No, not exactly a typical month!!!

Auto is just gas - will actually be $300 come credit card close on Thursday. But our budget is $300. Well isn't that a miracle? (at least 4 drives to san jose. Yes, 4). We should save SO much money in Feb/March with our commitment not to make that drive.

Charity - Christmas donations and included a lot of donations in people's names for gifts.

Childcare - well the last "easy" month. Goes up to $630 next month. But down to $300 come August or so. Counting the days... Goes up $80 monthly to put LM an extra 8 hours a week. But will help greatly with tax season. AND we will save around $40 on gas monthly, estimated. Dh usually picks him up at lunch while I do the pick up/drop off on the way to work morning and night - BM. Then again dh will probably take one shift - evening. Maybe not much gas saved during the busy season. It's a long drive for him. But afterwards, yes.

Christmas - the last batch of christmas expenses. We spread out over 3-4 months.

Dining - 3 meals out and 2 trips to McDs for playdates. Not bad for all that food.

Groceries might end up $430. Dh will spend another $20 before credit card close probably, this week. Budget is $500 and we hosted christmas. Not bad... For '08 thinking of making our grocery/dining budget a combined $500. (Was $530 in 07. $500 + $30. But our grocery bill has gone down on average $100/month. Maybe eating out a little more justified with the lower bills. We rarely make the $30 dining budget anyway and I usually am okay with it since our groceries have gone down so much).

Household = gardener. But this month included a new air filter too.

Insurance - home insurance and life insurance supplement. I tacked on another $200k coverage through my professional association - it's cheap.

Medical - our new premiums. !!! Of course I also saved $250 for the deductible which effectively makes a $50/month increase over last year. But the smallest increase we have had in a while. If by some small miracle we don't use the deductible, it will be even better. The first year it doesn't make me cry anyway.

Misc. - Gym membership and extra fee. & took my dad to the science museum and ate their expensive food.

Mortgage - made 2 payments this month for taxes. I generally string it out to the 5th of the month, whatever the grace period is. But would have only been 11 mortgage payments for 2007 so paid one before the end of the month with savings. (To reimburse with paycheck today).

I know, I know, I used to pay all my bills WAY ahead but have gotten more behind since diverting more to savings/retirement. Which is fine with the big picture. Money working for me. Easily there to pay early when need be.

Tax - throw in a $300 estimate payment and $2200 property taxes. A taxing month!

With balanced billing, utilities are pretty standard and uneventful of late. They've all been going down too (just lucky that way. Cable went down. Water is now metered and decreasing substantially as a result. Etc. Nothing we did on our end, they are just all billing less. )

Kind of boring. I already had my stress posts about shelling out so much money this month. Long since over and done with. But the escrow fund/short-term savings went a long way. Just hard to let it go. I put a big chunk of christmas money in there though so have $1200 in the fund as of today. Barely enough. Lots of expenses in the spring... But $1200 is much better than $0!!!!! The balance will mostly sit at $0 through spring. Then summer it kind of builds up. Until the grand finale of December and all the big bills coming due. Then it's gone...

Anyway, our expenses are generally in the $5k range. So yes, it was a spendy month. But that's what SAVINGS is for!!! I don't think there was anything unplanned in the month of December. Imagine that!!!!!

(I still haven't fixed my windshield. Waiting for January since I felt broke. Don't worry, mostly garaged the car until I do. IT doesn't help everyone seems to be closed to the second, but helped me to justify waiting... So is not a december expense for that reason. Which makes it a very expected January expense all of a sudden... But I should have around $500 in the car fund to cover it by the end of February so it might work out. If I charge it and pay it in February. So feeling better about not having to touch the efund for that. Was waiting to '08 to work on that car fund! Phew!).

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At the stock market close today I will have to figure out what my real and true 12/31 net worth is and how I fared. Will it be a $29,999 increase? Will I reach $30,001?

Who cares? LOL. I am just kind of curious to see where I land. I guess today is more official. I don't expect much market activity though...

Well, I hope work doesn't kill me today. I decided 12/31 deadline wasn't so bad because we're just estimating and it's not really our fault if our clients' didn't give us enough time. I cut a lot of corners and it's not as perfect as I like but I still feel like I had good estimates for my toughest client. I don't even have final #s yet. But I will today and have it all set up in a spreadsheet to just plug and go. I will slow down to double check everything if I can. But I feel confident they are good to go.

I have 2 much less important things to deal with today with last minute data. If I don't have data by say 2pm I don't say I even care. LOL. Their loss. Yeesh. But it could be a harried day. I could show up at 7am with all the data there and be out by noon. (Well I wish). Who knows!!!!!!!!!!!

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Today is the last day for the challenge. Unless my boss is super nice and pays out the overtime owing to me today (maybe?) I won't have anything to add. I guess we'll see...

I think he is probably too busy. We are salaried and we get paid "overtime" in bonuses. Usually April 15th for tax season. I thought I remember other OT being more spread out but have a good $800 owing to me for post April-15th and haven't seen a dime. He has even been telling me specifically I should work more and he will pay me OT. LOL. So, I don't know. My question is when I guess. Today would be nice for the challenge. Though really anytime is just fine with me. If it's not until April 15th, so be it. But today would be really nice for the Challenge!!!!!!!!!

IT would seem appropriate too because last week was CRUNCH!!!!!

Well, I better get to the crunch.