Ugh, not a typical month thank goodness. Got the car locks fixed yesterday - grand total for mirror, window, locks, oil change, and a fixed seatbelt (bugger was twisted so I asked them to fix - think they just threw it in anyway) - grand total was $850! Of course if I knew the door locks would be such a pricey ordeal I probably would have fixed the side mirror myself. Yikes! The part alone was $200. So much for convenience. Probably wasn't worth it. Dh wondered aloud why I even bothered, but when I smashed it to smithereens it had some sharp edges. I figure $200 is better than someone getting scratched and suing us - you just never know. But the odds that I will smash it again? LOL. Probably big. I will really try to be careful though - I should just get in the habit of turning in the mirrors whenever I park in the garage - would be a simple solution.

So the #s for April:



As you already know, dh used his entire annual allowance for his PS3.

Auto - we were $100 under budget for gas (good with these insane prices - includes a trip to San Jose as well) but the repairs were $850 and blew my budget out of the water. I think we have only been budgeting $600/year for repairs (& not coming anywhere close). So a bummer, will maybe up it in the budget.

Diapers - paid 2 months for the diaper service because paid late last month.

Dining - all we did was order in 2 pizzas in April - one was reimbursed by family - so not bad at all. I use my cash to get $1-$2 meals here or there, but really didn't do much this month either.

Education - kids and I are each taking 1 recreational class. cheap cheap cheap overall. I had my first aerobics class last night and it KICKED my butt - LOL. But it also felt really good. Well not so good today, but I need this. BM starts karate on Monday.

Groceries were $50 under budget. They were $50 over last month so probably a wash. Includes paper diapers (LM is sensitive to the cloth at night) and soap and all our household goods.

Household - dh bought a new filter for the fridge - in addition to the usual gardener expense. What a racket. I wonder if you can find them cheaper on ebay or something. We only change them out 1/2 as often as they suggest - and even that could be overkill - sucker is like $40.

Medical includes dental - since all 3 of us went in, in April. Paid with short-term savings set aside for it.

Misc - $1300 to the t.v. and stand. I spent $150 Target that I haven't broken out yet. Some of it for kid clothes - rest to my allowance. Got to dig out the receipt.

Professional dues from last month were reimbursed.

To car loan - final payment - woohoo.

No mortgage payment - I postponed it to after the first so I wouldn't have to touch savings to pay for the TV. Which just now reminds me another reason to catch back up - to help our taxes - will make sure to get 12 payments in for this year.

That sums up April.

It was a really crazy month.

Got my bonus so paid off the car.

To pay for the $850 car repair? I am not sure. I think I have $400 excess in the checking and so if I don't save the earmarked $450 to the e-fund this month I can swing it. But we are just SO CLOSE to having a *full* e-fund and wanting to invest a little above and beyond, it is frustrating to be so close, but so far. Since this month was so crazy, and leaves little cushion, I will probably need our June earmarked savings to pay for my tooth filling. Most of it anyway. Anyway, part of the reason for the e-fund I guess is so we can earmark a certain amount to retirement in 2008 and not touch it! Because it would really frustrate me to miss a couple of months of contributions over this stuff. Well, we'll see how it goes.

So anyway, it was a very spendy month, and kind of crazy, but my bonus and the unexpected cash gift from my parents helps immensely, so not much to complain about. & it is nice going into summer. Even though a/c bills get crazy and gas gets crazy too, overall summer tends to be very mellow and less expensive, lord knows why. So I am looking forward to a typical summer, please. On the flip side, we have been so busy and want to get out more, so I don't know.

Which reminds me now that I have some more time, we probably need to set a goal to bring in a certain amount each month - maybe $200/month or something. Will either invest or save - need to hit ebay and Craigslist.

In case you concluded I don't have a life during tax season (because I didn't), gosh, I can't believe how quickly our May calendar is filling up. Every weekend is filled with activities. It will be good to get out, but gosh it gets so easy to overdo it too. This is the exhausting part about having kids - feels like it is always something - LOL. I forgot about this - silly me - thought things would really calm down. But with dh itching to get out of the house and work on movie things, I am finding my time even more hectic and squeezed, in a sense. So it goes. At least less sitting at a desk all day...

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/how-to-make-money-from-0-apr-bala...

Yesterday was hectic, so waited to today to apply for cards. I figured I would just start with one and see how it goes. Citi has all the cards with no fees for balance transfers. No fees for anything - plus gift cards to boot.

So I applied for one in hubby's name. Didn't expect much since he has more cards opened than I, but they immediately approved a $6k credit line, which is okay, wouldn't want any less. Will also get $100 in Target gift cards. That alone will be worth it.

Since it wasn't the $10k-$20k I had hoped for and since they said right away what the credit line was, I applied for one in my name too. $5,900. Wha??? LOL. But this gives us a good $10k to invest in the bank, and a little left for minimum payments. I think minimum payments are 2%? I am not totally sure - says nowhere in the fine print I looked at so far,

Anyway, we'll get the cards in a couple of weeks, make 1 purchase each, and pay off the card, wait for the billing cycle to redeem the gift cards ($150 total between both cards). Then I think we should both call and try to up the credit lines. If one of us can get $12k or something, that would be even better! OR if one of us can, we can take advantage of one for a while, and take advantage of the other one later.

Interestingly, reading the fine print, they can change any of the terms any time, for any reason. Credit card companies - how do they get away with this stuff?????? For me means I don't want to waste my time on too small of an amount because one changed term can wipe out the profits. BUT at the same time, don't want to borrow too much for the same reason.

Anyway, for us, another $40/month in interest, would be great. & it looks like at the minimum that is what we will get. Woohoo. WIth our credit scores I am sure we can get some higher limits before we try the BT. So we'll wait it out a bit, if need be.

Well, step 1 is complete. Now we wait!