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.
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Monday, January 2, 2012
Thursday, April 14, 2011
I'm here.
Wow. I've gone AWOL. Just because I have become tardy with my updates, doesn't mean I am not still following my plan. I have been very preoccupied with the pregnancy. I am 36 weeks now, and feeling big and uncomfortable and sore. My feet are huge. All my free time has gone to preparing for the baby, and I don't even really have energy for that anymore. Overall the pregnancy has gone well.
I have been having a much harder time sticking to my budget. I am spending lots on the baby. I have had some monetary gifts that help with that, but all my discretionary money and I have a baby line item in the budget and I have even gone beyond that. I was doing so well watching my spending til it came to the baby. I am still doing monthly budgets and payoffs. April has been hard because our taxes are much more than we were expecting. May is hard because the baby could come at any time. So, there is some shuffling of money going on in and out of our savings. We should still be able to be debt free after the baby comes with a decent savings starter.
Something has happened at work causing the blocks to go away, so for now, I am able to update here. Which is somehow a lot easier than updating from home for some reason. I don't know when they will put the blocks back up, but I am going to take advantage while I can to try to catch up. :)
Thursday, December 30, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Plugging others~
This is a fellow blogger on a TTC message board I am on. She is giving away a care package including a really cool cup and some ic's. She also makes beautiful graphics. Check her out.
In related news.... We are on our 5th anniversary (non-Hawaiian) trip. I am relaxing and enjoying some time away from work drama. I love my job, but there is some petty juvenile I'm-not-your-friend stuff going on that is wearing on me, so I am glad to be away. Additionally, I should be ovulating next week, so I am hoping to give this my undivided attention this month. It would be really cool to come back with a little anniversary souvenir. I hope the stress free relaxation and copious free time will be good for our mission.
I have all my budget stuff with me. I do not have a scanner here, so posting will have to wait til I get back. We have our August budget and also a trip budget for our trip. I am going to work on the June income statement (which is mostly done) and have that ready to post when I get home. By then I should have what I need to do July too. We will be paying off the little student loan next week, so I am in a really good place with getting pregnant now. The last two loans are going to take a while, but will be doable even if we do get pregnant at this point.
Friday, July 16, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Where's the budget?
Well, it's written and saved on my work computer, and we are living it.
However, my home computer decided to die now that it is paid off. I don't think we got the coverage on it. My husband has been half heartedly messing with it, but I am at least temporarily without computer. Which means no scans. If work settles down, it is possible I can scan it there, but it has been crazy busy.
However, my home computer decided to die now that it is paid off. I don't think we got the coverage on it. My husband has been half heartedly messing with it, but I am at least temporarily without computer. Which means no scans. If work settles down, it is possible I can scan it there, but it has been crazy busy.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
A little history
While we certainly are responsible for a good share of our own debt, we have had plenty of bad luck which has contributed as well.
When we got married, we were each homeowners living in different states. We got married with $32000 credit card debt between us. That was all our own faults. I moved in with him. I was unable to find work teaching there, though I had plenty of interviews. My house didn't sell for over a year. We were paying two mortgages on basically one salary. I did have a part time teaching job, later added aftercare, and for a while had two additional part time jobs. I eventually burnt out and dropped the other two jobs. We were very very poor. I was pretty miserable, and it did not make for a good start to our marriage. There were many times I almost just came home. I guess ultimately, that is what I did. After another school year started, and I still hadn't gotten a job, I started looking at jobs back home. I applied for one, and within the hour the principal had called me to come for an interview. I booked a flight home and went in for the interview. I had a whole portfolio of student work, etc, which I had been promoting with all my might in umpteen interviews in the last two years. The principal opened the portfolio, and the first page was my teaching certificate from the state. He said "That's all I needed to see," closed the portfolio, and offered me the job on the spot.
I moved home with my parents - of course my house had just sold (I basically broke even, not incluing all the empty mortgage and utility payments). Within a couple months, my husband had found a job here and we moved him down. Throughout this time, we had managed to pay off both our cars, his student loan, and a nice chunk of the credit cards. We went house shopping and found our beautiful house. But we had the problem of his townhome. As we had lived there, we had watched the units around us foreclose and sit empty. We knew there was no way we would be able to sell it. We knew we couldn't carry it. After a lot of considering, we ultimately decided to sell to homevestors. I still believe this was the best option available to us, and am glad we did it. However, it left us with a >$40000 mortgage. I still had $10,000 left over from the sale of my house minus the downpayment on the new house and we put that toward the townhouse mortgage. My dad covered the rest, and that is the personal loan that I pay $560 to every month. It is still at least half what we would pay if we still had the town home, not including the headache.
The summer after we bought our house, our a/c blew in the midst of 115 deg weather. That was about $1000
A couple of years ago we refinanced our mortgage. We did have two loans (which was making me crazy) on 6.5 and 7.5 % I think. We were able to get an interest only loan with our interest at around 1.5. Our payments are only around 500-700 but we still pay the same $2000 a month. My dad put us onto this, I think he wanted us to pay the minimum and pay off our debts but that terrifies me, because eventually the market is going to come back, our interest rate will go up, and we will have to refi again, and we have to be able to afford that payment. However, we are able to pay off much more of our principal each month doing this. We have paid off $20,000 so far in that time. They gave us more money than the original two loans. We used that money to pay off credit cards (yes, I know now that was dumb but it felt good at the time). I fully intended to keep the cards paid off at the time, but we started to run into another bout of bad luck.
First, my car needed new shocks or struts or something which cost $1000. Then, a few months later BOTH our cars needed transmission work. Mine needed a whole new transmission aroun $2500 and my husband's needed a part - about $800. This all went on the credit card. Then we began a two year tour of Animal Emergency Rooms. First, my cat. She had feline leukemia. I was told she wouldn't make it to adulthood. She lived over 5 years without ever being sick for a day. Then she started having seizures. We had several trips to emergency rooms for this, and she was on phenobarbital. Then she started losing alarming amounts of weight, even though she still ate just fine. We managed to keep her relatively stable, until we lost her in April.
In January, my dog was diagnosed with diabetes. We had several emergency room visits for that, plus bi-monthly visits to the vet for glucose testing. He was on insulin and some other medications. When by April he still wasn't stabilizing, we had to go through further diagnostics, which revealed a tumor on his adrenal gland. If they had told me they could operate, I would have, but they basically told me he would not be with us much longer. This was the same day we later lost my cat. It was a horrible day. After that, he only had one more emergency visit for a sugar low, which they kept him for a whole weekend. He died in November. I don't want to add up all the vet bills over the last couple of years, but I am sure it would be close to $10000.
The night before I started my new job, my car was robbed in my own driveway. From what I can tell, they only took my phone, charger and Ipod, (and a lot of loose change) but they really could have gotten a lot more. (They even went through my new bag of work clothes, but I guess they didn't like any of it.) We did replace the phone and the charger, but not the Ipod. I asked for it for the holidays, but did not get it. I have some Amazon gift cards that I may use toward a new one, I haven't decided yet. I haven't felt the same about our supposedly very safe area, though.
So, we have a bit of credit card debt again. I do also want to mention that I have never been a minimum payment person. We were paying $2500 to our credit cards alone until I switched jobs and we couldn't afford to anymore, and now I have budgeted us a little differently. As I said, I am not taking advantage of my interest only mortgage. I always made payments to the student loans, even when in deferment. I have never had a creditor call. It is all just spending more than I am paying, and living beyond my means, along with a bit of bad luck.
When we got married, we were each homeowners living in different states. We got married with $32000 credit card debt between us. That was all our own faults. I moved in with him. I was unable to find work teaching there, though I had plenty of interviews. My house didn't sell for over a year. We were paying two mortgages on basically one salary. I did have a part time teaching job, later added aftercare, and for a while had two additional part time jobs. I eventually burnt out and dropped the other two jobs. We were very very poor. I was pretty miserable, and it did not make for a good start to our marriage. There were many times I almost just came home. I guess ultimately, that is what I did. After another school year started, and I still hadn't gotten a job, I started looking at jobs back home. I applied for one, and within the hour the principal had called me to come for an interview. I booked a flight home and went in for the interview. I had a whole portfolio of student work, etc, which I had been promoting with all my might in umpteen interviews in the last two years. The principal opened the portfolio, and the first page was my teaching certificate from the state. He said "That's all I needed to see," closed the portfolio, and offered me the job on the spot.
I moved home with my parents - of course my house had just sold (I basically broke even, not incluing all the empty mortgage and utility payments). Within a couple months, my husband had found a job here and we moved him down. Throughout this time, we had managed to pay off both our cars, his student loan, and a nice chunk of the credit cards. We went house shopping and found our beautiful house. But we had the problem of his townhome. As we had lived there, we had watched the units around us foreclose and sit empty. We knew there was no way we would be able to sell it. We knew we couldn't carry it. After a lot of considering, we ultimately decided to sell to homevestors. I still believe this was the best option available to us, and am glad we did it. However, it left us with a >$40000 mortgage. I still had $10,000 left over from the sale of my house minus the downpayment on the new house and we put that toward the townhouse mortgage. My dad covered the rest, and that is the personal loan that I pay $560 to every month. It is still at least half what we would pay if we still had the town home, not including the headache.
The summer after we bought our house, our a/c blew in the midst of 115 deg weather. That was about $1000
A couple of years ago we refinanced our mortgage. We did have two loans (which was making me crazy) on 6.5 and 7.5 % I think. We were able to get an interest only loan with our interest at around 1.5. Our payments are only around 500-700 but we still pay the same $2000 a month. My dad put us onto this, I think he wanted us to pay the minimum and pay off our debts but that terrifies me, because eventually the market is going to come back, our interest rate will go up, and we will have to refi again, and we have to be able to afford that payment. However, we are able to pay off much more of our principal each month doing this. We have paid off $20,000 so far in that time. They gave us more money than the original two loans. We used that money to pay off credit cards (yes, I know now that was dumb but it felt good at the time). I fully intended to keep the cards paid off at the time, but we started to run into another bout of bad luck.
First, my car needed new shocks or struts or something which cost $1000. Then, a few months later BOTH our cars needed transmission work. Mine needed a whole new transmission aroun $2500 and my husband's needed a part - about $800. This all went on the credit card. Then we began a two year tour of Animal Emergency Rooms. First, my cat. She had feline leukemia. I was told she wouldn't make it to adulthood. She lived over 5 years without ever being sick for a day. Then she started having seizures. We had several trips to emergency rooms for this, and she was on phenobarbital. Then she started losing alarming amounts of weight, even though she still ate just fine. We managed to keep her relatively stable, until we lost her in April.
In January, my dog was diagnosed with diabetes. We had several emergency room visits for that, plus bi-monthly visits to the vet for glucose testing. He was on insulin and some other medications. When by April he still wasn't stabilizing, we had to go through further diagnostics, which revealed a tumor on his adrenal gland. If they had told me they could operate, I would have, but they basically told me he would not be with us much longer. This was the same day we later lost my cat. It was a horrible day. After that, he only had one more emergency visit for a sugar low, which they kept him for a whole weekend. He died in November. I don't want to add up all the vet bills over the last couple of years, but I am sure it would be close to $10000.
The night before I started my new job, my car was robbed in my own driveway. From what I can tell, they only took my phone, charger and Ipod, (and a lot of loose change) but they really could have gotten a lot more. (They even went through my new bag of work clothes, but I guess they didn't like any of it.) We did replace the phone and the charger, but not the Ipod. I asked for it for the holidays, but did not get it. I have some Amazon gift cards that I may use toward a new one, I haven't decided yet. I haven't felt the same about our supposedly very safe area, though.
So, we have a bit of credit card debt again. I do also want to mention that I have never been a minimum payment person. We were paying $2500 to our credit cards alone until I switched jobs and we couldn't afford to anymore, and now I have budgeted us a little differently. As I said, I am not taking advantage of my interest only mortgage. I always made payments to the student loans, even when in deferment. I have never had a creditor call. It is all just spending more than I am paying, and living beyond my means, along with a bit of bad luck.
Why now?
Before I start getting into the nitty gritty of the spending and the budgets, I want to give some backstory into why I am motivated, how we got here, and the sacrifices that I have resolved to make this year.
First and foremost, I need to mention that I have an anxiety disorder and I am prone to panic attacks. This is important because it was ultimately a panic attack that got my butt in gear. I am not on medication or seeking therapy at this time. This is a battle I have fought my whole life, and my first memory of money involves what I realize now was a panic attack. I was probably around 8 years old at the time, so I am not kidding when I say that this is a lifelong battle. It also illustrates my unhealthy relationship with money. I was going to spend the night with a family friend's daughter, and I was excited about it. We were going to go to Toys R Us, and this was right after they had opened the first Toys R Us here, so it was a really big deal to go. I knew we were going, but for whatever reason I did not feel like I could ask my mother for money for shopping. I do not know or remember now why that was. I had a bag of coins, mostly pennies, in my room ( I never got an allowance - My mom usually just got us what we needed or gave us money when we were going out, which is what makes this story so strange, but I have always had a problem asking for money, and also accepting it, which has led to some bigger problems lately, but that is another story). I took this bag with me to Toys R Us and picked out some items there, mostly stickers as I remember. I was so stressed out the whole time because I couldn't just get what I wanted, I wasn't sure exactly how much I had, and I was embarrassed to have a bag of pennies. When I got to the checkout, I had to count out every penny and I was holding up the line. I hadn't known to expect the sales tax, and so I did not have the money to pay for the things I had picked out. I had to put some things back and count it all out all over again.
That night I couldn't sleep. I had a bad feeling towards the things I had gotten and had no enjoyment in using them. I was sick over using all my money. I was embarrassed by the experience. I didn't know when I would ever have any money again (keep in mind, this was maybe $5 in change we are talking about, but to an 8 year old....). I got myself worked up into such a state that the mother came up and I couldn't verbalize to her what was wrong. I think ultimately my mother had to come get me late at night.
I don't think I have ever told that story before. And I didn't really intend to now. But there it is.
Our circumstances have changed recently. I used to be a teacher. I reached a point where, for a lot of reasons I won't go into now, I needed to change careers. I told myself I would teach one more year, but in that year I need to find some other plan. I spent a lot of time soul searching, and suddenly decided to enroll in community college for an accounting program. I kinda feel like I pulled that out of the air, but it really has been the best thing so far. I, as I am finding so many do, assumed my whole life that accounting = taxes. It doesn't. MY JOB HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TAXES. (I am getting kinda tired of people asking me if I am going to get real busy in January.) I became aware of this as our school bookkeeper suddenly got moved out of the reception office of our school, got her own office, and I started to pay attention to what she did, since I had always just assumed she enrolled and withdrew students, answered phones, and other secretarial duties. I also had to work with her on my program budgets and fundraising and so forth. For some reason, that simple act of her getting an office made her job seem so much more important and interesting.
When I started my accounting program, I knew relatively nothing about accounting. I had a pretty strong math foundation, and had originally been a computer science major in college (but dropped that). I stepped out on faith for probably the first time in my life, and so far it has worked out great. I found I really enjoyed the sort of anal, obsessive aspect of it. After teaching for nearly ten years and all the chaos that brought, I was ready for a quiet, controlled profession. I was the top of my class throughout my program, have a 4.0 GPA there, and finish next week. To do this, I had to sacrifice a lot of my time. I was going on maybe 5 hours of sleep throughout the school year. I left the house at 6:30 am and didn't return til 10 pm. I also took out what now feels like a really large student loan, however I told the school to return any excess (I need to check that they did) and I have been paying toward both my school loans the whole time.
I knew the economy was bad and that this was a huge risk. My last teaching paycheck came in September. I was terrified I wouldn't find another job, and even if I did, I knew it wouldn't pay anywhere near as well as teaching had. I was saving aggressively throughout that time, but when the market tanked and I lost most of the money in my Roth IRA, I dumped all of my savings into my Roth, hoping that it would pay off when the market came back. That's why I only have $2000 in savings now. I started looking for jobs in July and was so blessed because I ultimately got offered two jobs (one after I had already accepted the other). I started the job in October. (And I love it so far, but that's a whole different subject :)
Sometime after that, I started getting hooked on Suze Orman somehow. I am not sure why I happened to start watching her, but she has become my late-night Saturday laundry folding show. I don't always agree with everything she says, but she makes a lot of sense. I started to feel a sense of dread because she recommends an emergency savings of 8 months expenses. We don;t have even one, I think. I also knew our income was going way down because of the job change, and that we were going to have to address our spending at some point. What I finally realized in the midst of the panic attack I had at work the other day - where I came home and told my husband we both had to get weekend jobs and he refused and suggested I go back on medication - was that I have the tools now to look at our finances objectively. I know what an income statement is. I know what a budget is. I know how to balance things. This is what I do for my job now. Why can't I do it for my home? It is harder - because it is personal and it is really hard to look at what you have been spending and what you have been spending it on. When things have to be cut, it leads to squabbles. What I was shocked to find - as I will document here later - is that in October, we spent twice what we made, and I was able to come up with a (rather tight) budget that balances.
First and foremost, I need to mention that I have an anxiety disorder and I am prone to panic attacks. This is important because it was ultimately a panic attack that got my butt in gear. I am not on medication or seeking therapy at this time. This is a battle I have fought my whole life, and my first memory of money involves what I realize now was a panic attack. I was probably around 8 years old at the time, so I am not kidding when I say that this is a lifelong battle. It also illustrates my unhealthy relationship with money. I was going to spend the night with a family friend's daughter, and I was excited about it. We were going to go to Toys R Us, and this was right after they had opened the first Toys R Us here, so it was a really big deal to go. I knew we were going, but for whatever reason I did not feel like I could ask my mother for money for shopping. I do not know or remember now why that was. I had a bag of coins, mostly pennies, in my room ( I never got an allowance - My mom usually just got us what we needed or gave us money when we were going out, which is what makes this story so strange, but I have always had a problem asking for money, and also accepting it, which has led to some bigger problems lately, but that is another story). I took this bag with me to Toys R Us and picked out some items there, mostly stickers as I remember. I was so stressed out the whole time because I couldn't just get what I wanted, I wasn't sure exactly how much I had, and I was embarrassed to have a bag of pennies. When I got to the checkout, I had to count out every penny and I was holding up the line. I hadn't known to expect the sales tax, and so I did not have the money to pay for the things I had picked out. I had to put some things back and count it all out all over again.
That night I couldn't sleep. I had a bad feeling towards the things I had gotten and had no enjoyment in using them. I was sick over using all my money. I was embarrassed by the experience. I didn't know when I would ever have any money again (keep in mind, this was maybe $5 in change we are talking about, but to an 8 year old....). I got myself worked up into such a state that the mother came up and I couldn't verbalize to her what was wrong. I think ultimately my mother had to come get me late at night.
I don't think I have ever told that story before. And I didn't really intend to now. But there it is.
Our circumstances have changed recently. I used to be a teacher. I reached a point where, for a lot of reasons I won't go into now, I needed to change careers. I told myself I would teach one more year, but in that year I need to find some other plan. I spent a lot of time soul searching, and suddenly decided to enroll in community college for an accounting program. I kinda feel like I pulled that out of the air, but it really has been the best thing so far. I, as I am finding so many do, assumed my whole life that accounting = taxes. It doesn't. MY JOB HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TAXES. (I am getting kinda tired of people asking me if I am going to get real busy in January.) I became aware of this as our school bookkeeper suddenly got moved out of the reception office of our school, got her own office, and I started to pay attention to what she did, since I had always just assumed she enrolled and withdrew students, answered phones, and other secretarial duties. I also had to work with her on my program budgets and fundraising and so forth. For some reason, that simple act of her getting an office made her job seem so much more important and interesting.
When I started my accounting program, I knew relatively nothing about accounting. I had a pretty strong math foundation, and had originally been a computer science major in college (but dropped that). I stepped out on faith for probably the first time in my life, and so far it has worked out great. I found I really enjoyed the sort of anal, obsessive aspect of it. After teaching for nearly ten years and all the chaos that brought, I was ready for a quiet, controlled profession. I was the top of my class throughout my program, have a 4.0 GPA there, and finish next week. To do this, I had to sacrifice a lot of my time. I was going on maybe 5 hours of sleep throughout the school year. I left the house at 6:30 am and didn't return til 10 pm. I also took out what now feels like a really large student loan, however I told the school to return any excess (I need to check that they did) and I have been paying toward both my school loans the whole time.
I knew the economy was bad and that this was a huge risk. My last teaching paycheck came in September. I was terrified I wouldn't find another job, and even if I did, I knew it wouldn't pay anywhere near as well as teaching had. I was saving aggressively throughout that time, but when the market tanked and I lost most of the money in my Roth IRA, I dumped all of my savings into my Roth, hoping that it would pay off when the market came back. That's why I only have $2000 in savings now. I started looking for jobs in July and was so blessed because I ultimately got offered two jobs (one after I had already accepted the other). I started the job in October. (And I love it so far, but that's a whole different subject :)
Sometime after that, I started getting hooked on Suze Orman somehow. I am not sure why I happened to start watching her, but she has become my late-night Saturday laundry folding show. I don't always agree with everything she says, but she makes a lot of sense. I started to feel a sense of dread because she recommends an emergency savings of 8 months expenses. We don;t have even one, I think. I also knew our income was going way down because of the job change, and that we were going to have to address our spending at some point. What I finally realized in the midst of the panic attack I had at work the other day - where I came home and told my husband we both had to get weekend jobs and he refused and suggested I go back on medication - was that I have the tools now to look at our finances objectively. I know what an income statement is. I know what a budget is. I know how to balance things. This is what I do for my job now. Why can't I do it for my home? It is harder - because it is personal and it is really hard to look at what you have been spending and what you have been spending it on. When things have to be cut, it leads to squabbles. What I was shocked to find - as I will document here later - is that in October, we spent twice what we made, and I was able to come up with a (rather tight) budget that balances.
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