Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Ting announced last week that they now have an exchange program for non-Sprint phones.

"From May 22 to June 30, sell any of the following T-Mobile, AT&T or Verizon devices on Glyde and buy the same Sprint model, capacity and condition. We will reimburse you with a Ting credit to cover any difference between what you spend (plus fees, taxes and shipping) and what you collect.

Apple iPhone 4
Apple iPhone 4S
Apple iPhone 5
Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung Galaxy S3"

"Second, if you want to upgrade to a better device (as long as it is on the Sprint network and on our whitelist), you can do that. We will just give you a credit for what it would have cost you to swap for the same exact device (plus fees, taxes and shipping) and then you’ll cover the price of the upgrade on top of that. For example, sell your Verizon iPhone 4 and buy a Sprint iPhone 5, or even a Sprint Samsung Galaxy SIII. We will credit you the difference between buying a Sprint iPhone 4 on Glyde and what you recovered selling the Verizon iPhone 5 at the recommended price plus taxes, fees and shipping. So, we will cover what a swap would have been. And you will have paid for the “upgrade”."

https://ting.com/blog/ting-your-t-mobile-att-or-verizon-ipho...

I personally not have used Glyde, BUT Ting literally credited our account for our "early termination fee" refund the day I submitted the request. They are FAST with account credits.

Here is my Ting referral code, for $25 off at sign up.

https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

Also, if you have *any* questions about the process, don't hesitate to call or e-mail Ting customer support. They are GREAT.

Small Fiscal Updates

--I finally got smoothie maker replaced with a working one - dh returned non-working one for me

--I got 6% CD all set up after endless issues

--I *finally* got my full Kohls refund (from like January???)

--No new jinxes lately?

--Crossing my fingers, but signed up dh for the Southwest Chase card. It's a double dip, but it's been over two years on that one. They are more strict on the double dips. If it goes well I may apply sometime in the future. It seems to be hit and miss from reports of others. Reward is $500 in Amazon gift cards.

--I spent about $60 buying clothing for BM. Uniform pants for winter, uniform shorts, regular shorts, and a jacket, all in the next size up. I thought to shop because I unpacked all the summer/swim wear I had bought in clearance during the winter. I think that was $60 for 9 items of clothing, and the jacket was quite nice. He's fairly set for the next year. LM is rich in hand-me-downs.

--Dh's mom has been mending uniform pants into shorts, for us. Dh thought this up and is genius since the kids prefer shorts most the year anyway. & they are kind of rough on pants.

--I do have to buy a backpack for LM, and am keeping an eye out. I think August will be a better time to find a deal. (He starts 4th grade and his dinky little "since kinder" backpack is not going to cut it. 4th grade is intense at their school - lots of books).

--I was commenting the end of last year that only the electric bill was left as far as room for improvement. & I was kind of stuck on that one.

Well... We do the balanced billing because it's just so much easier. Most our bills are fixed every month and I find that easier to manage. Makes our monthly spending very predictable.

So, our electric budget billing just went from $90 to $65. Woohoo! I keep an eye on the usage and hadn't noticed anything, but after the reduction I went back and looked at past 6 months or so and noticed that we have been consistently using a little bit less electricity. I think the large swing is due to the fact that we have been over-paying for a while. There is a time lag on the billing.

We also tend to be pretty consistent and so we have never had a big adjustment either way (after several years of budget billing). So this was certainly a significant change. Will see where it ends up eventually. As we approach A/C weather, they may decide to "up" that in another 6 months or so. Particularly since this has been a really hot May (maybe a really hot summer?)

I had no idea why our bill would go down, but dh told me he thinks that his new computer is much more energy efficient, and it has a better automatic sleep mode. He has had that for about a year. I'd say most the appliances we have bought lately are supposed to be way more energy efficient, but the computer is the first one that seems to be noticeable as far as to lower electricity bills.

Fiscally, things are going quite well.

*knock on wood*

Aside from saving up for our homes, we are maybe $5,000 away from the most we have ever had in savings. Which would be more than we have had saved up since having kids. I don't know the exact (peak) figure since I just track net worth every 12/31. Since my first pregnancy went so well we diverted a lot of that money into retirement that first year. So pre-kids was the peak; we were saving up for multiple maternity leaves and so on. We spent it down and redirected because we never imagined dh would be out of work 5 years later, much less 12 years later! It's been slow going to build that back up, but we are getting there.

Along the same lines, I wanted to update about a "big picture" goal. Last year we achieved more assets than debts. We've always had a positive net worth, but I mean we reached the point where we could pay off our mortgage with our savings and investments. We reached that goal in March 2013.

Where are we today? Today we could pay off our mortgage and have $50,000 left over. Woohoo! I think that's great progress for one year. (& that was with a very very expensive and trying 2013).

The next big goal for us? More in retirement savings than owed on mortgage. We are within a few thousand dollars of that milestone.

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After years of consolidating and cleaning things up, we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. I am opening more accounts (two taxable investment accounts this past year) and I have to open a Traditional IRA for dh. He only has a ROTH. We had converted all of our money into ROTHs during some of our lowest income years, but I have a Traditional IRA from a work retirement plan rollover in the years since.

OF course, the kids have their 7% savings accounts and I just opened two bank accounts for bonuses. So, yeah, it feels like I am opening a LOT of accounts. I suppose that is a GOOD thing.

I saw this on Facebook today. Don't you love it?



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We went to the Maker Faire yesterday. It was awesome.

The plan was to go for one day, and evaluate if we should go two days next year. Though two days would no doubt be absolutely exhausting, I think that is what we should aim for next year. I think if it was just us adults, the one day was good enough (there is probably a lot of overlap year to year; not because we actually got to see everything!). BUT, the kids hands-on stuff was fairly infinite and the kids just ate it up. So, for that, I think it's worthwhile to make the time and financial commitment next year. As is, there was an entire "Kids Hall" that we never even made it to.

LM had a blast with an animation station that was set up. He is talented on the artistic side, and so we will probably look into getting some software or see if there is a website that he can practice on. "Animation" is just not anything overly specific we have looked into for him, before.

He also saw his favorite video game had a booth and they gave him some freebies so he was over the moon.

BM wanted to do something that took like an hour. He is lucky his daddy had the patience and saw the value. It ended up being the highlight of his day. (If I knew it would be the highlight, of course I would have encouraged him). It was an area where they were ripping apart stuffed toys that move and make sounds. You rip it apart and then cover the electronics up with the parts left from the ones everyone else ripped apart. So he turned a bat into a snowman. Dh dubbed it "frankenfrosty".

The other hit was an area where they had just thrown around a bunch of small appliances for kids to rip apart and see what was inside. Admittedly, I don't know if my kids were into the true spirit of this. They were more into the demolition aspect of it. But BM also enjoyed from a "curiosity/how does it work?" standpoint.

SO... I talked to my dad about it and he said he had some stuff laying around that they could rip apart. (My dad grew up poor in small town Kansas and had absolutely no science mentors. BUT, he enjoyed taking things apart when he was a kid. That's really all he could do. His career ambition was to be a repairman, until he went to college and received guidance. The fact that BM Enjoyed this part so much reminded me of my dad, and I know my dad would love to show him how all this stuff actually works).

It was crazy crowded, but not to the point of non-enjoyment. & I have really low tolerance for crowds. But there just weren't that many lines or anything (except for the bathroom!). The venue was so huge and there was so much to see.

I wouldn't even know where to begin with everything we saw. Here is a cute video that gives a overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlw4qRJ5YZo

The giant flaming octopus reminds me of our neighbor who liked to shoot fire balls in the air. (Keep in mind the high density housing and the desert like climate. !!! CRAZY). Maybe we should just be glad he wasn't *that* ambitious. (Apparently 200 gallons of propane for the giant octopus, for the weekend). {That neighbor lost his home to foreclosure and is long gone. Surprise surprise}.

**Exciting news on the cell phone front. The new Moto E was announced, at $129. (The price drops this past 6 months are crazy!).

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/13/5712900/motorola-moto-e-re...

Moto E is not supported on Ting yet (neither is Moto G), but I will let you know when it is.

Moto E + Ting will make for some very cheap cell-phoning.

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**One of my pet peeves is loose change just sitting around (not earning interest in the bank!). I noticed a while ago dh had a bag of change laying around. He told me it was the money he found in Florida in 2012. (He found about $4 on a ride).

I was going to deposit it into the kids' accounts (free loose changing machine if it goes into their accounts) but decided that dh had more time and he could take care of it. He said, "Why don't I just take it to the grocery store change machine for an Amazon gift card?" I said, "Why don't you?" Because it's been sitting around for over 18 months and you haven't done anything with it? He is trying to drive me crazy!!

The kids take after their dad. They refused to deposit their loose change. So, dh lucked out. I told him to get the Amazon gift card. If I still see that change in a week or two, I might have to go figure that machine out myself. Finders keepers.

**Speaking of Amazon, I received a $20 Amazon gift card for doing a survey re: my profession. Woohoo!! I am supposed to get another $20 for a phone interview. I had almost forgotten about it because it took them a week to send me the gift card. It seemed pretty legit, but I was getting skeptical after a time. But then it arrived today.

I already spent my gift card. BM is going to sleepaway camp very shortly and I wanted to get him a disposable camera for the trip. I picked up a couple of things I needed and dh recommended a game for the kids (birthday) so I could get the free shipping. I don't know if I will get the camera in time, but I tried and the camera at least will be "free".

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One more random thing. I am still definitely jinxed (I have never spent so much time in my life dealing with customer service for this or that - OMG). I think the jinx has worn off on dh. For example, I ordered a smoothie maker on his Amazon account (I don't remember why I ordered from his account, but I did) and it arrived broken. Would not work at all. By itself, whatever, but this is every single thing I have touched this year. ???

So... We had some interesting mail this weekend. A birthday card and check arrived for dh. IT was postmarked around the time of his birthday, in JANUARY. It had come to us from California, to California, via Papau New Guinea.

It was from my parents. They didn't notice because they forgot to put the check in their register. We didn't notice because my parents never give us money. So we were surprised by the card, and even more surprised by the generous ($50) check.

But yeah, I think it's official. We both be jinxed.

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The jinx is annoying, but I can appreciate that it is just stupid little stuff.

We are holding our breath for the rest of May because it's kind of heavy on the medical front.

Sister has a big appointment early next week. I don't know where to begin with that, but if there is anything to report with that I will. For now, it just makes me anxious. She is very young, but her health is very poor due to her own choices and lack of care for her health. (It's not an addict thing, but is a lot like that). I am honestly surprised she has not had more problems, but being referred to a specialist is likely because she is developing more serious problems. I don't even know how honest she will be with us, which is a whole other thing. But she did tell us she had an appointment. *sigh*

That by itself is pretty heavy. But, in addition, for those of you who do not know, my spouse also has a brain tumor. It's relatively benign and harmless at this point (after surgical removal), but if it grows we will have to consider radiation and so on. So, he had his annual MRI this week. We will get the results at the end of the month. We are a little extra anxious this year because they were concerned it might have grown last year. (But it was too little to tell). It's the only saving grace about this type tumor. It grows really really really slow. But maybe that's bad too. Not looking forward to another "Gee, I don't know if it's growing or not" evaluation.

So I think my family and his family are all collectively holding our breaths a bit, until we get more news.

Shifting from work mode to play mode, over here.

I took yesterday off, which was first weekday off since December. Having 3 days off feels like having a week off, after tax season.

Dh and I went on a beautiful hour long hike about a 40 minute drive from our home. I just googled "easy" and this is what I came up with. It was close and it looked gorgeous, and it was indeed easy. We were rewarded with a waterfall at the end of the hike.





Afterwards, we went over to Fry's for 50 cent hot dog/soda meals. Dh picked up a blu ray on sale for $9.99. The full prices of those blu rays astound me. Yeesh! ($40 for a movie??)

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Other May doings:

**Robot Wars seems to be a no-go this year. I haven't heard anything as to what happened with that.

So, we have plans to go to the Maker Faire this month, instead.

"Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these “makers” come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned."

You name it, they will probably have it. I expect to have some interesting pictures to share.

**This weekend the kids have a birthday party at a rock climbing place. The place has a very reasonably priced summer camp, so we make look into that for BM. He probably needs a membership to one of these places. He is a born climber.

I also noticed the drop-in play place was open Sunday. Hard to get open play on the weekend, due to birthday parties. So, I may take the kids. It's only $7 per kid and it might as well be Disneyland, as far as they are concerned.

**For Memorial Day weekend the HOA has a BBQ and turns on the pool heat.

BM will be at camp that week with his 5th grade class. IT sounds fairly identical to the family camp we always go to in June. I think he will have a blast.

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We have a movie theater in our home. Which I have mentioned before, but probably not much the past few years. My husband is deaf in one ear, post brain tumor. & so I think this has really dampened his enjoyment of the theater room. In addition, he has since bought a couple of HDTVs (which are smaller screens but higher quality). We are also both fairly set on downsizing, so I don't think anyone here has been too upset that the theater room is not getting a lot of use. We aren't taking it with us. (Will just buy a ridiculously large TV for our new home. Which can be way more expensive than our theater setup, but will work better in a smaller space).

BUT...

Dh is getting renewed interest in utilizing the room more. I told him I was more than fine with him upgrading the projector. I know he has been unhappy with it for a long time. I did express my concerns about long-term future. But we both kind of feel if we have the space and the equipment, we might as well enjoy it. We don't plan to downsize for another 15 years or so.

So, we have a loose plan to build a platform for the seating so it is at a more ideal height. & this will allow us to add another row of more formal seating if we ever want to. For now, we have some old office chair and bean bags, which I think will work for a long time. We've been using those anyway, but more seats will work better with the back row raised. I don't think dh cares that much about additional seating aesthetics, but I will keep an eye out on Craigslist for theater seating. The only reason we ever bought theater seats in the first place was we stumbled onto an incredible deal. I am sure we can find a deal on a second row.

Before dh and I discussed it, I was kind of thinking we had really gotten pretty up to date on everything. Finished furnishing our home a couple of years back (took it very slowly over the years) and replaced most our electronics in the past year. I was thinking that really the only thing on our wish list at this point is to replace the old projector. We've agreed to probably do that after Christimas. Dh's parents have been generous lately and if he wants to take all of what they give us at Christmas, I am fine with that. Will probably work on the seating before that since it should be fairly inexpensive to build a platform.

I don't know if I fully realized how much dh has been sulking around the last 4 years, but he seems to be snapping out of it. I am so happy to see him impassioned about his movie set up again. I think financially the timing just works, too. This may have been a ridiculous splurge 2 years ago and it might be two years from now too. But for now, it works. I think his parents will likely pay for it anyway. They have been fairly generous the last couple of Christmases, with cash gifts.

We are waiting until Christmas to see what his parents give us and what kind of year we have financially. We can buy a much better projector for $1,000-ish otherwise. But holding out to potentially spend closer to $3,000 of gift money. Whatever our budget, we will make it work. A $1,000 projector will be a significant improvement.

Our home theater setup is fairly simple. It started with an inexpensive projector on a small table. That was when dh had a dream and we all thought he was a little insane.

We eventually bought a screen and seating, and a new ceiling mounted projector. Around $3,000-ish for all that, but it was about 5 years into this whole movie theater thing. For the first 5 years, a blank wall and a projector and some hand-me-down couch was the setup. We have had the current set up for about 10 years.

That's the bulk of it. Dh has a surround sound setup that he bought in college. He eventually bought a fancier tuner and a blu ray player, but can watch most anything through his computer.

I share because I think it's something really important to share as far as debt free living. It has never been about deprivation for us. It has always been about being creative, and usually means having more than other people anyway. It means starting small and building up. Which is how we approach just about everything. I couldn't tell you how a $30,000 theater set up is any better than our current $3,000-ish set up. The difference would be fairly indiscernable to most. (Especially when you turn out the lights!!) Yes, our projector is outdated, but that would happen no matter how expensive we went. It's a 10-year-old projector and TV technology has blown it out of the water in that time. Dh is fairly confident that this projector will be the last one he ever buys. For this house, anyway. We may be able to swing a theater setup in a smaller space.

As an aside? Technically we paid an extra $30,000 for the room for this theater. That is not exactly frugal. It came to be when we moved to our lower cost haven. We figured we might as well splurge on that because we were saving *so much* on housing. BUT, at then end of the day, since we bought new construction we got the extra space at a deep discount. Today the extra room fetches a premium of about $100,000 over the smaller homes in the same neighborhood. I had to share because I think at the end of the day this little splurge will have been a fairly profitable investment. (It's been like that since Day 1 and was obvious we got an incredible deal on the extra space. Which is why we chose this house in the first place. The space was perfect and the price was right!).

Well, I am well on my way to tripling our bank interest this year. Without any credit card rewards. Literally, just talking bank interest.

**Chase

I got a direct mail offer form Chase, that I have yet to redeem. I will probably do it this weekend. (The offer expires in July. All I have to do is open an account and I will get $200 in 10 days. The kind of offers they sell on Ebay. Fine print is I have to keep $1500 in the account for 6 months to avoid any fees and to keep the bonus. That works out to a 26% interest rate on my $1500 for 6 months. I will take it!)

So, that *doubles* the bank interest income I expect to receive this year.

**Hanscom Federal Credit Union

This one is a little more complicated, but the timing is kind of perfect for me.

The details are at My Money Blog:

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/hansom-federal-cu-thrive-review.h...

Check out the referral link and read his blog post. He did a fine job summing it up.

The short explanation is that this CU is offering 6% interest for 12 months. It's called a Thrive account. It is kind of like a C.D. The max you can put into this account is $500 per month.

You need to open a savings account and keep $25 in the account to be a CU member. You need to open a checking account and keep $1 in that account, because you have to fund the Thrive account with the checking account. You can then transfer up to $500/month into the Thrive account. No minimums in the Thrive account, but there is a penalty for withdrawals. These are basically no-fee accounts.

There is a $30 sign up bonus if you use a referral. On the flip side, if you don't qualify otherwise, you have to pay $35 to join some organization, to qualify as a CU member. But these two pretty much offset. & you can potentially earn additional $30 referrals.

The interest earned on the Thrive account will be in the realm of $3,000 x 6%. Around $180 total interest. Since you have to fund it slowly throughout the year. This in effect *triples* my total bank interest for the next 12 months.

At the end of 12 months, the Thrive account is swept into your savings account, I believe, and you will get a renewal notice about interest rate. Which is otherwise about 3% right now. You then start over at $0.

If I had any doubts about the PITA factor of this account, there was an extra bonus for me. My kids have a 7% interest account that cap out at a $500 balance. My elder child is well on the way to $500. SO... I figure in one year if the interest rate on this account reverts to 3% or so, it would be an excellent place to save up kids' money. & heck, 3% isn't a bad deal for myself either. But yeah, I expect it to be a long while before the kids have $6,000 ($500 x 12). So, it might be a good place just to pool some of their savings and track it in excel or something like that.

{My kids have been REALLY motivated by the higher interest rate, but are well aware they won't earn much, anywhere, after they hit the $500 cap. So, I think this will help motivate them to keep saving}.

Minors (over age 8) can also open these Thrive accounts. I didn't look into those details.

I wish I had my referral code to share, but I don't think I will receive it before this promo ends. 6% Promo ends Saturday.

**For the first of the month I received $19 in bank interest and $100 in credit card rewards. ($50 for ROTH and $50 cash; two different cards).

**I am taking care of some fiscal chores. I finally got around to making sure I was set up as secondary custodian on kids' investment accounts. I was mostly concerned about those (real $$$). Though I guess I should look into getting dh set up as secondary custodian on their savings accounts.

**Got my first Ting bill ever! We signed up right after Thanksgiving? First 4 months were entirely free. For April, we were charged about $10. $5 of that is for our household.

Next month we will likely pay a full $26 for our half of the bill. That has been our consistent monthly usage.

**I plan to open Chase checking account this weekend. That will be a $200 reward earned in something like 10 days.

I am not sure what I will do with this reward. Might just set it aside for vacation/kitty hotel, though I don't know if that is necessary. Otherwise, will probably invest the $200. We are diverting our snowflakes into an investment account, starting this month.

**I opened a new investment account this week, for my current year raise and to divert all snowflakes to. The purpose is a supplementary unemployment fund, college savings, and mortgage paydown/retirement. Gives us a little more liquidity and flexibility for the first two purposes, but mostly expect to use it for retirement or mortgage payoff, eventually.

No firm decisions yet. If things go well we may do 50/50 mortgage paydown/investing. I think that is probably where we will eventually end up.

I guess we are all backwards. When we graduated college the IRA contribution limits were a mere $2,000 per person. But we were saving 50%+ of our income. We started out with much more money in taxable savings and investments than we could possibly put away into tax-deferred accounts. Over the years that has shifted and we have certainly tried to be very tax efficient. In the past we have also done the complete opposite. We were saving too much into retirement, but funded ROTHs anyway knowing that we can use that money for college and so on. IT ebbs and flows.

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**I think last year was a dud on the "vacation lifestyle" front, but this year is shaping up pretty nicely.

Had a few loose vacation plans fall through. (Yellowstone wedding is postponed for a year or two; National Parks don't seem to be in the cards for us).

But, several other things popped up in the meantime. Most of them involve free hotel stays and driving, and so I think I can leave most the vacation budget intact for my plans to visit my sister in Ohio in the fall. Other than that, we have a short trip planned every month for the rest of the year. The Northern California coast, the Southern California coast, Napa, Tahoe, etc.

MIL invited us to Disney. I feel a little bad for her. She wanted to do something nice for us. We could really care less about going to Disney. Even moreso though with the summer offer - hot and crowded! (Even our kids don't want to go. What did we do to our kids??? ). I might regret it, but we are giving it a go. Trying to compromise with Lego Land, which the kids are excited about.

This is the "mac and cheese" recipe in our house. The kids LOVE it.

Pasta with Chickpeas and Garlic Sauce

http://www.food.com/recipe/pasta-with-chickpeas-and-garlic-s...

Dh made it twice this week, so I thought to share it.

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The older child goes crazy for this one:

Taco Rice Salad

http://community.tasteofhome.com/community_forums/f/30/p/653...

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Oven Roasted Broccoli

http://www.food.com/recipe/oven-roasted-broccoli-206184

I made this one a while ago. I had forgotten about it. I am kind of "meh" on broccoli. Neutral, I guess. I tried this and it came out excellent. Funny thing is my older child keeps asking me when I will make broccoli. I guess that makes this one a keeper. (He's not a picky kid, but seriously, what 10-year-old begs for broccoli? )

One thing I really need to work on is replacing potato chips with vegetable chips, in our house. I have been wanting to try some new recipes and experiment with that a bit. I write this down so I will remember.

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I tried a curry recipe a couple of months ago. The flavor was a little off. I think dh requested when he was sick because it sounded good. (He had the flu a couple of months back). Both BM and dh had this bug, and their taste buds were off for a while during and after. It might be worth a redo.

But I am writing this down too so that I remember to keep an eye out for curry recipes.

Just trying to expand our cooking repertoire and try new things. So, the theme for 2014 is baked veggies and curry.

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LM has been going *crazy* for samosas. I told him I would try out some filling recipes and go from there. Is basically potatoes, peas, spices (we have ample Indian spices on hand). I think actually wrapping it in dough and frying it is a bit much for me. Will see if we can just get the filling to work.

He's the picky one, but we have him pretty sold on Indian food. We could probably also use more chickpea recipes. Dh has an intense crockpot recipe that has to cook overnight on high (starts with dried chickpeas). I'd like to find a few simpler recipes with canned chickpeas.

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I felt like doing absolutely nothing today (my first free weekend off in months). I fell asleep for a few hours, so felt better about my lack of energy. I guess I just needed a good rest. Hoping to be productive tomorrow. (Don't plan to do much, but would prefer to do more than "sleep all day". ).

Tonight I will go through the kids' clothes and move things over and purge the outgrown. Make a list if they need anything. I picked up summer stuff for BM on clearance around Christmas. So, not expecting to have to buy much for the warmer months. (Except I suppose I should keep an eye out for clearances for winter clothing).

**I got an e-mail about a Chase reward for opening a checking account. $200 reward, and didn't seem to have all the hoops to jump through (direct deposit or debit card usage). I am skeptical because I have never seen that before, from Chase. BUT we have a branch down the street from our house. I will read all the fine print later. But if it looks like a good deal, I will have dh execute that, since he has more time. The bank ones seem to be more hassle, in general. I don't really want to deal with it, but I know dh won't mind. He can just walk over there to open the account and to close the account.

I will let you know if it's a good deal or just a direct targeted offer. For now, I am guessing the fine print will turn me off. I don't have direct deposit and we don't like using debit cards, so makes most these offers generally useless to us.

Edited: The Chase offer I got was a direct offer that I have read about in the past (can buy from ebay, etc.). I asked dh if he received it too. I haven't heard back from him. I didn't see any limits per household or anything. Unfortunately, this one is in my name and I have to deal with it. But, I also saw I could probably just open the account online. So much easier! I have to keep $1500 in the account for 6 months. That is a 25% interest rate. ($200 in 6 months). I will take it!

Unlike credit card rewards, these rewards are taxable. But still very worthwhile.

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I am getting a new phone. I need to get around to another "Ting is awesome" post and beg for another referral. I am not 100% sure if our credit balance will be applied to phone or not. But, if it is, we will have to actually pay for our cell service this month.

Why I am getting a phone is a long story. But mostly the refurbished cheapie dh bought to get through when his last phone broke, has a LOT of problems. I was willing to overlook them but now that we have decided to replace it, I am realizing more problems. So, I feel good about the decision. It gave me an android to play with, and I am very happy with the android. The phone I am getting should last many many years (fingers crossed). & the troublesome android will give the kids a phone to play with and get apps on. (Apps they can't get anywhere else. They can just use it on our wifi - we will de-activate the phone service).

I was also having problems with my new vehicle blue tooth setup, but didn't realize it was problems on the phone end. We were trying to skype the kids over the weekend and I remembered I could never get the sound to work on my phone. So, it's all that stuff that's like, "Yeah, this phone is really crappy". I was willing to live with it another year. I would certainly survive. BUT it kind of defeats the purpose of my car stereo upgrade if my phone doesn't work with it half the time.

In the end, we decided to jump on buying a Moto x while it is on sale at Ting. We had been holding out for them to offer Moto g, for me. Would have cost half as much. BUT, in the end I decided I wanted more in a phone. So might as well buy it on sale.

Grandma gave me the $300 I told her not to give me, for doing her taxes. She pretty much stuffed it in my pocket and ran away. We had decided before Easter that I would replace my phone if she gave me the money. Which obviously she was going to. But, if not, we could wait. So, thanks Grandma!

This means we both paid $400-ish for our phones, in the end. BUT, we are still miles ahead financially from when we even had dumb phone cell service. It will take us 16 months to break even. Well, it would have taken 16 months, except we might already be breakeven because we have never paid Ting a single penny for first 5 months of service. So, the breakeven is even sooner. From then on, we save $50/month versus what we paid for dumb phones with no text or data.

**I have to keep telling myself this, because it does feel ridiculous to pay $800 for two phones. !!**

So anyway, I buy this phone. From Ting. & I tell dh I would like to have it by May 9th, because I am taking a three day weekend and might be a good time to play with it and get it set up. He tells me it takes 10 business days. & that even though he has the feeling that Ting is super fast, it is shipping from Canada. So it will take a while, even if they ship it out ASAP. I said that's fine. Certainly no rush and no paying for expedited shipping.

So, what's the story? We got home late Sunday night from Easter and dh ordered the phone for me. It shipped out of California, and it is due to arrive tomorrow (Wednesday). Holy cow!

So, there you have it. Ting is awesome. I haven't really been pushing Ting for those in the middle of contracts and/or having to buy new phones. But honestly, the having to pay $400 for phones even is still saving us a small fortune.

I guess this is my "Ting is awesome" post.

Here is my referral code:

https://z181d126bt4.ting.com/

$25 off for you & $25 credit for me

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One reason we were talking about phones in the first place was dh was telling me some competing $100-ish smart phones are coming out the end of this year. That will make some really nice options for Ting. We'd maybe consider getting the kids a phone like that (they can share for a while) and putting them on Ting. Not now, but when they are older.

I think a lot of more frugie folk on the fence will be jumping to Ting when that happens.

I am not going to specifically save to replace our phones, either. The prices are coming down astronomically. I don't expect it to be a big deal financially when we replace them, in several years.

**I received my overtime for the year (paid as an annual bonus) and was able to fund a chunk of my savings. For the rest of the year all our monthly savings goes to IRAs, and my 2014 raise will go to savings. To top off those goals in my sidebar.

I can't believe how behind I feel still after last year. That said, though I would like to fund 2014 IRAs in 2014, it's not a necessity. That buys us a little buffer if crap happens.

Bonus:

$5,000 to savings
$ 300 to mortgage
$ 100 new kids bike

I was planning to spend more on the bike, but we just happened to find a $100 bike this week. So that worked out perfect.

Great-Grandma insists on giving me $300 for doing her taxes. I asked her not to, but I know her. Will see. This way I figure I already threw $300 to my mortgage so I really don't care either way.

If she insists, I could use $300 for summer classes for older child. I don't sweat that stuff any more. Whether they know it or not, Grandma (MIL) and Great-Grandma pay for that. BM is attending a camp with his school next month and I used Christmas money to pay for that. & I get the feeling Great-Grandma is paying for summer school...

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**My gross check was about what I expected, with extra overtime on a big project last year. BUT, the net did not reflect all that extra work. UGH!! I have said that if spouse worked we wouldn't take anything more home. But, my own income seems to be entering that black hole. It's extra shocking because I am used to literally keeping 90% of my paycheck. You get used to what you get used to.

I ran a tax projection and everything looks fairly breakeven for 2014.

Our tax rate on last $10k - $15k of income is hitting about 25%. So, it looks like we will be doing Traditional IRAs this year. I like the way this works out. Our taxes are even steven if we change our mind. But if we do the Traditional I should be getting about a $2700 refund. Which will go straight back into retirement savings. (This would bring our retirement savings rate up to 18%. But, I don't know if that is all good, as we give up the ROTH contributions to do so. I think it just means we need to save more to pay for future taxes. Saving more doesn't necessarily mean much to our bottom line. Though I suppose I will probably be able to work some tax magic on the back end. When we retire).

I also checked the extra property tax deduction and that would save us about 25% too. For several reasons, will probably do this year. I just want the simplicity of one tax payment per year. But I want to make the extra payment in a year I actually get a tax benefit.

We've been doing ROTHs for so long because we haven't been paying any income taxes of any note, since spouse stopped working. But I am not personally comfortable with paying $2,700 taxes that I don't need to. Circumstances change, so we re-evaluate.

In our young 20s I Was strongly encouraged to fund ROTHs. I kind of understand it more with age. There has just never been any tax break quite like it. So when I entered the tax profession it was, "Are you crazy??? Do the ROTH!!!" BUT, we were young and starting out and paying a crapload of taxes. We chose to fund my 401k and our Traditional IRA. I am sure we could have cashed flowed the ROTHs and whatever, we were saving 50%+ of our income. Not like we NEEDED the tax break. BUT... Absolutely no regrets. When dh stopped working, we converted *everything* over to ROTHs. It was win-win. Get a big tax break up front. Convert over at a lower tax rate. So, I am pretty partial to just taking the tax break. I don't know if we will ever be able to convert again, but we do have $100,000+ working for us in our ROTHs. As Dave Ramsey would say, that will be $5 million or something in 40 years. (I don't think it will ever be near that much, but it will do nothing but grow, and I am happy with that. All our aggressive investments are in the ROTHs, for sure).

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Housing Update:

I guess housing has settled down here. Absolutely nothing has listed in immediate neighborhood for about 12 months. A house went for $400k last spring, which meant a 65%-ish increase over a couple of years. (Nothing new, around here. It's always a roller coaster!). But then, that was it.

SO... I saw 3 houses like ours up for sale this month and that piqued my curiosity. I just saw that one had sold for $400k. It will be interesting to see what the others go for.

Overall, I think this is a good sign. Anything much more than that is getting back into crazy bubble territory. Our house actually peaked at $650,000. Which is crazy insane. At this point, anything much more than $400k is "crazy insane". Especially given the chronic unemployment, regionally. But even in a robust economy, the local wages just don't support these kind of home prices.

So I am kind of marveling at the restraint. No huge bidding war??? Heck, the other two houses have been up a week and are still available. (Not a common sight in these parts, even when the bottom was falling out). I am hoping these are all good signs, overall. That things are settling a bit. A sellers market is good for us, but another market collapse would not be good. I am all for sustainable home prices.

Though, who knows... Bay Area real estate is crazy crazy crazy right now. & that always blows up our housing prices, because then our real estate looks super cheap compared to that. (Which is the only reason anyone ever paid $650k for a house in our own neighborhood). IT will be interesting to see how things play out this summer.

**Earned $25 credit card reward (will add to next mortgage payment).

**Earned $50 credit card reward - deposited directly into ROTH.

**American Express did mess up my rewards *AGAIN*. As they do each and every month.

BUT, I also had a mystery $25 show up in my account. ??? Never got around to complaining. So it was really and truly a mysterious $25. I just noticed my rewards balance was higher and I could redeem another $25. I even checked my spam folder to make sure I didn't miss any e-mails about a bonus reward.

So, how is that for random?

**Mortgage snowflakes totaled $85 for March:

--$25 credit card reward
--$25 mystery credit card reward
--$20 carpool savings
--$15 Internet savings
--Total $85

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I will share my Ting referral code again because I am desperate for one more month free.

https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

We did get our March bill. My dad was traveling a lot (lots of minutes and data) and has nothing but travel plans the rest of the year. But we stayed at $53 for our combined bill. $26.50 for our half. I think that is mostly what it is going to be for the rest of the year.

We will probably owe $25-ish cash for April usage (for entire family). As our credits will be all used up with the next bill. So, if I can get one more referral, it will officially make our service *free* for the first 5 whole months.

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

Our carpool is defunct because our carpool buddies divorced and returned to work full-time.

I've been eking out the $20 carpool savings anyway, for the mortgage, but I think I will stop adding that $20 this month. I think I just had the wiggle room since we have been paying nothing for cell service. Though of course I will just switch to throwing cell phone savings at the mortgage. As a placeholder for that bill. (The first few months were breaking even with contract termination fees and new phone purchase, but we are past that now).

It's just a couple of more months, and then next year will be a new year to figure out. I am overall pleased with the wear and tear and gas we saved this year already. For the most part we rarely picked up the kids by car the first 75% of the school year. So having to pick them up all the time the last part of the school year, is okay. Not very many weeks left.

I guess this is the opposite of my last post.

**I finally got my 2013 ROTH funded. Sent $4,950 off yesterday, after my paycheck hit the bank. I did not have to come up with the other $550 because my credit card rewards covered it (those get deposited automatically every month).

I updated sidebar.

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**Grandma always *insists* on paying me $300 for doing her taxes. I am going to try to be more vocal this year about her not paying me. She owed a lot of tax. So, I will try.

But... If she insists, we will just throw it at the mortgage. I would be pleased with that. IT would put our snowflakes to $1,000-ish for the year, which is about all we came up with in 2013. So I would be very pleased with that. We don't plan to throw any snowflakes at the mortgage for the rest of the year, so it will be a nice goal to meet in April. That said, I am not really concerned with it either way. If I can talk her into not paying me, we will let it go or I will just deposit $300 from my overtime check.

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**I guess it's feast or famine. I intend to hit most my "2014 savings" goal with my overtime check in 2 weeks. So, that might be $10,000 in financial goals officially hit this month (Overtime + 2013 ROTH). {I could have tallied ROTH savings month to month (have just been hoarding up cash since February 1), but I didn't really want to update my sidebar until I transferred money physically into my IRA}.

The goal for the rest of the year is to save $1300/month towards 2014 IRAs.

In addition, we will save $150/month + snowflakes and windfalls. I am going to open a "taxable" investment account for this money. I put "taxable" in quotes because our investment returns will mostly be tax-free due to our low tax bracket. We are starting small, but expecting to gain some significant momentum pretty quickly. Since our cash savings is pretty robust at this point, this should be where all our non-retirement savings goes.

Not really spending *a lot* of money, but just getting a lot of stuff taken care of. I don't know what it is, but have been on a good bargain streak this year.

Of course, I wouldn't say my new stereo was a bargain, but it is SWEET. Dh was trying to talk me into one but I chose a different brand. & now that it is installed, he is totally jealous. I like it much better than the stereo in his car. The bluetooth seems to be working better, and is easier to use.

OLD:



NEW:



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**I also got new prescription glasses. Guess how much? $11! Seriously. I really was not expecting much. But at the end of the day I really like them.

I ordered my first online glasses 3-4 years ago. The pair I had before that cost like 10 times as much as those, but were fairly high quality and I had worn them for almost a decade.

So, last time, I skeptically tried out Zenni Optical. I really wasn't expecting much but maybe paid in the $40 range for some really nice glasses. They were getting a little worn after 3-4 years, but other than that, no complaints. I could use a new prescription, anyway. So, I just ordered the $11 pair.

I was really skeptical about the quality when I ordered them, so I am really pleasantly surprised. The $11 included the most expensive anti-scratch coating and yadda yadda. Not exactly *cheap* glasses.

I also picked up some new sunglasses - maybe in the $30 range for those.

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

**I saw $2/each shirts on clearance at Target. Kid shirts. I did not pick any of those up because the kids refuse to wear long sleeves. Bummer!

{I am into thrift shopping, but it seems pointless with our Target clearances. Our Target is very convenient}.

**We had already planned to replace our rice cooker, and I just happened to spot one on sale for $19.99. I am very pleased with that find.

**Last month I seriously upgraded my wardrobe with some coupons and sales and gift cards. $50-ish for a major wardrobe revamp. That was before most the rest of this shopping. But, it looks like I went out and spent $1,000 or something. On that and all of the above. It's crazy. Dh was teasing me a bit. About how much money I have been spending. (He knew it wasn't that much; just teasing me about the appearances of it all).

We were going over the finances today. I know we had been making a lot of purchases, but it didn't seem to be doing much to our bottom line. Today confirmed that.

I do want to get a smoothie maker still. I broke ours when dh was sick with the flu. (IT was on it's last legs anyway - just didn't expect to use it in the middle of winter - was going to replace it in the spring). I don't expect to spend much more than like $30, but I just haven't found one yet. So, hopefully any day I will pick one out and get it ordered. (I'd love to just get a really nice blender, versus having a smoothie "uni tasker" but I don't think I will find one single appliance that will make us all happy).

BM needs a new bike. He has needed one for a while. We have just been lazy on that. I will peruse Craigslist, but we have seemed to have better luck with "new" on the bikes.

Dh is out right now picking up a Craigslist desk for LM. For his room. We really hardly ever buy furniture. BM has a "used only for storage" hand-me-down desk in his room. So, I hadn't thought that far ahead. But LM mentioned he would like a desk in his room for homework. Fair enough. Dh is scouting out a $19 desk/chair combo that looked pretty nice.

I don't know that we have had much luck with Craigslist lately, but there were like a million desks for sale on Craigslist. Even so, dh was not sure he really wanted to deal with the hassle. This "perfect desk" just happened to pop up. Which never seems to happen. So, will see... {I felt kind of funny about it because I wrote them back the second it popped up. Seemed kind of desperate. But I guess they aren't going to raise the price just because we wanted to rush right over. }.

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Work is crazy crazy crazy. That said, it's probably the most mellow tax season I *ever* remember. Looking forward to the 15th, and getting my weekends back, but not feeling particularly stressed out.

I had time today to update Quicken and sort out all our recent big purchases. So, I will do a "big picture" update if I have time. Mortgage snowflakes, credit card rewards, big milestones I am looking forward to, yadda yadda.

Edited to add: The desk was a win! It was *perfect* for our needs. (It is much bigger and nicer in person than in the picture - but not "too big".) LM loves it.

**I accidentally paid the property taxes with a closed bank account, several weeks ago. I did get an e-mail that the payment bounced, BUT, I never heard diddly squat, otherwise.

I asked dh to go take care of it today. I gathered from online that we had to bring a cashier's check with the "returned check fee" added to it, but lord knows with all the government red tape. (We just got passports last year and the websites and the people on the phone and in person all told us 100 different things. OMG). The saving grace is it wasn't due for another few weeks. Which is why I strongly encouraged dh to take care of it this week, before the tax office gets busy.

As I expected, we needed a new payment coupon reflecting the payment + fee. But, they were able to provide that for him if he just waited in another "line". So, phew! (& there was no LINE!)

$53 rejected payment fee, $5 for the cashier's check at our credit union, and $1 for metered parking.

I will NEVER do that again. Gah! But, happy to have it resolved and for life to move forward.

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

**I still haven't funded my 2013 ROTH IRA, but I think I will just do it next payday. Next week. Until then, I have just been hoarding up the cash for that.

All else has kind of been on hold.

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**This week the kids have their dentist appointments (which always seem to be $$$$$). Lord knows this might be "it". The eldest is almost 11 and braces are right around the corner. When his current dentist/ortho recommends it we will get some other quotes and likely choose an orthodontist closer to home.

The eldest also has an "Extra permanent tooth" situation. The baby tooth is loose so they will probably pull it. Will see what they think of the progress of past few months (it's possible he will need surgery to get the permanent tooth out; but probably still too soon to decide much).

None of this stuff is particularly surprising. If anything, neither of them have as bad a situation as I did. I have been saving for their orthodontics since before they were born. Accordingly, I am probably way over-stressed about it. Uneccesarily...

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**It's not all taxes and dentists and ROTHs.

I should get my big tax season overtime check on April 15th.

Since I will have saved up enough cash for the property taxes and the ROTH, and then some, by April 1, we decided to jump the gun a bit and do a couple of big purchases. I don't think we generally purchase much of anything with my April check. BUT, last year was a crazy expensive Murphy year. & so I think we are just getting impatient with our splurges. I suppose we aren't spending it anyway. Just feel more comfortable moving forward knowing that we can bulk up our savings account before we actually have to pay for any of these purchases.

To be clear, we can pay cash for these very easily, without the OT.

What do I Want to splurge on? An upgraded stereo for my vehicle. Dh used some focus group money to upgrade the other car stereo about a year ago. & we've gotten spoiled. I don't know if I would care that much, except I can't get my new cell phone (the one I have had since November), to work with my car stereo. It's driving me a little batty. Especially since I get to enjoy bluetooth in the other car. So, I have been telling myself we will fix that come April.

In the end, dh has an appointment to get that installed on Friday. Woohoo!!

What is crazy is that my vehicle actually has the original stock stereo. I think our MO is generally to buy very inexpensive (older) cars and the first thing we generally do is upgrade the stereos. But, in this case, it was a fairly new vehicle and it actually had a CD player. !! Which has since been broken. I'll get the bluetooth for the phone. Yesterday dh found an extra thumb drive for me to put a lot of my MP3s on. That will get hooked up to the stereo too. It will be pretty sweet. (I think it comes with a CD player too, but I don't know, they all blur together).

We also bought a laptop last week. We've been doing without, but wanted to pick up something before the next school year. As the kids have been fighting over their computer more. They are less happy with the netbook for their needs, and the charger doesn't work half the time. We went with something very practical. & if the kids can handle it and take care of it, then we might consider a fancier touch screen latpop in the future. I am amazed how much prices have come down over the years. We haven't bought a laptop in a decade. IT was probably a little bigger than I wanted it to be, and it didn't have the fancy graphics card for gaming. But, we decided it was very practical, has everything we need, and is a huge step up from our broken netbook. VERY happy with it so far. IT was $475 with tax. We picked it up on sale. Dh says it's on par with his fairly new desktop. The processor and memory and everything. Which blows my mind!

We were trying to figure out where to put it, when we decided just to leave it on our dining room table. The one we use *once a year* for Thanksgiving. The rule is the kids can't move the laptop. For their purposes, it might as well be a desktop. Saved us from having to repurpose or buy another table.

I really really liked the small netbook for travel and so on, but do admit that this is far more practical for work. I don't use it that much for work, but it will be nice for when I need it. I just remember the big old monstrosity of a laptop I had to carry around for my last job, and that does help give me perspective.

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Once we see how April shakes out, we will have to sit down and start prioritizing things. Those were the, "I can't take it any more!" purchases.

We've got some home maintenance and travel stuff to sort through.

I think we have literally just been waiting for the storm to settle. IT hasn't gone, but it's gotten much tamer. 2014 so far is the year of, "everything has to be complicated and annoying". Like paying the property taxes with the wrong account. I feel like everything I have touched has gone down like that this year. IT's driving me a little batty. BUT, it is a huge improvement from "A surprise $1,000 bill every single month". That was 2013.

Ugh! I had literally 4 or 5 saved un-posted posts because I just can't get my into my blogging groove. So I was just deleting them all when I apparently deleted my last post about Sicily Yoder. I am sorry about that - it was not intentional.

**ROTHs passed the six figure mark last week. Woohoo!

**Earned $50 credit card reward in February- redeemed to ROTH today. That is my first 2014 ROTH contribution, because otherwise hoarding up every dime I can to finish funding 2013. (I couldn't earmark this contribution for 2013).

**American Express miscalculated my credit card rewards AGAIN. I am looking at other rewards cards. A lesser reward card that actually pays the rewards could be a much better deal...

**I paid the mortgage this week. Snowflakes accumulated were:

$350 insurance rebate
25 credit card reward (last month's credit card reward - got gyped on this one too)
20 carpool gas savings
15 Internet discount (for one year)
-----
$410 Total

Phew! BM had an expensive filling and cat needed a vet visit, so my resolve was wavering on that one big snowflake. Glad it didn't melt! (Vet visit got pushed off to this week, which helped).

Thanks to some big snowflakes the first few months of the year, I think we are on track to knock $5,000 off the mortgage this year. & that's if I divert all snowflakes over to investments in April, as planned.

**I am not sure what it is, but this has been the easiest tax season ever.

Time is just a FLYING.

I think the mild weather helps too.

I can't believe it will be daylight savings next weekend? I am usually starting to get a little burned out by then, and the daylight savings gives me my second wind. (So nice to come home and take the kids to the park or go for a walk or whatever). This year though, not sure I will care too much. Maybe because it's been so warm and sunny in general. Which I don't know why it matters if I am holed up inside 6 days a week, but it seems to help.

**Maybe the sprinkling of activities has helped too. Dh and I went to a GREAT concert the other night with a few friends. & had a bit of a pre-party at our house. I totally blew off work for that.

I will probably be in the "buckle down/no fun" mode for the next 6 weeks or so. But I am well rested and up for it. (Heck, only 5 more weeks??? Just checked a calendar. Seriously, how can that be?)

**Holy Freaking Murphy! BM's filling fell out. $300 to replace. I am thinking of paying mortgage a few days early before my snowflakes melt. The year is young and we save for this kind of random stuff, so for now can pull from the "short-term savings". & I can leave the snowflakes untouched (latest snowflake just happens to be about as much as the filling, though).

**On a related note, I was at the dentist last week and I asked for some ortho referrals. They gave me a bunch of info I didn't ask for. But I feel great relief about the information I received. IT seems to be one of those things people make an unnecessary big deal about. I know everyone is in debt up to their eyeballs. But it's just people who know us - that we are not in debt up to our eyeballs - and still seem to go on and on about how expensive it is. Running through the numbers? I am not seeing what the BIG deal is. I won't hold my breath or get too relaxed until I get REAL numbers though. We have no insurance, but I expect we will knock 1/3 off the top with cash discounts and income tax savings. When we do full-on braces we will also switch our kids to our "dirt cheap" dentist. Which is adding to the overall cost savings and my feelings about it all. Of course "dirt cheap dentist" recommended more reasonably priced orthos.

So yeah - all of the above won't amount to a hill of beans.

{I personally was probably a fairly worst case orthodontist patient, so I have just always assumed the worst. & then the way everyone goes on and on about it. Like, my in-laws are beside themselves how we will ever afford braces. I think both in-laws and us are fairly debt-adverse. But I find myself thinking lately, "So maybe we would have to get payments? The world wouldn't end?" I mean, they are just so melodramatic. I think somehow we survive. & I have been thinking the payment thing, though hell would freeze over before we actually take on any payments. But they are also overly obsessed how we will ever afford to replace cars. We have enough cash saved to easily replace both cars. BUT, I just think, "We'd get a payment? We'd survive with one car? We'd buy a really used car, like we have in the past? Dh would get a job??" We certainly aren't going to have to go bankrupt over these kinds of expenditures...}.

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**I think I am getting crankier with age. I suppose I found it hard to believe that people could get more financially stupid after watching all our friends in the debt bubble. & all the foreclosure madness. But, with time and money and age it seems people just make bigger money mistakes. Maybe it's because I think we just get more frugal with age, so the juxtaposition is ridiculous.

Anyway, as a background, most my clients are fairly upper middle class and/or just very fiscally conservative. But their kids? Egads! I do a lot of their kids' tax returns. Maybe it doesn't matter because these people will just be taken care of by mommy and daddy.

I haven't formed much a of a strong opinion in the past, but this year I have just been disgusted by every single tax return I touch. I am thinking, "None of these people have been out of work for one second in the last decade. Absolutely no hardships that I am aware of". & I Want to be clear that is the case. Because it is particularly unusual to be so well employed in my region. The unemployment is pretty terrible here.

Nope - these are the people who have every advantage. Every single one of them has a six figure income. & the average retirement savings rate seems to be around 2%. They are mostly age 40-50. None of them has a penny saved outside of retirement.

I've got a couple of lower income clients who are doing MUCH better. They are boasting by far the highest savings rates. Just another reminder of that it's not what you make but it is what you keep. {& I have a couple of $500k income types who are also living FAR beyond their means}.

Quick Kohls question for the Kohls coupon masters. I have $20 in Kohls cash that I have to use up this weekend. I was thinking of going this weekend, but had a $10-off-$30 coupon today in my e-mail. If I spend $30 today, and use my Kohls cash, will it really be a free $30 purchase??? I googled a bit and it looks like you can do that. But I wanted to make sure.

Oh while at it, if you buy enough clothing for a 20% off and free shipping discount, online, do they reverse those discounts if you return the item that put you over the top for the discounts? I feel like they do, because I think I looked it up before. But I may be thinking of something else.

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I don't know how I feel about this Murphy thing. It has WAY TONED down this calendar year. But, at the same time, I don't know why everything has to be so freaking complicated. This started with our crazy murphy year (longer than a year), but has not ended. I feel jinxed. Though I will take the stupid annoying stuff any day over people in the hospital and so on.

For example, I can't tell you how many times I Accidentally double paid something this past year. & I don't remember particularly ever doing that before?? But my payments keep getting lost in space or whatever. So then I send in a second one so my payment is on time or I don't get penalized or whatever. & then the first one always goes through.

So, here is what happened with Kohls. I need work pants and I had about $100 in gift cards. I went shopping and couldn't find anything. I will go back another time when they have more professional clothing. IT was fine because I Went on a non-sale day. So I didn't buy anything, then whatever.

What I did find was a couple of more patterns on a shirt that I LOVE. I hit clothing gold. They work well for work and casual, winter or summer (indoors/at work, anyway). None of the shirts in the store were my size, so I crossed my fingers and looked online. Not only did I find like 10 different prints in my size, but I found a 20% off coupon. SCORE!! When something works - I stock up. No doubt about it. By the time I find it on clearance though, there's usually not much left. This was a shirt I had had for a while and had gotten compliments on - so I know I am very happy with it.

I did my order and it should have arrived in a few days. I am guessing the mail label got messed up because it basically got lost in space. I haven't called Kohls yet but will call them to see what they are going to do. (It's so lost at this point that I think they will just have to cancel the order - unless they still have the stock).

I worried (last week) my order would get cancelled and was pretty upset. Why does it have to be so freaking complicated???

So, I just bit the bullet and re-ordered. Everything was still at same sales prices, still had my sizes, yadda yadda.

I got my shirts yesterday but mail person shoved them in the mail box like you would not believe. The package was WAY TOO BIG for our mail box. What in the heck? (I need to look online and see if I can file a complaint). I was sure I ripped a shirt or some buttons off trying to yank it out of the mailbox.

Seriously, why so freaking complicated??? We have locked boxes (large) for packages and sometimes they bring to the front door. Dh was 100% home all day yesterday. So yeah - I am peeved.

Thankfully, by some miracle, my clothing survived the process. Hallelujah! I will be a very well dressed lady as long as these shirts last. Phew!! I ended up with about 5 new patterns, in addition to the one I already had. About $10 per shirt.

I do have a return because I also bought another print in another shirt I LOVE, but the pattern did not work for me. Bummer!

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I also feel jinxed because I completely screwed up my property tax payment. !! IT's completely random too that I know I screwed it up...

I went to get our money market checks out of the safe to pay the property taxes. I was surprised to find I had an extra 150 checks from our primary checking account. I grabbed checks from our current MM account. I should have listened to my gut, which was to double check I had the right account. But I did not believe I had ever received checks when I had the same account before (it was initially a bank with a different name, so never remembered having checks with the current name).

I did not listen to that gut feeling and just paid it. I paid online. Of course they were the right checks. !!

The next morning I was looking for an envelope and I found all our new checks sitting in a drawer. I had only re-opened the account this year and never put away the checks. DOH!!

So, basically, I paid with a closed account.

I sat on hold a whole hour, just to be told it was too late to cancel the payment.

The fee? $53! UGH! I am so annoyed!!

The bright side? Glad I decided to pay it early. I suppose I could have just sent a check in the worst case, if it was close to the deadline (though every thing I try to mail these days gets lost for weeks - which is why I did not mail it in the first place). Anyway, I will wait for it to bounce back, get the $53 bill and so on. Only then will I be able to re-submit the tax payment online.

I thought I had shred all our old checks and so on - so NO IDEA what happened. I just get so annoyed when money gets completely wasted like that.

I will pay the $53 fee out of the insurance rebate I just got. That still leaves $350 to throw at the mortgage.

Payday yesterday. I will pay our state tax due. I should get the IRS refund this week, to offset that.

I got a reimbursement my parents owed me (for Sprint).

I don't have anything else to pay until March, and so I have a good $3,000 amassed for ROTHs. I'll finish funding 2013 ROTH in March. I don't know if I will send in some now, or just wait. If I can do the whole thing March 1st, I might do that. It will be close and I haven't put March in my Quicken yet. So, will see. Otherwise, I may just send in $2500 now and $2500 around March 15.

I haven't updated my sidebar for savings progress this month - just kind of hoarding ROTH money for now. I will update when ROTHs are funded.

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I just paid the property taxes yesterday, from online savings account. I wanted to cash flow and probably could, if I waited closer to April due date. But decided I was making things unnecessarily difficult, and I just wanted to cross that payment off my list.

I think it is possible that post-April, we can leave a solid 6 months expenses untouched, indefinitely. Will see.

As we hit our goals and I think through them, I Was thinking a sum equal to "8 x expenses" would probably be our ideal target. Just working through the numbers, expenses I expect in the near-term future, our comfort level, etc. It didn't hit me until later that my figure was "8 months expenses". I guess Suze knows what she is talking about. (That's Suze's Orman's rule). I think we are in agreement with her. But I think 6 months is good too, and I won't overly belabor the 7th and 8th months. Like if it takes me two years to get there, as it always seems to, then whatever. It is certainly not our #1 financial priority. But maybe a good long-term rule.

We've had much more cash in the past, but was saving up for a home or for maternity leave (I Was really concerned about covering bed rest or something like that, as sole breadwinner). The flip side of that is it is impossible to save any cash, with two kids. So it feels. So I feel like we need more cash needs on some level, at the pace we run through it. & of course the one-income situation bodes well for a bigger emergency fund. On the flip side, we actually have other assets and savings now (far more than in our 20s when we bought homes and had kids). So, I feel like 6-8 months is probably doable, and we have other assets to fall back on in the worst case.

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I had some nice surprises yesterday.

The annual insurance rebate I get (for life and disability insurance) was TWICE as much as I expected. $400!!

I was expecting it to be $200 and was going to throw it at the mortgage. I will throw the $400 at the mortgage. What a snowflake!!

I also found a box of 150 checks. What in the heck!?! I have no idea how I missed them before. Now I can grumble less every time I have to use one of the 10 checks I thought I had left. (I was hoping on some level to milk those checks until the "end of checks". But I guess it doesn't matter much now. 150 checks will last me forever).

The talk of using up and leftovers, reminded me of a story.

I had some leftovers at work pushing the 2-week mark so I thought I better look up when it was no longer safe to eat. When I googled it, I Saw most recommendations to throw away food after 2-3 days.



It is just so ridiculous what a wasteful society we live in.

I decided to toss to food to be on the safe side, just because it was beyond my comfort limit. But for food less than two weeks we have always used the "smell" test. Is long as it tastes good, isn't moldy, and smells good. I've never particularly tasted anything "bad" if it passed the mold and smell test. So while the "taste" test is good in theory it would be rare to get that far??

A quick google today brought up an article that I think is excellent on the subject:

The Dos and Donts of Keeping Leftovers Safe

http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2012/11/the-dos-and-donts-of-ke...

Sum up:

--Put leftovers away ASAP (in appropriately cold fridge, etc.)

--Cover food well

A lot of food does okay with a loose covering, but there are some foods I wrap in an extra plastic bag to preserve freshness. I most often do this for baked goods or bread. (Loose covered food may never be kept very long, too, to be fair). This may be more due to our dry climate.

--Trust your instincts

--Properly reheat food before eating

--Don't throw away perfectly good food

--Don't leave things sitting out at room temperature for long period of time

So, that sums it up pretty well.

Between me and my spouse? He is the more cautious one - so I can tell he has grown up in a more cautious house. He will raise an eyebrow sometimes, at me, and he gets crazy insane about chicken. (I believe to the point of unreasonable). But, it is what it is - he is not prone to waste food. It more comes out in what we have to cook or eat "today" because he believes it will go to waste given another day. & now that I think about it - he would tell you the same thing about me. When something is way crazy expired (usually condiments and dressings) I will throw them out. & that drives him nuts. So, we all have our quirks.

Which reminds me, we are also far more food cautious in our sweltering summers than in our cool winters. (Since we keep our house much cooler in winter and much warmer in summer).

When thinking about it, the first thing that also came to mind was immunity. We have fairly strong immunities in my house, in general, and you do have to wonder if your body does adjust more to what you do eat. Interestingly, I did see that people with lower immunities should be more food careful. Fair enough.

I was kind of surprised BM's 5th grade class did do the Valentines party thing. I am presuming this is the last year for him, though lord knows.

OMG - you should see the candy haul he got. I guess most parents decided the kids are getting kind of old for this, so just sent copious amounts of candy in lieu of cheesy little V-Day cards.

Or do you think it was just their last hoorah and so they went all out for these kids??

Or is BM just that popular with the ladies?? LOL. (Actually, impossible - his class is literally 75% boy, which is crazy. Something in the water that year).

LM's third grade class was far more mellow.

Anyway, I usually buy V-Day cards on Feb. 15th every year. IT can be hit and miss. They had the cutest Angry Birds cards, so I picked up two boxes today. & some candy for myself, 50% off. I think this is probably the last year?? I've got one box at home still. If we have extras, we can donate later, or find someone who can use them.

Other than that, not a holiday that we celebrate. *shrugs* (I don't think we celebrate many holidays, period. Many seem fairly manufactured, to get you to spend money. & other than that, the crowds aren't too appealing).

I heard on the radio that average person spends $100-ish on Valentines Day? I think $138 or something for men; $75 for women.

???

Nothing in my frame of reference (among friends, past boyfriends, family, anyone).

My co-worker? Her husband sent her a boquet yesterday. Which I don't think he has ever done before, and didn't think a lot of it. But then she was telling me how she bought a V-Day outfit (for work - whatever she was wearing yesterday). & then they were going out to dinner.

I guess that is how it adds up! (Seriously, before discussing and witnessing all this, I would have no idea how anyone spends that much money on V-Day. Now I know!).

MyMoneyBlog had a Paypal warning today. Yikes!

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/preapproved-payments-paypal.html?...

"Long story short, it was my Skype account that was hacked. I didn’t even know this, but PayPal has a program of “preapproved” payments where a merchant can repeatedly charge your account without the need to type in your PayPal password. This is meant for monthly subscriptions and the sort. Although I have bought credit from Skype before, I don’t ever recall signing up for any of these subscription-style plans at any merchant. My suspicion is that it was buried somewhere into a default checkbox that I didn’t undo, or worse it was just hidden in the terms and conditions fine print. (I am usually really careful about this sort of thing, so I am quite mad at myself!)

Lesson #1: If you use PayPal at all, check your preapproved merchant list immediately. To find this list, log into your account and then go to My Account > Profile > My preapproved payments. My recommendation is to make every single one inactive immediately."

http://www.frugalrules.com/what-is-first-bill-you-pay-each-m...

Kind of an interesting article.

"I was reading this article on Yahoo Finance recently and it was discussing what bill people pay first and what it may reveal about our priorities.

So, what bill do most people pay first each month?

Drumroll please…the winner is the car payment.

When comparing credit card payments, mortgage payments, and car payments, the latter of the three comes out as the clear winner."

"The problem I see with making a car payment the first bill you pay is that it’s not a necessity on many levels. Yes, you may need a car to get to work and I cede that point, but if given the choice between my car and my home I’ll let you guess as to what I’m going to choose every time – my mortgage payment as I view it as a necessity for my growing family.

Once the mortgage, or rent, is covered along with other necessities then I believe a car payment should be dealt with. Of course, my priorities may be different than what yours may be, but unless you plan on living in your car then I’d think this would fit many."

"At the end of the day I think it’s important to see what value you’re deriving from the payments you make and more importantly breaking the cycle of a payment mentality."



At face value I Was skeptical about what my "first payment of the month" said about my financial values. But, I guess if I think about it I guess he is right. How we pay our bills does say a lot about is.

Me?

Car loans? None (never)

Credit cards? I tend to pay them off in full, about two weeks before payment is due.

Mortgage? The mortgage is the last bill I pay every month. BUT, it is not technically due until the 10th of the next month. So what I tend to do is pay with mid-month paycheck. But it buys me some significant float if something comes up and I just want to pay it off after the first. The reality is I usually pay it 2 weeks before it is due (like with all my debts - I don't want any penalties or fees, so play it pretty safe).

Most my other bills I pay on due dates because they are small and there are no consequences if the payment is a little late.

The first bill I pay every month? I pay the gardener, the gas company and our HOA around the first of every month. Why? They don't take credit card payments and these are the only bills I can't charge. (Aside from mortgage). The total comes out to about $175.

What else do I pay on the first of the month? Nothing. We pay ourselves first. The bulk of my first paycheck of the month (about 95%) goes to our savings. (Which goes hand in hand as to why we don't have any other payments).

Second paycheck of the month pays off the credit cards (prior month's bills) and pays the mortgage.

**We made it to our 3 San Francisco days of events. I thought we were driving to San Jose twice more this month, but dh seemed to think we would combine trips. Will see. It will be a lot to celebrate his folks' anniversary and his Grandma's birthday on one weekend day. Two weeks might be better for me, though more driving. (I was thinking of skipping the birthday, anyway).

THEN we will probably be on low-spend mode until May.

**It's funny because I really thought SIL (more means) would want to do an extravagant party for the in-laws' 40th anniversary.

But, since they are moving into their $1 million+ home this month? Dh has yet to talk to her about this anniversary at all ( ), but we got the message loud and clear. They aren't planning to spend a penny.

{I am rolling my eyes that dh has yet to speak to his sister about it - rolling them at him}.

I suppose it works out. I was trying to set aside $1k - $2k of money that in-laws gave us, in case it was a big dinner party out kind of thing. BUT, I have failed miserably given how 2013 was, and so it is what it is. I doubt we will spend a penny. Dh and I will offer to take them out to dinner. I just can't imagine them letting us pay.

Dh is working on a video, but has been struggling with his own family. I think it's easier to do for other families - maybe being more removed from the subject? I am sure he is also being too hard on himself.

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**I finished our taxes. Being organized and having a simple tax situation (& having really nice professional software), it was not a time consuming endeavor. Maybe one hour, max, to gather information and file all of our tax returns. I harvested some tax gains for the kids, which means having to file for them when they sell mutual funds.

I always aim for breakeven, but my withholding and deductions have been pretty sporadic in recent years.

I did adjust my withholding in 2013 because our medical deductions are more limited with Obamacare AND our mortgage interest went down significantly (with latest refinance). About $6,000 less deductions than last year, from those two things. Plus income went up a bit, etc.

In the end, I did good. $30 net refund. (Er, I think I just got lucky).

The big question for me is what to do about our IRA contributions. *sigh* I am squarely in "flip a coin" territory with this.

Tax rate has gone up from negative (less than 0%), up to 23%, in the years since we have had kids. So, the ROTH is officially no longer a "no-brainer."

25% is a strong tipping point for me. One reason is because in the past we took a larger deduction up front and then converted ROTHs in lower income years. I am also in the middle of converting my parents' ROTHs (early retirement/no income years). All this to say that it is not a simple situation with a simple answer. (It could be a MUCH better tax savings decision to skip the ROTH for now).

I think the long and the short of it is that even at 23%, it's a lot of money to throw away in the hope that the tax code and our circumstances work out to our favor in the long run. $11,000 x 23% = $2,530 tax savings. Which is certainly no small beans, to me. This would boost our savings rate significantly. ($2500 is like 3% of my income - we'd just turn around and invest the tax savings).

That said, we don't have to decide until next April. At which point we will have more information. If we can easily cash flow the ROTHs at that point, we may just to do so. If not, we can do the Tradiitonal IRA, or do 5/50.

For 2013, I had already committed to doing the ROTHs. Kind of glad about that. Because if I thought to check before I filed, I might have changed my mind. We got our ROTH balance to six figures already, so I think we will do fine whatever we decide. (Those ROTHs will be no small beans when we reach retirement age, even if we stop contributing to them).

I will probably do a few shorter posts because I have a lot of my brain but haven't had much time to blog lately.

Spending wins this month:

**Gas prices are down. Helps with planned 4 trips to Bay Area?? I filled up at $3.15 yesterday. Dh went to San Francisco mid week for a show. Done with the shows. He scored free parking but had to pay $12 for a two drink minimum. $10 on tolls. (The tolls are a *shrug* because I accidentally double paid our toll refill last year. We did spend $25 on tolls the last 3 weeks, which covers the extra payment. Otherwise we tend to spend about $5 or $10 per year).

Oh, and I mentioned MIL gave us a $50 gas coupon. So, I think we will do fairly well with gas this month, even given all the excess driving.

**Groceries - dh did first grocery run on Friday (first for month). I was hoping we could make up excess spending this month ($100+ on food and parking in SF on a recent weekend). I think it looks fairly likely. If we did not need any groceries the entire first week, and can probably stretch out the 4th grocery run into March. That gives us $300-ish in grocery runs ($100 x 3) plus a fair amount of supplementing at Target and ethnic stores.

We haven't shopped Safeway very much in YEARS because prices have been so terrible. But we were at in-laws and they had a 16oz salad with a giant "$5" stamped on the packaging. I asked where they got it and they said Safeway. Whoa!! So I stopped by and picked up some salad. What a great deal!

So, I told dh maybe he should go check out Safeway - maybe they were trying to be more competitive. He is a little resistant as he is just very annoyed with Safeway. But a LOT of our keeping food costs down is keeping an open mind and keeping an eye on prices, and adjusting. So, I think he needs to go check out the prices. (HE does almost ALL the shopping, and he has a price book basically in his head, so he needs to go check it out. He can be the judge).

Spending losses:

Aside from all our shows and driving, was expecting a fairly low spend month.

Last night I caved for a pizza. I believe while we were eating the pizza, dh told me they were going to the movies today. So aggravated, because if he had told me that, I never would have bought a pizza. It's not a big deal. But, better communication would have meant better decisions. I did gripe about that a bit last night. I will make sure that him AND the kids know that it's not a big deal. It was just the communication. It's so rare they go to the movies. I don't want them feeling bad about it.

So, that is our budget loss for this week.

**Because of the above, I got out the old pen and paper monthly budget.

I will never understand on any level why anyone would be tempted to spend more with a credit card than cash. I have very much a cash spending mentality. So, if I don't want to over-spend (and pay interest???), I have to only spend the money I have on hand. & of course we pay ourselves first (money goes to mortgage and retirement and whatever first), so all I really have to spend is what is left in my checking account.

BUT, sometimes it is difficult to manage a household with more than one person. I found a VERY simple solution. I just keep a running total of our monthly spending, by the computer. On a piece of paper. We can usually squeeze out $200 of discretionary spending, monthly. This does not include gas and grocery spending, which we are well versed and practiced in keeping within our budget. So, it's just everything else.

Credit cards make this SO EASY to manage. I can't say dh overly participates in this part. But I can see any credit card charges basically as the card is swiped. SO, I just write everything down. Then either of us can look at the list at any point of the month and see how much we have left to spend.

So yeah, I hadn't bothered with this in a while, but when I do, our spending always seems to be lower than usual. So, I figured if I Want a really tight month, I better write it down.

I wrote down $160 SF spending, though I expect gas coupon and less grocery spending to completely offset that. It will remind us that we had a very big spend month on the discretionary side of things, and we can cool it for the rest of the month.

I added pizza and movies. & dh and I both made a couple of purchases.

I'd like not to spend any more money this month, aside for food and whatever for upcoming Bay Area trips.

Hardly a tight month, as they went to the movies last weekend (FIL paid), I went to lunch with my friend ($$$$), dh went to a show, and we have a birthday and an anniversary coming up (two trips to Bay Area). I think our social calendar is quite full. & I guess another reason why I Was so thrown off by the movie plans.

Another gorgeous weekend in San Francisco. WOW!

I met up with my bff since we couldn't mesh our schedules last weekend. We had lunch and drinks with a beach view. The time went too fast.

We actually had some rain last week and might get more this week. Phew! (Not enough, but it is something).

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**I redeemed $25 credit card reward and added to mortgage payment. Also added $20 for carpool savings and $15 for internet savings. Total $60 snowflake for 2/28 mortgage payment. I will pay it at the end of the month.

I also expect a $200-ish insurance rebate (we get every February) so will add that to the mortgage payment as well.

**I updated side bar for total January interest received. No other savings this month since it was only a one-paycheck month.

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I think we pulled off a no-spend weekend. We went down to Bay Area for FIL's birthday. The car already had a pretty full tank (filled up when we got home last weekend). I spent money on lunch, but MIL slipped us a $50 gas card when we left. She often gave us cash when gas prices were very high and we were dealing with dh's medical problems and so on. BUT, it has been a long time. Not expected in the slightest.

So, if I spent about $20 on lunch, and I got $50, then it nets out to a profit. FIL took dh and the kids to the movies while I had my girl time.

I wasn't expecting to make out so well this weekend. Was just expecting to spend.

It's carpet cleaning weekend at work. I should probably work from home. I should probably do some errands. But, I think I will torture myself by doing nothing. Will mean a crazier schedule next week, but am looking forward to a breather before things get REALLY crazy. Maybe if I relax all day I can work up to a little shopping tonight. I have $90 in Kohls gift cards, and only need some nice pants (my work pants are getting pretty worn from so much wear). So, not expecting to spend any actual cash or to use up all my gift cards.

Do you want to hate my guts or what? Beautiful sunny weather here. Barely using the heat.

It's not all roses. Drought drought drought. Our lake is 17% of capacity (it looks fairly non-existent at the moment). The weather is just a mess everywhere, isn't it??? Ask me again in summer when we have no water.

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I did get to move the needle on my savings, after all. $16 savings interest hit this week. I added it to my sidebar.

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For whatever reason, my auto insurance decreased 10%. Woohoo! I just saw the online bill - I will get the detailed bill in the mail. & try to figure out what decreased. What's interesting is we drove the van to Vegas, AND gas prices have been fairly low, so I do not think it is likely to be a "low mileage" thing. We have overall been saving a lot since we have been reporting our actual mileage. But yeah, will see what the bill says...

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Ting Update!!

We should get our second "bill" tomorrow. Still paying with "credits" for a few more months.

Here is how January shook out:

We used way less data and minutes.

I will copy and paste a bit from my last Ting update, and update the numbers.

Sprint Monthly Charges:

1600 minutes (calls to each other were not counted), unlimited text and data

$ 105 for first phone
$ 25 for second phone
$ 25 for third phone
$ 15 for non-smart-phone
$ 20 Taxes
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$190 - Our split was $100 per month


Ting Monthly charges:

$24 for 4 phones
$ 9 for 500 minutes (Medium)**-we used 350 minutes
$ 5 for 1,000 Texts (Medium)**-we used like 150 texts
$13 for 500MB (Medium)**-we used 300MB
$ 3 Taxes
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$54 - Our split is $27 per month

**You can use however many minutes, texts, data you want. There are different tiers, and then reasonable fees if you need more than the XL tiers. Last month, for example, we had used the large "minutes" tier.

73% savings for the month of January

You could maybe call this "100% savings" because dh won a $50 credit this month.

I did double check and dh and I would use the same medium tiers for everything, if it was just us, and so we are saving a decent amount going in with my parents. It is only $6 per line to add a line and to share in the same data and minutes.

I think this is where our average bill is going to settle. Vacation and unusual usage, aside.

That is going to be so nice when the kids get cell phones. I have a friend who is probably not a great candidate for Ting, today. (Probably will be eventually). BUT, she was intrigued as far as a "kid's first cell phone." The referral possibilities may be quite huge with having a 10yo kid. I got to rack up those referrals! I imagine it's the kind of thing parents will be talking about too. Our friends tend to be budget minded, so they will be comparing notes on cell phone plans, and so on.

**I can't believe it - I got a raise! My boss told me two years ago that no one else in office had gotten a raise for years. So I did not expect anything.

In the end, it was the biggest raise I have gotten in 6 years (since economy soured significantly). About 2.5%. What's even more exciting is that I had already covered health insurance increase with other cost savings, and so the raise is pure gravy. Which maybe has never happened since we have had children (our health insurance has gone up in cost 1,000% in that time). I feel like I have always just been grateful that any raise has covered our healthcare costs.

The net increase is $135 per month. With our cell phone savings, I will just round that up to $150/month and add that to our savings.

**Those that are "by the book" will be happy to know that this boosts our retirement savings rate up to 15%. (I've never particularly cared because we have been mostly saving more than we need for retirement, without saving that much. Some of it is utilizing ROTHs - no taxes later - the rest was just starting young and never contributing less than 10%).

We are already maxing out our ROTHs, and so I would like to open a taxable investment account for this money. (Which, for now, we won't be taxed on, due to low tax bracket and some simple tax management). But we are also a little behind on ROTH funding for 2013, so I think I will wait until April and see how things shake out. Honestly, I Was doing the paperwork last summer, to open a new investment account, because things were going pretty well, and then we had the "Great Murphy Year of 2013". I feel like we should be saving TONS at this point, but life seems to have other plans. IT seems silly to contribute a penny to a taxable account until our ROTHs are well funded. But I kind of feel like sometimes things never go right until I just dive in and make it happen. So, for now I will just assume we can get that started in April or May. Will see... At the least I won't open that account until 2013 ROTHs are funded.

To help get some momentum going, will probably divert all snowflakes over to this new account, for a while. Though I would like it to be a general hands-off account, it will have more purpose than retirement. $150/month is a nice match to the college money grandparents are providing ($1k per year, per child). Whatever is not used for college, will eventually go to mortgage payoff or retirement. I don't actually expect to use any of this money for college. Seems unlikely at this point, but just for a Plan B.

I am abandoning the mortgage payoff for the interim. This account will take precedence because my job is a bit up in the air, so this will help us get a good start to some "potential long term unemployment savings". I really don't expect to have to use it for that either, but just hedging our bets.

Of course, the only reason we were hitting our mortgage harder the past couple of years was due to losing equity in our house. Even at the worst, we never went below 20% equity. But it was close, and we took proactive measures. Today we are back over 50%. So, it's fallen lower as far as priorities. {I'd love to pay it off today, but have to balance wants with reality. Reality is I have to get college and employment sorted out first, and crossing my fingers this is just a giant "mortgage payoff" fund, in the end}.

Anyway, the plan is $150/month, plus snowflakes, starting around May. I'd like to be agressive with putting gifts and credit card bonuses and such in this account. Once we get some momentum going on this account, we may consider a 50/50 save/pay down mortgage type plan. Or 70/30, or whatever makes sense.

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I work well under pressure. I did some major mad declutter and cleaning progress, last weekend. It generally would not be my preference to do that kind of big job in the middle of tax season, but apparently it works for me. (I never did as much as I wanted to last year because I got really bored with working and chores all the time - am used to fairly laid back summers and falls, and work was kind of busy too). So whatever, I will embrace it. Any chore I can cross off my list before, "want to relax and enjoy" time.

The problem is I got some major momentum and couldn't stop for a while. It might be okay for January and February. For March and April, I will have to slow it down and put work as a higher priority.

I had a genius idea this morning. I was thinking the downstairs was pretty decently decluttered, except for I have to sort through the piano music. I used to teach piano, and so I have hoards of materials. It just flitted across my mind this morning that I wanted to tackle that nasty chore this weekend. (Something I have just put off and off and off, otherwise). & it occured to me I could probably store a lot of that stuff digitally and be done.

I don't know why I never thought of that before!!! I've just got so many freaking photo copies of music. & part of me doesn't really want to give it up - could always be a nice side income stream. Storing stuff digitally is a good compromise, though I don't foresee "piano teaching" in my near future.

I will have to ponder that as I go through that type stuff in the house (things that can be just be kept on computers). For some things we are well ahead of the curve on that (financial records and photos and so on). But, for other things, we could use some strategizing and rethinking.

I don't expect to tackle all that music stuff this weekend, but I do hope to make a dent.

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P.S. Dh just won $50 in Ting credits. One more month we won't have to pay anything (sharing Ting with my parents and will give them the benefit of the credit too). I am starting to wonder if we will pay *anything* for cell service this year.

Work is crazy busy and has been for a while. & will be for a while.

Of course, January through April is our most profitable time of year. Too busy to spend, and raking in the overtime. Then I generally have the rest of the year to relax and enjoy.

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This is our January discretionary spending, to-date:

$134 groceries
$ 34 fuel

Exciting stuff!

Actually, about $20 of those groceries were a "Christmas Redo". I was sick on Thanksgiving, and Mom and dh were sick on Christmas, so we got together last weekend to spend some time with my parents. My parents are generally pretty easy and very happy to eat anything we cook, or even just leftovers. But my mom was really looking forward to our "Christmas Pizza".

Dh was going to pick up cat litter on sale today, and pick up a gift for a birthday party.

I did charge $200 for school lunches, on the reward credit card I am working on. (I charge every January, so did nothing different for the reward). I charged up some insurance also. I've got about $350 left to spend. I was expecting a $140 Sprint bill (100% my parents and they will reimburse), but Sprint didn't bill us this month. Ugh!! I thought that charge would be perfect since it isn't even really mine. I checked last years' January and February expenses and can't come up with anything else foreseeable, and so will probably just pre-pay some health insurance this weekend. That reward is going to be $580.

Unfortunately, I have no exciting plans for the $580 but to "clean up the checkbook". After the year we had, it's a miracle I did not have to dip MORE into savings, and so I am happy with the outcome. Could be happier (would make a nice snowball!), but happy enough.

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I am not participating in the savings challenges. We save very aggressively with a "pay ourselves first" mentality. (Literally, 43% of my regular take-home salary goes straight to savings. Plus, we tend to bank and snowball the extras). The idea of having anything extra leftover to save = harharhar. We keep it pretty tight. This doesn't mean we can't make spending decisions out of our savings. It just means I will never ever ever spend less than we budget, in a single month. Has probably never happened. Absolutely nothing leftover to increase savings. I guess my approach is more to "oversave" up front. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Saving coins is like nail on a chalkboard, to me. So I have to go get more money out of the bank so I can throw it in a jar and let it earn -0- interest? I don't get it and I never will. Even in the early days when we had to use cash more, we'd just spend the cash (change) we had before we'd go and get more. I am reluctant to waste a single penny. If I don't need it right now, it gets saved or invested.

{My kids are big change savers and if I ever find change I give it to them. I think for their age it is appropriate - they are learning that small amounts add up}.

Of course, in regards to the challenge, having to save a certain dollar amount (different) every week, just gives me a headache.

I don't fault anyone who thrives on the games or for who any of the above works. I just blog to say that these things do nothing for me. & so I am sitting it out. (Really and truly - it's important to do whatever works for you).

The declutter challenge? I was excited to see that post yesterday.

Again, I am not really interested in finding a specific amount of items to purge each and every day or week. But, I am embracing the challenge as far as keeping it front of mind and breaking it down into smaller pieces. Trying to make a little progress each and every week. Instead of complicating things with some fixed number, I will just do whatever makes sense.

I personally can not imagine purging 1,378 things from my home, but I have an open mind and will see what we can come up with. We regularly purge trash and broken items so I am not counting anything that I would toss under normal every day circumstances. I've got better things to do than to count every trash item and junk mail item that I always toss anyway. Looking to see what I can improve on, so will only count the "out of the ordinary" purges. We do also regularly purge outgrown clothing, toys, games and kids' things, so not sure how much of that I will count. Will see how I feel about it. I mostly want to acknowledge going above and beyond "the usual". Wondering if I will ever really feel on top of my "stuff". I have been on major purge mode for well over 10 years. I ramped it up last year because we are planning to downsizing our home in another decade. I want to pick up and move what we have and need - and to have the excess long gone by that point. (Why 10 years? I think our house is *perfect* for 4 people, but would prefer a smaller space for when it is just two of us. Kids will be on their own in another decade or so. Dh and I were more than content when we used to live in half the space).

One thing that makes decluttering hard for me is that I detest throwing things in the landfill. We try to freecycle, donate or sell anything possible. This is my "declutter" achilles heel, but I will stick to my guns. Once I get on top of it, it should be easy to keep on top of, know what I mean? It's the "stuff that I didn't know what to do with 10 years ago," that is driving me crazy at the moment. When I stop finding THAT stuff in my house, I will find some peace in this area.

Oh, and I printed up the challenge for work, too. Today I tossed a small trash bin full of old seminar and tax reference books. (Like 2009 - 2011, which is all obsolete by now). I found a fan in my office and no idea why, so moving it to the common area in case anyone has any use for it. I've been here 12 years and I haven't moved offices in a long while, so it's probably time for a good cleanup. {Oh - since we deal with large amounts of paper - we have a recycle dumpster - so everything I purged today will be recycled}.

At home I have done nothing, but dh just gave me two pairs of pants to purge. I've at least got two items for this week.