Didn't expect I'd be making extra mortgage payments this year. Seemed a distant goal, but so far this year has been going better than expected. (Hope it stays that way?)

I revised my financial goals in my sidebar since I have a $2k tax refund to apply to the IRAs & an extra $50/month for the mortgage.

Dh received $20 for his birthday (from his Grand Dad in Florida). I asked him if he wanted to spend it or put it to the mortgage. (Honestly, usually I take birthday money to pay the bills, Lately, it seems, anyway). I wouldn't have cared if he actually wanted to enjoy the money, but he chose the mortgage. (If I had asked ROTH or spend, he'd choose spend). I am realizing that he is much more on board with paying off the mortgage. It is what it is, but I think we will do better than I expect this year, with him more willing to scrounge a few dollars here and there for the mortgage.

He just hates debt so much and the more I talk about the mortgage and show him how little principal we pay every month, the more motivated he seems.

--------------------------------------------------

I paid the bills for February. I wanted to lock in the mortgage payment for February, but since January hasn't posted yet, I will wait a week or 2.

I added $50 from income, dh's $20, and $3 of rounding. An extra $73 for the February payment. It's in Quicken so I don't forget.

----------------------------------------------------

All the money I would usually put to savings in February is going to my surgery (& then some). I paid a $2k deposit (on the card) and one of these days they will bill me $1k for the rest of our deductible. It's done.

So, not much progress to show for January/February, but GLAD I have the cash.

2010 was a crazy year, but not too much to complain about financially.

I've already discussed the goals I met (or didn't meet) and will probably look at the year more in depth after the 31st passes.

But, I suppose this is my official "met my 2010 goals" post.

Financial Goals:

$11k to cash savings
$4080 to ROTHs.

I was unexpectedly able to make my ROTH goal by 12/31. Will do the last transfer when I get paid tomorrow. May have dh run to the bank to me just to get that taken care of.

Basically, put $1k per month to savings, and expected a $3k overtime bonus. With dh's surgery, I think I only got $2500 in overtime pay, but was able to work it out. Had some interest and credit card bonuses, etc. About $15k saved for the year, total.

For the big picture, I achieved my $15k emergency fund goal. Cash is at about $25k today. I give up on $30k. Seems the best I can do at the moment. Dh may get a job this year and if so, we would get this bugger to $30k finally! Impossible on one income, I suppose.

Anyway, I saved a TON to cash, but we also had a lot of expenses. When I look at it all it makes my head hurt. Vet bills, dental bills, home maintenance, medical bills. etc. We plan so hard for these things, and yet seem to spend it as fast as we save it. I am trying to save up for car replacements. Thankfully I expect our cars to last MANY more years...

By the same token, since we were flush with cash, we admittedly took on some long put off purchases. Which just compounded everything.

For 2011?

On the horizon I know we will need to spend $500-ish on some home maintenance, but I think we just need a "no spend" year. Though I Can't help the "emergencies" or things breaking. *sigh* But cutting the discretionary spending will help. It's hard to imagine anything to want for after 2010.

In other financial doings, my retirement balance sits at $98k. What a milestone, huh? If the stock market can behave a few months - will pass the six figure mark.

I am expecting a $1500 tax refund, and can make it $2k if I put $2k into my regular IRA. I am tempted, because it would officially put us at $10k (MAX) for the 2011 calendar year.

I suppose I won't decide until after my surgery - see what the cash situation is. I think it would be smarter to put to cash, but it is tempting. (Tax refund is due to medical deductions - so that is something. May be the same situation for next year).

The mortgage will also tempt me. I think we will get the balance down to about $202k this year. I am tempted to put the payroll tax holiday towards the mortgage and get closer to $200k this year. It's psychological, but I suppose 2011 is shaping up to be an interesting year in reaching these sorts of milestones. A $200k mortgage balance will mean we have paid the first $100k of our home off.

-------------------------------------------------

Financial Goals for 2011:

I put them on my sidebar - but here it is.

$8k to cash savings
$8k to ROTHs

I am putting $625/month to ROTHs and expect to hit $8k total with credit card rewards. Is 10% of my expected income.

$5k to cash yearly seems ample for long term savings (car replacement, home maintenance, etc.). Medical deductible is $3k and I know it will be spent next month so have to replace it again. (I can hope not to spend it in 2012??? But as long as dh has MRIs, will burn through the deductible quickly - so may be more years. My surgery isn't even the half of it!).

Any windfall or extra money would go first to maxing out ROTHs and then to paying down mortgage. I don't have any other financial goals - nothing else important on the horizon. Retirement, mortgage, retirement, mortgage...

With the payroll tax holiday, I don't feel the rush for dh to bring in some extra income. I suppose that and knowing we get to keep our low tax rates a couple of more years. But, I may encourage dh as far as mortgage paydown. He doesn't seem that excited about retirement savings (maybe because he has been "retired" for a decade?) but he seems to feel much more passion about paying off this house. SO, I may encourage him to find some work this year to pay down the mortgage a bit. I think it just depends on the motivating factor, somewhat. So, I will play the mortgage card during the next school year. As much as we don't *need* the income this year maybe, the longer we put off the inevitable the harder it will be. I just don't foresee making our aggressive savings goals in our current one-income situation. We both have higher long-term expectations. To pay off our mortgage in the next decade, for one.

I usually keep my goals pretty simple. That said, I don't really have any new goals for 2011. I am just cutting and pasting a lot from 2010.

Financially, I only expect to put about $8k in our ROTHS (about 10% gross). But, I will stretch and make my goal to max out for 2011. If nothing else, we are starting contributions in January, and I can use next Jan, Feb, March, April to max out. IF we are in a good cash position in Jan 2012, we can max out.

Our cash savings will be $400/month come January. I need to work enough overtime to cover our medical deductible (2012). Otherwise, no idea where that will come from. Those two add up to $8k. & interest and credit card rewards, etc., go to cash.

Of course, come fall 2011 I expect my spouse to be working a bit. Our primary goal will be to build up cash. Then, mortgage pay down would probably come second (assuming the ROTHs are maxed).

HOUSE - I completed some long range goals in 2010, but pretty much ignored the shorter term goals. Will try again for 2011. (My motivation feels about a 0 at the moment. Too much other stuff going on).

PERSONAL GOALS - those are all about the same. My quest to read a book a month in 2010 ended up being about 1 every other month (Which was good). But, now I got this giant series to read. Dh read it in a year, so I can certainly read it in a year!

I am pretty content at the moment, so my main goals are the financial ones, and it's good to keep on top of the house stuff, because there is always something!

**Financial**

[ ]$8,000 to Savings ($5k house/car & $3k medical)
[ ]$10,000 to ROTHs (Max)

**House**
[ ]Fix Gutter
[ ]Plant Fruit Tree (February)
[ ]Replace Kitchen sink caulk
[ ]Paint BMs room (maybe)
[/]Price Security Screen Door
[ ]Price Security Upgrades
(I was going to move the last 2 to "buy," but expect too many expenses in 2011 with house and medical. Same story as 2010).

**Personal**
[ ] Read "Game of Thrones" series
(like, a million pages?)
[ ]2 weekends away, with just dh
[ ]1 camping trip
[ ]More trips to the cabin
[ ]More biking & hiking

I was reminded yesterday that with the Target card, Target will donate 1% to the school of our choice. (I don't expect it to add up to much - but every penny helps!)

-----------------------------------------------------

It's been a weekend on the more relaxing side. Phew!

Dh had planned to do some location scouting for a film project he is working on. (Wanted to take pictures of the family cabin and a nearby lake and waterfall). He was going to run up there during the week, and I said, "Um, why don't we all go?" Hello? A hike would be nice. I have never seen this waterfall though I have heard about it.

Unfortunately, today is rain rain rain. So I suppose we will postpone.

We'd also been wanting to go to the Aerospace museum, but will get far more money's worth on a clear day (lots of outside exhibits and a cool playground).

So this weekend is full of cooking, working out, napping, board games, etc.

----------------------------------------------------

We had a soccer game yesterday and it was downright warm outside. It was nice to bask in the sun a bit and wear our flip flops. The house was getting on the warm side yesterday. Heat is NOT on the horizon. Usually the *challenge* begins, for us, around Halloween and if we are lucky (or tough) we can make it to Thanksgiving without running the heat. But, it's November 7 and the house has yet to drop below 70F degrees.

----------------------------------------------------

AS far as 2011?

With our tax refund (due to large medical expenses), it looks like we may hit $25k cash by year-end. (I've been spinning my wheels around $20k-ish for most of the last 2 years - building up cash being my primary goal = and putting LOTS of cash to this goal).

I hesitate to speak it, because the last 18 months or so have been rife with emergencies and surprises.

But, I can also be optimistic.

The $25k breaks down as follows:

$5k cash efund
$10k cash ROTH efund (for catastrophe)
$3k medical deductible (will be spent, unfortunately)
$7k mid-term cash savings (replacement vehicles and home maintenance, primarily)
----------------------
$25k Total

(My goal was $30k, but I officially give up! A loss in retirement benefits means I have to shift priorities away from cash and towards retirement. Which is primarily why I give up altogether. I'd prefer more emergency funds considering the economy, etc.).

---------------------------------------------------

I don't have enough info to finalize any plans, but am tweaking the numbers and thinking I can make it work for 2011:

**Assume no raise
**Assume + $100/month to health insurance
**$1100/month to short-term savings
**$400/month to mid-term savings (cash)
**$600/month to ROTHS (10% gross income)
**Overtime to fund medical deductible for 2012

That's the plan!

When LM was done with preschool, I Changed our short-term cash contributions from $1k to $1200 per month. However, our property taxes and insurances have been decreasing, so I think it is reasonable (though tight) to go with $1100/month. This is for every expense, all year, no matter how big or small, that is just one-time or random.

This way, I can squeeze 10% to retirement, out of the budget. We only went with about 5% this year, with all the events of this year (medical bills and 10% cut in compensation).

I am pleased that I Was still able to get cash to a comfortable level. It's really more cash than we've had since having 2 kids, and it was a hell of a year to make said goal.

I also have a backup plan for 2011. Dh will probably work a bit to help build up cash further, max out the ROTHs, and start paying the mortgage down faster. I really don't need that much to make these goals - a few thousand dollars a year would be a huge help as far as maxing out the ROTHs and having extra for the mortgage.

Aaaaaahhhhhh...

I am not quite sure why the last couple of months have been so crazy. Like the starts aligned. In a bad way.

But this week, I find myself with nothing but free time. How the heck did that happen? I had a very relaxing weekend!

Not much planned for the next 2 weekends, though BM does have a soccer tournament.

I find myself feeling so relaxed and content when I went to bed last night. All I could think was, "What next?" Life - there is always something.

-----------------------------------------------------

LM is doing better with school than I ever could imagine. He is in such a GOOD mood. I am furrowing my brow because Mr. Extrovert wild child had a rough adjustment with school. Just a few weeks of being overly tired. Then he adjusted, and that was that.

LM is the complete polar opposite. HE is so sensitive and shy - and obviously he thinks school is the best thing ever. (I've never seen him happier!) I kept telling dh we would have to put him to bed earlier! But no - he is just fine. ???????

Again, what next?

Going from home full-time to school full-time should never be this easy. But, I will enjoy his chipper mood and excitement about school.

--------------------------------------------------

This week will probably go by fast. I have a seminar in San Francisco tomorrow. Will stay with my parents tonight, and probably visit with friends or family for dinner before driving home tomorrow night. I am just winging it.

--------------------------------------------------

The kids have dental and doctor visits this month, and the cat has a follow up appointment (more tests to make sure her infection has cleared). HEck, dh is due for another MRI. We are putting it off a month - until we get back from Hawaii. Didn't want any bad news to put a damper on our trip. Plus, regardless, we have to talk about this whole radiation thing. His doctor thinks he should get it anyway. We just wanted to put it aside for 6 months and regroup. Boy did that 6 months go fast!

Anyway, not something he will talk about in Hawaii!

--------------------------------------------------

I am doing just dandy on my goals. Haven't updated much on them because I am not thrilled with the bigger picture.

I will hit $11k in savings in September, which means I can easily put $4k away in my IRA, as was my goal. (I already put away $1k, so leaves $1k per month for the rest of the year - to meet my goal).

That said, I haven't really increased my savings balance.

About $5k in medical bills, $1k vet bills, $2k to paint house, $1k for dh's TV, $1k for Denver, plus some smaller Hawaii expenses and a mattress for LM.

Yeah, that all adds up to about the $11k I saved. Gee, no wonder I am not getting anywhere.

Boy, this year has been unusual. We just haven't had anything in the realm of this spending, like ever. So, I just have to keep telling myself that. We may have easily had 5 years prior where we didn't have any big purchases. & in the grand scheme of things, it's not horrible. It's just really setting me back on my goals. I just want to get cash to a comfortable spot (for us) so we can move forward with everything else. I feel the cash is an extra pressing goal with the economy. We've been feeling it at work this year, for sure (cut benefits, a layoff, etc.).

I am trying to be patient. Dh tells me that he will probably look for work in one year. I am trying to tell myself that most of my perceived money shortfalls are moot if he is working in the year anyway. But, at the same time, he has spent about 2 of the last 8 years looking for work. So, being ready to work doesn't really mean a lot. (Couldn't find a minimum wage job when the economy was good??? Was very disconcerting. Before getting a degree, finding a crap job was never a problem). We have always realized that he may have to return to University to get his foot in the door. So, in one year's time, will we be flush with income? Or deep in University bills? Or just spinning our wheels some more.

I can't talk about most of this stuff with anyone. To my friends? "You have no non-mortgage debts, and your spouse hasn't worked in almost a decade? What are you worried about????" Plus, we are rare with home equity. Their answer would just be to borrow from the home, in emergency. (That's not "real" debt!)

Of course, if I wasn't worried, I could quite easily fall into financial disarray. Trying to stay where I am at. It's not easy as it looks, I suppose. I don't think most people realize that life isn't all roses and peaches just because you make certain financial goals. It's always work. IT may be easier, but it will always be work to strive for financial comfort. Plus, since having kids, we have mostly slid backwards. Have always considered this rather temporary. I am used to saving more, and more cash in the bank! It's hard to slide backwards once you are used to a certain level of comfort.

**We got dh's car back within a few hours of dropping it off at the mechanic. New rotors. I kind of guessed since he mentioned last time that they were iffy. No complaints, here. Our 2000+ vehicles have been AMAZING with the brakes. It could be our driving habits, here. We drive mostly freeway and not much stop and go. I was a lot rougher on my brakes when I was younger, but definitely did a lot more stop and go kind of driving, all the same. This is the first time on dh's car at 110k miles, and I am wondering when the van (@80k) will need brake work. We've always driven such old cars, before these, that the batteries and the brakes blow my mind. Both lasted 100k miles, easy peasy, on these newer vehicles.

Anyway, $300 to replace his rotors. Was our only car repair this year, thus far. With the way things had been going, I was sure it would be something in the $1k range. So, I am pleased!

----------------------------------------------------

When we got home last night, I voiced to dh how frustrated I was with our savings pace, and how relieved I was that the repair was only $300. I told him I about gave up, since I have been trying to get to a $30k cash minimum, for the last 18 months or so, and how I can't seem to get past $20k, no matter what happens. I am saving $1k per month for this goal! But, far more expenses, lately.

While voicing my frustration, I told dh I was thinking of dropping the goal, and resuming retirement contributions, come 1/1. We will put a fair amount in this year (more than $0), but I would like to start 1/1 either maxing out one ROTH @ $400/month, or even better, putting away 10%. IT is critical since my employer took away our 10% retirement contributions this year. I need to start making them, myself.

(In addition, when we had no money to save, no expenses ever come up. I can't help like feel like I will be frustrated, until I put retirement first. It always seems to kind of work out).

& then I said, "The only thing that stresses me out is the vehicles. I don't see how having a payment would help, because it reduces how much I can save. I am stressed out that the van is catching up on miles, and now fear that both vehicles will need to be replaced around the same time. Maybe I should let it go and figure you will be working by the time we need a new vehicle, but it still is stressing me out, because who knows what will happen."

KEep in mind - we only pay cash for vehicles.

Dh told me, "Well, if something happens, we'll get a vehicle for a couple of thousand dollars."

I said, "Duh."

This still stresses me out, plenty.

Then the conversation got interesting. At some point or other (in the distant past), I vocalized that our second vehicle was a luxury, and dh didn't quite agree. I mean, he realized it on some level, but I think I would have quite a fight to ever settle on one vehicle.

So dh shocked the hell out of me, and says, "Look, if we find ourselves in a situation with needing to replace 2 cars, we can live with one. Heck, if one goes, we don't have to replace it right away. The kids are both in school now and we can walk or bike to anywhere we need to go, while you are at work, for the most part." The kids' school is just down the street.

I mulled on that a while, and he is right. I just needed that perspective.

It was very eye opening for me, because the only thing I am REALLY struggling with, on this one income thing, is replacing the cars at the level we have gotten used to. Both our cars were purchased in the $10k range. They are great and fine and will last a long time. But, saving the replacement cost has been daunting on one income. We are doing good on savings at the moment, but dh bought his vehicle in 2002, and most the last 8 years we haven't saved a dime for another car. I am still catching up for some lost savings years.

Of course, all that said, the $30k goal is probably more about the economy than anything. Emergency fund for unemployment. But, taking the car out of the equation, makes me feel a little lighter, all the same. So, phew.

I have been wondering how we can continue to maintain 2 vehicles on one income while maybe I should have realized it would be easier to give one up to prolong our one-income status. It feels like a "duh," moment. Dh would only give it up if the car died, though. Or needed an extraordinarily expensive repair.

-----------------------------------------------

In other news, I read a good article in Money Magazine:

7 Secrets of Super Savers

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/moneymag/1007/gallery.su...

Of course, the website article had 8 secrets!

This article was so good, I am going to make copies of the magazine version.

I have noticed MANY times over the years that people have been jealous of our income/lifestyle, and found that they might make double our income. Happens ALL the time.

A friend recently told me that she had no idea how "people do it." The 1-income thing, which she is working very hard towards.

I read this article, and it sums it up pretty well. I am thinking, next time someone asks me that question. I will have to hand them this article? There is no one thing - it is a sum many differences in lifestyle and money management.

Nothing I haven't already said in this blog, probably.

Of note, "The simple act of tracking what you spend can help you spot places to cut."

I have never been very big on the budget. I don't set a budget for every spending category and track it every month. What I do do, is track my spending in Quicken. I know where every penny goes, and every single month I review it to spot problems, early on. It could be as simple as, "Dang, we really spent a lot on groceries last month. We will have to rein that in this month." I really just eyeball it, and if something is amiss, we can fix it immediately. I do try to stress to people, that you don't have to obsess over the numbers. You really just need to know where you stand!

The article also toted automatic savings. This is the one thing that I did not do before, and I have found has been very beneficial with a tighter budget. I save $2200 every month. It is a bill like all the rest, to me. I have to live on what's left after all the bills are paid, and that $2200 is transferred to savings. We save far more with this attitude. With much bigger incomes, we were used to saving "whatever was leftover," which may be 50% of our income. IT wasn't a bad thing. On one income, we find that nothing much is ever leftover unless we pay ourselves first.

Anyway, I am sure many SA bloggers will identify with this article!

No more preschool!

Eh. It actually isn't that exciting...

Since, LM has been on the waitlist forever for more hours at his current preschool. 18 months exactly - well, nevermind about that. The $150/month is no small beans, but I also have a one-time $1200 flood insurance increase, this year (due December). It will be more exciting next year, I suppose.

(At some point we were paying $300+ per month, which was when I was more excited about this day arriving).

That said, I am glad to be done. The place was nice enough - nothing would compare to their last preschool. BUT, there was another dad in LM's class who has a fatal disease, and I just got an e-mail that the young father who died in our community (5 month battle with cancer), was also a parent at said school. I didn't even know.

Oy vey. Is it something in the water?

I am happy to disassociate myself from the place. They are nice enough, but I could do without all the dire disease. She's probably glad to be rid of all of us too - it must have been a heavy year for the school.

----------------------------------

Oh, it is pretty nice to have one less monthly bill. What have we got left?

Gradener, mortgage, health insurance? electric bill, county utilities and Surewest. Is that it? We charge everything else. (These are the only ones we can't charge. Or too many hoops to jump through to do so). Makes bill pay day very simple.

I suppose it has been a little spendy, and the MRI bill shocked me a wee bit.

I was scared to look, but am pleased to stay I am still on course. Cash still hovers around $20k, even after paying for all this. I would like to move forward this year (yeesh) but still have time to try. This $20k mark feels like my nemesis, lately. Can't get past it. I am saving $1k per month, right now, and can't get past it!!!! Talk about frustrating. Well, it isn't for lack of trying.

If we can cut out the large/unexpected expenses, I project that I can meet my 2010 financial goals still. Which means I can put some into retirement this year, and end up with about $10k in the mid-term fund. If I make it, hallelujah. Is enough to buy a decent replacement car, which is the place I am struggling to get to. I expect to keep dh's car (the older one of the two) another 5 years. But, by the same token, have to be prepared if it gets totaled tomorrow.

This year has been a challenging one, but it is still possible to meet our financial goals. So, for now, I will stay positive.

The MRI bill stressed me out quite a bit. Knocking off the home improvements with such a lower than expected cost, will offset that tremendously. Phew!

I hadn't looked at my net worth this year. It is too depressing.

I don't expect to do well this year, so why track how horrible I am doing? Kind of the attitude.

BUT, I know the stock market has been doing well and so I decided to peak:

Um, I am up about $7k for the year.

I decided since I am not tracking regularly to just update my annual net worth statement, adding "12/31/10" and filling in current numbers to see where I am at.

It's an interesting perspective.

**Cash is hovering around $20k. Though I have made cash savings my primary goal for 2010, to get over the hump, I am still spinning my wheels a bit.

That being said, the house can be painted without pulling money from savings, and is FAR cheaper than I expected it to be. Assuming it all pans out. So that is a good thing, and will help.

**Investments are up about $5k, in returns. I've only contributed $1k to retirement, so far this year.

We've been kind of hovering around the $100k mark with cash/investments, but it seems to depend on the day. With the positive stock market gains, we are at about $105k at the moment.

I'd really like to have more cash/investments than debt (mortgage). I can see it getting closer - which feels real nice! (Don't get me wrong - I've got a ways to go!)

**Mortgage - paid $1500 off this year. Actually, in June we will dip below our "first ever mortgage" balance, once again. We had passed the mark about 2 years ago, but ended up borrowing closing costs to refi last January. We've already past the breakeven mark and it is nice to make true forward progress again. We should break the $200k barrier within 2 years. That is what I really look forward to.

**Net worth is still hovering around $200k. It's not overly impressive since our net worth was a little higher in 2007. BUT, I suppose we haven't had much backward slide either. We really bulked up our investments while the stock market was super low. Right now we are battling sliding house prices more than anything. Though prices actually seem to be holding (knock on wood).

-------------------------------------------------

Overall, feeling good about things. I project we will be able to max out both of our ROTHs next year, with my income. Which is something we haven't done (from income alone. Not since living on one income). & I actually think it is possible during the calendar year. (We usually utilize until April to fund). That said, I suppose I could *up* that a notch and just about max out 2009, if we do a May through April funding schedule.

Will see.

Net worth is still going to slow considerably. I am no longer getting $8k-ish per year in my work retirement plan. That slows things down a LOT. BUT, I also have no other retirement vehicles at my disposal, so it doesn't really change my financial goals. If we max out our ROTHs (about 12% of income), every spare penny will go to mortgage pre-payments.

The loss of retirement benefits just means that dh's "optional return to work," feels less optional at the moment. But I know we can increase our income significantly in a year or 2, so I am not freaking out about it. I almost feel more calm because dh and I have both agreed on a "return to work" date. Which helps since I really think my job will be up in the air very soon. My boss is going to close up shop and I am not quite sure how that will pan out. Another income would be extremely helpful during that time of transition. & honestly, I do not know if I have the stamina for anything more than part-time. My industry is all about 80-hour weeks. My current work schedule is pretty unheard of. Though if dh were working, I may be able to take the time to find a full-time job that pays well and won't kill me. On the flip side, if he settles in a job, I will feel more free to search out part-time/seasonal work. I could work "full-time" half the year and yet have slow summers with the kids. I know there are better part-time options out there - I just can't swing those as the sole breadwinner - too much risk for me.

I am feeling positive, today, but will see what the year has in store for us still...

Quicken helps me micro-manage my money in just minutes a week. I know the impression is that I am overly anal about my finances, and is probably true to a point in lower income years where I tend to have more financial goals than means to cover. When I need to make every penny scream! (& that would by most of my adulthood - we only were a 2-income family for a couple of years - lived on minimum wage before that).

BUT, for the most part, I don't really have an elaborate financial plan. Most of our frugal habits are just that - lifelong habits. Don't think about most of them, most of the time.

I can attest that it is pretty simple to manage your finances, by just setting a few big picture goals. You don't have to track every penny or have a budget to do the following:

1 - Make savings goals your first priority (pay yourself first). Manage goals around tax planning.

2 - Limit regular/recurring spending/contracts, etc. to x dollars

3 - Don't borrow for anything

4 - Strive for balance

If I could sum up my financial philosophy, that would be it. & it works.

#1 I was thinking about because someone asked in the forums how you decide how much to save. Something along those lines. Well, we sit down and figure how much money we need in the future, for x, y, and z, and save accordingly. Right now we need about $1200/month for short-term savings goals (property taxes, insurance, car repairs, vacation, dental visits, and EVERYTHING within the year that is not a regular monthly bill). We need about $5k per year for long term savings goals (car replacements and home maintenance being the biggies). 10% minimum to retirement. More is better, of course.

How we decide to save, what and where, is often influenced by tax law. I had to add that to #1. One day while discussing 529s, HSAs, IRAs, etc., my spouse tells me, "Why do you have to make things so complicated?!?" Ain't that the truth? Don't blame me for tax policy, but I will certainly take advantage. These days we try to put most of our savings into our ROTHs, due to our current income, retirement, and tax situation.

2 - #2 can be summed up as "don't live beyond your means." WE avoid contracts and limit our regular monthly expenses as much as possible. We consciously keep our spending low so that we don't base purchase decisions on our income. Due to low inflation, we have barely increased our spending over the years. Our health insurance used to cost about $1000 per year and now costs about $15k. We used to live on $45k per year before having kids, and now it is about $60k. We haven't really changed our spending, overall. (Not much we can do about the healthcare). In the interim we did buy things like daycare/preschool. Thing is we didn't *need* it, were not locked into any contracts, and would drop in a minute if we had to. Temporary expenses like that are always open for discussion. This year my kids will both be in school and our expenses are mostly same as they were a decade ago. We haven't increased our means for the long-term. That is just an example. Dh's future income would go to savings and one-time expenses. (Maybe nicer things, or a vacation here and there, but nothing that needs additional money to keep or maintain).

I suppose I bring up the healthcare thing because thank goodness we weren't buying a lot of other stuff - who knew it would get so expensive in a very short time. & literally, the rest of our spending has been rather stagnant over the years.

3 - Don't borrow for anything. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying I have never borrowed a dime for anything. But it is a rare day when dh and I borrow money. At this point in our lives, I don't see ever borrowing another dime, again. (0% offers, credit card arbitrage and paying off cards monthly for rewards are fine by me. I just refuse to pay any interest on anything - or to borrow any money that I don't already have in the bank). Exception for us was first car in the $1k range, and our home because owning is way cheaper than renting around here. These are the reasons why. I would have borrowed a very small amount for college if I had to. I figured out other options instead, though. We are pretty debt adverse, which goes a long way to helping with #2 - keeping our expenses down. We don't have any payments in our budget. We buy what we have the cash for - that's about it. Makes it easy not to bite off more than we can chew. To make it work we have just bought a lot of really used things over the years.

Correction: We have a mortgage payment. Hardly count it because it is cheaper than renting. Don't get me wrong - don't plan to keep it forever, either.

P.S. The first car I bought (for $1500?) lasted 7 years, and my $10k public college education (yes - $10k for 4 years - if even that much) gives me the exact same career that a six-figure private degree would have. On the cars, we can afford a little more with every purchase. $1k, $5k, $10k, has been the progression. Cash paid for each one after the first.

4 - Balance is so important. I think this one comes easy to dh and I because we grew up in very balanced families. I think most people really struggle with this, but I feel grateful that we don't struggle with it too much.

An example? I completely agree that it is humanly possible to have a paid off house, very quickly and young. Even with the high cost of real estate here. Dh and I could have put our entire life on hold, he could have worked another 5-7 years, and we could have paid off our home before we had children.

Why would we do this? Where is the balance? Neither of us saw the point. When my dh found out he had a brain tumor at the end of 2009, he told me he had no regrets. If it was his time, it was his time. All he ever really wanted was a family. & he has his nice, little family. He has dedicated the last 8 years of his life to his kids, which is all he ever really wanted to do.

I couldn't help but think about what if we had just paid off our house and were about to start our family? What if we had a newborn? I think my dh would be facing this whole thing with a lot of deep regrets, personally. It's not as simple as "being debt free is the best thing ever." Every financial decision is about sacrifices. You just have to figure out which sacrifices you can live with and are worthwhile. Everyone has their own priorities to sort through. Though I think most our friends and relative would describe us overly-cautious, financially, they also have to admit that we have never put off anything that was truly important to us. We have both significantly put work on hold to spend time with our young kids. We bought our dream home when we were like 25. My spouse has all the time in the world to pursue his passions, without a job. (I just happen to get paid well for my passions). & so it goes.

Of course, the irony is that the more you manage your money, the less you ever have to think about it.

Bah - lost my entry too. First time has happened since the changeover - though usually I save as I go, I hadn't bothered.

More thoughts on real estate. I perused our old zip code for homes maxed at $100k. No surprise - nothing listed for sale. BUT, I moved my criteria to $150k max. The cheapest thing that popped up was a ONE BEDROOM in our old condo complex, for $120k. NO WAY! (We were thinking we could maybe score a 400-foot studio in that price range. This is almost 800 square feet!)

Unfortunately, not ready to buy real estate. But will add that to my long term goals. I asked dh if he thought I was crazy, and he is totally on board. Loves the idea.

I think two things have prevented us from even think about it. We obviously would love to own Bay Area real estate if money was no object. $100k price range is getting to the "money is no object" range. Just never occured to us that would happen. Of course, the flip side is the entire time we lived there we were focusing on a HOUSE. You know, something with 4 walls, a roof, a little yard. Not much. Not terribly picky. But you know, something that didn't cost at least $600k. Good luck. I don't know why the thought never really crossed our mind to just buy something really small for all our weekend visits. We loved the low maintenance of living in a condo, and could really care less about the size. Then again 800 square feet is as big as some of our friend's $750k houses.

Our current plan is to pay off our mortgage by age 45. We can push that to age 50 and pay cash for a $100k-ish second home in the interim. I don't think we will do so for quite a while. It will only be possible if dh returns to the work force for at least a couple of years. We would wait for another down cycle if we had to - certainly no rush. I wouldn't be opposed to renting a small unit in the interim to see how much we used it and if it was really beneficial. Maybe it sounds a lot better than it is. Oh, and I did check rents in the old neighborhood. 1-bedroom would rent for $1300/month. It's not like we could rent anything cheap to satisfy this want. The $120k price tag looks pretty good. IT would be a second home. Not interested at all in landlording - that is why we sold our old condo without a second thought. Could have rented it out for a fortune. Not worth the headache, to us.

It's kind of fun to revive an old, dead dream. So, we never saw the point of working crazy hours to afford an insane mortgage there. Or being stuck in a condo forever. Neither appealed to us. We may not move back or live ther full-time, but to own a home there would be a dream, yes. I am kind of giddy thinking about it. It's kind of nice to have some crazy goal besides retirement. We don't really have any other goals between now and then. We always play it too safe. This may be kind of fun. Now just give me a decade or so to execute...

The irony is it isn't about "real estate" or investing, for us. We just want a place to call home, where we grew up. *sigh*

We much prefer the bigger abode and slow lifestyle here. But we still seem to have a foot in the Bay Area with all of our relatives and friends. In retirement, I could see spending more time there too. Could be a good long-term purchase, if we choose something we think will work for the long-term. I could totally see living there in the summers, for one. Since the only think I really dislike here is the summer heat.

One thing I don't talk much about is DIY beauty. Pretty much because "beauty" is low on my list of priorities. I usually contribute to the discussions by saying, "I don't spend a dime on beauty." But for some soap and shampoo, to stay clean, that about does it for me.

Which I find often gets funny reactions, in online forums. As a perfect example, I used to belong to a regional parenting forum and met some great friends through the site. But a lot of the people I did not meet for a long time, in person. It was clear that most of them could not relate to me on many levels. Money and beauty topics always came up. I swear to you, these women must have imagined me living in a shack, driving a jalopy (howsever you spell it) with hairy legs and a unibrow. This is clearly the image I project online.

It was funny because meeting a lot of the women in person, changed their attitudes towards me drastically. The funniest to me was a very volatile and shallow woman. She really hated me online, and suddenly became my biggest ally, once she saw my nice home for the first time. It was just so obvious that appearances were so important to her, and suddenly she looked at me a little differently.

Anyway, my point is, you don't have to spend a fortune on beauty, to look good.

I honestly think self confidence is the bulk of it. I have gorgeous friends who wouldn't dream of leaving the house without makeup, because they would be too embarassed at the thought. Which I personally think is ludicrous. People all the time tell me, well, I am just lucky I can pull it off. Pfffft. Like I Really believe I have more natural beauty than these people. I don't think so.

Regardless, beauty has gotten low on my priority list over the years. It probably doesn't help that my spouse freaks out if I put on tinted chap stick (he just hates make up). I know other friends who are more beauty obsessed would say I "let myself go." For me, I'd say, "I have other priorities." It would be another thing if my spouse really cared about appearances that much. He just doesn't. & on another level, I am more concerned about living a healthy lifestyle. Which keeps me trim and polished, for the most part. I've got healthy teeth, nails, hair, skin. I don't need to paint it all to "look healthy." Exercise and sun takes care of most of it.

BUT, you may be surprised to know I was a beauty freak in my youth. I have actually swing WAY more "girly girl," than tomboy. Which I know does not come across so much in my current lifestyle and blogging.

& I have always been very DIY when it comes to beauty. Always had a styled hairdo, makeup, and manicures when I was younger. All done by yours truly. All I Can say is, practice, practice, practice.

I actually stopped wearing makeup when I developed allergies and could no longer wear eye makeup (I have always been light on the makeup, regardless, though). With age, I kind of found myself shifting to low maintenance hairstyle, though it is important for me to have nice hair. Thing is I can wash and wear the style I have. & I like to wear makeup once in a while. I just can't do the eye stuff every day.

Manicures? It was since having my second child that I have hardly done a thing with my nails. Though, they are always groomed and clean - good enough for me. Though I will often wear clear polish to give them a bit of shine. That takes like, seconds.

Anyway, I saw the cutest "glitter tip" manicure that was apparently all the rage at my bank. I noticed one teller, and then another on another day. "Oooooh - that's pretty," the old Monkey Mama said.

SO, yesterday I finally got around to giving it a whirl. I was skeptical since it's probably been 5 years since I did the whole "french manicure" thing. I went out and bought about $20 in supplies (way more than I needed - but figured I should throw out most of my old polish).

I experimented on one nail at a time until I found the perfect technique.

In the end, painted the tips (with guide sticker) a glittery/sheeny white that I Already had. This alone makes for a really nice manicure. Looks much nicer than the "bright white tips," to me. Coated the whole nail with light blush. Added the glitter polish to the tips, without guides. This is a realy good technique, since it hides a bit if your lines aren't perfect. Finished with a topcoat. I tried a few different strategies, but this one clearly looked the best. & as a perk, it was the easiest too.

3 people already asked me if I went to the salon. I guess I haven't lost my touch. The funny thing is my right hand turned out better since I did it second. I was wary how steady my left un-practiced hand would be.

The only room for improvement would be a higher quality glitter polish. Which I will be on the lookout for. I couldn't re-create the look exactly, but got close enough. Going forward, technique down, I can keep up the look for pennies.

I tried to snap a picture, but they weren't coming out. I will break out my camera and share later.

--------------------------------------------------

ETA: Pictures

I suppose I have been pre-occupied.

We were in plan plan plan mode before dh's surgery. Then afterwards, I suppose I took a big sigh of relief.

& forgot to pay my bills - LOL.

There are only a very few bills that I pay manually every month (the ones not charged to credit) - and the biggies are due on the 31st anyway. BUT, I forgot to pay the HOA, and they tend to charge late fees. I expect a $10 fee for that. Doh.

Also was the gardener and PGE. They don't care - PGE was only a couple of days late.

I noticed all this when I paid the credit card around the 20th. It's not unusual for the gardener and HOA to not cash their checks for a LONG time, so I hadn't noticed anything unusual. (I had entered them in Quicken; just not in my online bill pay).

---------------------------------------------------

ANYWAY, as the end of the month approaches, dh withdrew $40 to buy some game system thing. It's all up on ebay for a nice profit, but there is no way I will get that cash back by the 31st. (Ebay auction will be over, but Paypal is very slow to transfer). So my checkbook now has a negative $40 balance (as of 3/31, anyway). So, decided I better get my financial housekeeping in order. I know I have let it slide a bit - so busy with other things. So when I saw the date was getting so close to the 30th, I thought I better hustle. Especially since I have so many large bills this month.

I have been tracking all the large bills in my savings spreadsheet. I usually notate a "TT" next to items I still have to transfer money from savings for. & an "x" when the deed is done.

I showed:

**Medical Savings:

$50 Surgeon Follow Up

(I did receive a $1000 bill, but I can charge it in April and pay it in May. Phew. Will do so to prolong some interest - my whopping 2% and all).

**Mid-Term Savings:
-$1250 new TV and stand
-$200 new furniture for LM

(Mid-term savings is used for large/one-time purchases. Saving for larger things in the future).

**Short-Term Savings:
-$200 tooth pulled
-$200 Summer Camp
-$500 Life insurance
-$250 Veterinarian
$2150 Property Taxes

(Short-term savings is for any non-monthly "expected expense" within the calendar year. We put aside amounts for car repairs and misc. items like summer camp and extra-curriculars, as well as insurance and property taxes).

Veterinarian was not a planned expense, but these kinds of things I put in here, and transfer from mid-term savings at year-end, if I end up negative for the entire year. I debated where to put it at first, and eventually decided to put it here. We could have lower than usual car repairs or stuff like that, so it works out. Or, likewise, I may decide to save more next year, in this category, since my cat is aging and will likely have more vet bills.

---------------------------------------------------

I made sure there was enough in my money market checking, for the property taxes, and will just write the check some time in the next couple of weeks.

I added up the rest and netted it against my $2050 savings from my April 1 paycheck. In the end, the net was $607 that had to be transferred from savings. I just did the transfer today, which will easily covered my $40 checking shortfall on 3/31. So, phew, financial housekeeping is done.

When I have time tonight or tomorrow, I will go through and pay all the April bills. Ideally, this will leave me enough in checking, at 4/30, to pay the March credit card bill. I can set everything else to pay, eons ahead of time. (I don't like bills to get paid automatically - I like to review everything once a month and agree to pay things, rather than just have them drawn from my accounts. I find too many errors, etc.).

--------------------------------------------------

Anyway, all that said, the financial tide is turning a bit:

*My cell phone is magically working again. Knock on wood. In fact, someone has a wrong # and called my phone a bajillion times. I am wondering if that is what killed the battery in the first place. Who knows - it is holding its charge now though.

*The network wiring we had done was only $50 (they had quoted us $70) and included the cables, etc. So, it was a much better deal than expected.

*Took the cat to the vet, and she seems fine. We are waiting for some final culture results on Monday. All the blood work and everything came back healthy as can be. She is 12 and seems healthy as can be, but just had been drinking an unusual amount of water - which is a sign of many things. Anyway, it was kind of tapering off by the time we took her in. I am just not accustomed to thinking of her as "old." We might be better about taking her in for annual exams. Her free pass is probably over. I added a few years to her life, I am sure, not putting her through the trauma during her healthy/young years.

She did okay and was quicker to forgive us than in years past. Phew.

Of course, either because of our youthful appearance, and/or the fact we hadn't drug her unnecessarily to the vet in many years, they look absolutely petrified to ask us to pay $100 for a urine sample. I mean, come on. They must have some pretty interesting exchanges with people. Instead of dragging her in for more tests later, we preferred just to get the blood work and everything. They seemed surprised and relieved. $250. No biggie. She's my "baby!" & I am relieved to get the blood work in already and know that it is nothing serious.

Phew!

Credit card closed on our spendy month. I am going to get gas this a.m., and book the hotel, as mentioned.

Actually, both our cars need gas. But as such, I can't leave that for dh to take care of - I need some gas to get to work.

---------------------------------------

I've decided that our GPS will be completely invaluable with dh in the hospital. The kids will be staying with 3 or 4 relatives where I always get lost because I am not quite as familiar with their city. (Problem is I think I know where I am - then I drive around in circles). The hospital is in a completely unknown area, etc.

I was thinking if I should get a hotel for longer, but eventually decided against it. The fact is I will be doing a LOT of driving though. BUT, I figure if I could find the nearest library (which dh pointed out will probably have wifi - woohoo), the nearest Taco Bell (cheap food), and the nearest Borders type store (a cushy chair to read in) that I would probably do okay. I am not a fan of coffee shops. Over-priced drinks that I don't like anyway. I'll be going for the library instead! (I suppose our library has cushy chairs, too. So maybe that will be my hangout of choice).

& I also realized if I need to leave, I should probably be with my kids. So, driving it is. Lots of driving back and forth. (I had forgotten about the kids!!)

The GPS will allow me to find all this stuff on a whim. & keep me efficient as I drive all over tarnation.

It never would occur to me that their was "medical rates" for hotel rooms. Particularly ones so close to the hospital. I did see that mentioned by the hospital as well. I doubt if the rates will be much better than my AAA discount and such, BUT I will of course ask before I finalize anything. (Thanks everyone for the tip!!)

Someone asked if I use Hotwire. I actually use Cheaptickets (this was the most awesome travel deal website in the 90s). BUT, in the end, I usually search rates and book the hotel directly. In this day and age, I find the best deals are by calling up and asking. & by booking directly (cut out the middle man!) & in an extreme example, the last hotel we stayed at cost about THREE times as much through all the travel websites. As far as I can tell, those websites are all the same really. I am just loyal to cheaptickets. Though the catch is you do have to prepay. Then again, I haven't actually booked a room through them in a few years. It's just a jumping off point, for me. I have also tried Priceline or whatever, where you don't get to pick your hotel, and had a HORRID experience. I know with a ton of effort, you can work it to your advantage (& get an idea what your hotel will be). But the experience really turned me off. I will just pick my hotel room, thanks!

ETA: Oh Hotwire is one of those where you don't get to choose the hotel. Nope - not going there... Will be in the same area that I had the terrible experience with. Too much "good area" mixed in with "bad."

I've chosen the hotel, so I just need to call and see if I can get a cheaper medical rate. In this case cheaptickets = booking directly (price wise). So I will just book directly... Then I don't have to prepay the room.

-----------------------------------------

In an effort to cheer myself up, since I know 2010 will be a mess financially...

It occurred to me that I am further along on my cash goals, than imagined. When I look at my year-end cash balances for older years (years that I am striving to live up to), I just get my 12/31 statements and look at my cash balances.

I was just thinking about it, because I have $5k sitting in my checkbook today. For net worth and measuring progress, I don't count my checkbook. That money is earmarked to be spent the second it hits my checkbook. Whatever is not to be spent immediately, is transferred to savings, the second I get it. So, for net worth, I don't count my checking. Nor my credit card balance, which do tend to cancel each other out a bit.

So, I thought about it today. If I look at it that way, I can add $5k to my cash balance and be that much closer to my goal. I know it doesn't change anything about where I am at now. But it does change the fact that this elusive goal of $30k cash, is much closer than I realized.

I am not changing my goal, but once I have $25k or so, I Am going to pat myself on the back for making it to a DINK cash level.

$30k is still an extremely worthy minimum cash savings goal. We are living on one-income, we own a house, and we have kids. We NEED a lot more cash than we needed as DINKS. But there is something warm and fuzzy about saving as much as we were before kids. I think we are closer than we realized.

-----------------------------------------

Speaking of which. I did update my net worth on 12/31.

Official Result: Net worth DOWN $2300.

Culprit? House! Did awesome on the retirement savings this year. But the house continued on it's backward slide. We start 2010 with the house worth what we paid. I expect 2010 to be ugly, but since we've paid down about 30%, I won't lose sleep over it...

*Cash was about $20k
*The kids are up to about $10k in college money
*Retirement is up to $80k
*we have about $75k in home equity (From $450k at the PEAK!)

I think 2010 will be rather stagnant, in comparison. I don't expect the stock market to be on fire, I don't expect to save as much (with so many large impending bills). & well, I do expect the house value to slide considerably. It's just ugly around here - I don't feel like we have neared the rock bottom on house prices. (Though for the long run, I am not too worried about it - just the short run is pretty ugly!)

2009 was an awesomely awesome financial year for us. Phew!

INCOME

My salary went up $1500 for the year, and I earned another $3k in overtime (over the year before). In fact - best overtime year by a mile, since having children.

Gifts were up $2k this year, since MIL randomly gave us $1k they got for turning in an "old clunker" to the state. A state program - not the "cash for cars." This was a TRUE clunker. My mom also ended up giving us $1k for the MRI. So, got $2k completely unexpected, and this was a large reason why we decided to just pay cash on my auto body work. Borderline to file a claim anyway - and ruin our perfect driving record. This way - we had the cash and it was done. No rising insurance to worry about. Phew!
MIL always gives $1k each to the kids, and $1k to us, every year. So we had a fruitful gift year.

Interest income was about $240, as opposed to $350 last year. Though I had MORE cash! Ouch!

Our other income was down about $600 this year. A bit of a bummer. Looking closer - we had a lot less focus groups this year. Last year dh sold a projector for $250. He did a wedding video for a family member for $100. $500 credit card rewards. About $300 focus groups. The rest, about $700, was ebay selling and such. In 2009, $500 credit card rebates, and about $800 in ebay sales. I don't have the grand total of what dh sold. I think he sold a lot more this year (though summer was a very slow patch). BUT, $800 is all he gave me for bills/saving. I am quite sure he netted $1200 this year - as was our goal.

His ebay sales, which are very helpful, will take a big hit this year with his surgery. But he may be able to make up for it when both kids are in school in the fall. He should have a lot more time to make a go of it, then.

In addition to all that, I did get a 10% employer contribution in 2008 - to retirement. As always. In this economy though, I don't take it for granted. Won't know for many months about 2009.

That covers the income side of things.

---------------------------------------

EXPENSE

I was more careful to check everything was included in this report, this year. I can not, for the life of me, get my mortgage principal payments to show up. That will add about $3500 to both years. Leaving my YTD expenses at about $65k. My goal is to limit expenses to $60k, but does not necessarily account for big, one-time items. I also will be able to reduce annual daycare (preschool) expense by about $2k, in a few months time. So - pretty darn close. If I hadn't of smashed my car this year - we'd be about there.





**Allowances - Dh and I generally give ourselves $50/month. Just to have the freedom to buy whatever the heck we want! I am not much of a strict budgeter, and this year I pretty much ignored it. (Dh tends to save up for bigger items so I usually track more closely, for him). Anyway - I find it funny how we both kind of ended up about $600 for the year. We just know our limits.

I actually cut down my clothing buying by about $300. I bought a bike instead, this year! Which was a most awesome purchase. So I used my allowance quite well this year.

**AUTO - We spent about $800 less on gas, thanks to lower gas prices. Insurance/registration was all about the same, though dh and I both had to renew our driver's licenses for a fee. Service/maintenance was the usual $1500 (for 2 cars) though I spent $2200 to repair my van (the pole run in). WE spent about $800 on the van (stupid stuff) and $600 on the old Ford (new brakes for the first time ever - 100k+ miles - new tires and work on the AC). About $100 on oil changes for both cars throughout the year. Pretty typical. The "new" Dodge is a PITA and dh's old car is extremely light on repairs/maintenance - always has been.

Chalk up the $1800 increase in Auto expenses this year to my run-in with a pole. Hopefully we can avoid that next year.

**Bank Charge - I stupidly got an overdraft charge last year. You wanna know why I don't bank with the big boys? So a stupid mistake only costs me $3. This year was a typical no-fee year.

**CASH - Dh talked me into using my card more this year. I used to reserve it for over-$10 purchases and such. This year I see a slew of $1-$5 charges on my credit card. But it is nice not to carry around cash. (But for the token amount for emergency - I no longer carry any cash).

**CHarity - It looks like we were more charitable, eh? Not particularly. Oh - our usual $250 donations for 2008 didn't get made until January 2009. That is part of it. The rest is just school stuff. Every dime and donation to the school is tax-deductible, and this was BM's first full calendar year in school. We also have memberships to a couple of museums and such.

**Childcare - In 2008 both kids were in preschool for 1/2 of the year. In 2009, Ms. PReschool up and moved. So we haven't been paying as much for preschool. The new one we found is very cheap. This is also a large reason why our auto fuel expense went down. This is also why I Was able to work more overtime. Found a preschool closer to home. Ms. Preschool was worth every penny though and we miss her TERRIBLY. I am so sad she can not care for LM while dh is in the hosptial, etc.

Dh and I did not pay much for babysitting this year. We were able to squeeze in a fair amount of lunch dates while the kids were in school - much cheaper.

**CLOTHING - BM grew like a weed, and I actually splurged on some workout clothing this year. I was actually surprised to see how much we spent compared to last year. BUT, I did really go through my wardrobe and upgrade things this year. Things that were just falling to pieces, etc. These were not "allowance" items. We had a little more money to buy what we "needed" this year and made more of a priority than other years. Even dh bought a few things - though mostly thrift.

**Dining - we spent a fair amount more this year. As mentioned, dh and I did a lot of lunch dates. We also ended up spending a lot on eating out with my dad in the hospital so much, and with our own issues at the end of the year.

**EDUCATION - This is just karate classes for BM. He got bumped up to the big kid class, which cost more. Also bought 2 belts for him this year, etc. He is officially yellow belt, now! Through the community center - which is far cheaper than any of the private places around here.

**Entertainment - is just our blockbuster online. More than the movies, we also get free game rentals and such, with this plan.

**Gifts - I suppose we were predictable here.

**Groceries - up $200. I suppose consistent here, too.

**Household - last year we bought a lot of thermal drapes and CFLs and such. This year we did a lot more low-cost maintenance. Also - $80/month for the gardener - my #1 luxury.

**ID Theft - I started this category to track expenses when my Identity was stolen. Since then we have had a lot of fraudulent credit card activity (completely unrelated. I don't think I have ever had fraudulent activity on my own card - in over 15 years of having credit cards. Last 2 years have been the pits!). Anyway, I just throw any improper expenses here so I don't forget - make sure it gets taken care of. Not sure why the -$19.99, but that's all it is.

**Insurance - we upped our umbrella insurance a bit, this year. Everything else was pretty status qou.

**Medical was about the same. BM didn't have a pile of cavities in 2009 (phew), but we did have more medical bills and higher premiums than last year. Still came out a tad ahead, I suppose? Not so lucky for 2010, that is for sure!

**Miscellaneous - We definitely had more cash this year. & spent a little of it. This year we did Little League and swim lessons. Stuff easier to justify with lower preschool costs. We also went ahead and bought a GPS and a tent. So was a little more spendy than the year prior.

**Mortgage Interest - with our refi around January 1, 2009, we saved $1800 in mortgage interest. Which is totally super awesome. The principal is being paid off about the same rate as before.

**Personal care - just haircuts for the 4 of us.

**PRofessional Dues - all of these are reimbursed by my employer, but I tend to make political contributions with my dues. Which is what remains.

**Subscriptions - just the newspaper - we renewed to weekends again. All we ever wanted, but they stopped offering for many years. Dh can't give up his paper.

**TAX - this is just our property taxes - they went down a bit this year. Much more down for next year.

**UTILITIES - I have no idea why our utilities went down. We are still in limbo. Hoping to change to Surewest for cable. Still waiting to test out their *new* DVR, so we can drop DISH. We did switch to high speed internet with Surewest. I believe it was this year that we first dropped long distance and call waiting (I finally convinced dh). I suppose this was also the first full year of sharing our cell phone plan with my folks, which also brought costs down. High speed internet was justified with the nearing end of expensive preschool. Phew!

Our gas/electric did go down 10%. Though most of that is due to lower rates. The CFLs were a bust as an investment, in my opinion. We apparently already had some sort of efficient bulbs (which also last forever - we gave a pile of 8-year-old bulbs to our neighbor - still going strong). I don't think we will bother going CFL with the rest of the bulbs. We had only changed the most used bulbs in the house - since we have SO MANY lightbulbs.

I suppose we got sucked in by hype. Which is good to be aware of. For example, our hot water heater costs pennies to run. I suppose it would be stupid to replace it eventually with a tankless heater. Which costs FAR more - and yet won't really offer us any cost savings. I didn't foresee the light bulbs would be the same way - but they are.

----------------------------------------

Thinking to 2010...

I suspect most of our spending will be similar in 2010. With the exception of expected medical bills.

Our flood insurance may go up, from $300 to $1200-ish, per year. They have been wishy washy about that - all politics.

I know we will have a lot of "convenience/daycare" type expenses with dh's surgery. Some of these will mirror last year - since we drive a LOT to the Bay Area and helped out my parents when my dad was ill. WE will have a lot of similar costs with dh having surgery in the Bay Area, and such. I mostly plan to fund these with our "vacation fund" though. The last 3-4 years we have been trying to set aside $1500 for vacations, though had been low on our priority list and set to $0 for the few years prior. Basically - it's the first thing to go.
That frees up $1500 for daycare and convenience - more eating out and such. Which should really more than cover it. I also expect that our miscellaneous spending will be down a bit since dh will be out of commission for a while. HArd to say, since in January - March I tend to be so busy with work that we don't go out and do a lot of things together. It tends to be very low spend months anyway - the time while dh is recovering. But, will just have to see.

Anyway, with all this medical hoo-ha, I certainly don't expect to keep our expenses down to $60k. BUT, will of course, TRY!

---------------------------------------

SAVINGS

I ended up saving about $10k cash in 2009, as well as putting $4k into our ROTHS.

2009 was the first year I ever contributed to our ROTHs regularly, from income (as opposed to funding later with cash - or with gifts, etc.). I wish I could say the same for 2010, but we are going back to the lump sum method for 2010 - depends how the medical bills stack up. If we feel we have any to spare, will do a lump sum contribution towards the end of 2010.

2009 was good - hopefully after this hump we can pick up where we left off!

I had some time, and so decided to look at my net worth.

With the real estate market, decided it would be UGLY.

In the end, not so bad. No improvement over last year, but didn't expect any...



(I suppose I am at the whim of the market, the rest of the year - but wanted to see where we were at).

Cash was mediocre. I did save far more than I expected to this year (with the demise of our beloved preschool). BUT, also had a lot of unexpected, and luxury expenses, this year.

I don't expect to make much progress in 2010. I just want to save more than I Spend! (Medical bills and house maintenance will be big in 2010).

The investments are the only silver lining here. My retirement is up about 20-25%. I put away $13k during 2009. Grandma gave the kids $1/each, per usual. Next year I will be happy to put away $8k. Taking a step back while the market is rebounding. IF it dips low I will be tempted to invest more, on the other hand.

I still have $7k cash (emergency) in our ROTHs. The returns get invested into the retirement portion of our ROTHs. (What returns, right? I did have some though).

On the autos, I adjusted my car down a lot, to $5k. I just haven't been depreciating it fast enough. Dh's car is valued about $2k right now, for net worth, and I Depreciate it $500/year. I'll probably just do $1k/year for mine, going forward.

House - I have been using assessed value since the bubble was so volatile. The way property is assessed in Cali is up 2% per year, max. BUT, adjusts downward for real losses. While inflated gains aren't helpful to my balance sheet, the true value as it goes down, is good to know. This is why I like just going with the assessed value. I think the assessment we got is low, BUT won't be surprised if our house drops a lot in the coming year(s). So I will just go with it. I will wipe my brow with a "phew" this year that the assessment is what we paid for the house, and that the market is performing even better. Can't say what 2010 will bring. (I'd guess, more losses!)

We did refi January 1 and roll the costs into our loan (Have never done that before, but felt it was worth it for the rock bottom interest, and to keep our liquidity). Though we added a fair amount to our loan, our repayment clip has resumed where we left off - just about $4k per year to principal. I can live with that.

Interestingly, we have been homeowners 10 years, our home is worth about what we paid, and our loan is about where we started (maybe $1500 higher). Thing is we now own twice the house, and land. Doesn't tell the whole story at face value - since moving bought us twice the home, and more, for the same price as where we started. There is really nothing complain to about considering the real estate mess. Putting 25% down on our current home, has paid off. (As did buying before all this mess. It's paid off because rents are insane here).

-----------------------------------------

For reference, I've got prior years cumulated:





Though the last 2 years haven't been pretty, we don't have much to complain about. Careful saving in our youth has given us a tremendous leg up.

2010 will probably be our last one-income year. I look forward to being able to bring in, and save, more income. Maybe make some forward progress... (Not that I expect that dh will work full-time, or even part-time. But he can raise enough to fund his ROTH, etc., with the kids in school all day).

ETA: Auto loan $1 was a typo - oops!

I am with the others in the West. Brrrrrrr. We've got snow, and a freeze warning. Both which happen, never? Living in the valley, I don't think we got snow (certainly nothing that stuck). But a lot of my co-workers live at slightly higher elevations (500-1000 feet?), and all woke up to snow today. Color me jealous! Nothing more than a light dusting, of course.

I don't see any more snow in the forecast - just freezing temps. Like anyone here knows what to do with that.

It's a bummer that it will probably be too stormy this weekend to drive up to the cabin and see all the snow up there. BUT, will keep an eye on the weather, just in case. If the weather clears, we will have an impromptu snow weekend.

My basil plant may be a casualty, from last night. Will bring it inside tonight, just in case it is still alive.

The heat will work extra hard the next couple of days!

----------------------------------------

My brain is in 2010. Since any bill I get going forward can be pushed to 2010 (put on credit and paid in 2010), 2009 is mostly over for me. Though I will wait for 12/31 for investment values and such, to determine my 12/31 net worth.

So I still have a little financial housekeeping to do, for 2009. But for the most part, I am thinking to 2010.

I updated my sidebar, in light of this.

Last year I thought long and hard about my goals. It was a good year, I am happy, and so I don't have much to add this year. On the flip side, I think with all that is going on, simplicity is best. We won't have a lot of money to spare. & we will probably focus a lot of energy on dh's health rather than other things.

Thus, my financial goal is rather simplstic:

Save $15k.

$0 to ROTH.

Re-evaluate once we pay all the medical bills.

Instead of saving in various buckets, my only real bucket this year, is "cash." Though I would be happy to divert some of that to retirement, if the year goes better than expected. (Efund and medical fund are fully funded, as of 1/1. So other cash is really my only other savings goal. Cash for car replacements, orthodontia, house repairs and the like. I can't seem to make any progress there since I seem to get a pile of unexpected expenses every year. $2k here, $2k there. Medical, dental, smashed cars, etc. Feels like I Am spinning my wheels a bit, and why I am happy to hit cash hard this year).

I also had a long-term goal to put 15% into retirement. I am putting that on hold, for 2010. Until all this mess clears. 10%. Of course, I still don't know what my compensation is. By some miracle, I could get a raise and keep 15% to retirement. Just not exactly counting on that one. I am assuming no raise, or something very minimal, considering the economy and everything. I also don't expect I will be able to do big on overtime this year - though some overtime is calculated into my $15k savings goal. I can probably only save $12k, otherwise.

My HOUSE goals mostly remain the same. I thought I would have enough cash this year to implement a lot of put-off purchases. Probably not, in the end, so may push them off. But we did make some progress on some inexpensive repairs, and have more to do in 2010.

My PERSONAL goals mostly remain the same:

**Personal**
[ ] Read a book a month
[ ]2 weekends away, with just dh
[ ]1 camping trip
[ ]1 trip to the snow
[ ]More trips to the cabin
[ ]More biking & hiking
[ ]Season passes to Raging Waters

I feel like I should add "survive" to the top of my list, and I would be happy with that.

BUT, 2009 was very fulfilling as we focused on things that were important to us. We want to make sure we make fun things a priority for our family. Most the things on the list were very frugal too, but fulfilling. IF we do all that, I don't think anyone in my house cares if we can't afford a bigger vacation this year. (We've really only had room for more "vacation" the last couple of years, and as such, are used to extremely frugal weekend getaways and such. Of course the whole thing point is that long/far vacations are not our priority. We like making use of what we have here - and did excellent with that in 2009. I suppose we didn't particularly "vacation" in 2009 if I think about it. Though we did pay for a few more hotel stays than we usually would. Coud live without...).

I did add a new item to the list: To read at least one book a month. I have been staying with that pace, since about October. Before then, "what's a book?" But putting it in writing, as a goal, really makes it more of a priority.

I suppose I don't care if a lot of this part of the list gets put to the side, with dh's health issues. I just don't want to forget these things, for when he is better.

-----------------------------------------

The theme for Christmas this year, is decidedly "kitchen."

I was just telling dh that I was probably going to get my dad a smoothie blender, and didn't have much else to buy. I also had confirmed that the spoiled cousins (our children and their cousins - with the Grandma gift hog) were not exchanging gifts.

Dh and I never exchange gifts, so I clarified that. I guess the rule is since BM has an allowance, that he has to buy gifts for us. Dh told me they had bought me a $25 gift. Ugh. (BM contributed like 1/3 of it).

I was wondering when I would have time to shop, and annoyed at wasting money on useless items, when I remembered dh wanted a larger food processor (we have a mini one). Not what he had in mind I am sure, but heck if I am going to waste $20 on something he will never use.

In the end, I perused amazon a bit and it worked out. I found a mandolin slicer with rave reviews, for about $20. We had been talking about that. Bonus was it came with a knife sharpener, for about $5, which would make it eligible for free shipping (amazon). Might as well take the sharpener.

So basically, I spent 5 minutes shopping for dh - and am done! (Will consider the food processor for his birthday. Better yet - will suggest that one to his mom).

I suppose I should have included BM in the process, but I know he will really like the idea. We will have to talk about it later. I'll ask him what he thinks and steer him in that direction. & if he HATES the idea, I suppose he can buy some stupid trinket for dh. I suppose it is the thought that counts!

Dh woke up with hearing loss, again, this morning. Ugh!

His appointment was Monday, but I could not make it. We postponed until Tuesday. Regretting that a bit - did not expect he would have issues since it had been 3 years in between his first and last episode. (He lost and regained most hearing, twice). We are starting to wonder if surgery will be rushed to try to preserve hearing. I am not sure how early they could possibly do the surgery. Tuesday seems a million years away.

------------------------------------------

His family is intent on cashing out retirement to send him to the world-renowned place I mentioned. Ugh, on that.

We did discuss it and I said I could see borrowing the money, because he could return to work and pay it off in a few years' time. Could be worth it. Though, we both are leaning towards sticking close to home and sticking with what is covered. Just thinking to if we are not impressed with our covered options. Of course, the risk is that dh could become disabled, and could not ever work again. Then we are just stuck with a six figure medical bill. I just gotta hope our HMO has good options. I don't really see why they wouldn't...

Of course, MIL said she already talked with this surgeon and he would come up here. This is not anything I have read, and sounded odd to me. I had to wonder if the economy had less people cashing out their savings and left with less equity to borrow with, for this type surgery. (Everything I read was that everyone who could, went for this surgery there. Seems there would be a waiting list of sorts?). If we lived down south it is reasonable we could be referred there. But since we live up North, if we are referred "outside" our HMO, I am sure it would be somewhere up here. Which I think we would prefer anyway.

Just to say, we have gone down the "six figure medical bill" road a bit. Obviously I hope we feel extremely warm and fuzzy about our covered options. Would be a lot easier.

On the flip side, it may be more important to save money to save hearing after surgery. Though it's apparently far more cheaper to gain hearing back than to remove a tumor. More amazing technology. Who knew, that regaining lost hearing was "affordable?" In our world, much more affordable.

----------------------------------------

2009 is not quite over yet, but my brain is in 2010. Financially.

All of our December bills will be carded and paid in January, so I guess in some regard, 2009 is about over for us, financially.

I sat down to see where we were at. Before all this mess, I wanted to stop ROTH contributions while the market was high, and tackle our cash savings goal. I also figured I would just put aside our $3k deductible at Jan. 1, and only contribute to "mid-term savings" for 2010. I have been contributing to mid-term, medical, and retirement. I just wanted to make 2010 simpler, and achieve my goal.

Of course, obviously if the market fell, ROTHs would become more of a priority.

I guess it works out to be already in this mind-set.

In the end, our medical deductible remains $3k, but our out-of-pocket was doubled to $6k. I suppose after the deductible, we are relegated to smaller co-pays. But if there is a year we will manage to get $3k in co-pays (in addition to exhausting our deductible), 2010 would be it!

Of course, I am starting to worry that dh will have surgery end of December and we will max out 2009 and 2010. I suppose we have $1500 deductible remaining for 2009, which isn't huge. But would save $1500 if we could just do it all next year.

So, anyway, I just threw $6k into the "medical fund," (on paper - I don't have separate savings accounts). I already had $1k in there, which hasn't been billed yet - but will cover most the MRI. So really, $7k in the medical fund, should cover 2010, for now.

We still have $12k emergency fund. Obviously, all this stuff falls under the realm of emergency.

The sad thing, is I only have about $1k left in mid-term savings. I built it up from $0 to $10k, in 2009. Guess I will just have to try and do the same, again for 2010.

Of course, this year, the ROTH will probably be sacrificed. We were on track to put $5k away, and even as I built up cash, I was sure I would transfer some to the ROTH at year's end. Or if the market dropped substantially, etc.

It looks more likely we will just ignore the ROTH this year. We still put 10% away to retirement, and that has ALWAYS been our "bare minimum." To face all this and still be able to put away 10% is a blessing, in my opinion.

If all goes well, I should be able to save $15k-ish this year, cash. Who knows, we may make our cash savings goal and/or put some money to the ROTH anyway. I know it is likely some of this will be diverted to daycare and more eating out/convenience.

The only other large expense on the horizon is we need a few thousand to paint our house exterior. I worry how much it will cost. & why I am not happy to see me mid-term savings dwindle to $1k for a time. (DIY is not an option - house is too large. I don't do heights!!! Would need some super-sized ladders and some bravery to boot. Plus the time to tackle the whole thing). Willing to pay more for a good job that would last a while though. Original paint job sucked.

Of course, I have always said I wouldn't touch my efund with a 10-foot pole. But this is precisely the kind of exception an efund warrants. & you know what? It feels awesome to have that $12k sitting there. The kind of emergencies I always envisioned were job loss or major house destruction (flood, etc.). I suppose its hard to foresee every possible emergency.

-------------------------------------

That's the long and the short of it.

Thanksgiving went amazingly well and we had a great time.

Not sure what we will do this weekend. Not much planned. Will enjoy any "peace" we can before the storm. Though it kind of sucks we pretty much have 3 days with "nothing to do" as we eagerly await dh's big doctor appointment next week.

"Productivity" must be in the air. It is definitely a fall thing.

**Counted kids' money today, and BM has a $50 deposit. It is so funny how crammed full his piggy bank was with $1 bills. Mental note: check his piggy bank more often.

For now, BM is the saver (he is like dh: likes his electronics, but hell if he would spend a dime on anything else. Seems totally disinterested in fads. Though, since dh gets so many games and books for free, he is content).

LM is more imaginative and could play with lint all day, but he also likes collecting little characters. He has been the spendy one. That being said, Grandma spoils him a bit, and as spendy as he is, he still had about $40 in his piggy bank. Go figure. (He doesn't get an allowance yet, so BM has much more dough).

**Dh and I discussed no-spend November. Well, I think it will be "low-spend November." We've spent our money for the year, pretty much. (Keep in mind - all our November bills are already paid, etc. Anything in December will mostly be charged, and paid in January).

Today I reconciled all our "savings buckets" accounts - spreadsheets - through the end of the year. In the end, I don't think we will have to touch any other savings (barring Murphy or unforeseen), but on the flip side I am upset that I have no money to add to the efund. Maybe next year!

We will end rather breakeven in short-term savings, and with $0 in the medical savings. $20k-ish in more long-term savings/efund.

I think short term savings needs a $150/month boost. That is where preschool money will divert to, mid-2010.

(Drats - and I forgot to account for possible $1k car repair. Might have to touch savings, after all. Won't beat myself up over it since short-term savings covered $2k body work on the van this year. I'll be lucky to have barely touched our "true savings," otherwise.).

**I've finished most of my goals for the year, but have completely ignored all my "house goals."

Until the month of October anyway.

This weekend I:

*Touched Up Paint
*Trimmed Trees (never done before)
*starting demolition on bathroom repairs.

Last one sounds fancy, but I am mostly just removing grout, old caulk, and cleaning for re-caulking.

The nice thing is I have all the time in the world for bath projects. I have quite a few areas to work on. Our bathroom has not been used for years, and so I will take my time on it. Once it is in working order, we can start work on the other bath. The perk to having 2 full baths. (My bath will be the most tedious - the only one with grout to remove. The reason being that it was falling out all over the place. I got all the easy stuff on Friday, and the rest will be a chore. Just where the tile meets the bottom of the shower. I have read that it should be caulked - where different materials meet - so that is what I will do. I read builders are bad about this detail, but it hasn't affected our other 2 tubs. I am just going to caulk over the other 2 tubs since the grout has held up. Phew!).

The only other frustration this weekend is that the door paint, which we had never opened or used, was all "curdled." We went by the paint store today, but it was closed. Doh! Builder gave us small 1/2 gallons of touch up paint, and wrote down the paint #s. Hopefully it will be easy to replace (though I am not terribly sure that it's the right paint to begin with?).

So all I was able to touch up was the walls, but they do look like a million bucks.

In the end, might have to pick a new color for 2 doors, and completely repaint them. Worst case, anyway.

Anyway, I was starting to think I might not hit any house goals this year. No idea where this motivation has come from, but I will take it!

------------------------------------

Enjoy it while you can. I don't plan to make "house repair" a hobby. I have actually been a pretty terrible procrastinator on this. Like, I rather not use the shower, than fix it!

---------------------------------------

Dh earned his keep. He did minor garage door repair, changed air filters, and promised to repair a hole in the wall (from doorknob - pesky kids loosened the door stopper). Him and the kids helped me with the trees, too. Dh did the grunt work.

Oh yeah - I figured I'd attempt to remove our small, dead tree. It seemed wobbly, so I gave it a good kick. Well, that was all it needed! Dh ended up having to saw it up into smaller pieces. It was just too dry/brittle. But I was able to get all the live tree branches trimmed. Borrowed saw came in handy!

I also drug dh along on a home repair shopping trip. Though I ended up buying most of it online (cheaper).

--------------------------------------

One thing to add: I puzzled over our grocery bill this month, since it was quite high, for 2 months in a row. & um, family was gone for ONE WEEK? I thought this month would even out since dh had stocked up on so much before their trip in October. (To be fair - I gave a fair amount of food away because dh cooked more like for 2-3, than for one).

Anyway, I swear the kids have asked for a snack about 100 times today!!!!! I think I can see the culprits! They usually do not eat light in the least, but I think keeping them well fed will be challenging for a while. They get this way with growth spurts. I can not imagine what it will be like to have 2 teenaged boys!!! With their metabolisms? Oy vey!! Glad I have time to save up for that - may need a second income. Or a Costco membership.

Definitely more good than bad!!!!

I read a report about local property tax assessments today. I can never remember all the dates, so saved me some homework. Was a reminder that assessment date was Jan. 1. Since we had a $325k appraisal at the time, other homes sold in that price range and that is exactly what our house assessment was, well, I didn't expect anything (assessment decrease) this year.

I was preparing to research home values on Jan. 1, 2010 and have my evidence in case the county didn't agree, next year. Hard to tell since nothing has sold less than $300k yet. BUT, some lower priced stuff sitting, etc. Who knows - was going to do my homework on Jan. 1, in case we could lower our taxes for NEXT year.

Anyway, property taxes in California - they can't go up more than 2% per year (or else no one could afford the taxes). Anyway, but they will go down to real value in a decline. Though in an uptick, they jump back to old levels. Homes are re-assessed upon sale.

Um, not sure state has ever had to reassess so many home (in decline). Definitely new territory - have read a lot of articles how this is a first. Current property tax laws not THAT old. From the 80s?

Anyway....

This is where it pays to live in a fancy neighborhood!

I almost fell over when I opened the bill (which did arrive today) and saw a $40k decrease in assessed value. Wahoo!!!!!

Makes sense when you consider the zip code as a whole. Our neighborhood can usually fetch much higher prices though.

So anyway, no complaints here!!!!!!

-------------------------------------

What's the bad news? I use assessed value (home) to measure house value for net worth. Ugh. My net worth is going to take a large slide backward this year.

I am fine with that because I will just adjust it 12/31. & well, I think the assessed value is in line of what our house value is probably worth at this point. So I will go with it.

I know there is lots of debate if homes/cars should be valued for net worth. For me, I can't imagine not doing it. We have put almost $100k into our house, almost HALF our net worth. Of course I count that as an asset. For most of the time we have been homeowners, homes were more liquid than cars. Sell a property in a day with 100 offers? Easy. Obviously not the last few years. But it is the same with cars. Since we pay cash for them, it's not like our cash goes in a black hole. If I spent $15k on a car, it's a $15k asset, that does depreciate rapidly. But I do include these things to get a realistic net worth picture. (I do depreciate cars very rapidly, and I like the assessed value method for home, since the price does not rise rapidly that way).

This year will be a good year since we did good on net worth. I expect to break even with the backward house value slide. I can live with that.

----------------------------------------

Anyway, $40k lower house value translates into a $400 tax break that I did not expect.

At the same time, my 4-year-old Dell laptop has been giving me a lot of grief. I have been too cheap to replace it, but it's been terribly slow this year, and the battery has been useless for about a year. (Our understanding all along was that it had a 3-year-life. Yup, that would sum it up).

I just happened to be having a gripe fest since my laptop would not do what I wanted it to do. I joked to dh we should get a new one with our tax savings.

Well, we are thinking of replacing it with a Netbook. There's some pretty decent ones in the $400 range. So we may go out and buy one this month.

I'll take a Netbook over a bigger property tax bill, any day.

Yup, jumping on the netbook bandwagon. I just need something for internet and Quicken. Minor photo editing. Dh thinks I can do it all on a cute little Netbook. Woohoo!

Props to Intuit. I only needed to remember my credit card #, name and phone # to access my Quicken download. Phew - I of course forgot my login! So that obstacle is cleared.

Leaning towards a HP Netbook. Dh has some homework ahead of him.

It's time for the annual update. We have officially hit 7 years on one income. Woohoo!

This was my update last year. Long but historical:

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/2008/09/06/six-years-and-...

Every year this anniversary carries less bravado. IT's less novelty and more "way of life," any more.

Plus, in less than a year, both kids will be in school for 6 hours a day. Working a job without never seeing each other and/or paying an arm and a leg for daycare will no longer be the obstacles to more income. IT will be like crossing the finish line!!!

The future brings many unknowns, so I am very glad that this is the case. I will feel much financial relief when dh is readily employable again.

I was discussing the FREE health insurance we just barely don't qualify for, for the kids, to dh. I mentioned how 2 $35k incomes hardly seemed a fair comparison to one $70k income and a choice for a spouse not to work. The two and black and white almost in comparison. Dh said, "Why? What difference does it make?" I said, "Um, because you could double our income very quicly, by returning to the workforce?" Duh!

Of course, I said many times, even in good times, dh has not been considered employable material. He applied for a slew of minimum wage jobs in 2005 and wasn't even considered for most. Which has been one big black cloud over what we thought was a very temporary situation. I can't imagine how the job market would treat him today!!!

SO I Wanted to post about 2 things. Where we were and where we are. & what dh's future plans are as we face both kids in school VERY soon. (I can't believe how fast this school year is flying by. I often catch myself saying, "Can you believe LM will be a Kindergartener, like tomorrow???" BEcause that is how it feels all of a sudden).

---------------------------------------

I'll try to keep this part short. We are just trying to get back to our savings level at age 25, sad to say!!!

I took home $3400 per month. Dh took home $2500/month and we saved it all. That was 2002, when I first became pregnant.

We had about $30k cash in the bank.

I always put 10% of my pay to retirement. We usually put about 5k, or 10% of dh's pay, to IRAs.

In the grand scheme of things we were probably saving $20k per year, cash. Most of that ended up as a down payment on our current home. The rest to our modest cars, paid for with cash.

Since having kids we have moved backward, and are just trying to get back to this starting point.

This year was very fruitful. We refied our mortgage and now save $200/month on our mortgage payments. I VERY sad that our preschool closed, and that LM is stuck with only about 4 hours a week in schooling this year, but it has saved us TONS this year. We've kind of sped up the benefits I expected to see next year when done with preschool, etc. But it has made the year more trying in non-financial ways.

Today I take home $5500 per month. (Still short $400/month from our 2-income days).

Of course, this year dh had a banner year and will probably take home $1200 from ebay. Which is REALLY nice, I must say!

I save 10% of my pay to retirement.

This year, for the first time ever, we are funding our IRAs with current income. I have funded some with savings and gifts in recent years. This year we will hit $5k, from income, which is amazing.

$22k cash in the bank. GEtting there. Still in "catch up" mode.

We're saving about $5k per year to cash, which is ample going forward. We need to speed this up a bit until we "catch up." Then the excess will probably go to max out a second ROTH. It will be 2010 or 2011 when we are able to do so again, regularly, from income. Well, we have never put more than $5k to our IRAs, so that will be a first, and an improvement. & this year, already, we have exceeded our old retirement savings pace. Which is a nice milestone!

With the house in a very manageable state, retirement is really our priority going forward.

---------------------------------------

Dh's plans? The world is his oyster, and as always, he struggles with direction.

However, he is bummed he can not really volunteer in the school this year since he has LM almost every minute of every day.

Next year he would like to volunteer a lot more at the school (which could possibly lead to low paying/flexible job opportunities). Though he'd do it regardless.

He has a minor in TV/film, which is really his "dream." He still feels he should probably update his education and that he should shoot for something higher paying. I don't particularly agree. I wish he would just follow his dream already!!!!

BUT, with the economy and all, and Kinder being such a transition year, he has talked about volunteering a lot more at the public TV station during the week. For now, he gives MANY weekends, and has many contacts there. But he wants to be very high profile and hope that it will help him get a job there eventually, when he is ready for full-time work.

I think he would LOVE working there, and it's very convenient. & I think a busy volunteer schedule would be good use of his newfound free time. Though if he told me he wanted a year to just do nothing, I wouldn't blame him. He has worked HARD the last 8 years.

In the meantime, one reason I Want to go heavy in cash is in case he returns to University. I don't think he will consider that until LM is settled in 1st grade. But better save those pennies just in case. We have a lot of public colleges in the area, so there will be many "affordable" oppurtunities. As the first time around, we have no desire to borrow for college. With any luck, we won't have to. Phew! IT's the kind of thing we are not sure we really want to invest in until the economy turns around. But dh needs any leg up he can.

I would hope that a return to school and/or a slew or volunteer work for his resume, will improve his odds of future employment. If the gap in his resume turned off minimum wage employers, I am not sure it will fare him well in his industries of choice.

Another idea would be do some temp work, etc. Which he will have TIME for. That would be for money only though. Really, a last resort. Though I guess worthwhile for skills and a foot in the door.

All things considered, we are easily looking at 2-3 more years on one income. But this year is nice as more options loom.

Net worth is up $27k, today.

Since my annual goal is $25k-$30k, that isn't half bad.

I am still at the whim of Murphy and the market for another 3 months though. No need to get too excited.

My cash is up $6k for the year.
Kids' Investments up $3k (2k market; 1k contributions).
Retirement is up $16k (about $11k contributions and $5k market).
Paid $2500 off mortgage - regular payments only.

That about sums it up!

---------------------------------------

ROTHS

This year is the first year, probably ever, that we are contributing monthly, in order to max out a ROTH. My old method was to lump sum when I did my tax return (when they were deductible IRAs anyway. We just put away whatever made the most sense. & we have done less of that even, since having kids).

I am thinking ahead as January fast approaches. I can automatically contribute to my own ROTH in Jan, Feb, Mar, April and apply it to the prior year. I am trying to decide if we should plump as much as we can into 2009. (We still have a second, spousal ROTH, to consider). In past years I have done this, with dh's earning prospects so up in the air, etc. My goal was just to put as much as possible into the ROTHs, because who knows.

As we get on better footing, I am thinking of just letting 2009 go and focusing on 2010. Thing is, I think we can max out $10k for 2010. Certainly if we have 16 months to do it!

I had a thought about the flip side. The flip side is all we need is a $5k unexpected windfall, and we could regret not attempting to max 2009 first.

The thing is I also think the odds of $5k falling out of the sky, are pretty slim. Our parents are both facing their own financial setbacks, and even my employer seems to be facing financial pressures (a stark contrast to the abundance of the past decade. Not that I am worried about my job, but not expecting a huge raise or anything).

---------------------------------------

I almost forgot to mention. I got a notice about some new push to insure children in our region (health, dental, etc). Sometimes the poverty guidelines for our area shock us. I know many would read my blog and not be impressed with our spending. But in the region, I knew very few families who could live as well as us on $50k, a few years back. (Though admittedly, we relied on savings a lot during that time).

In lower income times I look at the aid we were eligible for and often wondered about it. If we retired early, we'd be eligible for all sorts of aid. It always bothered me that those things tend to be based on income more than assets. It probably has come up a lot because we have settle for lesser income with small kids, and likely will in the long run as our assets grow enough to supplement our income, etc.

So anyway, I clearly do not expect to get free health insurance for my kids, but I look it up anyway. What is the income cutoff? about $70k for a family of 4.

Seriously???? My income is like $75k. I easily pay $5k a year for health insurance for the kids. It would be the same to ask for a pay reduction and to take the free health insurance.

Gah. Talk about tempting.

I know for the long run, I am much better off pressing on, and paying our own insurance. I won't sweat it. I mostly share because it amazes me that on my income we are so close to eligible for any kind of aid. It's absurd. The area is expensive and my income is below the household median, so that's how it goes.

I guess with time I realize these things are rather flawed. A family with 2 incomes who make $70k can be in a pretty precarious financial spot in an "expensive" area like this. But, one family living on one $70k income by choice. Should that same family be eligible for aid? Hmmmmmmm. The two aren't really the same, at all.

Anyway, I told dh that was good to know, if we ever faced less income or job loss, etc. It's good to know there are options, because health insurance is darn expensive! It's certainly been the biggest pain in our side, financially, the last few years.

I would probably be more outraged if we qualified for help. So I am rather glad we don't. Makes you wonder who is paying for this. We are, somehow. With our insane health insurance premiums, for one.

I mentioned earlier, that I was short a lot, in checking, for the month of September. Excess spending just kind of snowballed from my dad being in the hospital and everything, in the spring and summer.

I also said that I am making "pay myself first" a priority, and how it all seems to work out in the end. Not exactly worried about it!

Dh had a good sales run this month. However, a $50 items did not sell on ebay yesterday. He had a high minimum because it's the type of thing that can sell for too low, once in a while. I think he will easily sell it before the end of the month.

But assuming that doesn't sell, I currently face -$200 in the checking. Which is not bad. It was -$500.

Dh's family is big on cash anniversary gifts, so I won't be surprised if they give us $100.

The -$100, that will probably remain, will probably transferred from savings, as "emergency expenses."

Phew!

I will be so glad it wasn't the original -$500 or so I saw at the beginning of the month.

---------------------------------------

Credit card bill for this month is rather benign. We are up to $1200, and I think all I have is $60 due for karate. That leaves about $250 for gas and groceries. We budget for about $1500 on the card, monthly. We pay EVERYTHING on the card.

We will take $500 out of savings for our beach vacation. I will probably transfer it over Monday, so that there is enough in checking for all the 9/30 payments (mortgage and health insurance). I'll probably be $100 short otherwise, as mentioned. Speeding up the transfer makes it easy. Actually, gives me another month to come up with $100. Now that I think about it, I may not need to transfer money from savings at all. Which is how it all snowballed in the first place).

I don't want to jinx it, but September has been rather low key. Phew! Even with our rather impromptu beach weekend, our expenses will probably be under $4k for the month.

I am not sure what October will bring. The rest of the fam is going to Florida (on MIL's dime). BUT I am sure there will be some expenses there. But, with them being gone, it will be pretty low spend here for a week. October can go either way. We already have halloween covered though, so that is good.

In November, we should probably get my car taken care of. It still has a potential $1k repair. November is just kind of slow at work and probably a good time to get it taken care of. I just needed some time after all the car repairs of August!

-------------------------------------

I finally give up. One of the few things I spent any money on with my kids was their nursery. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't a lot, but I did spend in the realm of $200-$300 for the crib bedding and decor. I have been trying to sell it for a year at $40, $30, $20, $10. At $10-$30 I had PLENTY of interest, but just interest from a LOT of really flaky people.

So I give up. My posting expired, and to the donation pile it goes. Some charity comes by every other week or so, so I will set it out next time I get a pickup notice.

I guess not very many people want a sophisticated leopard print theme for their nursery. I LOVED it, and it was worth every penny. I had just hoped to get a little something for it. *sigh* Hardly spent so much on anything else *baby.* But most everything else was extremely re-saleable.

De-cluttering of the last year is complete! Yay!!!!! Now it is time to hit the closet, as I also mentioned. Time to go for another round! Hopefully I will have the motivation and energy while the family is gone. I am taking 2 days off work to enjoy the peace and quiet. Here's to being productive. (Fall gets me in the de-clutter mood, not sure what it is!) I assume true fall weather will arrive in October, and will help. Though even in this heat I have been eager to de-clutter.

----------------------------------

That's the long and the short of it. Boring can be good.

----------------------------------

We treated out last night since BM lost his tooth. Main reason being we have been encouraging him to wiggle out his "stuck" baby tooth. We had been promising frozen yogurt since his new permanent tooth already came through - many weeks ago. Spent $30 on fast food and frozen yogurt. Was a nice treat!

------------------------------------

I got a cheap tickets promotional e-mail, and perused airfare prices. Nothing tempting, which is good. I perused Vegas and Denver airfares, etc. But I looked at Kaui airfare for next summer, and almost fell over. Looked at spring and fall too. I think if I ever see $500 tickets to Kuai again, I will bite. They don't even sell tickets for September 2010 yet, though. But I'd go in May if I saw a good price. I can usually find cheaper tickets to Oahu. But I think Kaui adds a fair amount of cost. I barely saw anything under $800 per ticket. !! Though, yes, I saw $500 per person tickets, earlier in the year.

I will start keeping an eye on things and set up a price alert - maybe for May or September airfare. I didn't really want to decide anything until next summer. But it doesn't hurt to start pricing things. I think if I saw a good price I would nab it though. I got the Hawaii itch!

P.S. I found $500 RT tickets for May. But I will hold off. It was flying out of Oakland. Which works for me, to save $600!!! I think this is why we never spend much on airfare. We have 4 major airports at our disposal. Of the 4, one will usually have some pretty discounted airfare. You can never tell which one. Last time we went to HAwaii, starting in Sacramento was pretty cheap. As of today, that would be the most expensive starting point. Will see!

It was a nice surprise, but our net worth actually went up in August. Imagine that!

It went up from $219k to $219.5k. Even though we had over 2k in car repairs - paid in cash.

Year-to-date we are up $24.5k. Which only puts me $500 from my annual goal. (Goal to increase our net worth by $25k-$30k, at the least).

It doesn't mean much, we are still very at the whim of the market. The market is what saved our bacon is a spendy month.

Life resumes to "normal," I guess.

Took the car in for the AC yesterday, and assumed it may take a while. But, we already got it back!

After 10-days of being a "1 car family," we are very grateful to have 2 vehicles again.

Not sure if this is good or bad, but they couldn't find anything wrong with the AC. (Heck, it was working fine when we took it in). They drained the freon (had some moisture in it) and refilled it. It seems to be working much better.

Total cost? $100. PHEW!!!!! (I was worried this would be another $1k bill).

Of course, we will see if this fix "holds." But with summer nearing its end, if it doesn't "hold", not sure I care at this point. Either this is it, or we can survive until next spring.

Phew!

-------------------------------

I also was proud of myself. My parents found it important to teach me basic car maintenance. But, I don't remember getting much education on tires. I can change one, but that's about it.

So, historically, relative, friend, mechanic, says "OMG - you NEED new tires." & so we replace them.

Deciding maybe we need a better method, I have been trying to keep better track of the age of our tires.

Dh's tires are at about 50k miles so I was going to ask the mechanic's opinion. BUT, before we went over, I checked the treads myself. He had one bald tire (thing is OLD - might have been a used tire we bought a few years back - just kind of overlooked. Lord knows how old the thing is). Another tire was iffy. But the back 2 tires seemed just fine, which was actually rather surprising. But I figure this is my guess - I have NO IDEA what I am doing.

We had decided to just get the tires taken care of while we were carless all day.

So, mechanic agreed. Replaced 2 front tires and had a re-alignment. I am not sure how much life is left in the back tires. It's kind of nice we didn't have to replace 4 tires. BUT now it's just more work to keep track of it all. But I was proud of my own diagnostic.

I should probably just check the treads at the end of every summer. Now that I am getting the hang of it.

So, yes, about $250 spent on tires and alignment.

Obviously, a very expected part of auto maintenance!

------------------------------------

As we know all of our auto expenses, we can come up with a game plan.

I was rather surprised we only spent $500, to date, on car maintenance. We took the van in THREE TIMES already, but I guess it was all small stuff.

$500 + $350 AC repair/Tires = $850.

We budget about $1500 per year for regular vehicle repairs and maintenance.

For now, I think I am going to pull $1k from short-term savings, towards the van's door replacement. It puts us over $1500 YTD for auto expenses, but I have some wiggle room there.

I am going to pull the other $1200 from the medical fund.

The year is not over yet. BUT, ideally we will have enough in there to cover the Dodge's computer problems (estimates at $1k) AND ideally we won't need it for medical expenses.

Doing all this, we still have a chance to make it to $10k in our mid-term savings fund this year. I haven't touched a dime of the money I saved up this year (Current balance? $9000!).

So, worst case, we can always dip into that. I am just trying my darnedest not to!

I was paying all the bills (for August) and all that jazz. Read some posts/blogs, and thought maybe I should update my net worth.

The good news? Net worth is about $220k. I think this is most definitely, officially, the highest it has ever been. (Referring to backwards slide of 2008!)

This also puts is up about $24k for the year, and pretty much at our annual goal. Still at the whim of the market, and murphy, and everything else. Will see if we can hold on until year-end.

Oh yes, MURPHY!

---------------------------------

August has not started out well. I am too depressed to post about my stupid, avoidable, big expense, at right this moment. But I will soon enough - like this weekend.

Of course, I remembered we had the same kind of setback last year in July - with all of BM's presumably avoidable cavities. Yeah!

To top it off, I was updating our excel savings sheets and everything and was feeling a little better (looking at our mid-term savings - cash to be used for stupid expense - balance was higher than I remembered). But was reminded looking at all that, that August was our Murphy month last year too. July was cavities to the tune of $2k-$3k, but August was quite a few major expenses as well.

So what is it with summer? Ugh!

I know a lot of my real life friends think we are a little crazy, kind of no-fun saving fuddy duddies who just want to be rich or something. Honestly, my goal has never been to be rich; just to be comfortable. For that we seem to succeed. If not for the ambitious saving goals we could easily drown in all the "unexpected" in life. But instead, we shrug it off and move on. THAT is financial freedom.

We will shrug off our August setback and move on. But I will gripe a bit along the way.

So I am allowing myself one last happy, "Yay for 2009" post, and then I will whine about upcoming expenses on a later post... *sigh*

I'm still around, it's just been a little hectic.

The weather has been much more bearable around here. We came home Sunday reeking of garlic - think it's worn off by now.

Definitely had a spendy month, but was less expensive than I had expected. It's hard to care anyway, our savings is doing so well lately (knock on wood).

---------------------------------

Thinking towards long-term goals lately. I am starting to think we will hit all our "long-term" goals in 2010. Go figure! It depends, but exciting all the same.

I think we will have $30k cash in the bank by next spring. IT's kind of an arbitrary number. It's well over 6 months of "minimal" spending, so certainly an ample emergency fund. The arbitrariness is that we haven't had that much cash since we had our first child. So, um, it FEELS good.

We will be in that range next spring when LM is done with preschool. We have had a few different ideas what to do with that preschool money - $150/month. BUT, we are also saving $250/month for our medical deductible fund, and knock on wood, really haven't used it. As of next summer I would be happy to divert $250+ $150 per month, which is enough to max out our second ROTH (by the following April - meaning we can max both for 2010). I know max may increase, but just one thing at a time here. Putting away $10k per year is more than sufficient! THat's like 12% of my income, on top of the 10% we already contribute to retirement. IT's just too good a tax vehicle to pass up though.

Basically, as long as we are healthy we can max out the second ROTH.

With that, we can still continue to add about $8k per year to cash (which may cover the medical part anyway). I would like to contribute at that level until we have $40k cash. Of course, once we get there, might want to go one more year to $50k. Will see.

Which leads us to our next decision. As our cash balance grows, what do we want to do with the excess?

On one-income, I vote mortgage payoff. I am quite sure long-term investing would easily trump the effective 3.5% interest rate on our mortgage (after tax savings, etc.). BUT, for now life is simple. All our savings is in tax-deferred accounts and cash accounts. Life is very simple. To add taxable investments to the equation just makes me cringe when I think of all the work involved of managing it, and managing the taxes, etc.

Quite simply, paying off the mortgage is easy. IT keeps our taxes very simple, etc. So that is where I lean. Dh probably wants to save more for college. So we have much to discuss there.

If he returns to work it will be a very different ballgame. Our tax bracket will increase drastically. We will probably fund 401ks, HSAs, and 529s instead, to lower our tax exposure. For now, the HSAs and 529s give us no tax benefit, are not very flexible, and cost more than other savings vehicles. For now, I am not offered a 401k. But all these vehicles will save us a lot of taxes if our income increases.

If dh wanted to match his parent's contributions at $2k per year to college - for the kids - I think it's about the most I would really want to set aside. I'd rather start chipping away at the mortgage with any extra cash.

Which means, by end of 2010 we will probably have an ample 6 months' emergency fund, will be maxing our ROTHs (for a total 22% gross to retirement), and saving 10% income to cash. May be funding college. Any windfall could go to the mortgage.

Why so much cash? I'd like $15k for catastrophic emergency (& growing), $20k to replace both cars, and about $10k for home maintenance. Those are all the minimums I Feel we need - though they can overlap a bit. If we use the emergency fund I would gladly buy an old clunker instead, etc. That adds up to about $45k, eh? We tend to hoard cash, but just haven't had the income to do so in a while. I think cash is under-rated for the most part. Has kept our life simple. Will probably keep hoarding cash until we have a years' worth take-home pay in the bank. I have no issue with this if we are maxing out our retirement vehicles. The thing about cash is we can always change our mind down the road (invest it, put a chunk to mortgage, spend it, whatever). & as long as dh is not working, and not terribly employable, I think cash is extra important. IT would be kind of moot if he were working - I wouldn't see the point of hoarding so much then. Interest rates suck now, and have most of our adulthood, but I have managed to earn 5-6% many years on our cash. That time will come again. (I have a 5.5% CD at current - it expires later this year).

All this is probably way optimistic, but the direction we are currently heading in.

The possibility of meeting all of our aggressive savings goals on one income, is very exciting. My last long-term goal of current is to pay off the mortgage by age 45. In like 12 years? I assume dh will return to work to help meet this goal. It still feels like a bit of a pipe dream otherwise. But, who knows.

Really funny, but I ran into some old files on my computer.

I have said many times I am not much of a "budgeter." Not a strict one anyway. But, whenever life changes I tend to run up a budget to see where we are at and what our course of action should be. Thus, I am not terribly surprised that I found an old budget from 1999 (when I graduated college) and one from 2003 (when my first child was born).

In fact, I MUST have a budget from when dh and I first combined our finances - I will have to hunt it down (I am curious now). That's certainly the only time I remember making one, pre-2006.

Anyway, I only started using Quicken in 2006, and so I find anything prior to that is more of a guess - or reliance on scattered paper records, etc. SO, it was really interesting finding some old budgets. I decided to put them side by side (& will be interesting to add on in future years). I think it's interesting some of our expenses (like healthcare) have exploded, while others have stayed the same for a decade (landline?).





These all happen to be one-income years (1999, 2003, 2009). Dh was working in 1999, but we weren't living together or combining finances, etc. We got married and all that in 2000.

INCOME:

Obviously, my income has done quite well. Interestingly, my taxes have not gone up much over the years. Lots of tax breaks with the kids and the whole one-income thing. The mortgage helps too. I have never withheld more tax than I needed to!

EXPENSES:

Medical: Obviously, my medical insurance premiums look horrific. They are, but I am covering 4 people now, as opposed to one in 1999.

Dental/Disability: I now pay those privately, and save for those through "short-term savings." Dental cost way more, with 4 of us. Disability - I probably pay double that, these days.

Rent: This one is interesting. I rented a room in a nice home in a decent neighborhood, for about 5 years, through college. This is one expense I did not see increasing just because I graduated college. If I was single, would have stayed there a few more years, easily. Anyway, I have no doubt said, many times, that owning is cheaper than renting where I come from. Looking at this sheet, you wonder, "how?" Um, I had a room for one person. 2 wouldn't have been allowed. More importantly, it was a sublease from a renter who had been there MANY years. Our rent was rarely raised. The entire 3-bedroom house cost about $1600/month to rent and was a complete steal. (I had the most modest room and paid slightly less than 1/3. There was nothing modest about this room BTW - LOL - it was huge). Basically, I don't think it would have been possible for us to rent an apartment for as much - certainly not one with room for kids. So, my rent was cheap - but it wasn't very feasible to find cheap rent once we married - and we were always thinking ahead to when we had kids. BAsically, at marriage we were done renting with other people to keep costs down.

Mortgage: We have refied that down over the years. 8%+ down to 4.875%.

HOA: I was surprised to see our HOA fees used to be higher. I had completely forgotten. Dh reminded me that we used to pay more because few houses had been built when we moved in - they lowered it as people moved in, etc.

(The HOA on our old condo has gone from $250 to $400, monthly, in just a few years. So I daresay we have been lucky here).

Auto gas - I find my 2003 budget figure interesting. I used to drive home for lunch every single day. Gas was considerably cheaper in both 1999 and 2003. Am I driving more now? Not in the least!! Though my current budget figure is more forward thinking/inflation including. I rarely spend $300 on gas any given month. But, no doubt the expense has gone up.

Food - we have added a few mouths to feed.

Clothes - was always my big splurge

Gym - I used to get a good deal on 24 hour Fitness, through my work. These days we pay about the same for dh and I to go to the discount/no-frills gym. I didn't feel we could afford a gym when we had BM, but I guess I would have considered it if I knew there were such cheap options.

Landline - Back to old $25 now that dh let me drop call waiting. (I always had my own landline - for internet).

Cell - I had a cell (& internet) in 1999, but my parents paid for it. My dad had aol from way back, and I had an account many years. I just dialed up, of course. I don't remember when or why they got me a cell phone. I am sure I got my own plan sometime not too long after graduating college.

We've been able to lower our costs since, by adding our parents to our family plan, and sharing the costs.

Utilities - they have gone way up. No biggie renting with the roommates - they were never home. I was home even less - so our utilities were low. Plus we split them. Water was very cheap in San Jose - I was shocked at our water bills when we moved up here. !!

Cable - the first luxury we added when we married. I am surprised cost has stagnated. Seems like we have been paying more lately. But I think dh had HBO when BM was born. That probably explains it.

Gardener - a luxury we added in 2005 - LOVE it.

Preschool - a luxury we added in 2006, and which will entirely disappear in just one year. That will be divine.

Expenses Reimbursed - At my first job out of college, I made this budget before I got heavily into it. Truth is I spent a LOT more on driving and on eating out (part of the job) but was reimbursed handsomely for most of it. So I had a "reimbursed" category. I did spend a lot more on gas and food that first year or 2, but since it was reimbursed, guess it doesn't really matter. I was able to stretch my paycheck a lot further with all the extra money.

Car - I bought a $6k car around the time I graduated college, and paid it off in a few months. (My 20-year-old car had the decency to die 2-3 months out of college - phew). So it was one expense I kept very low. The auto reimbursements were quite high compared to my actual auto costs. Helped to bulk up my savings.

Savings - I was really surprised I seemed to take care in calculating semi-annual expenses in my 1999 budget. Shouldn't be surprised - I lived on a shoestring so long - no doubt I needed that planning. That pretty much sums up most of my college living expenses, etc., when I made far less money.

Obviously, my savings in 1999 was far simpler. (I was also surprised I had a 401k category - I wasn't able to contribute until mid-2000. Planning ahead I guess).

I have since simplified, since we have so many items to save for (property taxes, insurance, vacation, dental checkups, car repairs, and many other irregular expenses). I just put $1k per month away, for all that now. This is an area where a lot of our expenses have gone up, post-kids. We have lots more insurance, etc., than we did in 1999 or 2003.

---------------------------------

The whole point of sharing is to illustrate how much easier it was to live below my means immediately post-college, than it has been since having children, etc. To the YOUNG people.

I was NOT deprived in 1999 - I had tons more savings and disposable income than I do today.

I traveled a fair amount back then. It was just so cheap alone (You know, stay with friends, split hotel room) that it hardly warranted a mention in the budget. The thing I Struggle with these days is how so many things seem to cost times 4 (with 4 of us).

People all the time assume living so tightly in my youth sucked. The thing is, it paid off so quickly. The truth is I just wasn't much into material things. My life was very rich with people and experiences. The $6k car I bought was an immaculate, cute, convertible. Those were some fun times. "Deprived" is not the word I think of when I think back to my early 20s.

(It was easier back then because everyone else was young and broke too - not a lot of financial pressure! PArticularly with the exorbinant rents - none of my friends had much disposable income).

--------------------------------------

Going forward? We've been trying to limit our regular monthly expenditures to the realm of $4000/month (indefinitely). We no doubt increased our expenses over the years, with mortgage and kids, but we don't really have any new "luxury" expenses on the horizon. Happy with where we are at. We are also pleased with our insurance coverages, etc., for the long haul. So basically, outside rising costs /inflation for our current expenses, we don't expect to add much to the expense column. (This holds true even if dh lands a high paying job - we'd just save it and pay off the mortgage. We'd be willing to help more with college. Boring stuff like that).

It helps that our biggest expense, the mortgage, is not going up. On the contrary, it has gone down with time, literally (refis) and inflation-wise.

It will be interesting to check back in 6 years and to see where we are at.

I've apparently worked my budget down to an "exact science."

I hesitate to use the word "budget" because I am not really into the whole tradiitonal budget thing. I would drive myself nuts accounting for all those overages/underages every month. & you might be surprised, but I do not care for a strict budget. I like that if I spent no money on gas or food, that I can go splurge on something else. I do not carry things over month to month. I guess I like flexibility and ease, over rigidity and complication.

So anyway, we had a good month and for whatever reason it popped into my mind that we really could save another $50/month. I just felt it would be very reasonable.

I opened my "budget" spreadsheet on a whim and looked it over.

Lo and behold - when LM started his new preschool I guess I rounded way up and allocated $200/month to that. Thing is, most months it's barely $150.

So subconsciously I am thinking I have $50 per month to spare, and in reality - I really do.

My goal for maxing out first ROTH was to put away $350/month and "wing it" on the rest - scrounge it up somehow.

This officially puts me to $5k per year, just based on $400 monthly contributions (well, the additional $200 will be easy to scrounge).

So, I am very pleased.

I would like to build up more cash savings, but I also think it's important to contribute heavily to retirement in this market. So I am kind of doing $400/month to each, for now. I certainly am tempted to put my spare $50 to cash, but I know we have had a good year and with a little patience will probably reach my cash goals within the year. So I will stay the course!

I whipped this up sometime when we were in preschool limbo and we had a few hundred dollars to spare every month. It's worked out well:



As a recap:

short-term "savings" are to be spent within the year (vacation, car repairs, property taxes, insurance, dental, swim lessoms, misc., etc. - everything that is not a regular monthly expense).

mid-term savings - larger expenses expected in more than one year - car replacement and house maintenance, orthodontia, etc. Car repairs for more than I "budgeted" would fall here too, as well as unexpected large bills, etc.

medical savings - we switched to a HDHP and save $250/month on premiums. We save the difference for deductibles and future rate increases.

I've kind of been honing this system for a while, and I am very pleased with it. Once honed, it's been a rather simple and effective savings system. Though we are saving much less than when we both worked, there is much more thought to the big picture. I think the thought makes up for the decrease in savings, in many regards.

Anyway, yes, I already increased my automatic ROTH contributions - starting with July!

--------

ETA: I do put everything possible on the credit card (for rewards, etc.). It is paid monthly, of course!

Everything not on the card can not be paid with credit cards - bah.

BUT I also worked on this spreadsheet to get an idea what my monthly credit card bills should be - since we recently switched some utilities over to the card, etc. IT can get kind of confusing though since I can put a lot of short-term expenses on the card. It usually runs closer to $2k, BUT I can simply subtract all the short-term items (they tend to be larger/obvious items) and just make sure the rest never tops $1500.

Net Worth is up $17k for the year, give or take maybe $1k, depending on stock performance today.

Cash is up about $7k. & is my main concern right now!

Retirement is up $8k (about $6k contributions and $2k gains).

Paid almost $2k off mortgage, this year.

That about sums it up.

Interestingly, our cash and investments passed the $100k mark. Not sure if they have before. That's a nice milestone! Depends on the day, but as of this moment, we are at about $100,500!

--------------------------------------

Swim lessons - OMG. I bought goggles for the kids over the weekend. Apparently, LM Was not scared to swim - only scared to get water in his eyes. ????? Dh said he jumped in the pool and swam like a fish, during his lesson. (What a relief. When I was a kid I had to be pushed in and I was worried he would be the same way).

He told me his googles were "AWE-SOME!"

So, 4 lessons later, and LM can SWIM! He did so amazingly well. He has a second week of lessons in mid-July and I just asked if she had any more time in August. Hoping I can get him a 3rd week.

In fact, I am so amazed I am going to buy the kids' teacher a nice treat or pay her a little extra. She DESERVES it! ($50 for a week of private lessons was a steal!)

----------------------------------------

Piano lessons have took a turn for the better. If I remember today anyway - to give lesson on such a busy day. BUT BM is LOVING it. I simply asked him to practice 5 minutes a day, but he has declared he would like to practice 1/2 hour - twice a day. Hopefully I don't kill his enthusiasm. Which is a big reason usually why parent don't teach their kids. I try to butt out of his practicing too. Practicing is for him and his parent - he doesn't need his teacher there too. Dh may learn something...