$20 challenge:

1/1: $400 Side Income (helping neighbor/client with Quickbooks setup)
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Balance 1/1: $400
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I am excited to jump in the $20 challenge and I already have $400 to add!!!!!!! Cheating you say? Nah, it just bugged me to start mid-year, don't ask me why. Probably because I didn't really figure out what it was until the last month or so. So I figured I would wait until January 1. & I received a $400 check today - so woohoo.

My rules... Overall I would like to establish a few rules for my challenge. I had thought about it already and wanted it to be cash basis, and I Wanted to incorporate all the things I have been doing different, both before and after joining savingadvice.com, but after realizing we needed to cut back a little and try to make more as well, around September 2006. I really want to see how much I save by incorporating these rules for a whole year. So my rules are as follows:

1. Will track on cash basis (when cash or discount is received).

2. Includes all money from selling items (but not Cookie Lee since I did that for years before).

3. Will include interest earned on cash savings (since I just started focusing on higher returns on cash, vs. pretty much nil before).

4. I am not going to include coupons and sales and such because I have always done so, and thrift shops, etc. BUT I am trying to do a lot more 2nd-hand and ebay shopping. For stuff I have not done so much in the past I will add money saved to the challenge. For example, I tend to buy the kids clothes from thrift shops but have been finding better deals in bulk on ebay, so I would consider the money saved in this type of instance, challenge money.

5. Any income dh earns will be added to the challenge money. I include it because he has not worked 4+ years and I have been encouraging him to make money, not to pay the bills, but simply to add to our savings and our retirement. This is a new thinking so I will include it. Before we could pay the bills so I didn't see the point, he would make plenty down the road, but now we are focusing on him bringing a little now so he doesn't have to work FT down the road. So we'll see what he comes up with and how it helps the bottom line! **If any of his work requires paid childcare, will subtract that out though. Is a possibility as we are open to it when Little Monkey turns 2 soon.**

6. Includes any extra money I make too outside my salaried job.

7. I get paid OT and am expected to work around 50 hours/week January - April. Any OT pay I receive above and beyond that, and any OT May - December, plus performance bonuses, will be added to the challenge. I am putting a big focus on boosting my earnings at my current job, this year. For the regular/expected overtime I will count it if it goes directly into the untouchable e-fund (or debt).

8. Will include any cash windfalls: credit card rebates (essentially interest on purchases), cash gifts, money found on the ground, tax refunds, etc. This is all not new stuff BUT I have doubled my credit card rebates this year with better rebate offers AND we haven't historically saved gifts, we spend them or counted on them to pay bills. Since we will be saving all of these towards retirement and e-fund, will count. If I don't directly deposit to the untouchable e-fund or retirement, then will not count.

9. I am going to include the fees we are saving on not using dh's broker any more. I am considering tracking those stocks against ours and seeing if we come out ahead. I guess the thing is if we come out behind I have to subtract that out. But somehow I find it unlikely.

All of these measures are the only reason we are really saving anything right now so they will all count to my challenge. Anything else I do new going forward, that saves money, will count toward the challenge.

& we're off!!