Accounting Students Made a Profitable Choice

http://accounting.smartpros.com/x56501.xml

Yes we did. LOL. Well I have already alluded to this many times. Starting pay in the industry has doubled in the last few years. Plus desparation for accountants means more bargaining power, more flex time, more working from home, etc. I know I have it good. What I have gotten out of this career is I can work a hell of a lot less for a decent wage - and that is nice. No matter what the pay I Was going to do it, but how hard I have to work is pretty relative to how the profession is going. I like the idea that I may be able to work part-time in the near future and bring in a wage to support my family rather well. On the flip side, we need more bodies. So I don't have to work too much. LOL. I can technically work 35-hour weeks all summer BUT not if I have to much work to do. Bummer...

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/31/ten-ways-to-accele...

Just a really good article/blog.

& finally:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2006/10/how_to_compute_.html

I found this one when trying to get a grasp on how much my net worth should grow on an annual basis. I know in the past I have been really stuck on how much cash we have and our house because it took so much blood, sweat, tears... But going forward I maybe can only save $10k/year or something, but when I look at the big picture like I Said yesterday, I think our net worth should go up $35k next year. Is this good or bad. I don't know. I think it is good, but looking for some general rles of thumb, some way to measure progress, etc. I think this will help me look at the big picture too and stay motivated, tracking net worth. The article above does a good job.

The jist is that you:

"Take your age and divide by 166. Then subtract fifteen hundredths (0.15). Finally, multiply the result by your age. The resulting number should be between zero and twenty. That number is how many times your current annual income you should be worth."

The article takes it a step above and says if your income is more than your expenses ( which it should be, right?) you can use your annual expenses instead of your income.

Article points out that it grows faster over time. By 30 you need to be at a 1, but then once you hit 40, you need to increase by 1 every 2 years.

Here's a graph of that calc. by age:

Age, Annual Spending Saved

30, 1
35, 2
38, 3
42, 4
44, 5
47, 6
49, 7
51, 8
53, 9
55, 10
57, 11
59, 12
61, 13
63, 14
64, 15
66, 16
68, 17
69, 18
70, 19
72, 20

For this I completely took the house out of the equation. It has a good year of salary/expenses cash sunk into it which I usually count at the least. But this calc is geared towards retirement. So if we retire in our house, where does that leave us. I am not counting it in my net worth. If I did we'd already be at a 7, or about 20 years ahead.

Take out the house and the mortgage, and puts us at a good 1 for age 30. Well okay then, I can hang. I am super stoked with this equation because I have been feeling like we could pretty easily move our net worth up 1 point in 2 years. On 1 income!!!! I guess that is a good place to be.

I really like that this calculation uses expenses instead of income. BEcause when playing with the #s, I tried to factor a 2nd income down the road. But it really makes it that much harder to save that entire income. Since that 2nd income has always been savings and gravy, it shouldn't really count towards this calculation because our living expenses should always be FAR less. If not, well that is another problem. When I factor that whole thing though we move miles ahead. In the next 10 years or so I guess we will move from 1 to 7 and this will put us where we should be in 20 years. & then if dh got a job at that point, then we skyrocket ahead even faster.

I still really really really do not see setting sights on retirement until 55 at the least, maybe later. But I think that is more the planner in me. I want to do so well, but I know any of many things can slow us down, so I don't want to get too ahead of myself. Even though we may be 10-20 years ahead, very quickly, I don't know if that will mean we will feel like we are ready to retire early. Plus I like working anyhow - LOL. But maybe we could work part-time as we age, etc. Maybe if something catastrophic happens we will be well prepared. Maybe if both boys want to go to med school, we can help. It should leave a lot of options.

I think our net worth will hit $1 mil by 40 - and that is counting our house. I Still haven't ruled out moving out of state to retire super young (or at least work a hell of a lot less...)

Anyway, ironically, the best thing this does for me is help me to set goals in a way that really moves us forward. This is ironic because the person who posted this blog completely discounted the point in the article that said a measure of wealth is having money in the bank to pay the mortgage but not paying it - wisely leveraging debt. I know this to be so true, and yet I still want to pay that sucker down in the next 15 years. I Want to put a big chunk to it. Looking at the net worth big picture I think I can talk myself into investing more money and watching it grow, and knowing I Can even more quickly invest that money and have enough in the bank to pay the mortgage, much faster than it would take me to pay the mortgage. & that is far smarter. HEck sometimes I wish I had a bigger mortgage when I look at it that way. LOL. I truly do. But overall I think tracking my net worth will help me more realistically move ahead financially, and not get stuck on 1 thing, on savings or debt, etc. I can really look hard at where we are at and what we need to do to move our net worth forward faster. & it will help me control my urge to pay down low-interest debt.

Well to truly motivate me I am going to look at the big picture without the house - as I aim for retirement goals and such. However, on an ongoing tracking basis I am still going to count payments to the mortgage because it motivates me. Heck this year i am going to knock $4k off that sucker just making the mandatory payment, rounded up to an even round number. I need the motivation for now.

After being unable to do much today I finally told dh what I would really like to do is just clean up a little. I have been pretty overwhelmed lately and everything around the house seems to be suffering. Anyway, came upstairs to file bills & papers, opened that new GMAC MMA I intended to (oh yeah, I think they lowered their rate too - figures - but still felt it was worth it). Dh decided to vacuum the downstairs and I am so grateful. When I ask to help he does. But usually all the housework falls on me. I don't really mind for the most part - I don't do a ton, but I think I go through this every busy season - it just sldies by the wayside and becomes so overwhelming I can't even think about it. Anyway, just simply vacuuming the family room and kitchen/dining area just feels like a weight off - just less overwhleming. THank you dh - & it is extra nice when I don't have to ask!!!!!!

I picked up the kids room sand laundry last weekend and now the office area is a little more tidy, everything filed. I would love to scrub the kids' bath (filthy) and should probably get a new shower curtain - it's just disgusting. & the table clothe downstairs is trashed - ripped and stain - time to replace - may do a little shopping tomorrow. Unfortunately we have extra big shower, hard to find a shower liner so will just go over to Bed, Bath Beyond - I know I bought the last one there a while back - see if I can find one.

Maybe tomorrow I will hit the kitchen and the rest of the downstairs needs a good vacuum.

HAving a bigger house, overall I don't spend a lot of time dusting and scrubbbing overall, so it is really not that much, but the downside is the master bath pretty much never gets cleaned. IT is always filthy - just the one thing I never have time for. & then when I get to it, it takes so long to scrub, I just never want to do it again. LOL. SO as usual the rest of the house will probably be "clean as it needs to be" as I always say, and the bathroom - eh - it will wait as usual But at least once I get back on track it won't be so hard to keep up. I hope. I really prefer to do my own housework for many reasons - I doubt I will ever hire a maid. For now, in the winter, it is the only exercise I get. Seriously. So I like to do it myself.

Anyway, the good financial news is I totally forgot when I lessened BM's preschool days that most months would be $280. $280 or $315 depending if it is 8 or 9 days that fall in that month. I totally forgot because no sooner than we switched than they shut down 2 months. Anyway, just paying the bill and thinking it shouldn't be MORE than 9 days so I better check. I saw it was a short february and 8 days. I Was really pleased. & THEN I noticed march was the same. $70 I did not expect to save in january & february - woohoo!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I am super stoked because we are short about $200 this month based on income anyway mostly because of all the car repairs (was looking pretty good even with all the emnergencies this month until the last couple of days of course). BUT I made almost $100 in Cookie Lee sales this month - woohoo - and just found another $70 - WOW!!!!! To bridge the end of the gap I have had my eye on selling an old Milli Vanilli C.d. I have. They are selling upwards of $20. I also have a couple of baby items to that I need to clean and put up for sale. So overall I am super pleased.

I am also extra pleased with my decision to round up the mortgage payment by $32. A day at preschool is $35 and since about 1/2 the months we pay $35 less than I budgeted, is easy to apply that to the mortgage. Just something I totally hadn't realized and I Am super pleased! All works out...

Just a quickie because craziness abounds over here.

But I got the heat/gas bill and it was $116. Considering we had record low temps for well over a week, I am impressed. We have had worse.

& hopefully this does it. It has been warming up and I look forward to 3-5 months of slim gas or electric bills - it will get mild and we will rarely run the heat, until May or June when the heat wave hits and we start cranking the air. Woohoo. I am a little over budget this month with all the health costs, extra daycare, car repairs, etc., etc. But I decided to forge ahead with all my full savings goals. I know in the future months when our gas/electric bill goes down we will catch up. Right now I pay everything so early I will just push things a little later in payment until I catch up. No biggie. It's about how I usually do things. I know if I just save the full amount I intended to, the rest will work out.

If I have 5 more months like this though, I can't say. LOL. I even lost track of how much money we spent these last few days, and with how hectic it is, easy to pull up the cc and look overall, but I Am just going to start my spend updates over Feb. 1. Here's to a better February!!

Oh yeah, still no word from the last electric bill (have received 2 gas bills in the meantime- have separate companies). Logged onto my account last night - no bills, $0 balance. Well okay then. Something else I am not sure I really have the money for. In the meantime I think I have to start paying the preschool 1st of the month instead of before. Oh well. It is nice something so simple balances the budget - that is why I pay everything so darn early, so if I have a bad month, I can pay everything when due and not get behind - woohoo. Either that or my personal loan which has no due date. Hmmmm. Or the mortgage, or the utilities, or the cc payment. Many options, just don't want to screw up my system - since I divide each paycheck into the bills due.

I had wanted to build up a bit of a slush fund for this purpose with budget underages (is that a word? LOL) and intended to put aside $50 every month for car maintenance which is very reasonable. But having $250 in car bills in month 1 is not helping me!

Frankly my only real problem is being too aggressive in the savings, which really isn't a problem if you ask me.

Well I have my first tax appointment today. & so it begins...

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/22594

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneymatters/20375

My 2 favorite gals. Nothing much new, more of the same.

I woke up early and felt motivated today. I have been planning for a LONG time to formulate an article for the Dollar Stretcher on being a 1-income family. & right now I feel motivated and will give it a start. Hasn't been a new one in that category for a couple of months so we'll see. Maybe will motivate me to write more articles.

I have 2 things to focus on. One is planning from the getgo, which can only help people already with kids so much. But I still think it is important - to plan ahead best you can. GOod advice for people thinking ahead I guess. But even more importantly, to be flexible. Be open to doing things a little different than the norm, if it will work out better for you. Not a greater example than having the father stay home with the kids- how how weird is that? I know quite a few people who have considered the option, that it would work for them, but were just too scared to take the plunge to do things different, falling to the pressure of family and society. I also know plenty of people who make 1-income living work by constantly thinking outside the box. IT is a big key in figuring it out for many.

My auctions have 1 hour left - should probably go to the store on the way home today and pick up some packing materials.

Our item is up to $8 (expecting $10) & MIL's items is up to $165 (get 20%!!!!). When I get the money I will add it to the challenge and subtract out the ebay fees and postage fees when I pay them rather than figure it out now- hehe.

I also have a freecycler picking up some kitchen stuff today - woohoo.

We might fix the flat today too. Probably should, but hey times like these the 2nd car that is super convenient but not necessity - well it pays off. I told dh something about how it would not be a smart choice to drop his car since when we bought it he needed it and now that it is more luxury, it is paid off and we will NEED it more soon enough. HE looked at me like I was crazy - "of course we NEED my car." LOL. LEt's just say he hasn't had to live through very tight times like I have. we COULD easily live without the car as we are coming up on a 3rd or 4th day this week of only 1 car - and hardly a headache. Yeah sure it is a PITA and it is probably better not to have to leave work to take the kids to doctor appointments and stuff, smarter to keep it. But necessity it is not. HEll we could even live without 2 cars, but I won't even go there with dh - he would probably keel over - LOL. Granted they make life so much EASIER. & they way we buy cars it cost us so little, so no matter, the benefit FAR outweighs the cost.

Oh yeah, back to Ebay. I have been SUPER annoyed because I have been getting tons of tons of ebay e-mails. How many questions can people have about an item. It is SO frustrating to me when I meticulously list the details of an items and no one pays attention. "Does it comes with this?" & "What does it come with?" So I respond over and over - what the listing says - that is what is there!!!!!!

& then I have been super annoyed because every time I get a "qustion about an item" ebay sends me an alert to beware of the message. Huh? IT is a question about an item - what the hell ebay???????

& then today I Saw why because I got 2 spams in that form. WOW. I have sold 2 or 3 items and never had any questions or spam or ebay alerts. They are driving me batty - the spam is super annoying though.

In other news my dh got scammed. He bought something through a storefront through Pricegrabber. We are both EXTREMELY careful when it comes to online puhases. So he checked the reviews on the store and they were something like 99% positive and he bought some electronic gadget - some kind of memory card. Anyway, they were pissing him off to no end because he also ordered something from asia that arrived FASTER so he e-mailed to ask where it was, and they just said it shipped. A week later, still not here. He is pissed because he sees it on sale at Fry's too by now. LAst night I told him just to go get it - he can return it if it arrives. So he did. & then he e-mails them again and they say they shipped it today (after saying last week it had shipped). So he goes back to the reviews and sees that the 1% of complaints were about slow shipping, but beyond that, the product is a fake. LOL. HE says he imagined most people just didn't notice. HE was looking for a particular brand for a particular reason and I guess they are trying to pass off something else. So it wasn't huge - $27 - we'll see if he gets his money back or if it even ever arrives - he will raise hell and report them and all that...

The thing is pretty sweet. A 1 GB memory card like the size of a - I don't even know it is so SMALL. Technology never ceases to amaze me... I don't like those super small things though - so easy to lose - LOL. IT's about as big as 3 grains of rice or something.

Dh's birthday is Friday. We didn't do gifts, but I figured I would not take the new card from his allowance. I'll be nice... His birthday gift. & maybe he will get the other one and it won't matter anyway...

Yesterday dh did a screening of his movie here. So I couldn't work very long yesterday - so going in today to work. I barely worked all week no matter. Then I have to stop by my neighbors to help her a little more with her quickbooks. I already charged her and was paid - will probably not make any more on the endeavor - mostly being nice and trying to help (why I didn't charge her much in the first place!). Just a busy day though.

Dh's movie is going really well though. I'll probably post more later, but it is potential he can receive a windfall on it this year. & if not, he is making his way up the ladder - all this unpaid work looks more and more like it will pay off with paid work soon enough. The timing is beautiful with where the kids are. In just 6 months Little monkey can start preschool and in 18 months his mom will be done working and can help watch the kids if he has work. Keeping my fingers crossed... I don't even think I mentioned they fired their paid editor (one of the only people PAID) and dh took over and everyone is very impressed. Including dh who has never edited an entire movie - it has been a good experience. HE is working another friend to edit his movie - I think once he proves his commitment and has a finished product to demo - he is in. BAsically he was loads above the "paid" editor - woohoo. I think editing would be his dream job - he's getting there. OF course if he makes money off this movie he might sink most of it into equipment, but that is okay. I Will still fight for a small piece for the e-fund, but he can re-invest most of it into equipment. Anyway, it is the kind of thing where there is a small chance this could be a BIG windfall, but it won't likely amount to much for the most part. But even if he makes $100 I Will be happy. HE was going to get 3% of sales proceeds and it looks like he might get closer to 10% with recent developments. Maybe more - selling it is on him and he is MOTIVATED. They originally wanted $1 mil. not counting on that at all. Now that's a windfall! LOL. But dh feels he could get a decent chunk too, and 10% ain't bad - so we'll see!!!

I know I had a good start to the year and with an extra $700 or so this month didn't intend to push too much this month.

(Plus I earned around $150 OT!!!!)

But dh asked me to a sell a game of his on ebay - listing #3 for me! Will net around $10 I imagine. I was telling him there was a minimum to pull the money out of paypal and I think we needed more - just thinking ahead to what else we could sell. Then he reminded me we are s'posed to sell a relative's GPS system for them. They offered 50% of the cut, but we refused. He was telling me he might take 20%. Even that is too much if you ask me, but whatever. IT is around $400 so 20% would be pretty darn sweet!!!! So I Am posting them today - we'll see how much that adds to the challenge.

HAve a few kitchen items for freecycle - most notably our old toaster oven since I got the new black one for christmas to match the kitchen (As I was pulling ideas out of the air from pushy dh's family). A perfectly good toaster oven - to freecycle I guess.

Dh also bought some jock straps for his surgery that were too small. HE tried one on and the other never worn. I Want to freecycle it but it seems a little weird - LOL. Then I thought about it, since they were size small - maybe good for a kid in sports or something. I just feel weird about an adult male coming to my house to get jock straps. But there is no way I could throw them away either... I guess we'll see if anyone responds. Tempted to throw in the Goodwill pile, but since it is an opened package fear it would just go to the trash.

I have to relist 2 toys on craigslist. Going way down on price. If not will goodwill probably.

We still have boxes and boxes from storage to go through. I am thinking of making a goal to do 1 box a week. The funny thing is with all our junk in storage, our house looked pretty de-cluttered (to show the house). Yet we haven't unpacked the boxes and the clutter still abounds. Where does it come from???? Christmas didn't help.

Dh and I have been meaning to go through and do a goodwill pile of toys. & he has a pile of books to sell too. Will push to get this all done this month I guess.

I have been super lazy lately, so I thought, felt like I have not accomplished much. But then I Remembered we have been gone every weekend, tons of family over with the holidays, etc., etc., etc. IT has been so hectic. Even today I have a little bit of work to do - just so crazy at work, figured I Would squeeze in a couple of hours today. But otherwise the rest of the day is free - phew. & i am in de-clutter mode, so we'll see what we can accomplish!

Jan. 4 - $85.74 Gas & Food & Dh's Toy
Jan. 3 - $24.00 Celebratory Dinner
Jan. 2 - $61.77 Groceries
Jan. 1 - $00.00

I will update exact amount later.

YEsterday went all wrong - LOL.

IT was a complicated day. I was going to meet dh and the kids around 11am for toddler class. It is $8/week for basically gymboree for parks and rec. Little monkey was going to start. I used to meet them when Big Monkey went, to watch the little one. Now I was going to occupy Big Monkey (since luckily there is a park and a library there too) while Little Monkey attends the class. So I was ready to shell out $32 yesterday (for 4 weeks).

I was then going to take dh's car because I had to go downtown and he has the little compact car which is easier to park in tight spots - you can park anywhere in this thing.

Since time was so tight I figured I would grab fast food.

But dh calls me around 10am to say little Monkey has a fever. So we skipped class. I looked at my calendar and recalled that I have meetings 2 Thursdays every month so I am pondering if this is a good idea at all anyway. I am trying to get Big Monkey's days switched to T/Th at preschool, but so far no go. On the other hand all our meetings will be cancelled (at the last minute) through tax season - they always are - I don't even know why they bother planning them - LOL. So we'll see - haven't decided yet, though it is so "cheap" compared to anything else, even if we only went 1/2 the time, probably worth it.

So I had to drive the van - blech - which was really out of gas because I figured I wasn't going to drive it all around. So I stopped for a BK meal $2.16 - order 2 99 cent items & brought my own soda (as usual). Then had to get gas, but since it wasn't the cheapest just got 2.5 gallons.

So that is how I sepnt my money yesterday. I think I got just enough gas I don't have to get more until I get home tonight - I have 10 cent off/gallon at the gas station over here so this is where I want to fill up!

SHoot - dh also spent $77 I have to add above - will later. He said he was going to save his allowance dilligently for a PS3. & 3 days into our new allowance he blows almost 2 months (at $50/month). LOL. I am not quite sure he has the discipline he thinks he does - hehe. But we'll see!!!! HE has been telling me he will buy nothing all year but his beloved PS3, but he had to buy something for his Nintendo DS - $77!!!! FUnny thing is I thought he told me it was $60 or something - tax and shipping I guess...

Anyway, little monkey seems to be feeling pretty good today - he was just a little sick - phew.

Yeah, the IRS has a withholding calculator and I Recommend it to people all the time. It is a lot easier than figuring out a W-4 schedule.

BUT I had been thinking I should probably get 14 exemptions and I was thinking of pushing 16 on my W-4 this year. I always get a big state refund ($1500 or so) and I figure easier just to claim more fed exemptions, pay the balance with my state refund on April 15th. Plus I know all the tax laws and can monitor it to make sure I don't hit the penalty for underwithholding, which I wouldn't at 2 measly exemptions at 15%. Means I may be underwithheld $1k, but there is no penalty for being under $1k or less due at April 15. & state refund will no doubt be more than what I owe.

Anyway, I went to IRS Calculator to see where I was at and it said 12. My own calcs as I already said were 14. I thought maybe I Should just leave it 14. But I did my tax return (a draft anyway) and did some planning for 2007 and still came up with 14. The IRS I have concluded is CONSERVATIVE. They want your money. So just know that - LOL.

They say 12, I claim 16 - take that. 14 would be pretty break-even, a small refund. So 16 just kind of keeps me under penalty and I rather earn interest all year...

My boss always gives me the eye when we are talking about exemptions in seminar - it cracks me up. 4 personal exemptions, $20k easy in state taxes and mortgage, health insurance galore (some of it deductible) and the child tax credit for 2 kids, plus only 1-income, makes a lot of exemptions. No one around here is claiming so many exemptions because they either have a 2nd income or they rely on big refund checks. I Swear I haven't hardly owed a penny on April 15th in years. But it is funny, 16 is the highest yet, he is probably wondering about me. This is the most I every have pushed it. But I will keep an eye on it. If I get a raise I may move it to 15, or lower it later in the year as I monitor it.

I calculate I may be able to squeeze another $40-$50/month with this increase AND our state disability rate actually just went down. Will save me $11/month. & wala, I have my new health insurance premiums covered with or without a raise.

Still praying for a big raise to make my savings goals easier this year. Waiting waiting waiting, couple of more weeks. But is nice to know I am in budget regardless.

ETA: I forgot to mention I get a decent bonus in May where way too much is withheld which is also why I feel comfortable under-withholding a tad. It makes up for that measly bonus I get once 40% is taken out - blah. LOL. I usually keep 90% of my checks and have a right to 90% of that one so it just annoys me to no ends, this is how I battle it... I swear I will probably get a small federal refund for 2007 if I count that.

Was reading an interesting article:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBu...

& saw this blurb:

"Warren recommends people's "must have" expenses total no more than 50% of their after-tax income. (Your after-tax income is basically your take-home pay, with any non-tax deductions like 401(k) contributions and health insurance premiums added back in.)

"Must haves" typically include:

Mortgage or rent
Utilities (including phone and television)
Transportation (gas, car payment, car insurance)
Other insurance (life, health, property, disability)
Groceries
Child care
Minimum loan payments
Child support or other court-mandated payments"

So I wonder how many people actually can fit into this mold? Looking at the people I know??? Few and far between! Granted we live in a very high COL area. But still.

When dh and I both worked we both pulled in the same and we saved his check and used mine for bills. We did tend to use his for extras sometimes, but my check covered the fixed expenses. So overall we were in the rule, and I think at the rate we were saving money, if we didn't stop to have kids sure we could retire by 45 or something. Living on 50% of your income is pretty darn good if you ask me. I would fathom few people do. Kind of curious what fellow bloggers think where they are.

For now we are at a dismal 85% or so. No wonder why I feel so behind sometimes. Even if dh got a job we would still be pushing 60% or so. To some extent I don't fret too much because I have a 2nd potential source of income, and plenty of insurance in place should something happen where one of us couldn't work (Death or disability, etc.). But at the same time going through the calcs, dh would have to bring home $3k/month to get us to that 50% mark. YIkes. Then again, we live so below our means beyond the fixed expenses I guess it is not so bad. The reason we can forge ahead with 85% of our income spoken for every month.

Mortgage - 1300
Property Tax - 350
Home Insurance - 150
Utilities - 400 (water, phones, cable, electric, sewer, garbage)
Car Payment - 215 (gone soon enough!)
Car repairs/maint.-50
Gas - 300
Auto Insurance 150
Groceries 500
Health Insurance 675
Life & Dis. Insur. 60
Dental Checkups 85 (no insurance)
Loans (Other) 0
Child Care 0
-------------------------
TOTAL $4,235
OR 85%!!

The other 15% goes to gardener and preschool. LEaves $350/month for everything else, mostly living expenses not included up above.

Oh my!

Our practically brand new van will be paid off soon and our % will be 81%. That is something I guess.

& yet our house with our homeowners fees (which I probably should have added up there), tax, insurance is 32% of my gross pay, which is within the general guidelines.

As you see insurance is literally eating us out of house and home.

You can argue how fixed some of those expenses are though, that is for sure. (cable? cell phones?)

I am sitting on pins and needles waiting for my RAISE. We'll see where it puts us I guess. What it does to our %.

Right now we are saving maybe 1% of our income. But we save everything above and beyond, that comes in outside my salaried income. & it is not like there is nothing else, the little things build our savings and build us a cushion. But anyway, any % raise I get to take home will all go to saving. So that will feel good. If we could save 10% between paid-off van and a raise, I would be estatic!!!!! Boss is matching me 10%. IT is the kind of thing that would make me back off dh finding a job for another year or 2, or 3, 4, 5. IF we were putting away 20% between my profit sharing and our savings. & we are close...

Oh yeah, and I was feeling bummed how fast the christmas money went, but my short-term savings now has $1800 today - just about a full property tax installment, though it is not due until April. !!!! oh my! That feels good. We have been relying on savings for this the last few years. We really are forging ahead...

PS. I just recalculated the above based on all of our extra money for the year (gifts, bonuses from work, selling things, dh and I Side jobs - we are operating at 73% which isn't 1/2 bad. IF we did not have all these extras believe me I would not have preschool and a gardener - I Can just see the comments pouring in - LOL. But as a % of my fixed take-home pay every month, yeah 85% is a bit crazy. THat is why we do what we can to pull in a little more... & the little more apparently make sa big difference! But still curious to see how the % changes based on my income for 2007, which is yet to be determined...).

Okay - I got my work bonus - $250 - woohoo!!!! I Am looking at my e-fund and oh many I Want to put it there!!!!! BUT I just sent in the paperwork to downgrade our health insurance, and it says on the form they will "let me know when the rate takes affect." Gee great. It asked when I Wanted it to take affect for my dependents so I wrote 1/1/07 all over the place. I don't want to pay a dime to the insane premiums. BUT I got the bill and it is an extra $200 or so, so the bonus check pretty much covers that. I will just pay it and hope I get a refund or premium reduction next month. At least I had the extra money to cover.

I get paid friday. Since I have the money with these last 2 checks to pay all the December bills, I will just hoarde the christmas money until I deposit my paycheck next saturday - will see where I am at then. I am expecting a big check from dh's mother and I need it to pay some bills. It is spoken for! & anything above and beyond that I don't really expect but wouldn't be surprised. So we'll see!!! & the upside is I hope this is the last check from her I Expect and count on. Frankly I did not put any money aside the last 2 months because we paid the estate lawyer. I Can look at it that she paid for that with this check - a nice Christmas gift indeed! But my goal is next December that the money will go to retirement or savings - and so that is a nice thing! I hope this is the last time we are on pins and needles form MIL's big check because we need it for everyday bills...

Yesterday was actually nice. I don't really like scents or anything but I got a lovely candle with a christmas tree scent and I love it. It was kind of funny because if it was any other scent I would have probably put it in the regift pile. The scents in those things are so strong, but I love the smell of this one, it isn't too strong, and I figure I could put it by the fake tree and pretend it is real. I did not even have to burn the candle and my office smells of christmas tree just having it sitting in here all day. I also got a lovely scarf/gloves/hat from my co-worker in our gift exchange. Just beautiful. Plus some unexpected homemade treats and some fancy chocolates from the boss. Made out pretty well - nothing to the regift pile either??? WOW!

Today sounded great and luxurious since the kids are with grandma until we pick them up tomorrow. But this is how my schedule is shaping up. Work until 1pm or so, go to the bank and the grocery store (pick up some pizzas and some stuff for Christmas). This is usually dh's job - the groceries - but he is home resting and healing. So it is the least I can do. But bah, I hate shopping. LOL. I have christmas cards to do (had wanted to get out today but oh well!!! Probably not...). I really wanted to clean my car - something I never get around to doing and I still have a trail of ants to vacuum. They invaded our house too. So I have some spraying and scrubbing to do - we put out some traps and figured we'd get out the raid once the kids were out of the house. We get them so randomly, it's been years, but they decided to invade yesterday for whatever reason. I have a used toy I need to clean and wrap for little monkey. Still have to wrap grandma's gifts too. Dh has a pile of movies and DVDs he wants me to sit down and watch. I have to cook dinner too (not huge, but just takes time). & then we have to leave like 7am tomorrow to go to Christmas Eve brunch tomorrow and pick up the kids. Figured we'd drive back at 1:00 or nap time because easiest, and then we'll be home around 3 or 4. & the weekend will be over!!! LOL. Actually, Monday should be pretty relaxing and maybe I will hold off all the DVD-watching until then... I just feel silly thinking I would have SO much time to myself and looking at my schedule. Oh well, if I had to do that all AND watch the kids I would be in big trouble so maybe I Can do everything 10 times as fast as I imagine without kinds under foot.

Oh anyway - on other funny thing. MIL was over the last 2 days helping with the kids, and last night at dinner she asks us what we got for dh's cousins new adopted baby, and their adopted teenager actually too. ??? We look at each other and say, um NOTHING. Why? LOL. & she looks all appalled and says well they are going to her house today with the kids to exchange gifts. Oh no, she better pick up something "for us." I was super annoyed so I Said look, we have been trying to get away from gift exchanging, so PLEASE do not pick up gifts on our behalf. All the while thinking when was anyone going to fill us in, we never exchange gifts, and though she has a new baby yes, I am pretty certain she did not get our boys gifts the last few Christmases. & we never get gifts for her teenage daughter. ???

Anyway, so I talked about it with dh later when MIL was gone and she wasn't butting in because she sure likes to butt in. We were both on the same page. I said if we had more money I would love to give him a gift on one hand. On the other hand, Christmas is a VERY busy time for me and this year has been downright pleasant, I had simplified so much. & even so I feel like a chicken running around without a head this weekend - there is so much to do just for the immediate family. So we kind of decided money or no money, we just didn't want to go down that road. We have given them piles and piles and piles of used clothing (some brand new/never worn even) and other baby thing - some big things as well. AND if I see somehting cute for him throughout the year I wouldn't think twice of picking it up. But I just want to take the Christmas part of the equation. The best way is not to return the favor - I can guarantee they won't get gifts next year if we don't give them ourselves.

However, today the kids are going to a gift exchange at their house, where they will get gifts and they will have none to give - LOL. I think it's kind of funny. Since we were told all of 14 hours before this event. & I wouldn't put it past MIL to buy something on her way over. If so, she can deal with it - it an be an annual tradition - she wasnts to make it complicated on herself - so be it. I want no part in it.

Ah, family. Oh don't worry, after Christmas we'll call his cousin and explain the situation and work it out. We've pretty much agreed with my family and all our friends that we don't expect anything from anyone and have taken the "obligation" out of gift giving, and I am sure we can get them on the same page. Dh's family is a little more weird where presents equate love for whatever reason, and we humor his immediate family, but hopefully we can get on the same page with his cousin. This approach is just kind of silly - our love is not measured by our Christmas gifts!

Made my deposits today, came home and updated Quicken. Still short about $100 for december - not really concerned. But checked the mail and got a $100 christmas check from dh's grandpa. Sweet. For whatever reason everyone in his family from every side is big on cash. No complaints here!!!!! My family, not so much. Okay 1 side is totally poor. & the other side figures they have done enough raising their kids, I guess. I was just pondering why dh's family is so cash happy and mine isn't, just strange in a way. He even has a distant aunt who always sends big checks. Spoiled rotten I tell you!

Anyway, the $100 brings us to breakeven in December. Still $400 left to spend on the credit card too, and stay within budget - will be mostly groceries and gas...

Phew.

Christmas money - there may just be enough coming in the next couple of weeks to finance our wants/needs and to add some to the e-fund. Who knows. Dh wants to put his money towards PS3 - whatever. What can I say. A tight tight year we keep chanting, but a $500 game system when he already has MANY. Whatever... So much for TIGHT! He did give me grandpa's money for bills (didn't give him a choice - hehe). We'll see what we get and compromise I guess - at least he isn't hoarding all the christmas money for this - he is saving his pennies for a few months - we'll come up with a compromise. Maybe he can save 1/2 if he gives 1/2 to the e-fund. Just depends - time will tell...

I need to invest in clothes for work because I am still in in-between size hell. Last year's clothes too big, pre-pregnancy clothes too small. Tax season coming up - need some suits. I seriously have size 16 clothes way too big and 14 way too small. I have no idea if I Can even find anything! Yeah, I want to spend all my money ($200? mostly work bonus) but it is an investment for work. In the meantime my dress hasn't been so hot... I have taken business casual to a pretty casual level.

Kids will get money and we have toys in mind for them. They could probably do well without. But we justified not going crazy pre-christmas by deciding to go crazy with the christmas money for them instead. It is seriously Dec. 19th and they each have 1 toy - and I haven't been tempted to buy more. So far has worked...

On the flip side of all this, I am only $250 away from $6k in the e-fund!!!!!! We have to throw it a bone!!

It all depends how much we rake in on Christmas I guess!!!

Well, we'll see how this works out. I have mentioned before that I allow myself 1 small can of pepsi a day - 8 oz can. Dh whines and whines as he buys my 6-packs every week because they are pricey. I frankly don't give a damn because with this system I lose weight. So yay - I don't care how much it costs - I know I just drink a lot less in this form.

Lack of self control is a big part of it, but not all. I generally do not enjoy a big can of soda - it is just too much.

So over the weekend we were at my mom's and I Saw she had little tops for her soda cans - keeps them fizzy and fresh apparently. Interesting, I thought. So I questioned her about them and she said they were great, she ordered them from a catalog, etc.

So I thought aloud maybe I should try those and dh ran with it. When I got home yesterday he had 24 regular sized cans and told me each 12-pack cost as much as my little six-pack - and he was dancing with glee. Interesting since I had no tops yet, had been a passing thought. Luckily he was nice and got me one last round of small cans. HE gives me a week I guess - hehe.

So I just ordered some online. They are different than the kind my mom had, but we'll see how they work - investment will pay for itself shortly...

http://www.sodapoptops.com/order-soda-pop-tops.php

We'll see if they really truly do work and keep the fizz (I have a tendency to throw out the last portion of the soda bottle because it loses fizz towards the end - and loses all appeal if you ask me...). IF they work, I will be happy to switch though I know it will be a lot more work for me and much more of a battle to just drink my 8 oz and save the rest for later. I Will probably just have to pour it in a glass and leave it at that. I Would drink the whole can if I had it in hand. As much as I generally would not like a whole can at home, at work I will mindlessly drink whatever is in front of me. So I will start with the pour and sip rule and just have to pretend the rest of the open can is not calling to me...

We'll see how it goes. I think dh has too much hope in me. If it is a choice between pricey soda cans or a diminished waistline, I choose pricey soda cans - LOL. I have a strong feeling I may be switching back. But I will give it a whirl. I Can do it!

Today I am just trying to decide when to go to the bank. I Was thinking thursday would be good because I should have some time. BUT I have some checks that could clear thursday, money not in the bank yet, just cutting it a bit close. So I will probably go today. THinking 2:00 take a little break and make a bank run. I just want to beat the crowd... Have a paycheck to deposit, CPA renewal reimbursement, $12 from cookie lee sales, and $70 from selling baby stuff last week. A good run... & I will breathe a little easier when the money is in and all the checks can then clear!!

All that and I am about $50 short for the month... But the good news is with the sold baby items, most of the christmas money will go straight to e-fund. WIll not have to rely on christmas to cover the $125 or so I was short originally. So the bills will be paid come christmas, and hopefully some money to the e-fund too!

It is a silly little thing, but realizing we can deposit cash has helped a lot. Our parents give us cash here and there all the time, and we use it as fun money. But no more!! From now on it goes mostly to the bank. Even if we split it 1/2 fun money and 1/2 savings, it is a large improvement. I have no idea why we are so horrible with cash, we just spend it all whenever we come across it, but this is my 2nd cash deposit and I am excited! If I start hoarding all the cash we receive from our parents and from selling things, etc., can be a significant source for our savings. I think this will be a big part of my $20 challenge. Hoarding cash!

I like to pay my bills when I get them, vs. when due. Creates a positive float I guess, because I know from my maternity leave days and other tight times that I can pay most of our bills late and no one would care. Exeptions being cell phone, mortgage & credit cards. Oh yeah - they care a lot - hehe. But even so, I generally pay those long before due - so still a lot of "float" if something happened and we were out income.

So today I called to put the diaper service bill on my credit card. That one they ask you to pay ahead for 4 weeks. I am usually lazy and pay at the end of the month - no one cares. So I called today and they said I was paid through Monday. So close to the next bill I thought, gosh, should just pay 2 months! I thought about it, and the reason I have been waiting to pay is because I usually get the bill around the 20th and I decide to push off to the next credit card cycle.

So as I hesitated to double up this month when I Could just call back after the 1st, but I quickly changed my mind. This is silly. If I pay it now, then next time I can pay it the day I get the bill! No more of this "waiting for the next c.c. cycle" stuff. Which in the end I put it off, then forget, and then pay a month late. They have never charged a late fees so I figure they don't really care. But it is still nice to pay when they say is due I guess.

I think this squares me away and that officially in 2007 I will be paying all my bills when received - that is nice.

The next step I would really like to get to is to "prepay" my c.c. every month. I probably wouldn't give it to the c.c. company, but just set it aside the first of the month to pay the bill. Until then we are kind of operating on credit to month to month. I say we aren't because we pay it in full every month. But in a way we are putting off 1 month paying for all of our purchases...

I go back and forth on this because because I get paid on the 1st for the prior month, which pays the c.c. bill for the prior month. So it is mostly cash basis. I Earn the money as I spend it though I don't get it or pay it until the 1st...

But the more I can prepay the more "float" I have too. Which is a good thing.

Well when we build up cash a little more, a goal for 2007 I guess...

None of this really matters in the long-run I guess. BUT we have been deep into juggling the bills before. It is nice to be far on the opposite side of juggling bills, not waiting to be able to pay them and such... IT's just been a way of life in recent years but I am glad to move past! I don't think doubling up the diaper bill this month will amount to a hill of beans. & that feels good!

It is going to mess up my pretty monthly reports, but I will survive - hehe. The bookkeeper in me does not like doubled up payments. Bah!

This month so far has been a strange one. We actually sign our wills, trust, and other docs saturday. I am SO excited to get this done. Our lawyer up and went to Sydney at the last minute and just got back, so we waited. Of course it was not until last night I finally got around to reading all the docs and making sure they were all good. Frankly most of it makes no sense to me, and I did a lot of skimming. But I trust her and looks like the basics we wanted were taken care of.

If she hadn't gone away for a month we could have taken care of this in our 20s - I Was proud. I don't know anyone in their 20s that has a family trust. We are not worth much on paper, but our life insurance and house would make our kids millionaires. (Shhhh don't tell them) so we felt it was time - well past time. Plus we got our medical directives & power of attorney taken care of as well. Anyway so much for 20s, but made it the first couple of weeks of 30 - still something. I am learning my most responsible of friends in their late 30s and early 40s don't have life insurance or wills to appoint guardians. *shudders* I am giving my lawyer's name to everyone, indeed. I feel like we have dragged our feet for years. It just is not at the top of most people's lists I guess. I mean we have a 3yo and we are finally getting to this step? Seems late to me.

Oh yes, but why strange, we have just been surrounded by death this last month. My family lost a friend suddenly, that James Kim saga weighed on me heavily (since he was a young dad with a young family I guess). My grandpa doesn't have long to live. Even going for a walk on the weekend, we crossed the path of a dead pigeon which my son was very concerned about. It has been kind of depressing. But all the more reason to get this stuff in order.

In other news we FINALLY got our christmas tree up yesterday. The kids love it. My 3yo kept sating - "It's Christmas Eve!!!!"
LOL. No no - has a ways to go.

MIL sent his preschool teacher $100. MIL can be a PITA, but is extremely generous all the same - was very sweet of her. Preschool teacher called her to say thanks and said she misses my son so much - can't wait to get back. Ah, just a couple of more weeks. HE has been handling it well - trying to get him together with his friend from there around once a week which helps. Overall he has handled the change and upset pretty well. But I know he is eager to get back.

This month has been pretty tight. I usually have a little money in the slush fund easily accessible. But it rests at $5 today. All the bills paid, some sitting in the corner, waiting a week or so to mail. I usually mail my deposits, but I think I Will go to the bank Monday. Mail is so slow this time of year and I need the money right away. I did want to also deposit my cash profits from selling things this week, but dh took a $20 because he had no cash, and frankly all I have is $2. I think I will just hold onto it. We'll see what kind of cash we amass at Christmas - I Can make a deposit then. ME going to the bank to make deposits - just weird. I still need about $125 to breakeven for the month. But I know we'll find it. The worst is I Will pay some bills after the first of the month instead of before. But with Christmas we should get some cash so no biggie. For now it is tight. I am still getting used to my savings being inaccessible for a couple of days - was never like this before. But I think it is good - harder to touch. We usually have more slush and I have a lot of leeway since I pay the bills received, not when due. I just did not realize we had NO cash, and so it is good we sold some things. Though frankly I think we could survive with no cash. We don't use it for much - even the fast food places take credit these days.

Oh well, come my Dec. 31 paycheck we will be in the green. Soon enough.

I called my HMO last week to change to a less pricey plan, but still have not received the paperwork. will give it a couple of days I guess. I don't even want to think if that is not switched by 12/31. Then I would be another $200 or so under budget. Don't want to think about it. Paying $900 for health insurance premiums is NOT an option. It is just insane. E-fund will certainly not make it to $6k this year if that is the case... Hoping this goes through. I should probably call and make sure they mailed the forms...

Edited: Just sold a double stroller for $15. Sweet! We bought this REALLY nice stroller for $20 used. I offered it to my mom's group $15 - figured I'd post it $25 on craigslist if no one wanted it. It is pretty worn and my group can be a little snobby so didn't expect much. SHould have asked $20 - doh. Oh well - I got more than I expected for other items. I am putting up the kids' playgym/tunnel thing that I got for $10 up on Craigslist too. Dh agreed ot help me go through the toys when Big Monkey goes off to Grandma's next week too. See if we can get some stuff sold before Christmas, while he is gone...

Yes, we have 4 strollers and I think we only bought 1 new. It was really nice with the 2 kids to try a couple of different kinds before settling on one - imagine paying 100s and not liking it!!! We got this $20 stroller while we waited for the coveted Sit& Stand stroller to show up used - was a long while - had ot be patient. I am sure we will get back whatever we paid on that one when we are ready. But should last us a while longer. This is why buying used is so nice, and then selling it. Generally we can get what we paid and so we essentially "Rented" our baby items for free. Can't beat that!

I am not sure if I typed out my goals so here goes. Keeping here for future tweaking.

**Save $10k in cash. Achieve this by saving $35/month+raise(raise is still unknown), saving budget underages, saving extra income, earning interest, saving cash gifts, and saving bonuses. If we have a really good year (little unforeseen on the expense side) I think we can maybe pull it off, but I am definitely aiming HIGH.
(If it is a good year will reconsider allocating some to ROTHs by April 2008. I like the hindsight 20/20 aspect of this aim. Regardless of us, retirement gets a $13k+ bump so it takes a backseat in 2007. If I can save this money, going forward I know I Can save our full ROTH contributions every year. It is a small piece of a bigger goal).

**Actively manage investments. 10%+ returns, but depends on market.

**Resist the urge to prepay mortgage. This is just silly until ROTHs are fully funded and savings is where I want it. Remind myself if not for prepayment would have more cash today. Still have YEARS to prepay it and meet early payoff goal. & this is NOT the year.

**Resist the urge to prepay personal loan. Silly silly silly. I extended my goal for payoff to December 2007. The balance should be $1k or so then. Once I pay it off I can save $250/month. For now I can only save $35. You see why I want to pay it off. *sigh* I know I know, leave it alone, let the interest compound on my savings!!

**Set up allowance system for dh and I. will open new high-yield savings for this.

**I also set a monetary goal to have $150k in our retirement by age 35. Or in 5 years. I know this is a pretty lofty goal, but I knew $100k would be too easy and so I rather aim high and fall short, than aim low. Plus I think it is just entirely possible...

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In other news, looks like we sold the jumperoo for $35. We'll see if they show today. woohoo. I knew as I posted these for more than I expected to get, that a lot of people would not haggle. BUT it still amazes me. I am not the finest haggler myself, but believe me, I am buying something easy to find used off of Craigslist, I am haggling it down.

& I do know the basic rules. Never tell someone your lowest price. Or haggle the price because you can't afford it even though you "know it is worth more." THat was the e-mail I got on the playwall. lOL. Well if you know it is worth more, whatever, I am not a charity case - hehe. I Would have respected his haggling a little more if he hadn't of thrown the sentence "I know it is worth more."

Unfortunately me e-mail is not working right now so I don't know where I stand with that guy either or the status on my freecycle. LAdy never arranged pickup, so I offered to someone else. Funny thing is this was for "charity" - for a needy family. The few times I have tried to give things away for charity through craigslist and freecycle, the people didn't follow through. I guess when it is for personal gain they are quick, and when not they really drag their feet. So this is the 2nd time ever I didn't have someone show up right away, 2nd time for a needy family. So I offered to someone else. Hopefully it will be gone today!!!!

Oh yes, but haggling. We haggle almost everything. It is amazing how much you can save if you just ask. The worst is they say no. But even then, walking away from things, you will be amazed how low people will go sometimes. Though I overall do not recommend walking away unless you really want to walk away - hehe.
For example, as we walked out of a timeshare presentation with our free goodies, the salesman bowing to the floor and grabbing our knees so we don't walk out (okay exaggerating, but just a tad) they lowered the price on this timeshare from $15k to $5k. Frankly I wouldn't have bought it for a pennie. But just proved to me how worthless those things were. So we were at a liquidation sale for furniture and saw these beautiful leather theatre chairs. & score because they had some imperfections. The guy will not budge on price for nothing. This is a frigging liquidation sale with a flawed product. So we just walked away. There was no way we would pay that much. OF course he groveled as we start to walk out and lowered the price. & we talked him down even more. Try it sometime. But even ordering some electronic equipment online dh always calls and haggles the price. HE can usually at least get free shipping. We have never paid asking price on a car or a piece of furniture. & rarely for a service. Next time you get a quote on something, ask if you can pay less. Haggle haggle haggle. most of these people are EXPECTING you to haggle so they price high. Take advantage and give it a try...

On the flip side, I just sold 2 items for full price without a haggle. I didn't ask more than they were worth, just more than I expected to get. & I got full price, that is pretty nice for me I guess.

I have tried posting on Craigslist before and have never sold a thing. For the most part I usually find a friend who I Will give the item or sell to in the meantime. & I often do craigslist in conjuction with freecycle, where someone comes by for a freecycle item and I get all crazy generous and hand them everything I am trying to sell. Or maybe not even generous, just glad to be rid of stuff. When I didn't really feel like I needed the money.

Today I feel like I need the money!!!

So I finally got around to posting 3 items on Craigslist. & 1 item on freecycle - an old musty bookshelf thing. I keep thinking I will refinish it, and for now it stores piano music. In the meantime it is really ugly and I just want it gone - LOL. I will NEVER refinish it - I Am getting real with myself. So I add a nice piano music cabinet to my endless list of wants until it makes it up to a higher priority. For now I have some other options. I can store the piano music I never have time to play upstairs if need be. Hehe. Though I really should keep an eye out for a nice cabinet, I bet I Can talk my parents into it for next Christmas or birthday or something. If not, it ain't that important. Bathroom repairs and pediatric dentists top my list for now - for when I have money!!

Oh anyway, so wish me luck - hehe. I posted about $125 worth of items. I aim high and hope I can squeeze at least $20 each. But I Am in no hurry, I may initially hold out for a higher price. IF things go like the past I Don't expect much interest though. I did buy a Fisher Price PlayWall upwards of $50 and they were IMPOSSIBLE to find used. So I am selling it and listed it at $40. That one I am most hopeful on because like my baby carrier, they are impossible to find used, I Can probably fetch a nice price.

I listed the jumperoo but I saw 10 on there already, so I may hold out a while until after the Christmas crazies - usually I only see 1 or 2 listed.

& a highchair. I don't know - it is the only thing not in top notch condition. I hope to get $20. Maybe $15. With a new cover it would be gorgeous though - just the cover is worn.

I have no idea how some of these things have held up so well. Most of the kids stuff hasn't - LOL.

I have an exersaucer and a pack n play to sell in coming months. The last 3 years I have given away more baby things than I Could even imagine - mostly to family. I am on the fence how appreciative they really are about how much we invested as the first child bearers in our family's generation. At this point they have enough, and I am mostly giving away things the second baby has used and I didn't give away already. In the meantime family bought some of their own stuff for once - hehe. From here to eternity all the clothes will probably go to family. But it is really nice to get some cash back for a few items that we shelled out some bigger dollars for. Phew. Once we go through this round I don't foresee much in the future. Maybe a crib and a toddler bed down the road.... Who knows...

What dh and I really need to do is go through the kids toys and books and PURGE. For resale or donation. We went through the stuff in July and I Was hesitant to give up much though the kids are spoiled far more rotten than I Care to admit. Today I Am looking at a few toys with little interest from the kids and I Am ready to purge. I will also ask Big Monkey if he will be willing to give up a toy for Christmas donation. I Am not sure if anyone really takes used toys this time of year, but I will try. I want to take this year to get him on the giving side of christmas. HE may not go for it at all - but I will try. HE's 3. If he won't give a toy, maybe we will go buy a toy with his christmas money, and donate it. I Can maybe get him to do that. I am not sure if he is at a age that is willing to give up ANY toys. But we'll see. Regardless od his willingness, a few will disappear. Making room for the christmas barrage - phew.

The books are insane too because the kids love to read (Well mostly be read to though the 3yo does love to read too admittedly - a reading genius). & dh frequents the scholastic sales and the used book stores. AND since his mom is a teacher and has a million+ Scholastic points it seems, we just order endless free books lately. The pile of books are hard to pare down because the kids love them all so much. We'll see what we can do though... We haven't even ordered any in a while at least, we have a full collection, but I know if dh sells a pile he will want to buy more - hehe - the store credits are far better than cash. We'll see how it pans out I guess. We could start a library, I Swear. We go to the library too, but the kids get so attached to their books, and are a little rough with them too. For now the free Scholastic books are pretty sweet. As they age we will push the library thing more. There is only so much space for books around here - hehe.

EDITED: While I typed away, I got an offer for my freecycle bookshelf thing. Woohoo. Will probably pick up today. Doesn't get much easier than that!!!! I LOVE it. BEst part the furniture is for a family who owns pretty much nothing. As I read the e-mail I remembered that I have some silverware and kitchen items I was saving for my sister who probably doesn't need it. So I am going to purge a lot with this pickup I Think. Phew. Should all be gone by tomorrow!!

Aha, updated December and I See part of the problem. I forgot the gardener and the $20 extra I intended to tip him for Christmas I guess. So $100 short before bonus, probably pretty breakeven with bonus. If I get around to selling those baby items I will put all of that money in the e-fund then.

I just went shoe shopping - phew. Kind of funny and roundabout, but I was looking for a Starbucks mug, or nice mug for co-worker for gift exchange. I Am not very creative and probably about the 3rd year in a row of drawing a man (though no men work here - gah) and getting them starbucks giftcard and a mug. LOL. They are all starbucks fiends... But I was perusing ebay for a deal and I Saw the FUNNIEST thing. A heated travel mug that you can plug into your car lighter OR a USB computer input. LOL. Perfect!!!!! I found one eventually at shop.com for $25. The original store would not let me buy it because my order was only 19.99 before shipping. Whatever. But through shop.com, no problem, I bought it through them from that original store. I then perused their shoes and found the cUTEST little black boots. About as close to my beloved shoes as I will get - black and in a WIDE SIZE. Hallelujah. I then found the cutest grey tennies for about $30. So I got about 2 of the same styled shoes for $30 each, shipping was much cheaper. & both in wide size. We'll give it a whirl. One of them did not have 1/2 sizes so I took a risk getting a 9W. We'll see. The width might make up for the 0.5.

I also saw the cutest Doc Martens. THey still make those? I think if I get Christmas money, and these shoes end up being subpar, I may get some. I got a pair when I Was 16 or something and I just tossed them a couple of years back because my feet grew in pregnancy. Seriously I must have worn those things every day for years. Maybe I just threw them away because they were thrashed. I don't know. But I Remember them being tight in recent years. I Wish I remembered what size I had before. I am thinking of ordering some. IF I can wear them 10 years+, $90 won't scare me. But I saw them after I found these perfect shoes so I figure I would give the cheap ones a try first. If not, Doc Martens here I Come.

Oh yeah!!!! & my purse is falling apart - bummer. I am pretty sure I bought it a little over a year ago and it looks FANTASTIC. Not shown much wear or tear. But today I noticed the handles are pulling apart from the purse - does not look pretty. I think for christmas I am getting a new purse. Bummer because I am not ready. I hate purse shopping - blech. I will ask my mom if she thinks she can mend it first. I Swear I save hundreds if not thousands over my "poor" friends who buy a new handbag every week. In turn they think I Am pretty deprived, but I don't feel deprived. LOL. Don't even ask me about diaper bags - I use the free ones from the hospital. We did buy a couple for different purposes, but the hospital ones win hands down - they are nice. I have friends who went gaga over those $250 dipaer bags. I Can't even imagine. I bought a $20 knockoff but it fell apart after 2 years. Oh well, I Am almost done with diaper bags. If I have to buy 2 knockoffs for my diaper career, I Saved $210 in the end. $225 if you count sales tax. It's stuff like this how we really saving money. Trying to limit what we buy to what we "need" and not replacing them until there is no hope.

I finally posted the Wii on ebay - phew.

I was balancing December in my head and figure I better write it out. I Can update as I Remember forgotten tidbits.

+285 slush fund balance for insurances
+5000 payroll (December)
+150 Bonus (estimate = last year bonus)
+500 Wii sale (estimate)
-1800 credit card**
-500 Utilities/Household
-1300 mortgage
-675 health insurance
-315 preschool for Jan.
-215 Personal loan payment
One-time/unforeseen payments:
-600 Estate attorney
-350 Updated house insurance
-200 Disability insurance
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( 20)
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**1300 right on budget for november expenses + 100 reimbursed birthday gifts +270 Wii + 130 nice gift for FIL - both financed by wii sale

I generally pay everything a couple of weeks early so I have a little float. The only thing really due before the 1st is our health insurance - the mortgage, preschool, and loan payment are more like due the first week of january, I can pay after I get paid on the first. & the credit card and utilities are due around the 29th for the most part, I usually pay it before I get my paycheck on the 16th. So I have a lot of room for float. I am just trying to stick to budget so I don't have to do the float dance... Feels good. We did a lot of the float dance on maternity leave. Drove me batty to get a disablility check every 2 weeks, hard to plan around that as bills are due monthly, so we paid things when due, and sometimes past due. I know most of our vendors do not care when things are late - as long as the mortgage and credit card is paid on time. The utilities a week late? No one cares. But the homeowners dues have to be paid on time orelse they charge a fee. I think they are all I Can think of besides the credit card and mortgage, oh and cell phone, to pay early and make sure they arrive well on time. Oh well, lately I have only been floating my personal loan and the preschool dues - paying after the first sometimes. But I Am trying to avoid that going forward.

I know I will receive christmas money at least to cover that $20 shortfall. PHEW! & if we get less for the wii. I just included expected full sales price + shipping as the expenses I will throw on the card as part of the december budget. Probably $50 in ebay/paypal fees and shipping. But put off another month.

I am really hoping for more christmas money to put in the bank too - I would still really like to get to $6k in the e-fund. But we'll see. If nothing else I will have earned $300 from my freelance work - it just might not get there until january. So overall it looks like we made it. Though anything can happen in the next 26 days, eh?

I got the gas bill - only $45 and we used the heat a lot the last couple of weeks. Woohoo. Don't expect the electric to be much more than $15. So $60 total - well under budget too - will help whittle down the utility estimate I had for december. If we go under budget this month we will have some money to put aside to the e-fund 1/1. Close enough.

BEfore coming to savingadvice.com, I Was trying to save $300/month for property taxes and insurance and stuff, and failing miserably.

Since coming here around septmber I budgeted $600/month. Since I had all the money set aside for the year (lord knows from where), I took that money for 2 months to pay the estate attorney to get our affairs in order. It is amazing to me that all else being equal we saved $1200 in 2 months. Make that $1900 if you include the $700 or so we saved on top of that.

I have reworked my budget for all the expenses of turning 30 (ack - it is not pretty either). & have my short-term savings up to $800/month to cover all the insurances and stuff. *sigh* I think I can do it. But I do not foresee room for much else. When I look at all the cash gifts, bonuses, selling items, working extra, windfalls, etc. I know that we can maybe squeeze $8k for savings. IT would have to be a really good year and little unexpected. But it is possible. I have not even accounted for when I pay off the loan I can save another $200/month + I will save any raise. For that reason it may be more doable than I realize. Even if I do not save a dime in cash - there is a full retirement contribution right there - WOW.

When I get my raise amount I will formulate my goals for 2007. For now I have a general idea, assuming no raise. How big my raise will determine how big my goals!

At least Christmas is not bankrupting me. I whittled it down within the monthly budget. No biggie - phew. & thank you crazy impatient people who can not wait for a wii and must have one NOW. You financed my FIL's fancy christmas gift. HE thanks you too.

This is what I get in the mail today:

Disability Insurance - $200
Due Jan. 1

I did not foresee that one was due in january since I purchased it originally in april. Guess I only paid for partial year? From $100 to $200. Yes, most of the increase was due to turning 30. Ack!!!!

My $200 surprise.

Then I got the $375 or so bills for our increased home insurance - Due Jan. 1. Ready for that one - phew.

December is not pretty in the least.

I've been really lazy but have renewed commitment to clean house this weekend. A few baby items to sell on craigslist, the wii on ebay, and a few things to freecycle. I just told dh I Would clean up everything tonight and start posting. Need it sooner rather than later.

& I am off right this second to help my neighbor with her quickbooks again. More money too- helps. Phew.

Now that I have it in front of me!
Christmas Budget
Budget vs. Actual
Gift to In-Laws 100 200 X **Zoo membership & DVD-R
Gift for Boss 50 45
Toddler 30 40 X Child Mp3 player
Baby 30 50 X Kitchen set (used)
Christmas Outfit - 3yo 0 0 X
C-mas Outfit - baby 0(hand-me-downs!!) 0 0 X
Donations 0 (scratch $200) 0 0 X
Mom (+ birthday) 20 20 X
Donation in her name 20 20 X 10/15/06 - HSSC
Dad (+ birthday) 20 20 X
Dh/me (for each other) 0 0 X
(includes birthdays)
Gardener 20 20 X
Preschool Teacher 20 100 X Cash gift she had surgery & closed for 2 months
Sister 10 15 X
Niece 15 17 X
Christmas Cards (Scratch $50) 0 0 X
Potlucks/Gft Exchangs 65 75 X Work Dinner? + $20 gift exchange - g.c. because I have NO IDEA what to get this person.
Other Giving 0 0

TOTALS 400 - Budget 597 - Actual

I am still not sure if we have to pay for work dinner. Boss took the bill friday and said we would settle up later. I still have a hard time believing he won't pay in the end. As dh said he wanted us to think we would pay so we didn't go overboard - I did not budget for dinner originally - we usually do potlucks so this caught me off. This is why I had an 'other' category that dh did not like and made me slash - LOL. I was RIGHT!!

$100 over budget for dh's parents - financed by wii sale.

$80 over for preschool teacher - but she will have no income for 2 months, is super awesome, and we saved $500 in prechool tuition since closed through end of the year. Least we could do.

So besides those 3 tidbits we were right on.

HEre is to an even less costly 2007 Chsritmas.

Oh yeah and I know it is not OVER yet - LOL. Something else may come up - still 3+ weeks, eh??? But overall I think I am DONE!

HELP!!!! Now can someone tell me how to put a snapshot from excel in my blog. I would love to know how!!!

I have been thinking about retirement a lot lately.

I wanted to pay down my mortgage faster, first. & build more cash too.

But lately I have been thinking that it seems retirement money is pretty protected money. IT is golden. Tax savings vehicle, protected in all/most instances from bankruptcy, creditors, lawsuits, etc. Isn't it? Pay down your house and get sued, it could be gone. I have been thinking that perhaps we should make retirement savings our #1 priority. If we save less cash in the meantime, the retirement money could bail us out too. IT is so golden.

I think overall I will focus on a little of everything - just not put all of my eggs in one basket. That is all I am really opposed to.

I have also been thinking about this a lot in terms of return. Our mortgage is 5.75% interest and I believe with tax breaks it really amounts to 4%. Locked in forever... Before I looked at our cash and thought I have $5k making not that much more. I'd rather pay down the mortgage. BUT looking at my retirement I can easily have $200k in 10 years earning a far better return than my mortgage costs. From that regard it does make sense to focus on retirement money.

In the grand scheme of things nothing much has changed in my plan except once I get up to $15k or so in the e-fund, hopefully in the next year, we are going to focus on maxing out our retirement vs. just saving. I am a safe person and I like cash. But I think this is a good plan. We can still continue to add to the e-fund, small amounts, but contribute considerably more to retirement.

At most now we can save is $10k or so a year - and that would take a miracle - hehe. Maybe most of it to ROTHS and a little to the e-fund. Like $8k vs. $2k. But forget the mortgage 'til we have substantially more income. Maybe we can fully fund the retirement at $8k - wow!!

For now I would like to pay an extra $150/month mortgage if I can, but probably not unless I can also max out retirement. I guess if I can make that my rule - retirement first and then extra mortgage payments, it is not bad. We weren't going to considerably pay down the mortgage until dh got a job, but at that point we will probably be saving WAY more than the most we can contribute into retirement vehicles. At that point we will just be spreading out among all 3 - retirement, savings/investments, mortgage.

Since we have a lot less to work with today, retirement trumps the mortgage by a mile. With my renewed thinking. I am also considering putting off the final payment on my personal loan to next December instead of June. The interest rate is 3% I believe. We can save so much if I don't pay it off early as intended. December would still be 6 months early, but easier to swing, and we would have built up some nice cash too.

I am rethinking my "run out and pay off all the debt" stance. & even moreso my need to hoarde cash. Getting smarter I guess.

My parents taught me about living within my means and avoid debt, which has served me well, but little wisdom in regards to retirement and investing. I am not sure if I would have realized all this without this website. Wow! Nothing is black and white - that is for sure.

No matter what I will not put ALL my eggs in one basket. But I will start putting a lot more eggs in my retirement basket - that is for sure...

I don't have my budget in front of me but we budgeted about $300 for Christmas. I think it will be closer to $430, but that is okay.

Done:
Everyone's gifts but dh's dad. Stocking stuffers done. Skipping christmas cards this year.

$200 spent ($100 in oct & $100 in nov).

This month:
work gift exchange - $20
work dinner - $50
boss gift - $45
(yeah work is pricey but it pays all my bills so I deal. I'll get a bonus to pay for it all - just about - LOL).
Gardener - $20

Total left = $135

+$200 spent = $335.

That is right about budget BUT dh wants to get a super nice gift for his dad - $130 is the best deal he found - a DVD recorder or something. Since his parents took us to HAwaii and gave us $3k this year, um yeah, he deserves it.

$335 + $130 = $465.

We are over around $100 or so with the gift - I am ballparking because I forget the exact budget. BUT that is how much he will make on his wii. The Wiis are selling well. We can be greedy and try to gouge the last minute christmas shoppers, but I think it would be good to sell it this weekend and get a pretty sure $100 profit.

$465 christmas = Gifts for preschool teacher, gardener, co-worker, boss, niece, sister... for the kids, great-grandma, my parents (includes birthdays) $200 of it on dh's parents (includes 1 birthday).

Yup, we did well. I don't expect much more expense this year. We'll see what happens. We have 2 christmas parties this weekend (no gift exchanges for once - phew). & most of our christmas will be done. Until the big day I guess. I don't even have that much left to wrap.

We went over on the kids budget. Budgeted $30 each and spent $90 total - $40 & $50. Oh well. We did stick to the "1 gift" rule. Thus far. IT was an improvement. When I evaluate our christmas bounty I Am sure we will send some of it to charity too. Dh slashed it out of the budget, but I think we will have some room. IF he sells his Wii anyway! IF we give some money probably make it a round $500 TOTAL spent on Christmas. We will go through and donate items throughout the house too. I think we have a LOT of toys to donate this year. Phew.

$500 spread over 4 months (some of it I don't have to pay until january) is not bad. An easy christmas.

Dh and I did not get each other gifts but we are cool with that. We don't need anything. But more cash in the e-fund anyway - we can both agree on that!!

I habe no idea what we spent last year but we bought each other a laptop for $800. A good purchase overall - he uses for business and it makes my life 1000 times easier. But that was way above out current budget even. I Was buying $30 gifts easy for everyone - birthday AND christmas. This year we stuck to more $15 gifts. We didn't buy less stuff, just found better deals. I Am really pleased. For whatever reason, I always shop frugal for myself and shop completely opposite for others. IT was pretty rewardinf to have a $15 budget for my niece and for to find 2 of the cutest outfits on clearance and a tiara and a little wand for $1 each. Right on budget and at face value I bought her more than usual spending 1/2 as much. Found my mom and sister some really nice gifts on ebay. Cheap cheap cheap. I have changed my outlook on gift giving. I think it will save us a lot of money next year. & the Dollar Store is more of a treasure than I ever realized. Piles of books and cars and toys for the stockings. I went a little overboard - hehe. But the kid made out well for $10 or so. But I also learned I can spend $5 on a kids birthday and still look generous.

I have no idea why I would be scared to be a frugal shopper for others. Looking back it seems pretty silly. I am officially REFORMED.

Well I update my stats to the right - including my age!!!! Oh my. So far 30 just means insane health premiums to me - hehe. Otherwise I feel way older than my age so it doesn't really bother me - I don't feel older anyway - hehe. I guess the downside is it takes some of the shock value out of my age. Lately everyone is shocked how young I am. Most of the people I identify with are in their late 30s/40s I guess.

Retirement went up a few hundred with market gains - a great month. & added some employer match. I am not going to add any more cash this year, the e-fund suffers. But dang it is sure tempting to add a thousand next month or so and see if I can get to the big $50k!!!! It will have to wait a few months to get there... & if the market takes a turn, who knows how long I guess...

I have $100 cash to deposit so I will put it in the e-fund. I might use some of that money to pay the estate lawyer, but with that whole pay yourself first thing I figure I would just put it in. & we should make some cash this month to cover the rest of the attorney. Deposited $200 this month and earned $25 interest. Just $300 in December to reach our 2006 goal - easy if we sell the wii!!! & christmas windfalls. Leaves $350 in the slush fund for our insurance changes. $40 cash in our pockets too.

Glanced at the budget and pretty good overall. Clothing for kids was a little over budget but that is a more x dollars per year item, and I don't expect to buy them any clothes in December so should be fine. I spend $100 on them like twice a year and I think i budgeted $600 clothes for us all. My stuff came out of birthday money. I could have saved it but oh well. For now I tell myself I have less reason to spend money the next few months - I got a lot this last month or 2.

Our groceries were about $100 over budget and even gas, though under budget, was higher than it should be. Oh well. Groceries are my enemy right now - still working on it. To me it is such a big chunk and the easiest place to shave some expenses. But the grocery budget does not seem to want to cooperate. Oh well, with thanksgiving and all the money our parents gave us for it I guess we were right on budget if you consider that.

Our utilities were WAY low this month - mostly how we squeezed out the $200 I would guess.

I have a misc. column ($150/month)on my budget and this month that pretty much went to our San Francisco trip. Probably $50 of that went to the e-fund. We didn't really buy anything else in this column for the month. Figured I would share because the misc. category can be used for anything and varies widely month to month. Starting january we are going to convert that to an allowance category - probably split it 3 ways - me, dh, and family. We'll see how that works out. Complicated bookkeeping. Probably open a new high-yield account with low minimum, put it all in, and track by category. We'll see how it goes. I think it would be good for the allowance fund to earn interest since dh plans to save his for a big purchase.

Well if I receive more birthday money (probably won't) I will put that to the e-fund too. We'll see!

Oh yeah - almost forgot. Dh's family over for Thanksgiving - put a 10-month-old on the potty?????? Everyone else's jaw is agape. Dh is always saying they are a little weird, and um yeah. LOL. I am just looking at my 17-month-old appalled at what they are doing to their baby.

So yesterday Little Monkey asks for the potty. Um yeah. He did and he liked it. This is super cool because #1 - I Don't like those little potty seats and Bih Monkey never used them. We have an insert for the big potty. So I plopped Little Monkey on the potty and it didn't scare him. He lOVED it. He would not let me take him off for 5 minutes. I slapped a diaper on him and he promptly peed. Oh well, a start. LOL. I think this is super cool because this is interest way earlier than his brother had (no doubt due to his fascintaion with big bro's potty habits). & maybe sometime next year we can cut budgets out of the diapers. Perhaps. IF so I am putting that money to orthodontia fund. For sure!!!! As for dh's family, maybe they are onto something. HEhe. Big Monkey was 18 months from first interest to fully trained, but we had a baby in between and just didn't even bother with potty training. Figure it would be a worthless cause as I heard so many stories about reverting. All signs are good that this one will train early. As they say they will with those clothe diapers. Didn't go so well the first time but Big Monkey would wear a wet diaper all day without a complaint and Little Monkey FREAKS out. We have to put him in super disposables at night orelse he wakes up upset when he is wet. So I think for that reason and the whole big bro thing he will be out of diapers around 2. I can hope anyway - the budget would like that!!

Bunco night and I LOST. What the FOO? LOL.

IT's okay, we actually had all completely different winners tonight. I think I Earned cash to pay all year so I Can be patient and let someone else win - it is nice for different people to win once in a while. I think I will skip December too because work is too crazy next month.

In other news, this week is a budget buster. Ah, tomorrow is the 30th. But the credit card will close the 4th, that's my month end. We had a pretty good month EXCEPT the stupid wii purchase. Almost $300. I can almost squeeze it in so it is a good month, but that is $200-$300 less to our e-fund then. Bah. Only saved $100 in November when all was said and done. We have a lot to sell in the following weeks so we'll see how it goes - looks like we can maybe fetch $400 at this point - a $130 gain - I am ready to take it. I do have some CASH I Can not deposit into my e-fund either. I just know once I convert the cash to a check and sell the wii we will reach our $6k goal by 12/31. I think we will get lots of cash for christmas too - so we'll see how it goes. Not many expenses for December so we may get to $6500 in December. Perhaps... We generally take cash as an extra and spend it, but we are accumulating so much (I just spent $100 on that San Frnacisco trip - extra cash). I want to not spend any more - we need to save some.

Anyway, lots of stuff coming up the next few days, so though the budget looks good today, and tomorrow is the 30th. Eh, who knows. Eating out Friday for work. Eating out for my birthday. Groceries perhaps. It will be close.

I think December should be easy not to spend much though. A little on the christmas front, but not much. With all the gifts. I think it should be easy to step back and say we don't need anything, what a month of windfalls. But who knows. I can hope I guess.

I just had a novel idea. Since we have a local bank, I can go deposit the cash - and send it on over to the e-fund. OMG! I am too dumb to figure it out - my mommy has been my bank for so long - LOL. She is a good reverse ATM for me - I am always giving her cash for checks - hehe. I feel like such a dummy - hehe. YEah - I am going to deposit all our cash tomorrow at lunch or something. OR sturday morning. WOohoo. Why did I not think of this SOONER????? I know I Could deposit ATM too but I don't know - that scares me. Woohoo - I Am all excited now - the benfits of local banking...

Well I Can update my e-fund balance to $5700 then - woohoo. I have $75 easy to add. Actually since I get paid tomorrow I should do that at lunch - go make my deposit AND deposit the cash too. That would be fun - a novel experience. I am not sure if I have ever walked in to do a deposit before.

Gosh, next time I get cash I should go straight to the bank!!!!! I don't do well with cash - it disappears. I like to deposit it and track it - the accountant in my enjoys that much more. Cash - no one has to know where it went - LOL - so I am not very responsible with it. I Feel like such a ditz for not thinking of this sooner.

Well, first things first. I got some more ideas for my wish list. Slippers and books. I saw fleece slippers (like $2.97) in the mail ads and thought that would be a good gift for the wish list. I have some super warm socks which when I wear, I can survive with the heat at 60 or something vs. the usual 68. They are amazing. So I saw these fleece slippers and thought - aha. I Will put some fancier/good quality variety on my wish list. Any suggestions on super warm slippers?

Then dh mentioned books - I think that is a great idea. I am a book fiend and that is something easy to shop for, hard to get wrong, etc. If they like DVDs and games and all that, books should be in the same realm. Well, you would think anyway. We'll see how it goes. SO help me if my book choices are criticized - hehe...

My friend wants to meet at IHOP tomorrow and I am not so keen on it. But then again my birthday is friday I wonder if she will buy me lunch. Who knows. Will probably go for it.

Oh yeah - bunco tomorrow too. Send me some monkey karma, eh? (yes I Said monkey karma) LOL. I want to win big - there is a pot that is over $100 - send me vibes for that one! LOL. Funny thing is we are having THanksgiving dinner - someone actually made a turkey. Um yeah, sounded like a good idea last month. I have the feeling the last thing anyone will want is turkey and all the stuff that has been in our leftovers all week. We'll see how it goes. I made fudge today for it. Took 5 minutes and was a cheap recipe. Dh had to buy some powdered sugar but that's about it. I will pretend I slaved over it - hehe. The stuff is so good too - usually only make it at christmas orelse I Would be 300 pounds. Butter, sugar, chocolate, and more butter.... My 3-year-old helped me and said we should make it every night. Ah, I wish...

My mom visited today and gave me $100 for my birthday. I need some work clothes - a suit or 2 - some nice shoes - for tax season. This will help a lot. A nice gift!

Oh anyway, the craziness of it all kept me wide awake through the tax update - I could write blogs and blogs about how crazy tax code is - but after about 6 hours today I started to zone out. I Was driving myself nuts thinking different scenarios in my head. Started thinking about my savings goals for 2007. Along the same lines as BA - what is more important - retirement, mortgage, savings, I Don't know. I think I can save $10k in 2007 and that is still my lofty goal - I thought about it in 1 million different scenarios today. I am probably being WAY too optimistic. I know I am losing $3k in car payments and losing any hope of a tax refund this year - even the measly $1k state refund I always receive. Not measly really, but I am a breakeven person. California is just impossible. Federal I can usually do pretty good but with this whole ROTH conversion I ain't getting any money back - I just hope I don't owe anything - for now it is close.

I Also decided the $8k or so in overtime and gifts I usually get is the perfect retirement funding for us. In past years it has been floating us with our overspending. With our latest round of budgets (which has been going quite well) and at least $100/month raise I Assume next year, we can do it! Save a little, not rely on the windfalls, the windfalls can fund retirement - woohoo. I have just had no idea where that retirement funding would come from, so it is a nice revelation. For next year all that will go to e-fund, but one it hits $15k I think I will relax and will be willing to invest all that extra. It will feel good. In the meantime I just have impatience with how slow going it all is. I just got to slow down and relax and have faith things will work out.

Well, I Was bummed to see so many blog posts today. It's awesome but I barely had time to glance at a few. I See less and less time in my future too - bummer. But I am glad to see so many active blogs - just bummed there are not enough hours in the day.

I was putting papers away the other day and found our most recent Social Security Statements. So of course what does Ms. Accountant do - throw it in excel and see how much money we have made over the years. Quite Interesting.

Year Dh Moi TOTAL IRA/401K
1991 2,693 0 2,693
1992 3,757 0 3,757
1993 3,962 1,820 5,782
1994 3,263 1,972 5,235
1995 7,061 3,756 10,817 2,000
1996 7,614 5,250 12,864
1997 10,063 8,262 18,325
1998 10,944 10,104 21,048
1999 20,986 20,617 41,603
2000 41,371 47,870 89,241 6,622
2001 42,461 56,765 99,226 5,768
2002 29,049 52,671 81,720 5,000
2003* 0 44,665 44,665 0
2004 0 64,474 64,474 4,000
2005* 0 45,955 45,955 0
2006 0 70,000 70,000 2,000
TOTALS 183,224 434,181 617,405 25,390

It is amazing to me to think dh and I have made $617,405 between the 2 of us in our young lives. On top of that I estimate we received around $33k in unemployment and disability. I put a * next to the years I took maternity leave, but did receive $6000 in disability, or so, in 2003 & more like $11,000 last year. This year I just estimated my total. I would guess dh received $10-$15k unemployment in 2002 & 2003.

Dh he is a year older than me and when he started working it was allowed to work at 15, not for me when I turned 15. He worked at the local amusement park from age 15 - 22. I can't believe he was making as much as me those days. For me at the time every penny was going to college. For him, he was living at home all cushy - it went for the down payment on our house though - no complaints here. He saved up $40k easy by the time we graduated. All those game systems and fancy toys - even with all that - hehe. I know he worked at a bank, AT&T, Macys in between there somewhere - while working at the amusement park. Graduate college 1999, laid off 2002. Made $40k or so a couple of years in between. I believe his salary was up to $50k, but then his company did mandatory days off and vacations and such - at the end he was only working 4 days/week. Beat being laid off as it seems everyone and their brother was laid off back in 2000 and 2001. Though eventually they did lay him off.

As for me, I worked the amusement park - summers - from age 16-18. 3 years. At age 16 or 17 I Also started teaching piano. I am not sure if I reported all my income on that the first year - either that or my parents helped me more than I remembered - hehe. I lived rent free in 1995 (house sitting) and rented my first place in 1996. Those were some tight years. Oh yeah - just remembered I also had another job in 1998 which helped boost my income a bit - bookkeeping for a security firm. I believe there was a time I was doing that, teaching, and I took another summer job - didn't take many summer classes - phew. I Am kind of bummed all that and I Could have just kept working with dh in the sumemrs and look at that dough - LOL. Graduated 1999 - first job paid $32k or so, but quickly got promoted - that whole desperation for qualified people thing. Has served me well you see.

The end of 2001 we moved and I took a slight pay cut. Eh, you move to where housing is actually affordable, a few k less a year, eh. Plus with the 10% profit sharing contribution I Came out ahead. My prior job had 401k - but a crappy match. I think they matched me $300 when all was said and done - ??

The 2 years I had kids are a little obvious - took some time off...

1991-2001 were all about saving money for a house, and me just surviving and paying for college so I guess we don't have much to show for that - well except all our equity. Started putting more into retirement a couple of years and then got sidetracked by the whole kid thing.

Right now my social security would be $1,158/month at 62 and dh's would be $325. Ah, but not counting on it. We both qualify for medicare too.

I thought we had a year or 2 of six figures, but you know, we never made it - hehe. Darn close.

Dh's first job out of school was a whopping $28k/year. SO we started at $60k combined and I think that was our income when we bought our $260k condo. We couldn't afford a cent more, we really lucked into it. But we quickly got raises and so it worked out pretty well. It is amazing to me we went from 60 to 90 to 99 so fast. & that 7 years later I am making more than the 2 of us combined at our first jobs out of college. IS this a commercial for college education or what?

Looking back you would think we could have saved more. All I know is we put $50k down on a condo in 1999, and then we proceeded to save most of the down payment on this home - another $30k or so, over 2 years. We had 2 homes for a while and sunk a lot of cash into 2 mortgages. I think our mortgages totaled $500k for a few months. That took a chunk of our income for almost 6 months. You know sometimes I wish we lived somewhere where we could buy a house for $80k. Ah. Or even just a stinking condo - hehe. Oh I am sure there are trade-offs. But the idea of all the money we have sunk into housing and how much we still owe - blah...

In 2002 we made $81,000, but I would guess our take-home was the same or even less than today, with taxes. Kids have proven to be a nice tax deduction. I wonder how much in tax we paid in 2000 & 2001... Probably a lot, whereas we have swung a couple of years with 0 income taxes since then.

Well now you know the whole financial story of my life.

I can breathe a little sigh of relief because our health insurance won't eat us out of house and home. I hope.

I love looking at people's budgets, everyones is so different depending on their situation. So figured I Would share it in all its ugliness.

Updated #s:

Income: $60k+ (+ if lucky anyway, this is still the big unknown)

Expenses:
Property Tax $4300
Auto Insurance $1800 (should go down woohoo)
Home/Flood Ins $1500
Life Insurance $500
Disability Insurance $100
Health Insurance $8100
Co-Pays $600
Dental $1000 (no insurance - still haven't budgeted for Big monkey who should go in).
Mortgage $16000
Homeowner Association $800
Home telephone $350
Cellular telephones $850
Cable (internet & TV) $1000
Gas/Electric $1200
Water/Garbage $1100
Gardener $1000
Groceries $6000
Preschool $3500
Baby Classes $500
Dining out $350
Cloth Diaper Service $650 (I can hope to get rid of diapers mid-year???)
Car Loan $3000 (to payoff)
Gas/fuel $3600
Car Repairs/Maintenance/AAA $700
Car Registration $250
Blockbuster Online $240
Subscriptions $165
(Cooking Mags & Newspaper)
Clothing $250
Gifts $700
Donations $100
CASH $250 (pretty much lunch out and very small purchases)
Salon/barber $120
Emergency Fund $600 (+ $200/month once car is paid off)
Misc. $1800
(For now $150/month to whatever we want - a trip to the zoo, to splurge on gifts, or clothes, or eating out. OR unexpected emergencies, or save it. Whatever. I like having this amount though just forever we need. So the little and even the medium unexpected things don't throw us off).

TOTAL EXPENSES: $62,000

I imagine we will "find" a few thousand in additional income - gifts and bonuses and odd jobs, etc. For this year I just want it all to go to e-fund. We aren't planning any vacations or big purchases this year. Pretty bare bones. Though we may need it for unexpected things. I just don't have room right now for a repair fund and stuff like that. I just consider all that in the e-fund I guess. I Am sure I will get a raise and can maybe make that $2500 to the e-fund. For now the $600 is kind of measly but I figure that is where my raise will go - whether its $100/month or $500 - it will be in that range. Crossing my fingers...

The sad thing is I think this year we were spending another $6k/year above and beyond. We were just floating along with the extra windfalls getting us by. We have really pared down the budget.

Well it's a work in progress - as it always will be.

2006 has been breaking out pretty nice with my current pay:

+2475 1st of month
-1200 credit card purchases
(groceries, gas, diapers, phone bills, Copays, Dining Out, barber, car R&M, clothes, gifts, donations, misc.)
-700 insurance/property tax "fund"
-525 utilities/gardener/other checks/ATM/leftovers to savings
-50 Savings

+2475 16th of month
-1315 mortgage
-630 health insurance
-315 preschool
-215 personal loan

We'll see how it works out in 2007 I guess. I know my 4 biggest expenses will no longer EQUAL my second check of the month - hehe - bummer.

For whatever reason I have no idea all the insurance and property tax was fully funded in September or october of this year so I have had a lot extra this end of the year for some of the bigger expenses I've had of late. I hope the same next year means a lofty goal of $10k to the e-fund in 2007 when all is said and done. We'll see. Sounds a little pie in the sky but I figure I should aim high!

It just hit me that it has been 4 years since dh has not worked. He has probably made $3k or so the last 4 years, he has done a few little projects. & believe me, every little bit helps. But it just occured to me that it's been 4 years - wow!!!! I have been nervous this month because I got pregnant around halloween - twice - hehe. So this year I told dh not to come near me please, I know apprently October is a fertile month and I know neither of us wants another BABY right now. Haha, but it just hit me to he got laid off right when I got pregnant with my first - and well it has been 4 years!

Dh and I had wanted to wait a few more years to have kids, but after moving to a cheaper area, just a few months later, I think we were just AMAZED how much easier we had made things for ourselves financially. So we decided we were financially ready. The only mistake we made I would say is he was working and we figured we could save another years' salary before we had a baby. Another $30-$40k, which I would probably have in my e-fund right now. Taking that into account we felt ready. Then I got pregnant and he promptly got LAID OFF. So much for our grand plan. He did get unemployment for 6 months or so, so it wasn't so bad. Who knows where that money went - new baby stuff? Hehe. Probably retirement and savings, and supplementing my maternity leave. But still we were pretty stressed out going into this without everything going to plan.

I always looked at this 1-income thing as very temporary. IF we could make it a few years, well that would be great. Didn't think we could do it forever. So it is nice to look back the last few years and say, well we made it as long as we planned to at the bare minimum. We did it!!! & hopefully a few more years left.

When I first became pregnant I was making $50k/year and we had plenty of money in the bank to help us through - maybe $30k. This last year my salary was $70k, I didn't foresee it going up so fast and that has made all the difference. We have drained most of our cash, but most of it went to 2 cars, and our retirement fund which we often funded to get a bigger tax refund - which helped as well. & since we just did the ROTH conversion I really look at that $20k as a backup emergency fund in the meantime. IT is tax-free, penalty-free accessible cash. Makes everything feel less dire to me - hehe - though I probably wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole...

I am sure we spent a lot of that money on toys we did not need - probably $5k or so. But sometimes you just feel like you got to live a little.

I go back and forth with myself if I feel proud of our accomplishments or not. We could have invested our cash much better and had thousands more in just interest. We could have done better with our retirement. Sometimes I feel like we should have been saving money too, even if we had just squeezed out $20/month - we could have done that. I Am still not positive our last car purchase was the best either.

At the same time not only have we lived on 1-income, but there were months that we lived on NO income - maternity leave. I get so tired of people walking around making six figures saying they couldn't possibly have a spouse stay home, driving brand new cars, going shopping every week, with just so much excess. It's a choice and I respect people's choices. BUT It gets under my skin when they are constantly whining to me how lucky I am and how bad off they are. You just want to shake them sometimes. I know many people who assume we must be independently wealthy, not only because dh stays home, but because I took a lot of time off work as well with both kids. & throw in the super nice house (with a mortgage less than most people around here pay rent - ahem - that's what people don't get). But then you get back to the whole thing where people will completely turn up their nose at our frugal lifestyle, mostly that we drive old cars and don't value brand names, and then be very openly jealous of the fruits of our frugalness. Well most people can't have both, you have to pick what it is you value in life and work for that. I value my family and have taken great financial sacrifice for us to be home with our kids. Come on. I can totally respect people not wanting to give up some of that financial security. For me it has been hard, because I like to have all my ducks in a row and plan far ahead for the future. HAving only $5k in the bank and owing about that much drives me MAD. But to be home with the kids, it is worth the stress.

Looking forward, dh doesn't plan to get full-time work for at least 4 more years. When both kids are in school... In the meantime, baby turns 2 next year and we love our daycare situation with big monkey so I wouldn't be surprised if he takes on a 10-20 hour/week job. But something that doesn't take a lot of time away from the baby. We'll see. If he could bring in some money I know we could save it all, build up the e-fund, and I can relax a little. I am not even sure if full-time employment is in his future ever again. But for now our goal is 4 more years of just 1-income and maybe a little supplemental. Overall I can not feel that proud with our accomplishments. BEcause if he was working it would pretty much ALL go to income tax and daycare. ???? So are we that great with our money or just smart enough to step back and say, um, it's just not worth it. LOL. I don't know. It seems much more logical at this point to pick up a little extra here and there, where we can, than to work full-time just to squeeze out that little extra.

But today I look at it as 4 years down, 4 years to go I guess. Only 2 more years really where daycare is cost prohibitive. Then one will be in school and I am already paying for one today - I know little monkey will have an awesome place to go to when he is 3 if dh wants to bring in more money. So we are really over the hump. I look forward to more income in the future - that is for sure. I want dh to get a PT job where he can put his entire paycheck to 401k or something and we can start really saving money. With just me working, it is not going to happen in the near future... But it is getting closer...

I guess we had some good fortune. Dh never found a job here when we moved, his layoff was inevitable - he told them he would be leaving when he found a job. So it is best we got pregnant when we did - he had commuted for a year - who knows when he would have found a job and when we would have felt ready for kids otherwise.

We wanted our kids 2-3 years apart and we lucked out with 2 years exactly. If it had been 3, or 4 or 5, it would be a lot more diffucult. Luck has played a big part in our financial choices. Heck, if we had waited a year to move we would not have been able to purchase such a nice house. We had no idea the real estate market would go so crazy up here when we moved, we made it in the knick of time. But you know, looking back, maybe the layoff was good, part of a greater plan. & we couldn't have times the kids better financially. Having them 3 years apart would just mean 1 more year where working would not be as lucrative for dh. What if it took years. I am not sure if we would have felt like we could afford a second child - who knows...

Woohoo - the month is looking good.

Just deposited my preschool refund and unless I Am forgetting something (I could be), I have another $185 to add to the e-fund. The month is not over yet and dh made $100 on the guitar AND I have quite a few large baby items to sell. We will get $100-$200 through the end of the year - maybe $100 this month. Plus I have $125 cash sitting in my pocket. As I always say I hate cash, but I will splurge a little on our trip today. Hopefully I will have $50 at least leftover, probably more - so makes it pretty certain we can get our E-fund to $6k this month! OMG!!!! To go from feeling like you can not possible save to saving $1k in such a crazy time of year is super awesome. It was mostly working extra and selling things - but I think we can keep that up for a while - the little things really help.

Oh yeah - but wish us luck. Our house is insured for about $200k and rebuilding costs have SOARED these last few years since we bought. Doing our insurance review Monday. Hopefullly the damage isn't too bad - I know we need more coverage on our house. But I don't now what else they will try to sell us. I will probably just be aggreable and then come home, pop on the internet, and research everything and call and cancel most of it - hehe. I am a pushover, and dh isn't but he said he didn't want to go because he doesn't know anything about any of this stuff. Oh anyway, when we moved here I met with the insurance agent and he was really NICE and didn't push a bunch of stuff on me. But he shortly retired, the young whipper snappers are pushy, we'll see. It's hard to know what is necessary or not. Our old agent was always pushing more medical and liability stuff on our car, and I might consider it now that we have a lot more significant assets. Feel like the more you have, the more you have to spend to protect it. On the flipside, they just changed their rate structure so instead of going by zip code they are charging auto insurance by driving record. So though our home insurance may be going way up, I think our auto insurance may significantly decrease next year - woohoo. I Was so bummed when we moved here and our insurance pretty much doubled. Did not make sense to me since it is a less metro area and I drive way less, etc. But with our perfect driving records (knock on wood), our rates have got to be great with the change. I know it was simply the zip code that was totally reaming us. Well we'll see how much a difference it makes next year when the rates take effect. Oh anyway, I put the $185 for savings in the short-term fund because I wil probably need it for insurance - might not go to e-fund after all.

I admit I don't completely understand all of the ends and outs of profit sharing plans but I was clarifying something with my boss yesterday, for a client, and realized I have more guaranteed to me today than I realized. I thought I wasn't eligible for my contribution unless I Worked a full year, but I Am eligible after working 1000 hours. So I added my contribution through November to my tally. Woohoo - added $2500. I had accrued some of it already but don't want to get into profit sharing plans and why - hehe. But I will start accruing that every month. Well after I hit 1000 hours next year. & the coolest part is at the end of next month I vest another 20% and will add another $5k to my balance. Next year I should vest about $6k and get an $8k contribution, so next year is looking pretty good. I have a round idea in my head that I Want to get our Retirement up to $100k by the time we are 35. Depends on the market and other factors, but I think even if dh doesn't work until then that we can do it.

Oh anyway, my birthday is coming up and christmas. Since most of the shopping is done I Expect to save a big chunk in december - we will probably get some nice cash and I Am putting it straight in the bank. I was thinking about it in regards to the luxury thread because I Feel like we have quite a few luxuries. BUT this time of year it is like dh and I Are not even exchanging gifts - we see no need. I think having a little luxury in your life it ieasy to give up a lot of things. Oh yeah, and my friends around here think I am absolutely DEPRIVED because I don't want anything for Christmas. Is it that hard to see that I am satisfied with what I have? LOL. HAving the money to enjoy things throughout the year and hire a gardener, and have dh stay home. Those are all the luxuries I enjoy through the year and I can forego the materialism that is Christmas. I think I will survive. & plus the truth is though my family is not big on gifts and my mom will probably get me something silly that I Will promptly freecycle - LOL. The truth is MIL absolutely spoils us rotten and she will get me some nice gifts that I will enjoy, and some cash. So don't feel to worried about me. Though frankly I am hoping to get gift cards or cash because I need a new suit for work. Ah, here I go being all practical...

Ah, well everyone have a great weekend. We are taking the kids on the BAy Area subway equivalent today and spending the day in the city. I hope the kids enjoy it - I am sure it will be quite an adventure for them. Hopefully I survive. I am a little nervous because we went to a playdate last night with my travel buddy for today and I guess the preschool teacher told her our 2 monkeys are quite mischevious when they are together - they can not be alone. This is the first I heard this so of course I figure we have to watch those 2 like a hawk - they do get pretty rambuctious together too. Hopefully we won't have to turn right around because they can't behave or something. LOL. We'll see. I am sure they will be fine, but you know if it's one of those days somoething is in the air, or someone is in a funk, it can spell disaster. But if it goes well, I really hope to plan more trips like this in the future just my son and I. I think he would enjoy.

Oh I just wanted to say the DRIVE was so beautiful this weekend. Most of the time Northern CA can be pretty brown and dry, in the summer I guess. But was so green and lush this past weekend - just a beautiful drive. I know I took some pics way in the past I will have to dig them out and share - some pics of the landscape beween the Bay Area and up north.

Oh yes - and a wonderful dinner at MILs and my dad took us out to a wonderful mexican lunch. Makes up for the gas I guess. Actually I ate TOO well. As usual, spoiled by our parents.

But a few things to share:

1 - I forgot to mention our investments are all up about 9% all of a sudden, for the year. Were up about 3% 2-3 months ago, and the last couple of months have been AWESOME!!! Woohoo.

2 - We got home last night and house was FREEZING. The chily weather has moved in. BUT usually when it dips below 68 I Am freezing. Today I took a shower in the 63-degree house and it just didn't bother me. For the kids I Set the house to 67 before I left for work. Dh probably wouldn't have even thought to turn on the heat. He freezes the kids out sometimes. They'll be in shorts when I get home or something - wouldn't be surprised. ANyway, I was pondering why the cold wasn't bothering me so much and I pretty much concluded it was body fat. I have a lot more than usual - LOL. I am totally serious though. I usually feel I am suffering through at 68 with layers of clothes and blankets, etc. So it's the only thinkg that makes sense - hehe. I know overall the kids have been keeping me on my toes a lot more - less downtime - more running around and therefore need less external heat. But doesn't explain the shower. Maybe losing weight is not a frugal thing to do - hehe. I just got this layer of fat around my middle that I have never had before - from the last pregnancy - better than any blanket or clothinbg - HA! Oh well, I do truly wonder. I am losing it with all the frugal eating so we'll see. In the meantime I am keeping the house at 67 instead of 68. See how that affects the bottom line. I have to have a discussion with dh about this though - how this means a little more bundling for the wee ones. Dh is an enigma. He is thin as a rail and never gets cold so I am the one who sets the heat basically.

3 - I am not sure what to think about this one, except probably it is a bad idea. Dh wants to buy a PlayStation3 now (is that what it is?) and sell it on ebay - he says he can make 100%. LOL. Sure, I am sure odds are he can make a profit. But first he has to get the dang thing. & then there are so many variables. Like 1, what if EVERYONE has this idea? Woudln't be surprised. I haven't said much because he lacks follow through so it is better to humor him and know it will never be done, then to arge about it - hehe. After years of new playstations coming out and being completely sold out - who knows - this may be the year there will be too many. & I gurantee regardless Ebay will be flooded with those things - other people thinking the same thing. IT will all be in the timing. In the meantime I have no idea why he thinks he can score one if they will be that hard to get. If this involves camping out, as he has done in the past, not sure how practical that is. Even then it is not guaranteed he would get one. In the past inevitably we would get a windfall like this completely unplanned, for example getting rid of extra concert tickets for a REALLY big show, and as soon as we try to recreate it, it doesn't work. So you think he would learn...

Man I Wish he would just get a JOB. The true answer is just too simple, huh? LOL.

4 - I got some little popsicle makers for the kids so I Wondered if you all had any ideas of some good popsicle recipes. I made some smoothies last week that had tofu instead of yogurt. I can not eat tofu in anything - I think it is nasty. But these were pretty good. Recipe was huge, so I told ds I would make them tonight again and the leftovers we can make popsicles with. I think those would be pretty yummy. Anyway the tofu smoothie is way more low-cal than my usual yogurt recipe. But even that one if I made popsicles with would probably be smaller servings. I am not a big fruit fan overall so I am the smoothie queen - helps me to get my servings of fruit. I can eat fruit as long as it is all mashed up and frozen I guess - mostly not big on fruit texture.

So what else do you make popsicles with? Juice? Pureed fruit? Hmmm. I will probably look around online for some other ideas too.

I know, this is so not the season for frozen treats - LOL. It's chilly.