $30,000 paid (Finally)!
A word on savings: We owed $3500 in federal taxes. My husband took out $5000 to cover the taxes. We should be able to repay the difference ($1500) plus what we would otherwise be putting in savings ($1600) and our state refund ($500) for a total reconciled (but not actual as of this moment) savings of $17200. I think we will hold off on this for now incase the little guy comes early. We anticipate hospital/doctor costs of around $1000 and a savings amount of $1600 in May. Total projection for May is $17800. Our debt at that point should be roughly $12,500, allowing us to pay it off with around $5000 left over.

Payoff: Month 15

February:


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


Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 6191.85
Loan 3: 8670.26


Debt: 14862.11
Paid: 760.45



March:

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


Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 5631.85
Loan 3: 8471.92

Debt: 14103.77
Paid: 758.34


Total Paid: 29804.11

Added to savings: 1600
Total savings: ~18600

Payoff: Month 14

January:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 6751.85
Loan 3: 8870.71

Debt: 15622.56
Paid: 761.02

February:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 6191.85
Loan 3: 8670.26

Debt: 14862.11
Paid: 760.45

Total Paid: 29045.77

Added to savings: 1750
Total savings: ~17000

Payoff: Month 13

December:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7311.85
Loan 3: 9071.73

Debt: 16383.58
Paid: 753.08


January:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 6751.85
Loan 3: 8870.71

Debt: 15622.56
Paid: 761.02

Total Paid: 28285.32

Added to savings: 6400
Total Savings: ~15250

I realized

In doing our payoff for this month, I realized we have about as much in savings right now as we have in debt. This means that had our plans not changed, we would be out of debt in February. In part this is due to a substantial holiday money gift from my mom, which may or may not have been the case if we were not bearing her grandchild, so who really knows. But we are grateful and it feels good to know this.

I am itching to pay of debts. At least one? But I am not. We anticipate a $2000 or so tax bill coming up which we will have to pay. We have to pay the hospital still. Part of my leave will be unpaid, and I am still wavering on what to do about work. But, assuming all goes well, we should be able to have everything paid off between the baby being born and me going back to work.

Payoff: Month 12 & year end review

November:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7871.85
Loan 3: 9264.81

Debt: 17136.66
Paid: 769.43

December:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7311.85
Loan 3: 9071.73

Debt: 16383.58
Paid: 753.08


Total Paid: 27524.3

Added to savings: 1600
Total Savings: ~8850

We finish out the year with 62% of our debt paid off. We have almost $9000 saved now, which would have gone on our debt as well (proving we would have wiped out at least one more loan at this point). This is an average of just under $2300 in debt repayment per month (not including our additional savings). Under the current circumstances, I cannot quite predict a projection based on this information. We will not be able to put that much per month going ahead, and I am not sure how much of our savings will be used by the time I come off maternity leave. My soft goal is to have the debts paid off by this time next year at the latest, but that will move as other things become more clear. I am confident that if we had proceeded without pregnancy, we would have met or exceeded the April 2011 goal. I don't have the actual paperwork on this with me right now, but we have also paid off around $14400 in mortgage principal this year as well. I will try to remember to check on that and update it.

Payoff: Month 11

October:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8431.85
Loan 3: 9474.24

Debt: 17906.09
Paid: 750.66


November:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 7871.85
Loan 3: 9264.81

Debt: 17136.66
Paid: 769.43

Total Paid: 26771.22

Added to savings: 1750
Total Savings: ~7250

As you can see from the last couple of posts, we have scaled back on our debt repayment. I am currently paying $560 to loan 2 and $250 to loan 3. Anything else which would go to these loans are going into savings. Our savings should start building quickly. I will have the OB paid in January, but I still don't know what the hospital will cost or how my maternity will work out. Once all that is taken care of, we will pay the debt again with whatever is left.

Payoff: Month 10

September

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8991.85
Loan 3: 9664.90

Debt: 18656.75
Paid: 1995.93

October:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8431.85
Loan 3: 9474.24

Debt: 17906.09
Paid: 750.66

Total Paid: 26001.79

Added to savings: 2000
Total Savings: ~5500

Payoff: Month 9

August:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 11100.83
Loan 3: 9551.85

Debt: 20652.68
Paid: 2592.48

September

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 8991.85
Loan 3: 9664.90

Debt: 18656.75
Paid: 1995.93


Total Paid: 25251.13

I think I flipped what is loan "2" and "3" again. We paid less this month in order to bring up our waning bank balances. We also had an event over labor day weekend that I budgeted money for. We have crossed 25,000 paid ! We paid off the small loan! We have two loans and less than 20,000 left! This would all be very exciting, however, with the baby on the way we will not be seeing much movement in the debt in the coming months. I will start keeping a tally of our savings now. The goal before was to have all debts paid by April (my 35th bday). Now, we will save that money instead, and should be able to pay my dad off right after the baby is born, and pay the last loan by next December, depending on costs associated with having and daycareing the baby.

Payoff: Month 8

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



August:

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

Loan 1: 0
Loan 2: 11100.83
Loan 3: 9551.85

Debt: 20652.68
Paid: 2592.48

Total Paid: 23255.20

All credit cards are done. We paid off the small student loan. I readjusted the loan to my dad back to the full length payoff amount. Will readjust when we know better when it will be paid. Excited to start hitting the student loan hard. Passed the halfway mark!! Just shy of the $20,000 mark.

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.

Payoff: Month 6

May

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 3514.67

Loan 1: 4454.32
Loan 2: 10972.64
Loan 3: 11347.35

Debt: 30288.99
Paid: 3197.36

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



Total Paid: 16560.16


We have paid off more than 15,000 now and have our total debt under $30000.

*While our credit card is actually paid off at this point, we won't get the statement which says so until July. This was the payoff amount on the statement in June.

Hit our first goal

We paid off our last credit card this week after payday.

Tonight, we took my family out to dinner on us. We toased Dave Ramsey, and I wore my Dave Ramsey shirt.

I paid for everyone, and I paid in cash.

My parents pay for so many meals and trips for us, it felt good to make a token reciprocation, and it was nice to go out for a bit and have a good time.

Now back to the grind... Looking ahead, we will pay off the little student loan in August, and then the rest will be more gruelling.

The credit cards were the important part for me, though.

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.

Payoff: Month 5

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


May

cc 1,2,3,4: 0
cc5: 3514.67

Loan 1: 4454.32
Loan 2: 10972.64
Loan 3: 11347.35

Debt: 30288.99
Paid: 3197.36

Total Paid: 13618.89

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.