I figured I'd make this a new post because it is interesting.

I mentioned, in a prior blog, that my dh knew that Target took returns without receipts, and that he tried to return an old game we had gotten in 2004 (from Toys R US actually). & they took it.

I got a comment on my blog that this was nearly impossible - Target has terrible return policies.

Likewise, as I did a web search for Target return policies all I saw was a slew of websites about how HORRID Target's return policy was. (We aren't big on returns so I didn't really know or care. I mean we usually have recipts and return things within the week if we don't like it, etc. Not big on playing the return game, so this knowledge had completely alluded me).

So I commented that I would have to ask dh how he knew about this policy. I really had no idea. (& to clarify what the policy was. I read somewhere online that they take returns under $25 with no receipt. Not sure if it was recent or accurate. But it did ring a bell for me).

So I asked dh. The story was that he had some extra Blu-Ray disks and was wondering, in January, if he could return them to Target. (There was no receipt). So he called and asked Target. They actually said they would take the movies with no receipt if they were under $20. That they allow 2 returns per year with no receipts, for under $20.

To be clear, this was probably for store credit; not cash. (This could be where some of the confusion is?). That's same as cash to me, as much as we shop Target.

So I thought, "Aha!" This is good fodder to remind everyone why it never hurts to ask for things!

Anyway, in the movie case, Target had them priced at $25 and would not take them. Dh was willing to use up his "2 returns" for the year for $40, but they wouldn't bend. They were over $20 so they wouldn't take them.

In the end he got $40 or more from Best Buy instead. I am not sure why he singled out Target except it's close and maybe they charged more for the movies... I don't know. Best Buy is certainly a bit of a drive.

So anyway, when we found this 4-year-old board game with the old design, he figured he'd try their policy, on a whim. Probably the convenience factor.

Likewise, they sell the game for $20, but were willing to give him $14 store credit on this particular game. Lord knows why $14. But I knew it was the easiest and best deal we'd get.

So that is the full scoop...

Also, the whole thing reminded me that dh bought his PS3 at Target, and that they dropped the price by $100 exactly 91 days after he had bought it. We obviously knew the 90-day policy, but figured it never hurts to ask. He said he just asked politely for a price match though he knew he was one day late, and they gave him $100 credit. That was about it.

So you know, return policies are not always completely set in stone!!

I guess this is also a good reminder to keep those receipts. Dh always keeps every receipt on bigger purchases because he regularly watches the ads and price matches thing. I say most of the time he buys something big it goes on sale within months. Murphy's Law, but not when you have the receipt.

I guess I keep receipts too, but I just don't shop that much.

I was looking for a game or puzzle or something and pulled out a few from the closet for ebay or Craigslist.

The main one being Cranium. Someone gave it to me for Chsristmas in 2004, and fankly I hate the game.

Dh got annoyed at me when he saw there was a receipt taped to the bottom. !!!!!

I had to admit that I might have known it was there, but kept it around for friends who love the game. Of course, nice as that gesture was, the game has never been opened.

Dh said Target had a good return policy and he would try to take it there. He cased it out first and said the new boxes look very different and who knows if they would take it.

For whatever reason, he tried today and they gave hime $14.

Not bad...

It retails $20. I think we would be hard pressed to find $14 for it otherwise, much less with so LITTLE effort. So I am really rather pleased with this find.

Dh used the money for Easter stuff and some groceries at Target.

Anyway, he was really peeved at me when he saw the receipt. But he couldn't be peeved for long. I had actually found some nice shirts in a box (from EARLIER than 2004 - indeed). No doubt from his mom, which she buys him clothes every year that he never wears. They looked nice and simple and so I hung them up in the closet. When he saw them he asked where the hell did they come from and he never intended to wear them.

I don't think I brought up the receipt to him, though it did peeve me. Not sure why he didn't just return them then.

So when he brought it up I told him there was a good $30 or more in unreturned goods in his closet. so yeah, be careful who you point that finger at.

I think we will be double checking each other's tossed aside gifts going forward. LOL.

I also redeemed my BK coupon today. Got an entire chicken sandwhich value meal for $2.50 (saved $3.65 since the sandwhich was free). Not bad!

I saved 1/2 the sandwhich for tomorrow. Was WAY too much food. But will stretch out nicely to 2 lunches with a yogurt from home and some water from the tap.

Oh, one final thing. Dh called to redeem our free month from Verizon (by signing up for a year contract). Anyway, I don't remember the last time I called Verizon. I never call them. I leave that stuff to dh. He has called many times to turn on roaming if we went on vacation (to the east coast and such). He was the one who called to change our plan last year. HE totally changed our plan to a new one and signed a one-year contract.

So he calls today and they say they won't even talk to him because he is not on the account.

Go figure.

LOL.

So now I have to waste my time calling them. Bah. I knew we went through this ages ago but I thought we had gotten that squared away, ages ago. Figures.

I was fixing up all my spreadsheets for 1/1. My file got corrupted and I lost a lot of my 2007 data. But that's okay. I had a recent enough backup that I didn't have to do much. I am starting over 1/1 on much anyway.

Anyway, I Was glancing at our retirement for the year. & it looks pathetic. It was really a pathetic retirement year. There is more to the story, but firstly I wanted to share because I see lots of talk about fear of the market in the forums. For the young people starting out.

So here it is:



The amazing this is this is how much we have amassed all the years when we had MUCH bigger priorities than retirement. When we were saving $50k for our house. When we were simplifying our income and lifestyle to have kids. Yet we still made decent progress without a lot of effort.

Well, we graduated college in 1999 and I was eligible for a 401k in 2000. I contributed 10% of my income for about 18 months before I left that job. Most of my money was put in 2001. (& latter 1/2 of 2000). It has been far been my best investment. A co-worker helped me pick 3 mutual funds, for a mix of 15% bonds and 85% stocks. I never thought about it since. But the monthly contributions helped lessen the blow when the market "Crashed." & I returned 12-30% each year, the years following. (I recently moved this money to managed funds, which muted my returns this year).

On top of that we shoveled some money into IRAs. $4500 in 2000 when we made good money. The rest are IRA contributions we made over the years. Skipping the years I took maternity leave and we just didn't have the income.

So dissapointingly, 2007 was our worse retirement year since my last 2 maternity leaves. BUT we got our efund back up to snuff. So that is why.

I also vest in my employer plan this year, which I have mostly ignored to date (as I wasn't much vested before). It is a 10% annual contribution and interestingly the balance is about $33k. So makes our retirement exactly 1/2 controlled by us and 1/2 in my employer-controlled plan. But is also why we didn't sweat retirement this year. I received in essence a $10k contribution with my vesting this year.

But that graph just reminds me, slow and steady wins the race.

Our returns were really muted after 2001 because most of dh's IRAs were in a broker who had us in very volatile/risky/expensive investments. He never had much in returns. My IRA was in cash (like 1%). Don't ask why.

We moved everything around last year. My cash now earns almost 6%. & dh is in a bunch of indexes so he has had an awesome return (no fees). My portfolio is a little more experimental and I bought one fund very high, late in the year. So my IRA shows a slight loss for the year. I'm still learning. I like mutual funds and studying them and picking them and playing with them. But the antecdotal evidence in our case is that the indexes kick butt. Little effort, small fees, good returns. Even when you invest a good chunk at the peak...

Which is probably, why, interestingly, I primarily want to invest in dh's IRA and my Target Retirement fund, going forward. It's the simplest and most effective way. I have smaller dollars in my experimental funds. But I don't aim to make those a large part of my portfolio, or to add more. As far as the indexes, we aim to do more dollar cost averaging going forward. We haven't done that since my 401k. We usually just add a chunk every April 15th to save some taxes. But I am currently putting $50/month into a Target Retirement fund and aim to put another $300/month to dh's indexes, come fall. It is my feeling that our investments performed the best when we added a little every month.

The only flaw in my old 401k was I had no exposure to international. Dh has a lazy fund portfolio - Vanguard Star, Vanguard Int'l & Vanguard Total Stock. His portfolio is up 10% for the year. It seems to be working quite well though. I kept his portfolio simple, in case anything every happened to me. & we tend to contribute more to his IRA overall since I have my own employer plan.

As far as my employer plan, I was really disgusted with the returns. But I thought twice about this. My boss does not contribute my contribution until September of the following year (tax deadline). When I look at my balances again, and consider that the money does not get there until the following September. It is actually earning a good 10% annually. So I feel better about that. Phew!!!!!! I look forward to controlling that down the road. But sometimes it is nice to know I have a more conservative portfolio managed by someone else, in case I really screw up or something. Hehe. But yeah, if I quit Jan. 1, the money is mine. Though my boss generally does not contribute it to the last minute. Hey, beggars can't be choosers.

I highly doubt we will make it this year. But my goal overall is once the kids are out of preschool, is to contribute 10% of our income as well. On top of that just save our raises, until we max out. Right now the $10k IRA max, for the 2 of us, is about 15% of my income. So yeah, in 2010, 2011, 2012. I expect to contribute much more than we have been historically. We'll see...

I think the other interesting thing in our case was that we had so much cash saved up when we went down to one income, that our retirement contributions were not really affected until we had our second child. (Our income was halved but we were still contributing in the $5k range annually). But that is when we started living up to our income a little more. & retirement was just never a priority to us. It was a tax savings thing. So it is a different mindset for us now. If that is what we can accomplish without thinking much about it. What can we accomplish with retirement at top of mind? I think that's the exciting thing.

So I share because of that. But don't freak out because the stock market goes down one day. You need to look at that big picture!

I actually made an effort to keep a large cash portion in early 2006 because I thought the market was going to tank. Instead it was our best year bar none (cash and all). So what do I know? But gee am I glad I kept a good chunk in stocks too. That's certainly another lesson I can share. I am not buying the 100% stock portfolio anytime soon. But too much cash can be even worse... I am learning.

ETA: As of today I am up 4.83% for the year. One day can make a BIG difference!!!!

Well I did my Christmas budget and came out about to a budget of about $600. What we ended up spending last year. Last year we spread it out over 3 months, and this year I am a little slow to the game. However, expect a lot of Christmas cash.

Figure we'll buy gifts this month (love to have them wrapped up by Thanksgiving - generally my goal. I don't do stress and all that and always strive to make Christmas relaxing as possible. Plus work is crazy, all the more reason to be ahead of the game so I can focus on work - if you must know the truth!).

I know, it's funny, I worked here 6 years and yet dh continually forgets that it is hard for me to get time off around Christmas. At my old job I always took a good week or two (had flex time and sure worked a LOT of hours the rest of the year). So it's been kind of bummer to only get one day off. Often working the weekends and such. BUT the last few years Christmas or our Christmas holiday fell on the weekend. So dh tells me we are doing our usual Christmas Eve thing and I am like, um, well I'll be at work. I feel like we go through this every year. As for me, I decided to take the week of Thanksgiving off every year. Doesn't cut so much into my vacation as a full week off, and is also nice with all the preparation as we host every year. We just have the most room. (& I LOVE a holiday where we don't have to drive 2 hours each way!!!) With Japan & Vegas that is out the window this year.

Oh anyway, as far as the budget, like $200 is for our families who were so extremely generous to us this year, and $50 to my boss's gift. He'll give me $200 or so, and I'll give $50. Seems fair. I really appreciate him. So yeah, that is about 1/2 the budget. There really is not a lot to it in the grand scheme of things. Presents in November and then December we will work on all the donations. I can put them on the card and pay them in January after we get all the Christmas cash - so though we are one month behind, I think it will work out just fine.

We also went through the kids' wish list and decided that they don't need much. We want to get a $40 train table for LM and could not decide on much for BM. But they get so spoiled we kind of just want to get them both one nice toy (& only that. We have piles of free books and games and such from Scholastic as well). I saw a $30 scooter and figured BM would LOVE it so will probably go for that. We were thinking of getting LM a leapster. BM has one and LM loves the thing (just getting old enough to use). But the new ones use a different battery charger so we were looking at $100 for the whole package. (Gee I wonder if the old games are compatible - I assume yes since dh did not mention but who knows). It would be very excessive, BUT LM generally gets little but hand-me-downs. I thought it would be a really nice gesture. We thought better of it though, and I think that is good. Dh mentioned BM is really outgrowing it and with the whole charger situation it just doesn't make sense. So we saved quite a few dollars there.

That leaves the next biggest item on my list to spoil my nieces. & I do have twice as many this year. So my mom called me last night to say she had a $10 Kohls coupon (just a $10 minimum purchase - I LOVE those) and she was going to send it to me. Woohoo. I figure I might get one in the mail too. Keeping a sharp eye out. I can swing some cute outfits for the nieces with $20. So will cross my fingers on that.

In other news, it is *that* time of year. Time to see what our health insurance premiums bring. Blech... We're at $675 for a lesser plan and I can not imagine paying more. On the flip side, we are in a position now with all the permanent birth control measures to maybe keep the kids on this plan and dh and I would consider taking boss's crappy plan. Not happy about it and not even sure if we would save much money. But will have to evaluate again. I think it's something like $350 to cover the kids now and $250 to cover dh on boss's plan (I'd be covered). Plus dh's portion would be pre-tax, which is huge. So it is something to consider. That would be around a $100 savings perhaps, today. Just not sure it is worth it for much lesser coverage. Probably not... Higher deductibles and all that. (But I think the catch is no quite high enough to qualify for a HSA. Plus we really wouldn't save enough to heavily contribute - and so on).

Well, probably will know in a week or 2... I just DREAD this time of year. But some part of me thinks at least it can't be as bad as last year (40% increase for turning 30 last year!!!!!!). Of course, at $673/month, the usual 10-20% increase is too frightening to think about.

Oh maybe a bit dramatic, but today is not off to a good start.

I paid $3200 on my card for Japan expenses and childcare last week. Thankfully not due until the 20th or something, but it throws me off a bit to have such a large/outside budget amount outstanding so just paid it when my mom reimbursed me for the Japan portion. Then my credit card balance looks normal. & it doesn't look like I have an extra $3k to spend in my checking - hehe. No temptation.

It didn't clear the credit card right away (though it did the bank). I have been busy all week, but was checking all my balances today and still hadn't cleared. I Was thinking, oh lord, where the heck did it go? Just figured I'd have to call and straighten it out. Got sent off to space or something.

Then I remembered I have 2 Chase cards and am always worried about paying the wrong one in Bill Pay. Bingo. Paid the wrong card.

The only reason I have that stupid card in there is Chase denied dh's PS3 purchase so he pulled out the old car he hadn't used in 5 years and they accepted that charge. Still not happy about that. Glad his charge went through, but wondering why Chase would deny our regular card but not that one. ??? Unless they figured the odds were slim someone stole both cards. ? But anyway, so now my Bill Pay is all screwed up. But I keep it in there because if he does use that card ever for any reason I'll get an online bill. I'll have to rename it if I Can in the "bill pay" screen.

Anyway then I Was freaking out because I Could not find a statement for his stupid acocunt we never use. I know I have it somewhere with the login info I set up, but lord knows where it is. So I am frustrated. Mostly because I am pretty organized and have no idea where this can be. I finally realized (doh) dh has the card in his wallet. So I asked him to call and have them apply the $3200 from his old card to our newew/regular card. I will try to follow up with a letter tonight too. Get it squared away.

The reason I Tell all this is no matter how organized and on the ball you are, mistakes happen. It's why it is good to #1, pay your bill early to avoid problems. & #2, to have an emergency fund. If we don't get this straightened out on showing on the card by Friday, I will just send a check off from my money market account. Then we can worry about the refund, but at least I won't incur any interest. I Certainly have the cash, easily accessible, to cover this mess in the meantime, while it is straightened out. I don't expect it to be straightened out by the 20th when it is due, since it is dh's card and he has to call. But we'll see. I am not happy about losing interest if I have to dig so much out of the efund, but we'll survive.

But yes, & I can really be an idiot sometimes, hehe. It was a good wakeup call for me because ever since we bought that stupid TV I have way less checking float than I would like and I have been paying the bill much closer to the due date than I like. This could have really screwed me up if it was a regular bill, so I will be more careful.

Anyway, so far everything about today has been crappy. This is the least of it. Here's to a better rest of the day...

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$50 cleared my bank to my IRA & $50 to BM's UGMA so this whole automatic investing thing is getting off to a good start. Vanguard is giving me problems on LM's UGMA so I printed off a voucher for $100 for the year - will just mail a check next month or something. That's another one - all in dh's name so he will have to call to straighten out our issues and so I keep putting it off. But it's so little it matters little. Just was looking forward to the automatic part and the income averaging. So we'll see. I was curious what the minimum was and in these particular funds they can deposit as little as $100, so that is good. Can probably just make extra Christmas deposits for them when they get christmas money (if they don't get $100 we'll probably just add to whatever they get to make it $100. Our fam is not big on cash gifts overall. But they will probably get something).

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P.S. I forgot, someone at aerobics told me I Was "getting skinny." & I have lost 4 pounds. It has been VERY slow going but as long as I make progress I do not mind. Slow is good. But I mean 4 pounds might be generous. 4 pounds from maybe my peak. maybe a good 2 pounds since I have been going to aerobics (4 months?). So a little too slow, but better than nothing. BUT I dropped my birth control last week and lost a pound pretty quickly. VERY interesting. So we'll see. Since most of this 20 pounds I had gained was post-birth control. I had lost all the baby weight on my second child and then put on a load afterwards. I always thought it could be the birth control since it coincided (& it came on FAST), but I also had some hormone issues and you know nothing seems the same after having children. But I am getting optimistic that maybe a lot of this weight will start to drop off. My nicest work pants are getting too big. A catch 22. I have to lose a lot of weight to fit most the stuff in my closet.

I lost all this weight last year but my metabolism is just so shot. So I am having hopes that maybe my body is returning a little more to normal and it will be easier to keep off this time. (On the flip side I feel like I have been working harder and the fat has been very stubborn this time). The true test for me beyond losing the weight (which I know I Can do - it's not much) will be to keep it off during tax season. I am feeling optimistic I am creating a workout schedule I can stick with. But we'll see.

I wish this came so easy to me as finances, honestly. The principles should be the same, but I have serious food issues. If it wasn't for my husband I would be extremely overweight. He keeps me honest and eating good; cooks healthy meals, etc. But there is only so much he can do when I am off at work. I just grew up being able to eat whatever I want/whenever I want and I am thankful my husband has taught our kids such wonderful eating habits. He made some casserole with no veggies last night and I Was chowing down and both kids refused to eat it. So bizarre!!!!! IT was just such an usual meal to them. They love their fruits/veggies and have to eat what we make for dinner, or at least try it (once, twice, 3 times). Rules I have never lived with. I just eat with my emotions. So I have been thinking a lot it just takes a little self control like with finances, but it is just so completely different to me. Thankfully I have a husband who enjoys cooking and has wonderful/healthy eating habits.

& 6 to go?

I got mail from Macy's and they said give me 60 days for them to "investigate." Blech. I think they told me that 60 days ago...

But then I got a letter from Sears. ID Theft resolved. Card closed for good. Off my report. Out of my name. Woohoo.

Sears is under Citi along with 3 other cards so I hope that means all of those are pretty much taken care of.

Of the other 3, at least none of them were bigger balances. Well Lowes was big but I haven't heard anything from them in ages. I'll have to check the paperwork, I get the feeling maybe that one was squared away too. I don't really care if they rid me of responsibility from the card with $0 balance (mush as it shouldn't be any sweat off their back to just let it go) so I am least worried about that one. Mostly leaves Macy's which was the smallest balance at $900 or so...

Oh yeah I got a Macy's statement as well (in the meantime while they take 60 days to figure out it obviously wasn't me). But with this one they were nice enough to not have a minimum payment (like Zales). No payments for a while I guess? What is more disturbing - that you could get $25k credit so easy, or that you can get $25k credit so easy and you don't pay any payments for x months? Yeesh. I think since it is California and I filed a police report that the Credit Bureaus would block the info from my report even if the credit company recorded non-payments in the interim. So that is nice. The credit bureaus seemed to block this info easily enough without the "investigations being complete." But for the most part it looks like it will all be cleared up before any payments would be due (knock on wood).

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In other news yesterday I read something like 85% people pay more payroll taxes than income taxes. WOW! I actually looked at the site referenced and only found a 45% figure (which is still big). The Tax Policy Institute or something. I thin with the 85% figure they were trying to say that workers really shoulder the employer portion of social security by taking lesser wages so their employers could pay it. There is probably much truth to that. Must be the way accountants think since I think that about everything. You take from here it has to come from somewhere...

We are most certainly in this percentage though - our social security taxes are double our income taxes. & I am sure there are many in that situation. I think sometimes when people complain about the taxes coming from their checks they don't realize exactly what is coming out of their checks.

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I almost fell over listening to Dave Ramsey yesterday. For one he was annoying me because he was going on and on how only idiots even mention pets in their wills (well it was an older podcast). I was thinking about scfr's post about making arrangements for your pets - just make sure they are cared for, etc. I don't think it is an idiotic thing at all. Not everyone who thinks of their pets leaves billions to their pets (well most wouldn't obviously - hehe). Then he was screaming at all us morons for having credit cards for ease of use. I just rolled my eyes. Some lady called all appalled that a financial advisor at her kids' school recommended getting cards and paying them every month to build credit. Of course he freaked out. But he doesn't get that people need a credit score. I know those people who never had a card in their life and couldn't buy a house. Couldn't finance a car when things went bad. It really doesn't help average joe blow to be so adverse to the idea of a card. Sure why not pay inflated insurance premiums just because you have no credit. (Doesn't sound very smart). Then again maybe we should be fighting the system. Anyone who can get through life with no credit, well they can't be doing that bad, can they? I guess it could be an indicator of both extremes. But it seems like it could be relatively easy enough to be audited or something as an alternative to prove credit-worthiness. If you feel that strongly about the credit industry, I agree there probably should be some other alternatives to major credit risk. It's a mess. This 3 Credit Bureau is just driving me insane with this ID theft thing. Why the hell are there 3 Bureaus?????? Makes life 3 times harder for me. So to an extent I am for fighting the system. But in the meantime I don't find it that hard to just play along.

Anyway, I went on a tangent. I almost fell over when Dave said that the value of your cars should be no more than 50% of you annual gross income. I almost choked. Thought I heard wrong. So I looked it up. & yes that is what he recommends. Of course since he recommends paying cash I guess mostly we are on the same page. But 50% just seems awfully generous. (We've spent most of our lives well under 10%. & with 2 "new" cars today we are squarely at 25% and looking at no new cars for like a decade - so it will shrink back to our 10%
average soon enough).

I thought wow this is generous coming from Dave. I wonder what most financial gurus recommend. Just out of curiosity. So I looked and I saw the recommendation that car payments should be no more than 15% - 20% of your take-home pay, on a monthly basis. For one, what financial guru bases car affordibility based on payments? Blech. But 20%. Are they serious???????? I assure you this included no expenses but the car payments. I reread the articles looking for clues - they must be talking insurance, license and all. But no, this was just payments.

So that puts us at $750-$1k monthly car payment we could afford? Are they insane? No way. We maybe put away $400/month on average towards our next car purchases (2). & I have to say we have never had this kind of money for a car before. This is like as good as it gets for us. I could never see spending more. When we made six figures we bought an $8 car. We just don't get the whole car thing. It's a VERY nice car by the way. Small, but nice.

But it's ironic. I have been wanting to buy a $5k 3rd car. We couldn't justify keeping our convertible when we had our first child (insurance and all) but I feel we are getting much closer to buying another very nice, used convertible. By Dave's standards I could afford a $18k car I guess. I mean, heck, I do have the cash.

It's funny because we were watching a show the other day where a husband gave a really nice convertible to his wife on her 40th birthday. I was telling dh, hint hint hint. What a nice birthday present. I said how about at 35? LOL.

Nah, I am going to wait until I can pay cash for a nice $5k car. & fully fund our retirement. Maybe in 5 years. PErhaps. It's harder right now with dh's car being so reliable and worthless at the same time. No collission insurance. I can't really justify spending the cash for a car if his car could be totaled tomorrow and we could need it for that. Then again I would have a car for him to drive. HE would just hate it and we would prefer it be a car that the kids don't ride in for now. So it will be a few years...

But yeah, I realize these are maximums. But they just seem insane to me. Of course the sad thing is that most people I know would find these "rules" rather restrictive. I guess it's some middle ground to give a wake up call to people really buying more than they can afford, but throwing a bone to those who want new cars every few years. We could buy some 2 really nice cars on credit with $1k monthly payments. For sure. I am so glad we put all that money to our house instead though. Phew.

*Got signed up for balanced billing - both electric and gas. Gas told me they were going to bill me $30/month. I think our electric average is around $40/month. They didn't tell me the amount up front. But we'll see. I'll miss the $10 bills, but oh well, makes budgeting easier. (& I guess that I won't miss the $100 bills!!!!!!)

*Still hadn't gotten the paperwork to switch to metered water, but I guess they called dh today to say it is still in the works. August is a bad month, but metered water in September would be nice (will save $10-$15). Maybe October - as long as we get it by the really cheap winter months.

*Experian sent me a note that they deleted a bunch of crap from my credit report and will permanently block all of it. Woohoo. We'll see what Equifax says. Transunion was called by Citi (with me on the line) but they were the ones that had that horrid FICO score. If it doesn't bounce back up by next month I will write in for the "permanent block." Maybe should do regardless, since I swear they said they "removed stuff" (got that in writing) but nothing about a "permanent block." Maybe that has to be requested (certain states like California allows fraudulent stuff to just be permanently blocked from your report if you ask). I am also terribly confused by what the credit Bureaus do and do not share. They seem to share all the info with each other, but then others say they don't. From my experience they seem to be sharing all the info - if anything reports on one it reports on the others. I think I even read if you requested a block with one it will send on the info to the others to block as well. Well, we'll see. see if I get more confirmations or if I will have to pull more reports and send off for more block requests.

All the instructions and forms said you can only block what is showing, but I sent along the police report and they blocked everything that has shown up since I pulled the report - as much keeps trickling onto the report - so woohoo. Score one anyway for a tedious process. For one, Lowes has taken the balance off my report from day 1 but it still shows on my report (with a $0 balance). I assume this means it won't show up at all. Other places are still showing on my credit report with balances while they resolve things though I think most said they wouldn't. (Whatever...). IT should be a good month before I get anywhere near resolving all of this. Waiting for them all to officially "clear me" and take everything off my credit report. I think most quoted it as a 30-day process from when I sent in the affidavits (all signed/notarized/sent/received, so just a waiting game here on out.

*We weren't home all weekend, and yesterday was a LONG day (Marine World - went well - kids loved it). Tomorrow I am hosting a playgroup with like 10 moms and 15 kids I don't know. Oy Vey! Don't ask - long story... (Of course funny enough dh asks me what we are doing for dinner - LOL. I said - do you think we can afford to feed all these people? Play date is AFTER dinner of course. He was asking if he should pick up some pizzas...)

*Which reminds me I am SICK of pizza. We did the take/bake cheap yummy pizza thing last Monday for guests, had lots of leftovers (since dh bought 2 - told him we only needed one! ). Pizza Saturday for birthday party and then we went to visit dh's friends Sunday and they pulled out the pizza menu. We just looked at each other. "Sure, sounds great." (If I never see another pizza again). Well, we did get a lot of free pizza - so hey...

*Made a big deposit at the bank. My mom reimbursed me for all the airline tickets (like $3k) and I had kids' birthday money (transferring to Vanguard in the next month). I had been waiting until I needed it and was ready to transfer so it didn't just get spent... I mean I was going to transfer it regardless, but now I can just transfer the actual checks once they deposit. I was starting Automatic Imvestments for the kids in September. & then I had dh's focus group money - deposited the cash like a good girl.

*Dh was inspired by my dad to attempt pest control on his own. Woohoo. We tried in the past and he just wasn't helping me, lord knows I don't have the time. We found a cheap service for a while (who would only come when we needed it - thank you) but they gave up on wasps (too many injured employees and that is our only real problem, though I have seen more spiders than I have cared to this last year inside the house. We are lucky the house is air tight enough few get in though). I haven't balanced my disgust for chemical pest control with my disdain for spiders. It's irrational I know, but I just can't stand the things. Anyway, some guy came around with some insane quotes last week and dh wanted to sign up. I asked him to call around. We need someone to come once or twice at the beginnign of wasp season and that is about it. We don't need to pay $60 each and every month (nor do I want to spray that much as we try to be somewhat environmentally conscious). But after a year if no spraying something needs to give - indeed. So when we were talking to my dad over the weekend about frugalness or something dh got inspired to give it a whirl himself. We'll see. I just don't want him to get stung. But yeah my dad has always done the pest spraying for our home growing up. So he had some tips.

Which reminds me our guests from Canada came to the door and said, "You get tarantulas here???" Yeah, just want the arachnophobe wants to hear. They were going on and on about our BUGS which I found rather ironic. I know I wouldn't last a minute in the south myself. Maybe we should move north! IT wasn't a tarantula - just a really big spider. The thought will give me nightmares though. But yeah told them they hasn't seen nothing until they go spend a summer day in North Carloina - hehe.

*We decided my van needs new tires. Still 2 originals (2 blew but ran over bolts both times - not much you can do). I told dh I thought the used ones looked worn but he convinced me they weren't. We're pulling out the penny and I think he was guaging the wrong areas of the tire. So over the weekend his dad mentioned my tires looked pretty worn. (Van has about 45k miles on it and I am sure the 2 are original tires - probably crappy factory ones at that). So I asked my dad to check since he is the car expert. In true frugal fashion he tells me front tires are pretty iffy (should replace) but the back ones have 6 months. If he were me he'd wait 6 months on the back ones. But get the tires that last 60k miles. I am thinking if I am taking my car in and getting tires, and they are going to last 60k miles, might as well get 'er done. But that's my dad. We usually just have our mechanic guy do it (he advises us but we haven't taken the cars in much since we have 2 newer cars). So I asked my dad where he recommended and he recommended someone down the street from them in San Jose. He said he would call and get me a quote. Sounds good - next time we drive down - my dad will help me get a deal.

That being said I don't think our mechanic charged particularly much for the 2 or 3 times he replaced all my tires (I have gone through a lot of cars lately) so I will probably call him for a quote too. If they are that "iffy" on the front rather just get them done - can take them in tomorrow if I wanted.

Not a biggie, but then dh tells me he doesn't think his tires have ever been changed. I vaguely remember they have been but I couldn't remember when. The car has well over 70k miles. I figure he is insane. I haven't pulled out the paperwork yet (hardly been home) but at lunch I remembered to look at his tires. Clearly new. Probably replaced in the last year or 2, but the car is never driven. I was pleased to glance at his tired and see they obviously don't need replaced too - phew. I mean if they did - what are you going to do - we'll replace them - we have the cash. Safety first. But he was freaking me out. I'll pull out the paperwork and see when we got those tires...

Always something...

*Yesterday we spent $110 at Marine World (Discovery Kingdom or whatever - just changed the name). I was wrong. Our tickets were $30/each. & parking was $15. (Are they serious?) Of course if you looked at the prices the day without discount would have cost us something like $200 (tickets only - not even parking). Who pays that????????? Everyone we saw had a coupon of course. But they day was PERFECT - just dead as could be - not a lot of people. We did good! Kids had a blast. Spent $35 on food for the grand total of $110. Of course we were lazy and tired and had a $5 Taco Bell meal on the way home and stopped by Rite Aid for some 99-cent ice cream so made it a $118 day I guess.

I also made the observation that the more fit people had the fancier strollers yesterday - for the toddlers and preschoolers. IT strikes me as odd. I guess BM has never been a stroller fan (too much energy) and in the last few months LM has pretty much been done with his (pretty much after he had been walking just a few months). When we took them to SF zoo a few months back I was amazed how well LM but at the end of the night we had to carry him out and about killed us (he is a good 30 pounds). But yesterday we brought the stroller "in case" but left it in the car. Didn't need it in the least. Since we are more in shape carrying him at the end of the day exhaustion point was just a piece of cake. & I am just happy one less thing we have to pack next time. I have read that people are keeping their kids in strollers way too long (part of the whole obesity thing) and yesterday I really noticed it. I just think it was extremely ironic that the most fit people had the biggest strollers - LOL. Dh said it was a status symbol thing. I don't know - maybe. As for us, every time we have to pack (or more importantly, every time I have to REMEMBER ) one less thing, we do the happy dance of joy. I think we are about done with strollers... I say woohoo!

*THough I have been a little stressed lately about money (when am I not?) I am feeling rather at one with the financial universe all the same. Life is good. I left work early last week to hang out with BM at preschool "because he wanted me to." Sure, what the heck. Took yesterday off. Going to Japan in a few weeks. Dh and the kids are going to Florida as well in OCtober. Our savings is going in a positive direction for the first time since kids and one-income and all that. Life is good. What is there really to complain about. I already blogged that while everyone is "Going Back to School" we are enjoying the kids. Maybe it is because the kids are at a good age too. Moving past diapers and bottles (& strollers) and sleepless nights, it's kind of an enjoyable time. Easier to slow down and enjoy their innocence a little bit more without the complete exhaustion that comes with babies and newborns.

I've even been feeling less like working part-time is really going to be my goal. I want more time with the kids now - like it matters when they are in school all day anyway. Which means I might make an effort to work less the next year or 2 and then ramp it up when the kids are in school and give up on the whole part-time thing. Maybe... I mean if dh returns to work it will be an entirely different beast. But if he is not working, kids in school, my work schedule isn't so bad. I can compile my vacation and take a month off every summer and be home with the kids then if I like. I could come home every afternoon and work while they do homework. At least we can all be home together though - though we will all have our own work to do. It's an idea. I think I would probably be better off doing that and going for more unpaid time than the goal of part-time. I would just lose way too much. If I can vie for more unpaid time insetad, I wouldn't lose all my benefits and perks. Frankly, I don't really mind working full-time. I have had a time of it since LM was born. I think I have felt like I have been missing a lot more with the kids. But with LM sleeping better and getting to the gym and all that I have just been feeling so much better. Work has been going so much better. A good night sleep does make all the difference - it really does. I think with sleep and getting more fit and a clearer brain I am focusing more on how good we have it lately and so feel little need to complain and am rather happy where things are. I have just been on a bitch fest when it has come to work these last few months and I think just the stress and exhaustion. But things are going a lot better. Work is still crazy, but handling it better.

I just got my haircut - woohoo. I chopped off a good 8 inches or so I am sure. I prefer more shoulder-length hair but somehow it was 1/2-way down my back (heck I don't know if it has ever been longer). That being said I just chopped it in January - I swear my hair grows faster with age.

But anyway - I had a $9.99 coupon for Great Clips. I was able to walk in and see my favorite stylist with no wait. My beauty regime pretty much is a cheap haircut twice a year. I don't see the point of much else. I have given up on Super Cuts - too many bad haircuts (maybe didn't help that is where I went during my short hair stage - I decided I could no longer afford short hair since a stylist is way too expensive and would have to cut every few weeks, etc.). Great Clips can be hit and miss but I have had much better luck. I got this salon quality stylist though who can work magic on my hair with a quick cut (fast too). So I lucked out today. In and out in about 15 minutes - no wait - perfect haircut. Maybe a pound or 2 lighter - LOL.

Most all the beauty stuff I just don't buy into. I actually get a lot of compliments on my hair, and having the years I dyed and permed and styled, I have to say not doing all that stuff to your hair makes for some nice healthy hair. I wouldn't touch it with a blow dryer either. If I hadn't of wanted a cut I didn't really need one, which is why it had been so long, my hair was looking really nice even with the length. She is just that good.

Oh but anyway - my coupon was for like $5 off so I have a $5 tip. Might had been a bit excessive but I am thrilled to get such a good quality cut for $10. I'll probably get a cut in February again, before tax season. Not a big part of the budget.

In other news I am an idiot. Wanted to take BM to Gilroy Gardens Monday - took a day off - special day just for us. When I last looked it seemed they were open weekdays through August so I made a mental note to plan a trip when we could go on a weekday. (But since the weather is more like here was pushing it off all the same - didn't want to go on a 100-degree day).

I just popped online to buy tickets and last operating weekday for the year was last Friday. I messed up.

I am not sure if I can really justify taking off work if we don't do something like that. I am swamped. But I have some insane coupon for MArine World. Something like $20/each and kids free if we go on a weekday. It's open Monday. We might stay in town and do that instead.

We were going to drive 2 separate cars to San Jose tomorrow since BM and I were going to stay overnight and dh/LM weren't. Now it just doesn't matter. We figure we will save a good $20 or so in gas - Marine World will actually be a cheaper trip in the end.

Gilroy Gardens will have to wait to next year when LM can enjoy too. We'll survive. I am not going on a crowded weekend - you couldn't pay me. That one is a catch 22 because it is for smaller kids though. They'll outgrow it soon enough. We'll have to go early in the summer.

Praying for a Focus Group - and it has arrived.

Dh has a $60 focus group next week - woohoo.

I hate to jinx it but word is the movie he worked on may be selling too(he gets a commission). We discuss using the money for video upgrades for future projects (some days I get the feeling this means we will make little on any video work ever - LOL. But I have to admit he doesn't have much time now and he has always worked to pay for that crap so whatever. I can probably talk him into putting 50% or so into retirement. We'll see, guess no point discussing until we know what it is AND it arrives but we are assuming $2k now. (If it is more than $20k though it is totally going to screw up my ROTH conversions. I guess there could be worse things. But for the most part I highly doubt it. Maybe I should hope my ROTH conversion gets screwed up - hehe).

So things are looking up.

On the flip side, I feel a little like BA. I feel like we have been doing really well and suddenly we are starting to slip backwards. Like we can feel we can afford more. But can we really? I am not sure yet.

Then again it is the 17th and the only thing we really splurged on all month is a $20 play and a meal at Subway.

I can sit home and not spend money until the cows come home but the big stuff will always get me.

Looks like we will just put LM in preschool 2 days a week. Money money. Temporary. But then I wonder when the "temporary" will end. We have been in a "temporary" state since 2002.

We went to that play and it was just awesome. They put on quite a production. I think they have 5 casts. I have no idea how they do it. They even work around my tax season (no plays in winter/early spring). They must have a CPA in charge in there somewhere - LOL. The play was darling and the cast was like 50-60 kids. I kid you not. I was just amazed at how well it was done - how do they organize all those kids?

Means we will shell out $100 for BM to take classes in the fall and be in the fall play. I don't think it will be a big deal. There may be a minimal costume fee and pizza fee, and the place is a bit of a drive. But for the most part it is not much. We have knocked our gas bill on its butt lately so we have some wiggle room.

Oh yeah, I will probably have to take a couple of unpaid days off for Japan too. Which matters little since the trip will cost me little. But it will cost me something as will dh's Florida trip. I feel like I am putting too much off to - "oh - we'll get Christmas money for it." I haven't locked in the efund yet because my goal is still $12k by 12/31. I think we'll still make it. But more precarious as more and more comes up. Then again I just need to work more overtime... Not that hard...

On the plus side I am feeling a little more caught up at work. My office looks less like a disaster area. But I hesitate to say that too...

Not to worry - still PLENTY overtime to be had!

Since I still have a hefty gift card for Target, I looked a couple of times at purses (to replace mine that was falling apart since about 9 months ago). I thought the other day, I'll just have to check out Kohls.

No sooner than I thought that, a $10 gift card arrived in the mail from Kohls. No catch, just have to use it in the next 10 days or something. Dh and I marveled at what genius marketing that is. Usually those things have a $50 purchase minimum and you think "whatever." On the other hand, can anyone walk into Kohls and spend just $10? LOL. Maybe some, but few.

It help offsets their slightly higher prices if nothing else. Hopefully I can find something I like.

I also should run by Marshalls. I keep forgetting to check their first for things. Marshalls, Ross, whatever.

I peeked a little on ebay but I can't buy a purse without checking it out in person - too picky.

Anyway, the timing is good, as of 9/1 I will have a $40 balance in my allowance account. It's been negative since June so it works out. I won't spend $40 on a purse but I might buy a couple of tops while I am there.

Oh, which reminds me, still haven't gotten my Cookie Lee catalog(s) - BAH - but they are getting more advanced every year and posted it online for us consultants. Oh dear lord - Cookie Lee - temptation is thy name.

It will take a good deal of self control not to spend any of my profits. But I do have the idea to buy a few items for Christmas. Since dh's family is so insistent on buying me tons of gifts. They get all annoyed when it is not varied (various items) but whatever. Will buy some for dh to give me for Christmas, birthday and some for his family too. I can have my cake and eat it too - hehe. If they all buy me one jewelry set - it is a nice start. & it will be cheap for them as will only cost them wholesale price. I am not sure on dh, but we'll see. I now have to think good and hard about 1-3 sets I want the MOST!!!!

The good is it is another great catalog that will sell with little effort. I'll be making money this month.

Well, just got the gas bill - it was just under $12.

I checked when I turned down the water heater - it was exactly mid-cycle. & our gas was down over $5. That was a 30% decrease in our bill just turning the water heater down mid-month.

WOW!

What is it going to be next month? $5?

Little things do pay off apparently. Lord knows why I didn't think of this one sooner. The water can still get pretty hot too - it's just no longer scalding. I turned it way down to "warm" on this particular water heater, but it is still plenty HOT. We will turn it up in the winter, but what a way to save money in the summer. I might save like $10/month...

The interesting thing is we cook almost every day (gas stove) and we do do laundry almost every day (hot water). I could have sworn our dryer was gas too. But all of these energy efficient appliances REALLY pay off.

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

I mentioned in another blog about how some people have made it in high COL areas buying homes. I mentioned how combined dh and I made $60k out of school and saved like 70% of it. I got reamed over there for being like a rich princess or something. LOL. I actually mentioned how timing was everything and I did not envy people today (a bow to how we lucked out getting in when we did. Luck certainly plays a HUGE part in our current financial situation). Someone got on a high horse and set timing had nothing to do with it - I picked a very high paying job and a spouse too - like we are going to ride off in the sunset on $200k/year or something. Then on and on how we made more than the average homewoner, etc. Totally blowing by the point how expensive homes are in the Bay Area. So yes I have to beat the dead horse again. Some other guy popped on about how he doesn't buy new cars or carry debt, blahblah blah and that's how he saved. I am like, well, I thought that was pretty self-explanatory when I Said we saved 70% of our income. You don't do that without cutting some corners. Yeesh!

Anyway, I was just peeved and rather than ruin that guy's blog with a debate that will probably fall on dead ears, let's do a math lesson.

#1 - When dh and I both made $30k/year out of school these were NOT big wages. If you want to say we were lucky to have 2 incomes - sure - I have always said it made saving VERY easy to have 2 incomes. IT certainly doesn't cost twice as much for 2 of us to live. There is tremendous benefit. However, I probably could have walked into Wal-Mart and got paid more back then. The point is the area is insanely expensive but I took a low-paying job as it was a stepping stone for my career. Honestly I think I was paid $32k and dh was $28k. I absolutely laugh at the idea of $28k as a high paying job. Teehee. We don't live in KAnsas anyway!!! Plenty of relatives who do live in Kansas, NC, etc., and I know they haven't got a clue what it is like out here - they get mesmerized by the "high wages" as well.

Secondly, let's do the math. Dh and I made $99k combined one year before we moved out of the Bay. Again, not high paying jobs. I could have made more as an administrative assistant myself, at the time.

But you say that and people assume you are filthy rich and homeownership is easy as pie.

Well, if we wanted to buy a $600k (2-bedroom major fixxer upper) say we scrounged the 20% down (what is that like $120k?).

Say, sure we waited a few more years and maneged.

$100k income - $30k taxes leaves $70k to play with (but people don't realize bigger wages mean BIGGER taxes!!!).

Minus $40k for mortgage interest (who knows what the principal would be), property taxes, and insurance. This would not even include earthquake insurance.

Leaves $30k to live on. Might sound nice, but you have a major fixxer upper to fix up in this case. Plus this is a house you probably don't want to live in the rest of your life - you will want to strive to move up to say a 3-bedroom if you have kids. (YEah I know too many people cramming 6-person families in these houses with little choice though). & also since the city is expensive and WalMart pays $30k/year to its employees, then you know EVERYTHING is expensive.

Then there is savings and retirement too.

So no, making $60k/year is not filthy rich, nor is $100k. Quite the opposite.

Rents were even worse. You couldn't live without at least $12k annual rent (& that would be a pretty crap studio apartment). But I guess that brings the point that I lived with roommates in a nice house and only paid $400/month rent through college and such, and did a lot of house sitting (free rent!). Only way I could survive on so little as we saved for a down payment. You just have to think outside the box in these situations.

Timing is everything to us. It means we could live on like 1/2 as much money, we can stay close to our family, we don't have to work so hard the rest of our life. We were able to start our family younger, etc. We couldn't have done any of this without our luck and timing. Our wage has nothing to do with it. But anyway, I guess I Was annoyed to be painted as a 2-yuppy household because that is SO not us. I admit I am going for that high-wage job but the whole point is I like it and it means I can work part-time and have most of the benefits of most full-time jobs. The point isn't because I want to hoarde a ton of money - work/life balance is very important to me. As far as my spouse, the idea of him being some upper class yuppie makes me laugh - hehe. I did not marry someone who was going to take care of me, for sure. He hasn't worked in years...

Oh well, just had to vent, and do some math. I guess it annoys me too to post how you did the impossible and just get shot down. For every argument they had against me I know someone who did it their way, but if they didn't want to hear the solution, why do they ask??? Dh has 2 cousin singles who bought homes in the Bay Area, one was a school teacher and one doesn't even have a college degree. If you put your heart and soul to it it CAN be done. It didn't require 2 wages and a fancy job, I would have bought a home in the land of expensive regardless of my situation. But why are all of us (related) buying homes when none of our peers can figure it out? Because we were raised with financial sense. IT makes all the difference...

Well, I already said the other day that with like $400k equity and six figure job I still have no idea how we could even afford a house 1/2 the size back there. The income taxes and the property taxes will eat you alive! I guess what more do I need to say - that speaks volumes!

http://www.thestreet.com/s/save-now-and-your-life-may-be-non...

Maybe you have all seen this.

It has probably been reamed all over the internet 10 times over already. But I just have to chime in.

Huh????

IS it really that impossible to save $4k of a $40k paycheck?

Um, would you rather live with roommates in your 20s or for the rest of your life, because I didn't really mind it when I was first out of college. I was used to it, I Was young, and yeah I had to suffer the discomfort another year or so before we could buy a home. But it was so WELL worth it. It is like a little sacrifice for more later. If i had to do it for a few years, so be it.

I just roll my eyes that single unattached 20s can't possibly save 10% of their income.

I do have to admit that I did not put a huge priority on saving for my retirement in my 20s. Sometimes I regret it a bit, sometimes not. But I guess we lucked out saving all of our money to a house which was our best investment like ever. Just has bought us tremendous financial freedom. But yeah, driving the old clunkers, living with roommates, eating ramen noddles, etc. is far more suited to a single unattached 20-year-old than a family of 4 or someone of middle-age. I mean come on.

I guess I just don't get the whole instant gratification thing as I find not falling it for it has been far more rewarding in my own life. IT means you don't live up to your income, you have more time for your money to compound, you pay less to debts, etc. These are all of the benefits of saving young.

Maybe I could agree with this guy a bit. I really never saw the point of saving money while I was in college and I don't regret it a bit. But this is more of an anti-debt thing. I felt my energies were far more productive to getting good grades in school and avoiding debt than to building up cash that I didn't have. The whole point was to take a risk and lay the foundation for the rest of my life.

So anyway, maybe I could agree to some point where I can say I was successful not saving money from really early on. As long as I hit it gangbusters right out of college it really made no difference in the end. So maybe I could kind of sort of see his point. But I am still at a loss why $40k is such an impossible wage to save money on. I know plenty people living in San francisco making less and saving more. It's one thing to make an excuse not to save when you are trying to pay for college (for the whole point of a bigger wage) and pay for rent in an insanely expensive area. It's quite another to make excuses when you are out in the real world, because then really when are the excuses going to end? IF you're not worried about paying for college and having enough time and energy to keep up your grades, what the hell are you doing. I guess I am also a big believer in saving as much as I can while I am young and healthy in case something happens to me and I can no longer work. I don't exactly take it as given that I will be able to work in this capacity forever. You just can't.

OF course someone who doesn't believe in saving in their 20s and doesn't see how they can live a comfortable lifestyle on $40k/year (yes I realize it is NY but my hood is actually more expensive) well, they will have problems. If I could find some decent benefits for healthcare (like one of the abundant government jobs around here) I could support my family of 4 on $40k easy peasy. We could live QUITE well actually. I mean, is this guy for real? Um, the reason is because I Saved so much in my 20s - even more ironic. It means I didn't buy a ton of crap I didn't need, live up to a lifestyle I couldn't afford, or rack up any consumer debt. I am not sure driving older cars and living with hand-me-downs will ruin my life in comparison to the tremendous financial freedom we share compared to most of our peers. But you know putting up with less in our 20s means we no longer have to. Plus, gosh, the most ironic part is I agree with his philosophy. You do need balance in your life. sometimes it is good to enjoy now while you are young and healthy. I guess that is the whole point for my financial goals right now - I want to work less while I am young. That sounds far more pleasing than retiring fully at 65. So far we were significantly able to pull that off at 25 because we did some crazy saving in our young 20s. I mean neither of us has really worked very much the last 5 years since we decided to have kids. I am just ramping up again, focusing on retirement and such.

I guess the big thing where I have to draw the line or disagree is that money will buy you happiness. Like my kids care if we walk down to the park and go down to the public pool every day or if we spend our days at Chuck E Cheese. Does it matter if I drive a $20k car or a $1k car? Does it matter if I have all new items in my house or mostly used? Does it matter that we eat home cooked meals every day instead of eating out? Does any of this have an impact of the quality of my life? Not at all... Once you realize that savings in your 20s is not a big deal at all, and you will find your 20s FAR more pleasant. Then it should just get easier from there.

But hey, what do I know?

He says, "If you really believe you can get through your 20s like that and not be absolutely miserable later in life, be my guest."

Um yeah, I think for MANY of us here saving while we were young (going that extra mile when we were young) really made life easier later in life. I guess it is frustrating to see how he has it all backwards. It is easiest to clamp down on your finances when you are single, in your 20s and completely unencumbered. You should have more youth on your side to work more and live in more difficult situations. Plus you won't be letting your debt compound for years AND your savings will also be compounding for YEARS. win-win-win.

Gosh, sometimes you just have to rant.

Well, I just peeked online and dh's balance transfer was approved. They are already showing it as reducing his available credit. Of course they will send a check in the mail. Lord knows when it will arrive. Maybe it will say more tomorrow or I have an e-mail sitting at home. There will be sonme turn around time and maybe not much interest to earn until August.

Anyway, today started bad as I could not find a particular red shirt and the only thing I could find to wear with my nice long skirt (read: skirt that I can wear knee-his with so no uncomfortable pantyhose) was a black sweater. Hmmm, it is usually cold in the office and why I mostly have a winter wardrob anyway - a/c overkill. But I was going out to 2 clients today and lord knows their a/c situation. I finally thought whatever, I'll survive and went on my merry way. About 5 minutes later or 1/2 way to work I realized I forgot to put on deoderant today. Yikes!!!!!! LOL.

So when I got to work it was cold as an iceberg inside so since I wasn't sweating I figured I'd run to Walgreens on the way out to a client at 10. But she called 3 times and kept pushing back the time. Finally settled on 1:30 or something. So I popped into Walgreens on the way around 1:15 and stumbled upon a 2 for 1 deal on deoderant. It was labeled $4.54 or something but there was 2 stuck together in shrinkwrap labeled "2 for 1!" Score!

So I went to check out and had to wait FOREVER behind this lady but it was worth the wait. It rung up at $2. I am not sure if he rung it up wrong (took 1/2 off the total?) or if it was just on sale anyway. Lord knows, but I paid $2 for like a year supply of deoderant. Or a 75% discount!

I am rather pleased with myself. I don't shop much - dh does most of it - but it was fate today I was steered towards quite a deal. Woohoo.

I will leave one at work. Which is good for next time I forget - hehe.

P.S. I just noticed my e-fund is $500 away from my $12k goal. O.M.G. Is that right? I must be forgetting something... Oh I just transferred some money over and if I consider the $130 or so I have in another MM account I am up to $11,500. At the end of the month it will be $11,600 with interest. If not for my ROTH conversions I could shift gears and fund 1/2 an IRA this year. But I guess it's about the same in the end. Paying taxes now so I get tax-free growth. The only reason I am really so big on converting is so I can add to my existing IRAs. It's up in the air if I will be allowed to make deductible IRA contributions this year and I don't want to deal with an over-contributions. & I can add to dh's and be just dandy but it is up in the air if we will still be in such a low tax bracket next year - so might as well take advantage now. Our efund has been down int he $5k range for almost a year so I think we can survive with $10k for a few more months... But um, yeah, I guess in a month I will have my full efund. That just rocks. Way earlier than I expected - thanks to a nice gift from my parents a few months back. Woohoo. Now I have to shave off a couple of thou to get this ROTH thing rolling so I can make some contributions... I probably really won't get my completely untouchable efund until Dec. 31... I have no further plans for it though once I get these IRAs squared away. Then I can start diverting $400/month to our IRAs - woohoo.

Well, I think I got all the bills paid for the month (or set up to pay anyway) except for the gardener who hasn't billed us yet.

I got the gas bill which was a whopping $16 & also the water/garbage bill which is flat but went up 29 cents per month with the new budget I guess. I think we'll be okay.

Now that I think about it, I didn't get the electric bill yet. Soon enough. Won't be pretty for June...

Anyway, back to the water bill, I have probably said this 10 times already but they bill a flat rate. So for the year I lived here alone I was certainly overcharged. For the year dh and I lived here alone we were certainly overcharged. It figures they are switching to metered water now that we have 4 people here and use a lot more water.

But the good news is I just got a notice they are switching to metered water 2010 but we can switch NOW if we like. They have been adding to our bill what the water portion would be with meter readings every 2 months and 90% of the time it seems the meter charge is less. PLUS knowing we can control our costs I am sure we can work on getting it down. So I think we will switch. I will look back and double check. On our current bill they would have billed us $40 for 2 MONTHS of water. As is they billed us $30 for 1 month at the flat rate. The savings looks like it will be on average $10/month. Not bad!!!!!

I'll double check our prior bills. I am not sure I noticed they were only doing the metered water in 2-month increments so it could save a lot more money than I realized. The 2 months is usually less than our 1-month bill. I am most definitely switching over ASAP.

The downside here is the ridiculous requirement for green lawns in the 100-degree summers. I think we will change the backyard to more dessert landscaping one of these days which will help. All of our appliances are really water saving (low-flow toilets, water conservative washers, etc.) so we have quite an advantage. I question how they have billed these newer houses all along. Of course there are a bunch of retirees living on our street in 2800-sf homes so no doubt their bills will lower considerably as they probably don't use near as much water as families like ours. We still wash diaper covers every day. Moving past diapers will save us a lot of money! But even beyond that we don't bathe every day or shower every single day. I think all of this stuff is to our advantage. Though if they find they aren't getting the revenues they will certainly raise rates. I guess it could be a gamble. But overall I am not surprised the meter will cost less. We grew up in drought country. It's just natural for us to be on the conservative side with water. We grew up not being able to shower every day. It isn't as bad as it sounds - I swear - LOL.

ETA: I did check and we would be saving on average $15/month (50% decrease) 8 months of the year. Save $10/month in May & June (gets hotter) and save $0 in July & August (no doubt all the lawn watering). So all in all we should save around $140/year on water!

The best is once we get the baby out of diapers we should be able to bring it down (& give the clothes washer a break!). Between that and the diapers and diaper service, well I hope it is sooner rather than later. We really haven't had the motivation to keep our water use down so maybe we can find more ways with extra motivation. Man I have been griping about how expensive water is here. No wonder. We still pay like $50/month for sewer or whatever. Geez. But I am very happy to no longer be penalzied on water just because we have a bigger house. Coming from drought country I was just shocked they did not meter water here. Just foreign to me.

Hey, in other news dh's car just rolled to 70k miles. The baby is about 7 years old so has averaged 10k miles per year. We've had it 5 years and got it with 15k miles. The first 6 months he was commuting to San Jose for work with it so probably put on some decent miles. Since then it hasn't got much daily driving but we tend to use it for road trips since it can get 35 mpg. The thing is still one of our newest cars ever at this point. It's a baby. I am not sure if it has ever really had much in repairs. We've gone years without spending a dime on it outside of oil changes.

The van is going to hit 50k by the end of the year. We've only had it a year (put 15k on it). It will be ironic if dh's car lasts longer. IT costs 1/2 as much as the van and so far I would say it is more reliable to boot. The van stands a chance though because dh is better about letting me use his car with gas prices lately. His car has been getting used a lot more lately...

Today dh saw that they lowered the price on the PS3s, today I believe, by $100. He grabbed his receipt only to find out that the expiration on returns for his PS3 was YESTERDAY!

Anwyay, he told me today that he was going to go demand a price match or return. I wasn't very optimistic. "Good Luck," I thought. But he just called me and he said he got a $107 gift card (includes tax) for the difference. He said he was polite but insistent and they obliged. He will put in a good word for the lady who helped him. He said if it hadn't of worked he would have tried another Target later. But score one for Target customer service. It was nice they were willing to bend as he was only 1 day late. Woohoo.

Since we already have a $50 gift card in the mail (to arrive soon from credit card rewards) and kids' party is done, we decided we most likely will save it for kids clothes in the fall. They seem pretty set in every other way shape or form and nothing else I can think of we need. We have the $50 g.c. for sale items like laundry detergent, in the meantime.

Then again with $150 coming to us maybe it is time to revisit the purchase of a GPS. Something to think about. Though there is no hurry on that. We have been wanting to do some geocacheing, but I think it will be another year before LM is up to some of the hikes we want to do. Then again if we could get a decent GPS practically for free, we can start looking for some of the local cahces... Hmmmm..

I just got my new (BT) credit card statement and so was able to redeem my $50 Target gift card. Woohoo. Should receive in a few weeks. I am pretty pleased though that I received the other one before the kids' birthday - will got to presents/party. This one I will likely save for some fall clothes for them. Either that or necessities if something comes up in the meantime.

The free $125 all told is a nice bonus on top of the interest I am earning. I have only executed one $5k balance transfer thus far. I will pay off dh's credit card today so that when he gets the statement next week I can execute that balance transfer. I will ask one more time for a credit increase too. See if I can squeeze out more than $10k. I am wondering if they will only require a 2% minimum payment as well? Well I can hope!

I have barely received the cash on BT#1 and I already have a statement. It is due mid-July. I am trying to decide when to pay it. I generally just pay these when I get the bill. But part of me thinks I should hang on as long as possible. I think I will just pay it though. I decided instead of transferring the money over (for this small one anyway) I can just do a bookkeeping adjustment. Reclass the $112 from "BT" category to "efund" category. Then I don't have to move the money out and lose interest. It is just $112 LESS I have to transfer to savings for the month. I can just pay it out of the no-interest checking. Gets a little complicated, but erases the benefit of trying to hold out and pay it back closer to the due date. Probably bad news. I'll set it to pay after I receive my paycheck on the 1st every month.

More bookkeeping, but little effort for free money!

Can I just say I want to THROTTLE dh?????? I have always hated his bank setup because he had to have a minimum $750 or something in checking and much more in savings. For this deposit he earned a whopping 0.5% on the checking or something. I always had free checking, no minimums, life was easy. Dh on the other hand had quite a few $50 overdraft fees because he would drop below the minimum on his barely-interest checking. HE would drive me nuts. I told him a million times why I hated his account and why I prefer my no-interest checking. I run the balance to 0. Any money that does not go for the current month goes straight to high-yield savings. I have on average $500 sitting in a low-yield savings along with my checking that I can transfer money to/from instantly. So I have a small cushion but the minimum balance is $1 and it probably makes more interest than his stupid checking. There are indeed many times the account sits at $1! I like the flexibility.

So he asks me again last night why our checking account does not pay interest. Like I have not explained it 1 MILLION times. I once again explained how the whole $50 overdraft fees here and there completely wiped out any benefit of the interest on the checking. Though I manage the money better and could probably avoid the fees, I would have to tie up x dollars indefinitely in a crappy low-interest checking account. No thanks dear!

Gah. My dh is smart but he is really hung up on that. LOL.

Well I am sure there are scenarios where it works, where we may even come out ahead. But I am used to running my balance to $0, enjoying low minimums (if any) and it just sounds like a headache. Not interested. Just one more thing to remember - stupid account minimum. LOL.

For example I can earn 2.8% if I pay a monthly fee of $5 and keep a $1k average balance. But I rather keep that $1k in my 5%+ money market. Thanks. Plus if I just kept $1k in there the fee would be more than the interest. This is the part dh never learned. I am not sure what will get it through his thick skull. ???

$20 challenge:

$7,635.32 - Balance 6/18

$ 90.00 - Interest
$ 75.00 - Focus Group
$ 75.00 - Gift Cards (reward)

------------------
$7,875.32 - Balance 6/30
------------------

Dh did a focus group last night. They only take a few people so you can get paid to show up and just leave (kind of like jury duty - but a much bigger paycheck).

So he made $75 for 2 hours - he did get called in. They paid cash. He kept $20 to replace his emergency $20 in his wallet, I took $5 since I also had no cash, and will put $50 in the bank with my paycheck next week. I might just save it, but am thinking to holding onto it in case I need babysitting next month. He is going on a big 3-day hike but no date set. Not big on planning - LOL. I may need a babysitter since it will be a busy time at work. We'll see. $50 would hardly cover it either, but it's a start. Otherwise I'd put it straight to the efund.

He filled out a form that asked questions about me too. So now 2 of us are in the focus group pool. SWEET. Hell he made more per hour than I do. I am impressed!!!

Interest ran around $90 this month. Yes I did the balance transfer but the money was only in there a few days before interest was paid for the month. Actually most of it comes from my new 5.7% c.d. It's only a 0.4% increase but gosh between that and the balance transfer for a few days made QUITE a difference. A very good month.

Oh yes and the $75 gift cards - credit card rewards. We used them for stuff we were going to buy anyway (food, laundry detergent, kids PJs, kid birthday presents). Free money.

Our credit card bill thus far looks INSANELY low for the month (knock on wood). The gift cards no doubt helped. Well just a few more days. We may come under budget. Even with some huge excesses. Lord knows how - we just haven't spent much on gas and groceries since we got back from vacation. ??? Even with ALL the driving. Gas prices going down certainly helps.

In other news I think I lost my mind. Though I am not big on putting the kids before us financially (well their college anyway - obviously we put them first today). On the other hand, I am learning about the power of compounding. I am considering dropping in $50/month into a mutual fund for them. Looks like they will get enough money from grandma to open a fund this year. If I open one I kind of want to make regular contributions, and the AIP minimum is $50. I believe per month. So I am considering it. I could easily redirect the money I was prepaying on the mortgage to this for BM this year. & next year I can start to add the money for LM too. $50 by itself is small beans. & since LM is younger I can easily wait another year to better afford his contribution.

I will consider it if I can fully fund my IRA. Dh's IRA next year will be left to windfalls and him working. Then again all I need him to scrounge up is $400/month to fund his IRA and put our retirement savings at 25% (25% of my wage anyway). It's not that big of a deal. I think though I like this idea because I can put a very small token amount to the college funds now and it should REALLY pay off with time. I estimate with a pretty conservative balanced fund that their money would be $50k/each at college. Just doing $50/month plus grandma's money. & if she eventually stops her contributions, if dh is working we can make up the $1k/year easily. So I think $100k for college (for both the kids) is a worthy & easily attainable goal. The fact is the longer we wait the more it costs us. I am coming around.

I am not a big believer in 529 plans since we didn't spend much at all on college. I don't like the penalty for not spending it on college. I am considering UTMA accounts instead. We could avoid taxes in the meantime. Which is not really my aim. Well, maybe it is. LOL. I have always been against saving a big chunk in the kids' name - entitlement issues. But whatever. Between that and their already existing 529 ($4k or so?) and any taxable investments we'll save down the road, yes this is why I never really worried about it. The kids will have so much more money for college than I could have ever even imagined having. They are truly blessed. Up until now I figured a paid off mortgage before they start college and a 2nd income would have them WELL covered. & it really would. But hell if we save now then that is less we have to save later - more we can enjoy that second income when it returns.

Well it's a plan, for now I am looking at a budget like this:

17% Retirement (long-term)
13% short-term ("escrow" fund)
5% mid-term (car/house fund)
1.5% Kids

I think I can throw them that bone. My aim has been 15% retirement so if we made it and everything else is covered, the kids will just have to be darn spoiled...

My parents hinted they would trickle down more money (they have been getting a lot in inheritance/wealth management gifts from their parents). So it is likely we can scrounge up a full IRA contribution for dh next year as well. Part sweat, part windfall perhaps. Not counting on it but there isn't really anything else we would need the money for at this point. Well I hope it stays that way anyway!

If you told me in 2003 that I could swing this all on one income I would have never believed it. WOW. We used to save dh's money. I keep pondering the many scenarios if he goes back to work and we won't even need it for savings. Perhaps early retirement will be back on the table. Since we have had kids I figured that was out the window. I try not to get too ahead of myself there. Health insurance is still a huge issue and I also need to save pennies for orthodontia and all that too. I think we will still have PLENTY of challenges ahead. But my more immediate goal of working part-time is becoming more and more realistic by the day. My goal was to support my family on part-time income by age 40. Getting there. With each raise we rely less and less on my entire income, and the market is still conducive to some big raises. So I am feeling good these days about everything financially. I really haven't for the last couple of years. So PHEW.

Woohoo.

Was checking online banking and saw our latest car insurance bill is due next month. BUT the sweet thing is that it went down from $390 to $320, for 6 months. WOW!!!! Excited.

Then again we stil have a long ways to go. We were shocked by car insurance rates when we moved here, they about doubled. & I see why - people here are even worse drivers than in the BIG city we used to live in... I think dh was paying about $500/year when we moved, for insurance, and it about doubled. So we are down to $640/year for a much newer car (probably $600 without the comprehensive insurance) so we are getting there. No collission on that car. Mine has been running around $1100/year for full coverage so will be interesting to see in a few months - I am crossing my fingers that mine goes down too. Our premiuns were so low back home with multiple line discount, perfect driving records, loyalty (been a customer since I was 16), etc. State Farm is not in general the cheapest insurer, but for these reasons it is the best deal for us. We shop around every so often, but all the insurers have horrible rates up here in our zip code.

I was tempted to move $140 out of our short-term savings (for the next year) accordingly, but I realized I better hold tight and see how our home insurance pans out in December. Maybe that one will go up, who knows. WIll hold tight...

Here's to more decreasing bills!

Since we just got that rebate check on his car I wonder if they sent it when they were preparing the bill - reviewing premiums, etc. I won't get my car's insurance bill for another 2 months so we may have to wait a bit for mine. But I'm ready for my rebate & my lower bill too - hehe.

Saw the $5500 credit sitting in my Citi Account so I requested a refund. Seems slow going but I have most my cash in a 5.70% CD in the meantime. Hoping I get the cash when we get back form vacation. So I Can have a little more liquid cash. & get it out of lala land and into my account earning some INTEREST which is the whole point!

Freecycle is dead this weekend - no replies for my stuff. Bummer. My e-mail has been working on and off so I wonder if there is a problem. I may repost when we get back, maybe use a different e-mail to make sure.

But while checking my e-mail I noticed that dh's new card had a new statement. Checked the rewards and it is good to go with $75 in gift card rewards. Woohoo. I have earned enough for $50, so will put ALL the cards away. ($125 total - in addition to the interest we intend to earn). I didn't even activate the WAMU one as it was a straight balance transfer.

Hmmm, since I got my rewards and can pay the bill today I guess maybe I will do that and then do the balance transfer when we return. Wow!!! I am going to hold off on mine until I can talk them into a higher limit. So maybe a few months since I am a new customer. I will call one of these days and plead my case.

Interestingly as I Set up my WAMU payments and stuff, noticed they have FICO score monitoring, alert you when it dips or falls, etc. Honestly all I see is that these BTs will help our score, with the exception of utiliziation. We will start out around 30-40% but will drop down soon enough with the 4% minimum payments. We have pretty high limits on our regular cards (all paid off monthly). But we can see what WAMU thinks about our FICO score in the meantime. Found that one interesting.

I paid all the bills for the month. I just have to write 1 check for preschool - but usually just pay her after the first - but post it to the prior month - part of prior month's budget. Just try to buy float like that with all my bills.

I just noticed that I have not used 1 stamp since the new rates. I usually mail my deposits but I shrunk the float in my account, and we got a new branch down the street for our bank - very convenient. (Plus I have mailed deposits in for well over a decade with nary a problem - but this last year the US mail has REALLY gone downhill - deposits disappearing for a time whereas it ALWAYS got there in one day - part of the reason I finally switched to a more local bank - something I never had before. Deposit time was taking 2-3 days all of a sudden instead of 1. IT's been better locally, but still iffy with the mail - so I am converting to actually visiting my bank these days - it is not so bad I guess). Plus I have dh run in my deposits sometimes which helps me a lot. I have been hand delivering big deposits for the immediate credit and feeling more safe about it overall. I have mailed plenty of big deposits in the past, but I didn't really have a choice when I have always lived a good hour or 2 from my little one-branch credit union. So I am becoming an in-person banking convert I guess... Maybe this is the end of stamps! Well, nearly anyway.

The house is coming along really well. Great since I Was lazy and got off to a late start. Feeling pretty pleased, tomorrow will be packing day.

Excited as vacation gets closer!

$20 challenge:

$7,070.02 - Balance 5/26

$ 250.00 - Credit Card Rewards
$ 10.00 - change found

------------------
$7,330.02 - Balance 5/26
------------------

Finally got my 200 points from Chase which I redeemed for $250. Woohoo!!! Should receive the check in a few days. I am just going to deposit it into my e-fund when it arrives. I didn't think I'd have room to save this month and it turns out I will. I may have to juggle things around a bit and am unsure how it will affect next month - since we have vacation and birthdays on the card this month to pay next month. But I was really surprised I should have cash to spare at the end of the month so figured I would just pop it in the bank. Brings my efund to $10,750. $1250 to go!!!!! 2 full months saving and some interest should put me there pretty darn soon - woohoo.

Oh I also added the change I found when I unpacked boxes. Using it as spending money ($1 lunches) - will get me through the rest of the month easy and save a trip to the ATM.

BTW I am earning about a 3% return on all of my purchases. We probably average $1500 on the card each month and are earning $500/year in rewards so it is about a 3% return. Pretty sweet. Love it.

It's funny but we have made our exact efund goal with all of our cash accounts. Exactly $12k. How bizarre. I just noticed as I was adding some interest. About $1k of it is really just short-term savings, but I am putting away far more into that then spending until December, since property taxes and insurance and all that all comes due in December - a hefty $4k or so. So anyway, the point being, nothing bad happening, I think we will stay up above $12k the rest of the year. By the time December rolls around and we drain our short-term savings, we should have a good solid $12k in the efund. So basically, we've pretty much made it. Woohoo!!!!

The money I transferred from GMAC showed up in my account this morning. Wow - fast! I am thinking on it. If I put all the money I want to (& transferred) into a CD it leaves about $1800 cash in my accounts. But I expect to receive $6k balance transfer cash any day. So in the grand scheme of things it isn't so bad, but in the meantime I am tying up most our cash. Eeeks. We'll have more balance transfers though to build up cash for the next few months. It might even simplify bookkeeping a bit as most of the interest I will be earning will be from the BTs then - our savings interest we can track separately in the CD. Hmmm... Might be easier to get an idea how much mony the BTs are really generating - with less calculating anyway. Well I haven't committed yet, but will do so today. The thing is our parents are always good for a short-term 0% loan, so it isn't a huge biggie. But then again I don't want to come crawling to them either if we tie up too much cash.

& here's our expenses for the month. It's ugly. I already posted all about it though - but find it easy to share my Quicken snapshots:



Auto is a little high/groceries low - pretty much a wash. Already explained over on the dining - definitely enjoyed this month. Education was for a bunch of classes. Don't foresee paying that much going forward. Medical included $130 for my filling last week. Misc - some stuff for around the house, dh rock climbing, etc. Subscription to beloved cooking mag (think I got 2 years though - was on discount). & vacation was all of our expenses for our Monterey trip - funded by my writing monies.

So yeah we splurged and enjoyed but we still saved more than we spent, so that is something. Here's to some cheaper months though - generally try to keep our spending around $4800 and have been trying to save $450/month. Did not happen in May. But not going to beat myself up over one bad month either. Sometimes you just got to splurge.

& there is about $800/month fat we could easily trim in case of lost job so how I get to $4k/month expenses, or $12k as 3 whole months expenses. It feels so good to have that though! Of course with time I would like to edge that up to our true expenses. But on the other hand if I lost my job tomorrow I think the gardener and preschool and stuff would go, regardless how much cash we had. Just can't justify those kinds of things with no income... So overall maybe $4k is right on... We lived on $4k easy peasy when I was on maternity leave last and we weren't driving anywhere and such. So kind of my thinking for now, plus $4k/month = $50k/year which makes it really easy in terms of thinking in terms of expenses. Since my goal is to increase our net worth by 1/2 our expenses for the year, makes it an easy $25k/year or on average $2k/month. So yeah, that is going to be my set basic spending/expenses in terms of financial goals, for a while. I think once we make all of our goals I will up it to $5k/month though & $30k net-worth-annual-increase goal. It's a little too much to bite off today, but would be rather conservative. MEans once I meet my e-fund goal I will need to add another $3k to stay at 3 months expenses, but one thing at a time. $5k/month would be a pretty darn good living for us. In the end I think $15k would be an awesome efund, but that will take a lot longer, and smaller goals make it easier to ahieve progress AND feel accomplishment. Not that $12k was exactly small - I really didn't think I would make it this far this year - but have so far had a pretty darn good year!

I mean as far as expenses go, $3k simply covers our fixed monthly expenses - mortgage & health insurance mostly, and then property taxes and all of our other insurances. Leaves $1k/month for everything else - utilities, groceries, car expenses, etc. So though $4k sounds like a lot, it's all relative. We could also move just about anywhere and cut out most of our mortgage/insurance expenses, which is always a sweet option. But $4k/month is really squeaking by with our fixed expenses. On the other hand, $5k just makes all the difference. MEans preschool, gardener, retirement, savings, etc. Maybe $4500/month would be a good compromise as basic living expenses. Would leave some wiggle room. Well, somewhere in there. I could probably dig revising my efund goal up to $13,500 once we hit $12k. I guess overall my conservative side is still popping out wanting to save more cash. The rest of me thinks we need to put a lot more efforts to investing going forward.

ETA: Oh, I just set up my CD. Woohoo. I had no intention of, and don't really recommend overall, tying up most of one's savings in a CD. But the timing with the balance transfers is just uncanny. IT just works out perfect. I have been sitting around waiting for my bank to offer a great promo rate and the timing really couldn't be better. Anyway, guaranteeing a 5.7% APR for $10k, or about 1/2, of the balance transfers makes it pretty darn worthwhile. Until now there was of course risk of falling interest rates and such.

I wrote 2.5 articles yesterday - woohoho. Just means I need to whip out one more before our cruise. (Well, 1.5). I was thinking of maybe taking the week off, but I feel caught up.

HAd a very nice day with parents. They took us to Mimi's which is a divine little place, but I think they pared down the menu. I remember going and the menu was like 10 pages long, and impossible to decide. Yesterday was kind of a small menu. What happened?

Dh made meatball sandwiches for dinner - one recipe I haven't shared yet - should post it. Divine!

Showed them the Little Miss SUnshine while I worked, and they loved it.

By the time they left I just collapsed exhausted. Oh yeah, we went to the park and grandpa snapped off a ton of pictures with his fancy camera. I'll share when I get some. Another reason why we don't really do the professional picture thing. Grandpa gets plenty of fancy shots and the ability to print any size.

But that does remind me the kids do need a haircut and also we will probably take them to Sears or something for a few pictures. IT has been a long time. Hmmm, I am remembering now that grandma took them for pictures with their cousin last summer in their matching outfits. It feels like it has been longer...

I cut both kids hair the first 2 years, but I am officially out. Ugh. My goal is just to chop it as short as possible and then let it grow for 6 months, but BM has monster hair. It's not very long as a whole, but the top just grows so thick and sticks straight up. LOL. & I butchered LM's hair last time so I figure just like with BM it is time to go pro. Sames me much time and hassle and saves them embarrasment.

Now that I think about it I wanted a haircut before the cruise too - has definitely been a few months for me. Maybe we'll all get haircuts next weekend.

Anyway, thinking about all this stuff as their birthdays rapidly approach. I cleaned out the cupboards a short while ago and noticed we have a ton of "Cars" plates and napkins still, from last year. I was kind of thinking of just making it a Cars birthday - would be easy. So anyway, we were discussing it and I asked the kids what kind of birthday they wanted. BM said he wanted CARS again. Well, sounds good to me. We settled on the weekend after July 4 & I am taking most the week off - so phew.

I told dh we better get out invites before our trip. Like it is sneaking up on us! Anyway, this will be nothing big. We are still so overwhelmed from Christmas that I really don't have much of anything in mind to buy the kids. Dh wanted to get a couple of things so whatever - fine with me - he can do presents. Will send out evites. Will make a box cake. Will invite family and a few friends. Wala. Asking for no gifts too. So a very simple party. I may buy a few party supplies/favors on ebay and will definitely go get balloons the day of - that is our special thing. & BM is old enough this year to maybe go along and pick some out! Overall I don't really expect to spend much money on the whole affair. I'd be surprised if we spent $100, gifts and all.

Last year we got Round Table Pizzas and my mom paid for it. I told dh we should compromise. We love the raley's pizzas so much but was not sure how to keep them all warm (only can bake 1 at a time). So I told him maybe we should just order like 2 big RT pizzas and then get a couple of the $5 pizzas, when cut the cost down significantly. I am sure Grandma would be glad to pay, but rather not put her out either.

Which reminds me, I am sick of useless party favors so I am trying to think of a useful party favor for small kids. I'd rather buy them all McDs gift certificates or something, and maybe the parents would appreciate. Better than little useless toys. Any ideas appreciated...

Anyway, dh was nice and ran my paycheck to the bank yesterday. I transfered $800 to short-term savings. If nothing else I am well on par with that. No big bills due until August I believe... So will have about $3k in there before the next bill is due. Will help my net worth in the interim, but not the long-term. I called my bank and there is no maximum on the 5.70% CD But I can't set it up until my money is in the bank. So anyway, I transferred it over and hope it will be there Mon/Tues and I can get the CD set up.

I also updated my pages. I have all these goals that keep getting revised, so found it easier just to lay it all out. I can revise it as things change then:

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/goals.html

Today I have to get some significant work in, and I also have to clean the ENTIRE house. LOL. Oh well, I feel a little motivated. I had wanted to take Friday off to kind of catch up, but work is so hectic. So I figured if I have to work my ass off from now until next weekend, it doesn't seem so bad with vacation on the horizon. Regardless of money I kind of wanted to enjoy some excursions and see some sights at the places I have never been (Mexico) but dh and I decided that frankly we really want to just do NOTHING. & that is a lot cheaper. I think I can go for it. I also have to hit the library before we go - need some good reading... Have any good book suggestions? LEt me know. Staying away from financial ones, just some good old lazy books...

Soon enough we have to pack and register all that.

OMG I just realized I don't have my passport yet. EEKS!!!!!!!!!!! But I have my original birth certificate and I guess it will do. Well wasn't that a waste of money. Oh, I've got a few more days but don't feel very optimistic. Of course the cruise papers I have now say an old passport is fine. Well if I had known sooner...

In other news our ice maker has been broken for about 2 years. We survive but we FINALLY asked my dad to look at it. He looked at it, fiddled with the switch, and said it looked fine to him. Today we have a bucket full of self-made ice. LOL. Go figure. It works. We are all excited. Kind of thing not really worth ANY money to fix since we can make our own ice and we can still dispense our ice from the fridge door. But it is cool to have it working again all the same - woohoo! & believe me we have done the same fiddling numerous times. Guess my dad had the magic touch!

Well, I lied. I Actually came into work for a bit this morning AND will take some work home. So it is not as much of a 4-day weekend as you may have imagined, but I got a little too caught up in it myself. A short discussion with dh yesterday leads me to believe though that this weekend is not as free as thought. LOL. His mom is coming up which is fine and dandy. I wanted a peaceful weekend, but I told dh I really didn't care as long as I don't have to be social. I Feel less guilty neglecting the kids when they are smothered by Grandma anyway, so I might get some work done and I decided maybe I could take dh to that fancy restaurant that wasn't so bad for lunch - on the price.

Of course, because of this we should just be happy and postpone our date night next week, but it is so exciting to get a date night. We'll just have to make it really cheap. Not doing the FANCY dinner should help. IT may be overkill, but we need a break too.

Sunday I am not sure if we have much planned - but Monday dh is working on some internet sitcom with his buddies.

I guess this means for me I Will try to get all my work done Saturday, and enjoy a nice lunch, clean house Sunday (backwards since the guests are coming saturday - but oh well - it looks a tad better these days) & hopefully means a relaxing fun day with the kids Monday. I just want a day or 2 to not to worry about work. Which means I want to whip out 2 articles, get a few hours of work done, and go on a date tomorrow. In the name of 2 days with no pressing needs, I think I can swing it!

Today I am driving home to see my dentist (Which you all know I have been absolutely dreading - but will good to be done with) and spend a nice night with my parents. Ah, it should be nice. Just to escape!

In financial news, I know gas is crazy but I think to some extent I have been wondering what everyone has been going crazy about. I filled up and it was about $3.10/gallon (As opposed to $3.50 where it was for a bit) and then dh nailed it on the head. There was an article in the paper how gas was up on average 45 cents/gallon nationwide in the last month alone, but it went down here 15 cents or something in the last month. I have no idea why, but now I see why all the hooha and why I did not notice so much myself. So far we have been sticking under budget, many long van trips and all, but I don't really look forward to summer all the same. We're taking the Escort to LA (cramped but cheap) and probably for any other drives this summer. I guess it helps not driving a Hummer (As so many people around here drive - I get really sick of hearing SUV & Hummer drivers complaining about gas prices - gah - mostly because these are the last people it would occur to to drive a little less, much less downgrade their vehicle).

So anyway, gas for me has not been so bad. Not good, but not horrid. IT won't bust our budget until summer, and then we'll probably just drive a lot less to compensate. Admittedly I have been driving a lot more too with aerobics class and such, but WELL worth it.

Speaking of saving energy though, I just signed up for the PEak Corps program here. Which basically means they could cycle off our a/c for 4 hours, technically on a really hot day. But we save $5/month. We pay $6/month to support the green energy programs, so I figure this will offset that (for 4 months out of the year anyway). I first heard of it 2 years back, but with a newborn, wasn't interested in sweltering. THough they say on average they use it 10-16 days every summer (mostly July and AUgust I imagine). For the most part when I first saw this they hadn't even used it that much and now they are requiring all new homes to automatically sign up (they can cancel after) but since only 20% of people opt out, it just means that many more people participating and less chance the a/c will ever be out for 4 hours. I just told dh I was going to do this. If it is too much we can give 24 hour-notice to go to a smaller program - where they can only turn off 40 out of 60 minutes every hour. THat I KNOW we can handle. I always go on and on how our house stays so cool and I am not that worried. Dh argued with me saying it wouldn't affect me and why I Didn't care - LOL. I reminded him this was most likely to happen at peak times. Since I am usually only gone 8-5 and he is more likely to do his own things evenings/weekends, um no, will probably affect ME more. But whatever. I bet you a million to one we won't even notice!!! So we have to swelter for a couple of hours and turn on some fans - big whoop... *rolling yes* But like I said, if it is that bad, we change our minds, downgrade, still save $3.75/month (for 4 months) and get to use the a/c as much as we probably need it anyway.

http://www.bpa.gov/energy/n/reports/Results_Center/ProfileIn...

In other news, our local movie theatre is offering free movies for parents and kids on the summer weekdays. I Think last year it was only on preschool days and LM Was too little/fussy anyway I am sure. This year I think the kids and dh will love it, they have 2 free days a week now. Woohoo. Free summer entertainment is always good. Should 2 & 4 year-olds be watching movies (even though rated g?) You can argue that one but dh is movie king and BM has certainly seen more movies than I care that he has seen. LM we just figure whatever, he's there. I don't think we really turned on the t.v. much before BM was 2, but LM is around when BM watches t.v., and he gets sucked in. Dh and I were just commenting how he probably has seen way more t.v. just for being the younger one. Time will tell if we sucked his brain dry, but he seems okay. So though dragging 2 small kids to a movie would not be on top of my list, dh will be excited. & maybe I could arrange to watch LM while he takes BM a couple of days. Even better... I noticed the first showing was Curious George which both kids LOVE.

Finally, I have gained 7 pounds. Eeks. But it is good. I always gain a few token pounds when I start an exercise program. It must be frightening - my body fat percentage - when I don't work out or something. Today I Was up a good 7 pounds but my skinny jeans fit for the first time since tax season - so Way to Go - muscle gain!!! I have 2 more weeks and had wanted to make a little more progress before the cruise, but oh well. I'll survive. I was lazy and I pay - I have only been doing my aerobics for a month -a nd 1/2-assed at that. I have 7 pounds of muscle and that is better than nothing. My physique is just looking a little better overall. I look so forward to just eating my heart out on the cruise, but there is so much activity on the boat - aerobics, gym, rock climbing, plus if we do any excursions, etc. I would really like to do a bike ride myself. I think it will offset and honestly hope it is a chance to get re-motivated a bit. I find 2 factors working against me since having kids - hormones and time. I Think the time is the worst though. HAving a week to do whatever sounds divine. & I want to whip my body into better shape! & maybe I will be motivated to work a little harder when I get home.

Well I hope you all have a good weekend. I will probably be around online tomorrow since I have so much work to do, but you know if you see me hanging around Sunday and Monday, just chastise me - LOL. I need to get my butt off the computer!

I was just downloading all my interest income for this month (for whatever reason my CD and my MM posts around the 25th of the month) and I noticed my GMAC bank account (most my savings) upped their interest rate 0.10%. Wooohoo!

Virtual bank - remains the same. Good thing all I have is dh's PS3 money in there - about $200.

I just drained my short-term savings for property taxes. The account sits at about 0. Since I just moved around my bank accounts and GMAC is getting 5.10%, I think I will build up my short-term savings in there. I can't even remember where I had my ST savings before - LOL. Probably VB. I think I was intending to keep it there,and use GMAC for LT savings, but the interest rates are getting too good everywhere but VB... Just means more bookkeeping to keep it all straight. Oh well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just a quickie because craziness abounds over here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well I am glad I significantly racheted down my state withholding, asked my boss.

Just finished up my taxes overall and getting $200 net back - woohoo. Originally estimated $200 due so I am happy as a clam.

I had a $20k ROTH conversion that I paid nothing in for, for state, and I still am getting $875 back. (overwithheld MUCH???) I owe about $675 for Federal - I paid Fed for the conversion, but the conversion pushed my income too high and I missed a lot of my medical deductions. So it brought my taxes up even more, etc. I don't mind owing a little so I didn't care. But $200 back, net, is sweet. Will probably file in the next couple of weeks, get my state refunds, and then when I get it, just pay the fed. In the bank it would earn me $4/month. Eh, rather get that tax bill out of my hair!!

Last year my taxable income was around $50k with my maternity leave. Some untaxed disability, some taxed, lots of unpaid time from work, etc.

This year was about 90k with the ROTH conversion and my first full year since my fat raise in 2005. That is pretty sweet.

Either way still well in the 15% tax bracket thinks to the insane cost of housing and health insurance over here, makes a nice tax break at least. Kids help too (though can I reiterate they cost 10 times as much as the tax break? LOL. Still don't get that logic - more kids for more tax breaks - blech - gotta be crazy. )

This year I expect to pull in $80k with all of our various efforts to make money. The last few years have been in the $40k-$50k range for the most part so it should be pretty sweet. All the same, there is no way in heck I want to get used to that kind of money - I think that is dangerous. I am trying hard to save save save.

I reconsidered how much our net worth should increase this year, considering payment of car and payments on the mortgage. With that and our investments performing average, I expect around $30k increase. $10k savings, $5k investment returns, $8k profit sharing, $3k car paid off, $5k mortgage principal. I had missed that $8k before (car and mortgage principle), but you can't discount that - woohoo.

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200...

Interesting article in the paper today - brings up an interesting discussion.

Jist of it is that Online Retirement Calculators on the websites of some investment firms like Fidelity & Vanguard, overestimate how much you need to save so you invest more with them of course.

My first thought was, well, yeah, and they exaggerate how well their funds do all the time too - gotta be a wash, right?

Secondly, as stated in the article, with the push to get people in this country to save, the last thing we need is to tell people they are saving too much.

Thirdly, for the savers out there. We rather err on saving far too much. IT is really pretty impossible for us to figure out how much we need in retirement. Life happens. I think the closer we get the better idea we'll have. In the meantime, heck yes, we will aim in saving too much. Of course. I Can think of far worse things...

But overall an interesting point I guess.

The article also said Americans are not so bad off - they are saving and are prepared for retirement. Pffffft. On what world? LOL. I could argue that one until the cows come home, but whatever. My only real peeve with the article.

Overall, figured could spark some interesting discussion.

I was a little worried yesterday because I have been waiting to lose weight - or to see where I land anyway - before buying some nicer clothes/suits for upcoming tax season. Only time of year I really see clients and have to really dress up.

After my last pregnancy I gained 15 pounds easy, my hormones were just whacked out - this is part of the reason I stopped breastfeeding earlier - which I pointed out in the preparking for kids thread - you can plan all you want to breastfeed to save money but it doesn't always work out. I Was having bad bladder, hormone, and weight issues and it all went away the second I stopped breastfeeding. So my son was only breastfed 6 months, though I had planned a year and had made it a year with my first. Oh well. My sanity and my physical well being was more important at the time. I couldn't even work full-time to support my family I Was such a basket case. I went to PT for months and luckily have a very understanding boss. But once tax season rolled around I just quit breastfeeding - if I had known how immediately better I would have felt I would have quit sooner... I still have really weak pelvic muscles and baldder issues but it was so much worse with the hormones. It wasn't even wetting issues like people would imagine, my bladder was literally falling out of place - and it is not a comfortable thing. IT still is out of place to a big degree. The thing that amazes me is the doctors always brush it off as mild. I can't even imagine what a severe case would be like. I will most likely need surgery when I hit menopause, and the hormones whack out again, but I did see they had new laser surgery techniques to tighten the pelvic muscles, I am keeping my eye out. In the meantime I can not even imagine putting my body through another pregnancy which made dh's surgery a little easier to do - such a final thing. I am not sure I Could handle it with my weak muscles - they are about obliterated.

Anyway, so I go and and on and on - LOL - but last year I bought some bigger clothes. & they are too big right now, since I lost about 10 pounds, my regular clothes too small. So I need to buy, if nothing else, a nice suit top, I like to just wear those with skirts and dresses. Since my pant size varies so much it seems just on the time of day - hehe.

But I walked into work monday and was slammed with all these last minute things and I had to go out to a bunch of clients. I Was freaking out if I really had anything suitable to wear. So at the last minute yesterday morning, on a whim, I tried on an old size 10 suit jacket. Didn't even expect to fit it over my shoulders, and by golly, it fit!!!!

The great news is that I don't have to do as much shopping as I thought I needed to do - woohoo.

I was wearing this before I ever had kids - like 20 pounds ago. The funny thing is it looked all loose and saggy over my chest but I Could barely button it. Welcome to my body. But it looked very nice just left open so yay! IT's a little tight, but good enough.


The downside is I noticed it is dry clean only. I know I rarely wear it so maybe it has never been washed. I don't believe in dry cleaning. I usually wash all my dry cleaning clothes, which I try not to buy in the first place. But I am looking at this jacket trying to think if I ever really neevr washed it - it looks quite nice and clean. I don't know if I Should risk putting it in the wash.

Just hope nothing spills on it or anything I guess. Otherwise it should get through tax season just fine wihtout a wash - only need to wear it a handful of days. Phew.

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

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

Phew.

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

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

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

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

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