Not me! But I just was doing some transfers and stuff since all the bills are paid for the 1st 1/2 of the month. Looking at what I have left and how much I needed from short-term savings for my $3k bills due soon - property taxes and insurance. & updating Quicken since it had been a few days. When I see a $5 charge from my bank. WHAT???? Digging deeper I find a $125 check that I received has bounced. I am beyond p.o.ed, because my Moms group is having a Christmas party at my community Clubhouse. I sent in the check ages ago and it took forever to get my $125 reimbursement. I waited until my paycheck to cash it so even then I waited another week or 2 before depositing it, and yet the lady does not have the funds to cover it. Bah!

Usually these kind of things always happen at the worst time, but luckily I had not gotten around to paying my credit card bill yet. I just wanted to pay the old one off which would be maybe $1400, but with this I only had $1300 left in my account. So I paid $1300 and will still have to pay a little next month. Fine since a couple of automatic charges I saw had been added. Will probably have a couple of months of charges until we move everything over. But I am just beyond peeved. Yet grateful nothing bounced. I usually run my checkbook balance to 0, but frankly my balance never really dips below $2k. I input all my online bill pays when I enter them, but maybe they aren't due until the end of the month so that is when I set them to be paid. I always pay my mortgage after the end of the month just as float though the money is there well before the end of the month. I am starting to think that maybe I should get a checking account with interest. I always thought why bother since I keep it at 0 overall. But just the other day I was looking at my balance and I realized it had not dipped below $2k in the last 2 months. Wow! The thing is my bokkeeping system is complicated enough without having to figure out how to have my book balance be 0 and my bank balance keep the minimum. Too complicated. Why I won't switch to interest-checking. Just how it is working out for now.

Anyway, decided how much money I had and needed for my lovely $3k in bills and decided I could add another $100 to savings this month. I didn't need it ALL - woohoo. My goal is to get that sucker up to $6k by year-end.

I told dh I had wanted to make some early payments on our personal loan and he talked me out of it. So we may be building up our savings more in the meantime. The power of interest - he convinced me. I need constant convinving - I swear. I hate having open debt - Bah! We will have this conversation 10 more times before it is paid off - I swear. I told him we would have it paid off May no matter what - which is early - and he doesn't mind. But he has the point - what difference does it make in the end if I make extra payments in the meantime - either way it's all the same. So you pay off more towards the end, you earn more interest in the meantime. & he is right! Either way just a few more months!!!

Airhead strikes again!! LOL. & I am not even blonde.

When I grabbed my property tax bill I Was looking at the amount due after penalties if paid late. Something like $2400 vs. the $2100 last year - for 1 installment. I was freaking out looking at the budget. For DAYS! I knew some big new school bond passed and I thought it was s'posed to be a few hundred per year so I wasn't terribly surprised.

Anyway this morning I grabbed all of the bills to figure out just how much to transfer from my short-term saving account for this and some other bills. & I looked a little closer and was SO relieved to see the real amount was closer to $2200. I have been GRIPING about how insane our taxes were all week. LOL. Phew - wasn't so crazy after all.

Oh yes - and I tried to get that jewelry I had to have, but read the fine print after trying unsuccessfully, it wasn't available until today. I threw it with the bills and figured if I remembered and grabbed it before it sold out, whatever. If not, good for the budget. Anyway, when I grabbed the bills I saw and remembered today was the day, BUT again it wouldn't let me order. Oh well. I will save money then!!!! I don't think I will even bother trying again. Whatever. I take this as a sign - LOL.

Oh yes - and send good vibes - preschool teacher is going into surgery TODAY. IT is sad since ds could not go monday to say good-bye - she didn't originally think she would get in so soon. Bummer. So we are getting around $500 refunded. I am probably going to give her a generous $100 cash or something for christmas since taking 2 months off so unexpectedly has got to be hard. & we figured maybe splurge on some nice flowers. & still a big chunk to pay down the van - woohoo!!!

Oh yes, and being sick has made our gas bill nil these last couple of weeks. I am going to make it about 2 weeks between fill-up. WOW! LAck of preschool will help that too. We are driving to San Jose today to visit with family but will be WELL within the gas budget - could probably make another visit this month. Yay!

I have been spending WAY too much time on here so I have to go tidy the house and take care of things I guess. Have a good weekend everyone!

Just did my training call for financial literacy. It was kind of dissapointing because it sounds like they have too many volunteers. It's good, but it's bad. I am not sure if I Will even get a chance to go out and speak. Oh darn - LOL. But I will try.

Of course they did say if we worked out something on our own they would support us with materials and such. So I am thinking I will have to try that perhaps. Or start thinking about how I could do this on my won completely.

With tax season coming up I don't plan to spend much time on this, but maybe a project to figure out next summer.

Anyway, we got some really great ideas though through this training. They said one thing they did was "build a budget" - either as a class or in groups. Start with an income and put together a budget. Then re-evaluate the wants and needs and how to pare it down. I guess they have a lot of materials on compounding and saving $1 million, etc., the angle discussed here in the forums.

Another idea was to bring in some of our credit card offers and analyze the interest rates and fine print, etc. Kind of like saying - hey doesn't this look great at face value, but let's really dig down and figure what this means. With real world examples. I think that is a GREAT idea.

Suggesstion for generating discussion - if someone asks a question, pose that question to the rest of the class first.

Also bring candy as a reward for participating in the discussion. I went to a professional presentation where that was done - for adults - and it REALLY worked. Kids probbaly really eat that up - literally - hehe.

I also got a link yesterday about the American Institute of CPAs new ad campaign and savings push to the 25-34 year old crowd. HEre's their new website.

---------------------------------------
www.feedthepig.org

"Benjamin Bankes is not just your average pig-about-town; he's a piggy bank, all grown up. And Benjamin has a message to share: Feed the Pig. In other words, take small savings steps today to build a solid financial tomorrow.

Benjamin is the star spokespig of a new national public service campaign from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and The Advertising Council. The goal of the campaign is to encourage the 40 million Americans age 25 to 34 to take control of their personal finances. The campaign, Feed the Pig ™, is a new component of the 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy effort which aims to educate Americans about how financial issues affect their lives. It features a Web site, www.360financialliteracy.org, offering free tools and resources to help Americans manage their finances through every stage of life.

Become a friend of Benjamin! Check out his MySpace page!

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the national professional association of CPAs, with approximately 330,000 members in business, industry, public practice, government and education. The AICPA sets the ethical standards for the profession and the auditing standards for private companies, non-profit groups, and federal, state and local governments.

The Advertising Council has produced thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day. The Ad Council aims to foster tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action and saving lives.

For more information about this campaign, please contact feedthepig@aicpa.org.

Thanks. Now go Feed the Pig."
------------------------------------


They have a lot of work to do. But look out for Benjamin Bankes - coming soon to a t.v. near you.

Frankly, I think the pig is creepy. We'll see how it goes. LOL. For now I think this site is doing a lot better, and much more appealing. We'll see all they have up their sleeve I guess. I think an online community like this makes all the difference in motivating people to save though. OR keeping up interest, vs. somewhere where you just read articles.

Oh well, my Tuesday update.

Got the electric & gas bill - $30 for last month. Woohoo. You don't know how refreshing it is to come to a site where this is the norm. I have been appalled on other sites I frequent - when gas/electric comes up - people's average bills are $500/month. Seriously. You hear how bad utilities have gotten and I wonder if this is somewhat norm BUT most of these people admit to keeping their house 72 degrees day and night in the winter, etc. The idea of conserving energy has apparently never crossed their mind. As for us, $30 is about as low as it gets, I can mostly thank the weather. We turned on the heat a day or two this last week, and right now it is 73 inside and no heat on for a few days. Next month will be a lower bill than usual probably too - yay. But overall with a new baby we tended to conserve a little less. This year so far I haven't been too quick to turn on the heat - the kids are running around like banshees, keeping warm, and the baby is a lot tougher now and can handle the cold a little better. We'll probably set it to 68 during the day and who knows at night, maybe 60 - it rarely turns on at night at 60 I believe - trying to remember. When the kids are a little older we'll just turn it off altogether at night like we used to!

I just renewed my AAA membership and was surprised looking through all the discounts available. I remember looking through in years past thinking it is all stuff I never use. But I noticed supercuts, payless shoes, a lot of restuarants, and even Pier 39 in San Francisco where we were going to go next weekend. I'll have to check that out. I am bummed though my not too smart with money friend who was going with me might bow out because she can no longer afford it. Am working on dh to come with me. Oh well, maybe it will be a little adventure with just my son and I. You know, just looking at $10 for the train and maybe a lunch out. So it is nothing huge.

Oh yes - and one more thing on saving money - was just paying all my bills and thinking in my head how much I am saving on stamps with online bill pay. I Am sure all you savvy savers use it, right? I used the service through my old credit union and it SUCKED. It was free. But they debited your account immediately even though they just wrote thec check for you - it would often take 2 weeks to clear. It drove me mad. Sometimes checks disappeared and they would want a stop payment fee to cancel it. They drove me mad. Talking to my co-worker who is a bookkeeper she said she worked somewhere before where people with online bill pay were always getting screwed like that. So I thought this was normal. But I was at a very small credit union and I just switched. OMG - my new online bill pay is still free but it is AWESOME. I just set up all my credit cards (before I did not trust the payment would get there in time). A few bills come directly to my credit union, and they do quite a few electronically. For the ones they actually write a check - they don't post it until it clears. HAllelujah. I love online bill pay. I post this because if you have a sucky service, shop around. The difference is probably that this is a much bigger credit union. More resources I guess. Well since I am using it a lot more, not just for the little bills I don't care if are late - LOL - I am now really saving on stamps. The only thing that is annoys me is I run through deposit slips way more than checks. Can I just order deposit slips I guess? I need to.

Oh well, I figured I was good on jewelry the rest of the year and did not intend to spend much this month. Nothing on the horizon, I haven't spent any money in about a week or so. & then yesterday I saw some new cookiee lee jewelry and I absolutely HAVE TO have it. I will probably spend $20 and it is well within budget, but it is annoying me. Darn Cookie and her cute jewelry. LOL. I'll just have to work on sellin gsome to pay for it...

Well, off to vote. Dh was cute when I said I Was going after work - he said - "But the lines will be SO long!!!" Is he serious? Bah. LAst time I went around 5:30 and I was like 100th to vote all day - something pretty dismal for a big city. So he is telling me - remember the RECALL election??? The line was huge. I don't particularly remember, BUT you now, it was the recall election. I think this year will be a little more quiet. I just find it extremely ironic, besides annnoying and frustrating, that Arnold has done everything that his predecessor did 10 times worse. His predecessor took a lot of contributions and had a lot of debt. That was their argument against him. Then Arnold came in and did it 10 times worse. ?????? I tend to vote 3rd parties, and I Was going to this year and thought better. I do not like the democrat in the least and feel he is very budget-responsible. But if I really think about it, I do not foresee him just using billions and billions in future bonds to pay for today's expenses, as arnold likes to do. I want Arnold out. *sigh* Not counting on it, but it will be interesting to see what happens. It would be nice if someone fiscally responsible ran for governonr - but that is just dreaming I guess... Oh well, my political rant for the day.

I have a few random thing to blab about today. First I looked at the budget for october and we were pretty square on. I was a tiny bit over in a few areas, but just a few dollars here and there mostly. Groceries we were over by $60. We still have issues in that area. $560 for groceries when $500 is our average. I am not sure why all this trying to save on groceries has pushed our bill higher except we tend to stock up a lot more on stuff on sale. Hopefully we will see the resulting decline in purchases in future months. I know we spent about $30 to host a get-together in our home AND that I had wanted to make eyeball cookies and try a new granola recipe and dh came home grumbling how I blew the budget out of the water. All he had to do was call me at work and say "this is too expensive." I would have figured something else out. Oh well - now he knows. Oh but we were under budget for gas by $60 so all is well. Even out!

I also saw an interesting - good and frankly scary - that 75% of the nation's CPAs were due to retire in the next 10 years. OMG!!!!! I work in a CPA firm, and I know everyone assumes I am pretty rich as a result, but frankly CPA firms are the bottom of the barrel. They used to get you because you had to work for a CPA firm for 2 years to get your license. The work is great, very interesting, you learn A LOT, BUT overall when I graduated you were expected to work 80-hour weeks for about $30k. When you could go get a $60k job easy out of school. So I did it just for the CPA designation. But shortly thereafter that law was changed, no longer needed, and as a result starting pay has about doubled the last few years. They just can not recruit people to save their soul. & the whole getting a CPA thing is now 10 times easier as well, but still we are not recruiting enough talent for whatever reason.

So I have been in a pretty sweet spot in a way. I have job security like you wouldn't believe, recruiters banging down my door, AND my pay has doubled in just a few years. OVerall I feel like my boss pays me just enough to make a few k more than the new grads, but I also sympathize that his operating costs have about doubled in the process - hehe. But it is downright frightening to think what a shortage there will be when the baby boomers retire. Wow. I don't want to go back to those 80-hour weeks, for sure... But maybe enough power to work how and when I Want all the same - there will be even more begging and pleading for people like me. Man, I hit the jackpot when I picked a career I guess. Who knew. Most of this paradign shift happened when I was in college. I remember the Big 5 frims were like the elite of the elite and you had to be the BEST to get in and get your $30k/year - LOL. Now they just grovel at your feet - they'll take anyone.

Finally, I bought a *new* car in March. What was that - 7 months ago???? 8??? So today I get a note in the mail that they underestimated the cars registration fees and I owe them $60. In fact, it says "we are trying to register your car but we are short $60." LOL. Are they serious? I just re-registered my car a couple of weeks back. I peak at my original registration and they indeed pay $218 when they registered it (8 months ago by the way - none of this "we are trying to register it and can't without your money" crap). & they indeed charge me $160 on my contract. I pulled out the contract because I believed that there was some wording on the contract that it was an estimate, but I Was thinking there has to be a time limit on that. Come on. So I pulled out the contract and well it says nothing of the sort about it being an estimate or you may owe the difference. It's a final bill of sale and they picked the price. Whoever rung it up screwed up, but oh well. I can't believe their nerve. Good luck!

I then called my parents and chatted with them because I didn't want a lien against my car for $60 or anything. But they assured me the car people were shady bastards. I decided to ignore it. If I get another note dh can tell them that we don't intent to pay it - he is good at that stuff. Seriously though, I paid them $15k for a car and now they are coming after me for $60? Boohooo I feel bad for them - not. & honestly if I got the notice 6 months ago I probably would have paid it without a blink. But the whole waiting 7 months thing is just too much. They were assured they wouldn't get any money out of me as soon as they said "you need to pay us so we can register your car." What utter and total BS. I Call them on it. Scare tactics I guess.

I hold car dealers right up there with credit card companies. I will deal with them when I Can get a good deal, but I will hate every minute of it. They are the worst of the worst. Blah. So you know, not that this is the worst incident ever, but I already have so many issues with car dealers - LOL. Just somethng more to gripe about.

All the bills for the month are done and paid so I updated the stats. I love looking at my progress. The kick in the butt I need.

I am estimating what the costs on card will be but we have so far had a pretty spectacular month. So I estimaed my boost in savings. $30 interest, $100 from extra income this month (ebay & cookie lee), +$150.

$150 is probably more than my target savings each month, we are so breakeven on our budget, I Am trying to save minimum $50/month. The extra money made all the difference. BUT I am very pleased to report that I actually saved $1000+ this month. (knock on wood since just a few more days - don't want my car to explode). I just did not put it over to the emergency fund because I need it for the estate lawyer. I am so pleased to have the cash to pay her now and not dip into anything else.

I am pleased as punch because though we had a $250 credit on our credit card this month which helped, I had $150 expense on there for my cookie lee sales. IT was our last month paying $56 on the storage. Plus we did about $150 worth of christmas shopping (most of it), bought some clothes for the kids, and spent $40 on birthday gifts. It was a pretty excessive month overall and our credit card bill will be around $1100. $1100?????? In my old budget I just targeted around $1650 - that was my goal. IT was usually closer to $2k. I can not believe what a good month we had, we were not deprived in the least. Includes our anniversary dinner and everything.

Anyway, I need about $700/month to set aside for property taxes and insurance which I never do. But somehow I have it all covered through Dec. 31, so if November is as good I may have $700, at least, for the emergency fund next month. Only thing big is Thanksgiving. but even that family really helps out with food (we host) and I think we will have another banner month. Yay!!!

It was kind of disheartening when I joined the site and thought I Could maybe set aside $50/month. I knew I needed to do something- it was better than nothing. But to see that I have saved $500 in the last 60 days is pretty awesome.

Hubby is dragging his feet on the job thing. IT seems like we are back to square one on that issue, a little extra money could really help. But I don't foresee him really pulling it together. Oh well, at least he is helping me to maximize my income and our savings, it is something. What else can I do...

We are doing so well I Decided to resume extra mortgage payments in january if I get a raise. I started right before my last maternity leave and we just never had the money after that. Then I felt like we needed to save more. We probably do, but I am not happy until I Am paying that sucker down faster... But only if I have d ecent raise to boost our savings and then be able to add to the mortgage. I'll find out in january. Depends what our health insurance premiums go up to too - *sigh*

I just had to say to I had a real estate agent acuqaintance tell me that it was stupid to pay down a mortgage because you pay so little. LOL. She has 2 homes she owns with ARMs. Personally I think *that* is stupid. But anywho. Um yeah, our very first mortgage we had a 15-year loan for 1 year and we paid off $10k over the course of 2 years. Our current mortgage we have had for 5 years and have paid off $11,000. That is $21,000 in 7 years. YEah, we have paid nothing off our house - *rolleyes* Okay maybe $21k is nothing to some people, but it is a lot to me. Oh sure if it wasn't for the kid thing and 1-income thing we would have kept the 15-year loan. Instead I like that our minimum mortgage payment is decent, with a 30-year fixed, and we will add another $500/month when my hubby is working substantially again. On 1-income I am looking to pay $5k off of it next year, just normal payments + 1.5 extra payments, or an extra $150/month. Nothing spectacular. Oh well, I am one of those weirdos who looks forward to not having debts, vs. accruing more. I was also a weirdo who wouldn't buy a house without 20% cash down, so hey. Just call me weird.

I had a few things to blab about but I Wanted to say it feels real good to have GOALS. I really needed this. I have been feeling pretty blah lately like now what, kind of an early mid-life crisis. IT was like school, school, school, buy a home, get my CPA license, buy a better home, have kids. check check check. Okay, now what. That's really how I have felt lately. Now what??????? I know raising kids is a big endeavor, but at the same time I feel like I need another goal in my life.

I just put 2 and 2 together, thinking today that renewing my financial goals has really motivated me. I Am a goal person, I always need to be working towards something. Some things I have put off like getting an even higher education until the kids are much older. It is something I would like to do, but I know I do not have the time to devote. So I have been feeling like, what do I do in the meantime? On the other hand I look at us financially and think we have done pretty awesome. I Wasn't really scrutinizing or making any goals in that area. Now that I Am scrutinizing I wonder what the hell we have been doing. LOL. So what if we are loads ahead of the saps around us, what does it matter, we are BEHIND. I want to retire young!!!! But it isn't going to happen without a lot of work on our part. Ah, but it is a worthy goal to keep me occupied.

Along the same vein I was ready to devote a little more time to volunteering again after things were settling down from the last few years of bearing children and caring for small babies. I Feel strongly that financial literacy really needs to be taught in the schools because parents are not doing it for sure. I was looking into financial literacy programs and saw my state CPA society has a program so I signed up. I have not heard anything in months, which I Was kind of relieved because I do not enjoy public speaking - hehe. I know it is a good cause and I Want to do it - but overall I am pretty scared.

So yesterday I got an e-mail about a training next week. I am absolutely freaking out. I tell myself, calm down. I joined a local professional group for about a year between pregnancies and I spoke to the group a lot, and you know what they liked my speaking. But then I think - gosh - there were professional adults interested in any free tax advice they can get. How am I going to talk in front of high school students???? Can't I talk to the 4th graders??? LOL. But oh well. I Am trying to suck it up and move forward. All I Can do is try. If it is the most miserable experience of my life I don't have to do it again, right?

I actually wanted to start with doing some presentations for the state society and move on from there - getting more involved in the financial literacy movement. We'll see how it goes I guess. I need all the support I Can get though -t ell me I Can do it!

Wow, before bed I figured I would check my Ebay listing. It is already up to $63 with 6 days to spare. Oh my goodness!!!! I Was just telling hubby I will probably get $60+. IT was at $35 around 6pm so I Was shocked to see all the bididng since then.

Wow - I have no idea where it will end up. Considering you can get a brand new one on ebay for $70 - I am not sure it will go up much more. But I think mine is a newer model than the others - might make ALL The difference. Now I remember why I had to pay $90 for it myself. ; )

This is too cool.

I checked the kid's closet and I have 7 really nice outfits that do not fit in the least. They are all summery so I will probably wait until spring to list them, when there is more demand. The best thing is they will be so easy to ship.

I know they have a few things with tags sitting in their drawers as well. I'll have to do a search...

Even with all the Christmas shopping this month I think it will be a good month for the Emergency Fund. I am expecting 2 more Cookie Lee orders this week as well. An extra $200 - $300 this month with little work. Yay!

Yay!!!!

I had in mind to sell that baby carrier and I just got an e-mail from ebay that they would waive their fees if I Decide to sell my first item this week. Just the kick in the butt I needed. I got it listed. My only competition is not as nice and is at $57 with 1 day to go. I expect to make $60 easy - if not more.

I Was cheking the manufacturers website for some info and saw they are selling brand new $90. I think that is probably about what I paid. I bought it in mind I would sell close to full price someday, as they are impossible to find used - very high demand.

Well, we'll see how much I can recoup. I am already eyeing some unused clothes in baby's closet - new with tags. Stuff that is easy to ship. We'll see how it goes, though obviously going something small to ship and high dollar is the best way to go. Not sure I have much else to offer in that category.

I got way outbid by $3 on those clothes, but oh well, would have put me over budget. Instead I Stopped by Target yesterday and scored with their clearance rack. Got 2 shirts and the cutest skirt you ever saw for about $14. I went $1 over budget for christmas with niece - oh well. Well worth it. I am pleased how good I did on $16 - a pile of nice stuff.

YEsterday was icky, I worked from home. I actually got some work done too - phew. Try working and watching a 15-month-old. I pulled off 3 hours of work, only 1/2 hour with the help of t.v. LOL. & then 2 hours at nap time.

Not a fulll day but beat calling sick this crazy time of year. Dh feels better today.

Was gonna meet a friend for lunch but she backed out. Now I have to go get a $1 lunch - blech. I just need to bring a lunch every monday for these kind of things = or even a frozen dinner. This is the second time this month. I don't really want to eat out since I plan to meet her for lunch thursday instead. Thank goodness for cheap fast food.

Oh yeah - and I am so frigign sick of baby showers. I HATE them. I am so sick of being invited to showers for people I don't really know, for their 2nd, 3rd, 4th child. You know what, it's tacky. IT seems to be the norm these days though. When you get pregnant by accident the 3rd time on the SAME form of birth control you have always used - um yeah - maybe it is time to change. I know you think I am rich and well off and you are so poor, but honey, now I know you make twice as much money as I do. Do like the rest of us do and go buy some used things, go to some garage sales. Maybe then you wouldn't be so "broke." & While you are at it, try some new birth control please. Thanks for not talking to me for an entire year and then inviting me to your shower because you "need" things. I fell for that with #2. I am out. No more baby showers for this lady. If you are not related by blood and I haven't seen your face in person and talked to you on the phone this last year, I am out. I am not going to your gift-hoarding baby shower. I am so fed up. If you invite me to a shower that is gift-optional or a baby celebration, you know what, I Will probably show. But then again, anyone who has the tact to do that, well I probably wouldn't mind getting them a gift after all. ; )

Gosh, I Feel better now. Rant over. Phew.

I can not put my finger on it but my husband never gets sick. Since 1 child in daycare setting, sick sick sick all the damn time.

The weirdest thing is I have escape a few things. Usually I am the one who is always sick. Weird.

Anyway, he just informed me he has a 103 temperature, and I just informed him I am sleeping downstairs. Blah! I do not want to be sick. These next 2 weeks are crunch time at work, and worst thing is I brought 3 hours of work or so home this weekend that I could not do because I was missing some info. Just enough so I could do NOTHING. So I am 3 hours behind from last week, and tomorrow isn't looking so promising.

Anyway, we'll see how nasty it gets. My mother just reminded me maybe it was all the birthday parties. Probably. No more stinking birthday parties - gah. We went to one in April - the first one we were invited to through preschool and everyone there got that nasty bug where you just puke every 15 minutes for a day or 2. It was the worst. We should have learned our lesson. Hopefully this is something minor and mild. *fingers crossed*

YEah, my husband and my son in general have immunities of steel, so I do not know what this whole daycare germ thing is about and why it is so pervasive. My son got his first ear infection (and 2nd and 3rd) at 3 after starting preschool and has been sick a few times aleady after never really being sick his first 3 years. You know it is not like he was not around other kids a lot, but there is something about being exposed to the germs on a regular basis for prolonged periods of time or something. ??? & why dh is so susceptible I can only imagine. I have no clue.

Oh well, in money saving news the storage is just about cleared out. My living room is filled with boxes. Oh well, I will take a house full of boxes and be glad to wipe that monthly expense out of the budget. Yay!

Most of the stuff from boxes will end up going I am sure. I just am not sure when I will find the time. In the meantime we can live like we just moved I guess. ??

I won some more ebay auctions - woohoo. No more bidding wars - I like it better thay way overall. I Was actually surprised because I went to take a nap and just put my real maximum bid. Woke up and was surprised I had won. My christmas shopping is almost done! I have one auction that ends Tuesday and I already put in my maximum bid. We'll see. If I win I Will have 4 brand new shirts for $13 or less, and a tiara and fairy princess wand for a grand total of my $15 budget for my niece. I will be pretty pleased. If I don't win, I have about 2 months to find something better on ebay. I am just so pleased what I pulled out on such a small budget - I think it will be a nice gift. Same for all of them so far. I intended to get my mom one $20 gift but I got her 2 awesome gifts instead - thank you ebay.

Cash Stash:

$50.01 cash for 2006
- 1.28 Taco Bell Lunch
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$48.73 remains
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This budget thing is really turning into a full-time job. My word. LOL.

Was going to drive home for lunch as my mom was going to visit and dh was going to work on clearing out storage.

She called me today at work to say she wasn't feeling well and wasn't driving up. So I had to sacrifice $1.28 for lunch. Considered going home anyway but gas would have been about $3 for the drive so I decided a quick lunch would be cheaper.

OF all things my work is providing lunch for us tomorrow. I am not sure if they have ever PAID for a lunch for us before. They host often, but we always have to pay our share. This is the kind of thing dh and I Were fighting over on the budget. Sure I don't have to but geez even the poorest person participates. LOL. I Can order a salad or something cheaper than usual of course. Anyway, when I saw the e-mail headline about lunch in I Was thinking - gah - my budget!!!! Now I choose between eating out with friends or eating in with people I see every day - or telling them I am too porr to participate in a $4 lunch. Ack! But I was very pleasantly surprised to see lunch would be provided. A first in 5 years? Awww, the money gods are in my favor this week.

Downside, 3 days of junk for lunch, but oh well. HAving pizza tomorrow.

Yeah, we are still trying to move money out of MErrill Lynch and having all sorts of problems. Back to square one on moving ALL of our money out. For the best. I am so ready to just completely cut out the middle man. OF course dh tells me today I Am the difficult one in the ML debacle. I have never met this guy or talked to him, but man he works some magic voodoo - turning dh against me - LOL. I Am like - dude, you said he said we shoudln't sell this fund and you wanted to keep it. I Said, "fine" though I Was not happy in the least. Now he says we can't keep it - so I Say, "fine" - I am happy to just leave. Then dh says I changed my mind and made it difficult. ????????? Oh well, I just have to let it go... Over and done with soon enough - I hope anyway. Obviously the sales guy in Mr. BRokerage is trying to sway dh to stay and it is annoying me to no end he is falling for it.

Speaking of falling for it, after the budget talk, dh went in for an oil change and they talked him into some work he didn't need - change the air filter or something. ?????? The rule is we ask our trusted friend/mechanic whenever they suggest anything - 10 times out of 10 it is BS. I Can not believe after talking budgets and all this he fell for it. IT was on our new van which has 1/2 as many miles on his car and we have asked our mechanic repeatedly on this issue because every time we go in they say new air filter on his old car. MEchanic says BS. I don't know where dh's brain was this weekend. Gah.

Speaking of cars the 2 gardeners working at my office, their battery died in their van. Apparently all the men were out of the office. Secretary asks around if anyone can give a jump and all the women look like deer in headlights. LOL. I am thinking I don't have my car today and not sure if I have jumpers. Then she pretty much tells the guys to wait until the men get back. LOL. They of course had jumpers, and so I bravely offered to give them a jump. IT was kind of funny. USually it pisses me off because I always offer and whoever needs a jump settles for a man for whatever reason. so today was my day of glory I guess - no alternative.

But I was thinking that I don't know what it is but society today does not have a clue on what is involved with a jump. I remember one time we were stranded in the middle of nowhere on I-5 - my dh's car just happened to die at the gas station as we were filling up. We asked 20 people for a jump and 19 looked at us like we were crazy. It felt like bizarro world - we thought maybe it was a small town thing. LOL. But looking at the same response today I think, um okay, people in California have not a clue what a jump is or how to go about it. I guess I have had my fair share of dead batteries. HAs no one else?????? IT is not exactly rocket science. & of course my dad taught me the basics of cars like jumping a dead battery and changng a tire, because you know it is important to be able to take care of yourself and not be a stranded, weak woman. I guess with cell phones and AAA it is more rare to find a woman, or a man that can fend for themself. I have to say my husband would not have a clue how to jump a dead battery or to change a tire either. I notice that a lot like when we are out together someone will ask for HIM For a jump and then I say okay and get out the jumper cables and hook them up - LOL. & they are looking at dh like, what is going on here??? LOL. But I think it is kind of an interesting phenomenem.

The end result? Don't expect to find a jump when you have a dead battery. Call AAA I guess. At least not in these neck of the woods. I grew up in a very large city and it was never an issue. Cow town folk are scared of car batteries is all I Can figure. LOL. Totally kidding. ; ) Cow town folk and women, eh?

Cash Stash:

$51.09 cash for 2006
- 1.08 BK Lunch
------
$50.01 remains
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My cash stash is extra important now that dh is in "budget nazi" mode - LOL. But we spent so long this morning arguing budget I Was late to work and just figured, eh grab Taco Bell for lunch. But I forgot I had checks to deposit by mail and BK is by the fast post office so BK won.

Dh was so cute - he called me this morning and said he went grocery shopping and spent $56 for the entire week and even stocked up on stuff. The bonus is the new Bel Air has a gas station and whenever you spend $50 you get 10 cents off per gallon. It is a pretty good deal. We hoarde all the 10 cent coupons for the van since the tank is twice as big as his little compact car. So he made sure to spend at least $50 of course. But last week we ate on $100 so we'll see how this food stash lasts.

Some things he did was clear out the fridge and see what needed to be used. 1 - since he had more room he stocked up on milk for sale - we go through milk like it is nothing and he said usually you can buy the second gallon for discount so he will start doing that more. 2 - HE planned meals for the week based on what we had unused in the fridge. I am sure in general we waste a lot of food. Not a ton, but more than we should. I am not sure this will work every week, but it is a good start. If we get too good there should be nothing left in the fridge, right? ; )

I still can't believe we were at the "there is no way to save money on groceries" fight on saturday, to this. Who is this person and what did he do with my husband? LOL.

In other news we only used 1/2 our peak cell minutes this month. From months of overused, to well underused. Goal met - yay!!

No more HBO!!!! Hallelujah!! LOL.

I don not know how many times I have broached the subject that we don't need HBO, heck cable since we are not saving much money, etc. Dh has always staunchly been opposed.

This morning I woke up and he had been up all night slashing the budget. I Was really scared to look but the only thing we really fought about was the christmas budget. & after arguing it out there is only 1 thing we disagree on.

I almost fell over when he told me he is cancelling HBO.

Honestly, I know we have communication issues. We try to write down stuff because we always have the "you neevr told me" fight about our plans every week, and so in the end I Said if it is not on the calendar you didn't tell me. Since we wrote it all down, no more fighting. Seems the same with the way of the budget.

I was pleased he did not cross out the gardener either. If he crosses it out he can do the work - I just refuse at this point. Just glad something I thought we would fight over. I can give up anything but that. & of course he hasn't goven up cable but from $60 to $40 whatever - it's a step. He was pretty on par with what I came up with but besides the HBO we lowered eating out to $30 - mostly for my social life, and miscellaneous from $250 to $170.

Overall I know I am relinquishing some control, which is hard for my control freak side, but it feels so good to truly have him on board and understand where I have been coming from so long. This is why I nitpick when he buys things, I am not sure why me telling himw e didn't have the money got through his head and this does, but oh well.

HE applied at Best Buy and Target - just for the rest of the year. We might actually save a lot this year. Yay!

Digging deeper and getting some time to talk, well he is all freaked out because he thinks we have been saving money all these last few years. I have NO IDEA where he got that impression - you are right - he is on another planet - LOL. Um the fact that are savings has dwindled down to 5k is a BIG hint we are not saving money darling. & he is well aware where our finances stand. Men!! Anyway, I made clear since he has not been working we have saved just about zilch. We haven't really gone in the red with the exception of a car we just purchased - which basically brought our savings to 0. But we certainly haven't saved a dime. Get real.

Today even with the quibbles I see in the future about little purchases, and the fact my husband is acting like a parent to me somewhat today, I Feel like a huge load has been lifted from my shoulders. Aaaaaahhhhh...

Edited: Oh yeah - I knew it was TOO good to be true - LOL. HE mentioned as I walked out the door this morning that he checked the listings and none of his shows are on until March - *rolleyes* I guess we will fight over it in march. At that point if he wants HBO I say it will come out of his allowance. Oh well, at least 6 months of no HBO - $120 saved. I am pleased that we will not pay for it while we are not using it at least - well duh.

HEy I just noticed I had 1300 points so I bought myself a black user name - pretty sweet. Black is my favorite color. I Would have got a glowing name - well I don't think I had enough points - but I use firefox and not internet explorer. That sucks. LOL. I might buy it anyway in the future. I use explorer on occasion.

I am just vegging out waiting for the kids to wake up. Baby slept through the night again. I in turn was wide awake at 5am, but that is good. I feel like my life has been turned upside down the last few months. Usually I wake up early to work out and get stuff done, but that has been so out the window of late. It feels good to have some time.

Well yesterday I spent $30 at amazon. I invested in some mutual fund books. I figure it was a good investment and I Was too lazy to go used. I intended to look at the used options on amazon but they were only $1 or $2 cheaper than new so I figured what the heck.

I also started my christmas shopping. I had intended to start sooner, and I Was feeling silly yesterday that I Felt so behind though it is only Oct. 6 or so - LOL. I am kind of laughing at myself - still have lots of time. But during my lunch break yesterday I perused ebay and found some cute things for my mom. Spent about $20 on 2 gifts (most of it as shippping of course). I had budgeted to buy her one gift - $20 so I was pleased I squeezed out 2. HEr birthday and christmas shopping is DONE - woot.

I also donated $20 to a co-workers grandkids' school - in return for wrapping paper. A good cause and one less thing to buy otherwise - eh. I usually do pretty generous with that stuff so spent 1/2 as much as usual. well within my donation budget.

But overall a lot of money spent this last week.

Set up an appointment with the estate attorney who is a friend of the family. We'll see how that turns out. We don't have significant assets on one hand, but if both my dh and I bite the dust we have $1 mil insurance between the 2 & significant home equity house. I decided we really need to get things squared away. ALive not worth much, dead worth a lot. Don't tell the kids. ; ) Plus as a CPA I know you really need to get your affairs squared away - because when you don't it gets ugly - see it time and time again with clients. I should know better, the fact it has taken this long is inexcusable. Anyway, hopefully by the end of the year we will have our affairs in order.

The Merill lynch guy has not sold any of the funds we asked him to. I am back to square one and want all of our money out - I am so fed up with him - I have no idea what the deal is. It is dh's IRA so he has to take care of it - and he isn't actually in a hurry. Gah. Something else I would like to take care of NOW which there is no reason why I couldn't have transferred the funds by now. I just wanted him to sell so I knew how much cash was in there. I am tired of waiting, will probably start one of the transfers, I guess it doesn't matter if he hasn't sold it yet - I have an idea how much money is in there. LEt the new custodians ask for the money...

I hope to get some time this weekend to go over the budget with dh. PArt of the problem is I do all the money and then he kind of does his own thing, and we don't communicate great. HE doesn't buy much, but one month I will be thinking we need to crack down, and he'll go out and buy a DVD or something. Anyway, I have made a sample budget but he hasn't put any input in, so I am hoping he can look at it this weekend and we can revise it again to fit both our needs. Same with the christmas budget - I put it together but may be missing something he intends to buy, etc.

Communication is good - LOL.

I also had an epiphany. When I Was on maternity we lived on very little. It seemed we spent A LOT less on gas which really helped, and little incidental work expenses. But otherwise I Wasn't really sure why we did so good.

Anyway, our credit card bill averages $1800/month, my goal lately has been $1600, and without all of our vacation stuff and gymboree which I paid for with extra money, our cc bill would have been $1200 this month. Why? I then had the epiphany that when we felt broke we didn't spend money and well, that is why we got by so well on maternity leave - LOL. Seems simple but I didn't really get it before. The amazing thing is we didn't feel at the time we gave up that much. That is the beauty of budgeting I guess - if you do it right.

My husband laughed at the "it would be $1200 except for this and this and this" reasoning - but this is all stuff out of the budget now no problem. We are not going to disneyland or spending $300 on my birthday again anytime soon. Guaranteed...

I am starting to see why I should have $700/month for the temp savings funds - it is really there. Yay!

Also, I have always been a general budgeter but once we started throwing everything on cards to get cash back I have really struggled. Obviously where I went wrong was budgeting a total for the cc. IT used to work, but we only put very miscellaneous and extra things on it before. It was never going to work until we sat down and did a line by line budget by expenses on the credit card -and look I saved $600 easy peasy. IT's crazy. Well, we're getting there anyway...

Well I Was motivated and went shopping yesterday. I went to Ross and stocked up on $5 books (they were REALLY nice big books), a dominoe game, and some puzzles. I then went to Target because I wanted to get a lighty spinny thing (I have no idea what it is called) for each kid, but they only had 1 left. So I got 1 of those, 4 high bounce balls, and some stickers and halloween magnets (really nice) all on clearance. 1/2 came from the $1 bin which my friend had suggested. I think I made out far better at Target than Ross even. Well now I know. I spent about $48 for 4 kids. I was thinking of going to the dollar store for birthday cards, but dh who HATES cards said, "can they read???" I thought about it and decided no they don't really need cards. HE is right sometimes. Saved a few dollars. So $12 per kid, and I think I got some pretty cool stuff...

One of the kids we are really close to and I may go splurge on him a little more, but beyond that not bad. I am not sure if I will take it out of the gift budget or the misc. budget or what. I like to be flexible and if one month I want to spend more on something and take it from another envelope so to speak, oh well. Well that's why I have just a misc. category. We'll see. It is only the 5th, and the month is long.

Oh yeah Ross was bad because I bought some winter clothes for older son. Whenever I buy anything though I think, this costs $13, but it should last through both my sons. Hmmm. So it feels more like spending $6.50 on each. I had bought his winter wardrobe for $40 or so at the thrift shop last month but they didn't have much in the way of jackets. Too bad because I Scored good last year. SO at Ross I saw some nice jackets but spent more than I Would have otherwise I guess. $22 for a jacket, hooded sweatshirt (since the one I had bought thrift didn't fit over his head), and a winter hat for his growing head.

Anyway, the thrift shop I go to is great for kids clothes and that is about it. Mostly shirts and pants. What I really need to do is start checking out other thrift stores in the area. I don't know why but as much as I Shop ebay and thrift, it is always an afetrthought. I would never spend more than $50 or something unless I checked out my used options first. But there is so much under $50 that I don't think twice buying new. I am trying to get out of that mindset. Like reading someone's blog it just occured to me to do some Christmas shopping on ebay. Well duh, why didn't I think of that sooner. Or even in the thrift shops.

We also have a new store out here called "Stupid Prices" (stupidprices.com) that looks pretty good from its ads. Furniture, clothing, groceries, etc. I am going to check it out I guess.

So much of this stuff is over by my work I see more shopping in my future. Blah, I hate shopping. But if they have great grocery prices I can help out dh a bit I guess.

Anyway, I need a big note on my wallet or credit card that says "CHECK EBAY FIRST." Something like that to keep me budget minded on the small stuff.

I don't know why I have always been so frugal minded on big things but not little things. ?????? Something I am learning I guess...

I think in the past I often choose convenience over savings. I would shop shop shop internet all the time, because I hate taking the time to go shopping. I truly dislike it. I LOVE internet shopping in turn, and find that I don't get distracted like I do in the stores, by things not on my list and such. But oh well, that is what EBAY is for. Ebay often is nice, but shipping puts it in the realm of not that frugal a lot of the time... I think I will start doing a littl more in person shopping. More shopping to save money, eh? Sounds like an oxymoron. LOL. & I will put a note that says EBAY in my wallet. No more buying anything without checking Ebay first! In the meantime I need to become an area thrift shop expert...

Here's a long one:

I think the Daycare post was getting beaten to death, but I wanted to share a little more about our situation, because it got me thinking. Obviously, I think people should do what is right for them - they have to live with their choices. & I Say obvious because my husband and I have taken on some pretty untraditional roles. The interesting thing about it though is when we made the decision for him to be a SAHD years ago I always imagined we would get a lot more flak. The only flak comes from his family who can't seem to get past that it works for us. In the mainstream I have mostly encountered admiriation more than anything. Well to our faces, who know what is said behind our backs. LOL. But I know too many women who stay home and never catch a break. & of course they are in awe how much my husband takes on. Not just that but how much we help each other. I can't entirely understand what he goes through, but I know it is not easy, and we do what we can to help each other out.

But yeah, how our situation evolved was that he REALLY wanted kids and I don't think I particularly cared either way. I never really wanted kids, but knew he did, and for him I Would do anything. But I told him all along if he wants kids he could stay home with them. I am not an idiot, and I know it is not easy to be home with the kids 24/7. I think a lot of my feelings came from having a SAHM that was miserable. She never enjoyed being home or having kids, that was clear. & her being miserable made us miserable. For this reason I would never judge someone's choice to work. For some people their kids are better off for it. I know my kids are better off because I work.

Anyway, we always discussed this scenario, and as things evolved, I chose a career I loved whereas my husband chose a career his mom chose. I made clear I refused to stay home with kids if he hated his job. I was unwilling to give up my wonderful job for us both to be miserable. I think he just said what I wanted to hear for a while, yes dear. though clealry I Was right. LOL.

Anyway, before we moved to a less expensive area my husband talked of quitting his job and getting a teaching credential - more of his dream job. I really encouraged him but he never had the guts.

We ended up moving to a new area so that we could afford a house. I found a job right away and he supercommuted for quite a few months. We decided we were ready for children and I think we both thought the other was gonna stay home. As much as we both knew he was the better choice to stay home I think society was getting in his way - he was not feeling good about this choice.

Anyway, someone/something outside of our realm had to smack him. He lost his job the week I got pregnant. He insisted he was going to find a job which led to many fights because it was all in the name of manliness and it really pissed me off we would have to settle on a 30k income at a job he hated when I was doing quite well at a job I loved. Plus images of being just like my mom flashed through my mind. I was not happy in the least.

In the end he never found a job, thank goodness. The first year was pretty tough but has gotten easier with time. I think the worst part was we had just moved where we knew no one and that has been really hard. The support for SAHDs is pretty nil. Over time we have found a lot more supportive parent groups and dh has been working on more and more of his own projects, meeting more people, etc. I truly hope he uses this time to settle on a career he enjoys. I know his mom thinks it is the worst thing ever, but why not follow his heart and his dreams when I Can provide everything else? I am not sure what her deal is. I provide for the family quite well and have ample disability and life insurance to provide should something happen to me. Plus I truly believe he will have the potential to bring in far more income doing what he truly loves than doing a job he hates. In the end that kind of stuff works out. For example my MIL thinks teaching is the worst career. As a second income it would actually be quite WELL for us. The benefits are great and 30-40k would be more than plenty on top of my salary. Plus the flexible work schedule would be invaluable - no after school daycare, etc.

Anyway, that is the long and the short of it. I had no idea though when we made this decision how great it would be for our family. I am so proud every day at the amazing relationship my sons have with their father. IT seems like the best of both worlds to me. I went back to work with my first after 7 weeks and he was fine. We had that mommy/baby bond that just is there no matter what, and in the meantime he has developed just as an amazing bond with his father. & my younger son I took 3 months maternity leave with him. HE needed more time. But both times I had friends just overwhelmed without any help. I have no idea what it is like to care for a newborn all alone. My husband was there with me 24/7. It was a wonderful experience, and glad I had that time with my older son as well. & then back to the real world my husband does the grocery shopping and cooking. & if I Want a night out or a weekend away he is not scared to watch the kids. & when I get home at night I take the kids off his hands and get my time with them too. I guess I know too many moms with un-helpful husbands and I could not imagine. Overall I feel pretty spoiled...

Oh yeah as far as not wanting kids - I was INSANE. I think motherhood is the most amazing thing. If I had to be a SAHM Today I think I could do it. I Wasn't so sure the first few years, but the idea doesn't scare me as much with 2 kids strangely enough - it's more interesting. But for now it works. I think we are really looking forward to when the baby turns 2 and we have a lot more part-time daycare options. Then I wouldn't be surprised if my husband got a job OR went back to school. I Think HE will be a lot happier to have a more regular job outside of just being a daddy. But we've made it over the hump, and just a few more months until our options widen... Overall my husband has done much better with the toddler stage than the infant stage. I think overall men just don't do babies. That is one thing we have really learned - some gender roles hold true - hehe. But regardless how much he enjoyed it, he has done very well raising both boys thus far. In our situation I think it has worked out far better than any other option. & yeah I am glad I was pretty dang stubborn about what I wanted from our relationship. I think we are both a lot happier for it. As hard as staying home has been, he really doesn't whine any more than he did when he worked. LOL. But he is still trying to decide what he wants to do with his life and what job will make him happy. I think that is more important than anything. & me sticking with my career and him staying home has left him with a world full of options, he just needs to decide what he really wants. If the roles were reversed I think he would pick the job that paid the most, regardless of his happiness, and I don't think anyone in our family would be nearly as happy today. Oh yeah except his mom. Ha. But where would that leave us? Gotta do what you gotta do for you...

Awww, what a great month!

Well, I am not implementing my budget yet. But I am tracking it. I am starting on Jan. 1. In the meantime obviously I am trying to implement all I can. The only thing I am ignoring is I had our big Disneyland trip planned already and another small trip in December. I am pretty confident though that with my efforts we will come out ahead this year. From kind of barely scraping by I put money in the savings, and looks like I can swing some savings through the end of the year.

Anyway, got home today and updated all my stats. Retirement funds did awesome this month, good stock market month. Budget was great even though only implemented it mid-month. Had $185 left at the end of the month plus $30 interest all to emergency funds. Threw in a few extra bucks from rounding, etc. and put away $220 this month. Not bad!

I estimate that I will have $150 next month. + interest maybe I can swing $200. I am still figuring out how I will track everything because I like tracking cash basis, put about $1800 of my bills every month go on credit card, and so this is how I have next 2 months figured out. September is dead and gone, but October just about is as I know where every penny will go and the will pay the credit card which has september expenses. It is a little confusing for now, but I want to get it down to a science. Still have not figured out exactly how I am going to track everything. I may just pull 2k from the emergency fund Jan. 1 and start paying everything more cash basis. Just haven't decided. For now the lag confuses me a bit. I have $5k in the fund but $2k on the credit card due. So if I lost my job tomorrow that makes my emergency fund truly only 3k, right? This is why I kind of just want to switch to cash basis. Still use the card, but pay it early, during the month the expenses are incurred or something...

In reality I should be putting $700/month in temp savings for taxes and insurance. I have a long way to go. Put in 0 this month since set for year. But you know, not going to disneyland and charging $250 for a future trip, well yeah that will go a long way to helping. The budget says I will have $700 if I stick to it. I take its word for now. I still can't believe I'll have that $700 + money to spare every month if we just crack down a bit. But any little bit over budget really messes that up, so we'll see. Anything beats the $0 I have been putting in the last few months.

Only thing we really failed at was "grocery" budget. We stocked up on a lot this month and clipped a lot of coupons, and planned meals accordingly. & we spent $100 more than usual. We are still working on it. Hope it pans out in future months. On flip side I budgeted $200 for misc. & $75 for eating out. Under budget for both so pretty cool. I think we will come in under budget many months. But I like having a little wiggle room for the months we want to splurge a bit. There is definitely fun in my budget.

I have $55 cash leftover from gifts. My goal is to stretch it out through Dec. 31. No ATM. When we are good we don't go to the ATM for months, so we'll see. Basically my personal eating out budget rest of year - quick runs at lunch and eating out with friends - only time I pay cash really.

This week stinks. Older son was sick (mild), then baby (worst). Then daddy, and today me. Plus side I didn't miss any work and hubby was well enough for me to sleep all day yesterday. Downside, weekend sucked. LOL.

Anyway, when I Was whining about my budget I didn't say the PLUS side. Unless I am missing something, which I may be, I found the $700 or so we need to set aside every month for insurance/property taxes. I had been settling on $300 and then I haven't even been able to do that for a while. The budget is a wonderful thing.

We also figured out a compromise on preschool. We are looking to switch ds to 2 full days a week. IT would save us $15/week, save money on gas (don't have to take him home at lunch) and goes to my other goal of focusing on maximizing money from my job. Right now I take him home at lunch 2 days a week and leave early one day since he has to be picked up by 5 on the full day. LEssening all of this nonsense to 2 days will be great, especially with crazy tax season coming up. 2 full days is just super cool enough it won't feel like less to him. HE LOVES the days he stays all day.

$60/month saved. + gas and time saved. (probably $10 gas per week).

We are clearing out the storage before we have to pay another month. $56/month saved.

Eating out - I am narrowing it down by $75/month for now. Not that we always spent $150. We never really eat out - don't even ask - it just seems to explode with a family of 4. Though I don't remember the last time we all 4 ate out together. ??? So I am not sure how it adds up so fast. I will be looking closer at it.

70 + 56 + 150 = $276/month saved.

I whittled down my misc. category to $200/month. It put our annual budget in to the positive numbers. Woot. Maybe +$100 for the year - LOL. But something. Implementing it will be another story. We'll see how it goes.

It seems silly for hubby to get a job when I can work overtime and get $33/hour. I am focusing on working OT 3 hours/week the rest of the year. That's $100/week. November is iffy but October & December the work wil be there. Downside is I get this paid randomly by bonuses, and if my boss feels I am just not productive he won't give it to me. For this part of the year though I should be working more, and I should get it in the form of Christmas bonus, which would be great.

Hubby is knee-deep in an unpaid video project right now, but he is looking into seasonal things all the same. Something temp to bring in a few bucks, help out the end of the year.

The downside of our budget is we really have no room for the unexpected. I guess that is why me working more and hubby working will pad our emergency fund a bit. I want to get that sucker UP.

I just did a quick annual budget and it was pretty depressing...

I put in everything month by month for the year, and I know Oct - Dec is off, because I pretty much went off my 9 months data in Quicken. I didn't even put in christmas - too depressing. IT is just possible christmas cash received will be greater than christmas purchases, so we'll wing it for now.

With that I had a $1k loss for the year, but lately the in-laws have been pretty generous and throwing $1k at us here and there. It will cover it.

It's super depressing because rates on everything seem to raise come January. Just hope I get a raise to cover inflation.

I didn't detail the clothes and DVDs, etc. we buy every year and just threw in $300/month. THat is just for everything I didn't have categorized really - probably more than sufficient. Throw in vacation to that category too. I put 0 on the vacation budget because this last year we went to Vegas and HAwaii (Hawaii was paid for but we still spent $500 - on food mostly). If we can't afford to go anywhere to stay in budget, so be it. We had a good run this year.

I skimmed through the budget and all I Saw was insurance and gas (to drive to work) and stuff that just can not be cut. I decided in the meantime we just can't save a dime. Yes, the gardener, the preschool, and the cable all stand out as not necessity. BUT they are necessities to our sanity. There is just no way. IF we couldn't pay the bills, fine, but for now it all has been working out.

On the flip side, we were looking to move this summer and we are paying $56/month to storage. That can go... So by the end of the year I Want to make it a priority to clear out the space. & give up on moving - we just can't afford it right now.

As far as eating out, we can scale back. Maybe go from $100/month budget to $50.

Looking at the budget those 2 things popped out. I hadn't even really thought about the storage until then...

Beyond that I am paying $215/month on that personal loan. When that is paid off it is $200/month to build up our emergency fund. & if I get a raise in January, the same. So there is some hope.

I didn't even include the extra money we receive here and there from other work and other windfalls, etc. So it probably isn't as dire as it seems. We usually save all of this above and beyond the norm.

That's about all I can see for now. Hubby has to get a job, plain and simple. Something steady. We'll give it a whirl next summer probably. Another $200/month steady income would be pretty sweet right now, doesn't have to be much...

So what happened here??? I can narrow it down to 1 thing - preschool. I looked into it last April and found something for about $300/month. Just M/W/F 4 hours each day. But in this area that is about as cheap as it gets. I had some money saved, and figured we'd give it a try. IT was a bad move - LOL. No, it was a great move for my family, but unfortunately we absolutely fell in love with the place and there is no going back. We are now paying closer to $365 so he can stay all day Wednesdays. HE just loves it so dang much ... Plus gives the baby some one-on-one time with daddy. When I look at the budget it glares at me, but it has crossed the line to necessity. My son has just blossomed there like you wouldn't believe in such a short time. & cutting back would no less than break his heart. So yeah, before this and the loan we were doing pretty good. & since then things have been pretty dang tight.

So what do we do, we will go find more income. & we are working on cutting little things as well. Every little bit helps...

I just wanted to clarify that this is a pretty temp budget. We are just trying to bide our time until the baby turns 2 next summer and childcare options are more abundant and cheap. Thus the reluctance for hubby to get a job before then. Work is crazy for me December - April because of tax season and with a sleepless teething baby I am not sure we can handle much more.

I realize I am pretty stubborn on a few things in our budget, but we have a lot of untapped earnings potential and I Want to tap those first before we start cutting out certain things.

I am working on saving $300/month on health insurance which would kind of wash out this preschool predicament we have gotten ourselves into.

Regardless of our savings my boss is adding 10% of my income to retirement. An extra bonus as the more overtime I work, the more goes in retirement. I really just need to work more...

A strategy I am looking into is a PT job for my hubby with full health benefits. There are a lot around (state jobs & healthcare jobs). Full benefits would save us upward $600/month. This is the worst part of our budget I Feel. It really bugs me - we are not even 30 yet and I shudder to think what our premiums will be next year when I hit 30. Imagine if any of us were actually sick or something!! : ( Oh well, we officially can no longer afford our healthcare...

Well, I could go on and on all day about the advantages of having a man who stays home while the woman works. (For 1 - maternity leave is pretty awesome - kind of like vacation with both of us home).

But I just found the big downside - vasectomy!!! It's like 5 days of no lifting - yeah right with a baby. I Am just hoping we can squeeze it in this year. I have 3 days vacation and we'll make it work. But I keep thinking to all the men I know who were back to work in 1 day. & then I think - duh - most office jobs don't require heavy lifting like my hubby's job does. Blech. Big baby boy is 25 pounds and not walking yet, so I got to stay home a few days with the kids.

We'll work it out. I just really wanted him to take care of this this year, because I wanted to switch to a high-deductible plan Jan. 1. We just can no longer afford our premiums. In the meantime, I will call and ask how much the procedure is. THey told him today it was only $250, but I find that hard to believe. IF that's it, piece of cake, we'll be saving $300/month with reduced premiums. I find it hard to believe because that is what they charge us NOW for any procedure. I think he was misinformed. ; ) Then again, as a preventive measure - maybe. Costs them a lot less than a pregnant woman I guess...

Oh anyway, he went to an info meeting on it tonight, since he finally called the hospital, etc. HE came home pretty whiny and I am afraid to say I Wasn't very sympathetic. After doing the birth control thing for many years and giving birth twice, eh, I think I have done my duty. I am actually just about doing the happy dance that the responsibility is shifting and I can throw the birth control out the window.

I am working on my budget and I am just planning for the worst when it comes to medical. Maybe we will be paying the big premiums another year. If he can't get the big snip now, it will be next summer earliest.

Anyway, I read on here about using Quicken and budgeting in Excel, but it just seemed kind of silly. Anyway, I was researching spreadsheets today for work and I started getting distraced by all these personal budgeting spreadsheets. After looking at them a little closer I started seeing the benefit. I think I Will give it a whirl. Dh is gonna go crazy because I started entering all of our grocery items more detailed, etc. I swear all I do in my spare time (what spare time?) these days is budget, invest, etc. Oh well, but I like it. I have done budgets in excel before, but I guess over the years our finances have just got so dang complicated. So I am working on a budget for next year - just putting something together, will be tweaked as we go for sure. In the past I just used round budgets, and I budget enough in my head that I always know where we're at, and we neevr spend more than we have. BUT, I need to get a "down to the penny" budget written down that we can stick to, and so we can work on our savings a little more.

Monthly budgets are nice, but I keep getting thrown off by the one-time expenses every year. So I am working out some all-inclusive monster budget. We'll see how it goes. ; ) Then I can track our progress each month. But I really look forward to seeing the big picture. (Or maybe not...).

Dh has been taking the grocery shopping thing pretty seriously. HE has been stocking a lot on sale, and though we rarely buy brand names, the few things we do, he is coming home with generic lately. Hope this helps the bottom line... I got a bunch of Target coupons and think I will go stock up on some things as well. A big investment this month, but worht it down the road.