Anything It Takes

Good things to come... I hope.

2010-08-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post. Hopefully there is SOMEONE still following me, although I'm not counting on it. I would be interested to know how many people actually read this post, so please comment below!

We're two-thirds of the way through the year and what a year it has been. I haven't been sticking to my resolutions hardly at all and our money situation tanked a couple of months ago. We did get some good news last month though: unknown to anyone, my dad had life insurance and quite a bit. If ever to have a plan as to what to do if you got a windfall of money, now is the time. Thankfully, we agreed on a plan very quickly.

We've paid off the credit cards, one car, financed a better one for me for not much more money, paid off medical debt, lawsuits, past-due property taxes (long story), and several other things. We've only had the money for 3 weeks now but have been paying things off so quickly that the bank account has dropped significantly. It's an uneasy feeling to see it drop that much that fast but I know that it's for good reasons.

The even better thing is we are able to pay off A LOT of stuff AND have 4-6 months worth of expenses in savings! This was a situation that we had a goal of but never though would happen this quickly. So in the next few days I will be updating all of the progress bars.

So I have a question: do you have a plan for a windfall?

The half-way mark!

2010-05-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

This year has sucked. Totally. Since my last post, almost 2 months ago, my grandfather has also passed away. He became very ill suddenly and had passed within the week. We will miss him but at least he is not suffering anymore. He had been on dialysis for 13 years, had several tumors on his bladder, heart problems, and several other ailments the last 10 years.

I'm doing horribly at my New Year's resolutions. So an update:

Storage space: Since my dad's passing we've had to keep it because I acquired so much stuff.
Working out: I haven't worked out except for twice this year. Next week (or maybe this week) I'm going to start going to Zumba!
Alarm: Still not getting this but I'm not hitting snooze for an hour either.
Sleeping late on the weekends: I'm doing really well here. Aside from being sick I haven't slept in past 9am at least one day each weekend.
Encouragement: JD is doing okay here. This weekend he's going to do something with a friend. Sword fighting!
Buffer: We were well on our way but then stuff happened and JD didn't get a bonus this month and last month's bonus was not what is usually is. We're back to the starting point again.
Credit Cards: We're using them and then paying them down normally within 30-60 days; I'm okay with that.
YNAB: I haven't gotten into YNAB in several month. I know, bad me.
Learn something new: I've learned how to build a website based on WordPress.org!
Plant a garden: We've done a lot of yard work the last 2 months and it's looking pretty good. We have 3 raised beds in our backyard and have a total of 47 food-items either in the ground or going in. We're so excited. We already have some tomatoes forming!
Monthly house project: Due to the lack of funds we haven't really been doing this. I will be having a garage sale the first weekend in June and I will count that.

I'll update my bars later this week.

No creative juices

2010-04-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

I have been in such a funk lately. I have not had any desire to write, blog or even read. The past couple of weeks have been boring to say the least. As of a couple of days ago, I have decided that I'm going to do anything I can to get out of my current job. My mom sold real estate for almost 15 years and I was always right alongside her and loved every minute of it. Ultimately that is what I want to do.

I would also like to really get my consulting business going. JD and I both do marketing and web consulting but not independently. I want to do it independently but JD doesn't really except for maybe a couple of side jobs every once in a while.

I think at some point I'm just going to have to quit my job because until then, I have the security and comfort of knowing that it's not a big deal if I don't get something else going.

Have you just jumped into something without a solid plan before? Did it work out? Why or why not?

Google Reader, continued.

2010-03-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

Two weeks and 3 days ago, I posted about being really behind on my daily blog-reading. The 289 that day seems like a far off wish as of today. Today I'm at 653. With everything that's happened the last couple of weeks I have not been keeping up with my normal routine.

How am I tackling it? Instead of reading in order I'm reading by blog. And yes, I will read ever post that have missed. The blogs that I follow are there for a reason. They are supportive, informative, and/or funny. I need them. They give me mental and sometimes emotional fuel to keep going.

Check out my blog list at the bottom of the page. Who knows, you might find just what you've been looking for...

Finer Things Friday: Memories

2010-03-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

"Don't cry because it's over, be happy because it happened."

This is my new motto, for now at least. I found this last night and it fits my current situation perfectly. I am sad over the loss of my father, my mom, my grammy and my poppy; all of whom I have lost in the last 6 years.

My grandmother was first, then my grandfather (both my mom's parents, but they were divorced). I spent most of my childhood at my grammy's house because both of my parents worked 40-60 hour weeks. I was very close to her and I have many, many wonderful memories. When she made me practice piano I would adjust the timer so I had less time, thinking that she wouldn't realize it; she never said anything. Now that I am a parent I laugh at and appreciate her humor in the situation.

My poppy came and went during my childhood. He was a loner and traveled a lot. He never had much money, if any at all and at 2 points during my childhood came to live with us for about 2 years each time. He finally settled down in Idaho several years ago (we live in Oklahoma) and only called every month or so. Finally his landlord called my mom and told her that he was doing very badly so we convinced him to come "visit" and the plan was to just move him here. His landlord agreed to ship us his stuff after he got here. She was very nice.

So what is my finer thing today? That I have a lot of wonderful memories of my parents and grandparents. That my children are old enough to have at least some memories of my parents but young enough to not remember how much it hurt when they were gone. That I have a wonderful, supportive family including all of JD's family.

I made a vow on the day of my dad's funeral which was also my mom's birthday, to keep in touch with all of the family friends. I don't want the loss of my parents to be the reason that I don't see or talk with any of them for the next 5 years. There are friends of my dad's the he has known since elementary school. They all live here and they are all very supportive but until 3 weeks ago, I couldn't have remembered what name went with what face if my life depended on it.

2010-03-13T00:43:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what to title this post.

In July 2007 my dad had a massive seizure and it was discovered that there was a brain tumor the size of a softball. The benign tumor was successfully removed within the week. He had another seizure in July 2008, a possible side effect of the tumor and removal.

My mom passed away in December 2008 of breast cancer metastasizes. She had battled cancer for 12 years and the last few years were very hard on her physically. She had fallen and was taken to the ER. She had not broken any bones and didn't seem to have anything seriously wrong but she could not sit up, much less stand even with assistance; it was excruciating pain to her.

She spent the next month-and-a-half in the rehabilitation ward at the hospital working towards being able to go home. She would have several good days and then several bad days. The good days were not consistent enough to be able to release her so she was sent to a wonderful hospice facility. Numerous times they wanted to send her home as a inpatient hospice facility generally cares for patients that can not be cared for at home. Her caseworker asked for several extensions for her stay and we will be forever grateful to the staff at the hospice facility.

When my mom passed away, it was something that we were all expecting. We knew several weeks beforehand that it would be soon and we were able to be with her during her last moments. I had a lot of peace in my soul when it came.

Tuesday my dad passed away suddenly. The past year-and-a-half he has had several mental obstacles such as paranoia and olfactory hallucenations. On January 28, he attempted suicide but only because he had recently been hearing voices. He was seeing a new psychiatrist that had put him on different medication. Since the medication was new, he was taking the lowest dose. No one was contacted when he was taken to the hospital and the next day his apartment manager called to discuss the events of the previous night. That day was the first day of the "Winter Storm of 2010" for Oklahoma; no one was getting out unless they had to and my aunt was in California. Note: My aunt and grandmother have been handling my parents' affairs for about the last 3 years.

After the attempted suicide his doctor upped the medication and my dad seemed to be doing very well. He had moved into a new apartment on Halloween 2009 and had a hard time focusing on getting everything unpacked and put up/away the way he wanted it. He finally had accomplished this just last week.

Even though we live in the same city (well, metro area really) my kids, his only grandkids, had not seen him in almost 2 months. He was very involved at his church and attended at least 3-4 times per week. My kids go to their dad's 2 evenings, but not overnights, a week and every other weekend. KG also has dance once a week. So between both schedules trying to get together proved a little difficult. Any time we finally agreed on something, he would normally cancel because he had worn himself out that day.

It appears that he had a seizure on Tuesday afternoon while getting ready to go to a doctor's appointment at 4pm. My grandmother and my aunt normally talk to him numerous times throughout the day but my grandmother had been unable to reach him Tuesday afternoon. She tried again after he had enough time to get home from his appointment but was still unsuccessful; she figured that he had gone to his favorite restaurant for dinner.

By 7:30pm she had still not been able to reach him and decided that she would go to the apartment to see if he and/or the car was there. His car (it's really her car) was there so she let herself in to the apartment. The music was playing and the lights were all on so she went upstairs. She found him collapsed in the bathroom. It appeared that he was brushing his teeth when it happened. Everything after that was a whirlwind.

His service is tomorrow morning and I should really be getting to bed. I have not made my peace with this and will likely not until at least when we get the Medical Examiner's report which could take 3-4 months. I had just talked to him on Monday night about letting one of the kids stay the night with him. He was so excited to have everything ready for them to come over. I didn't tell him no but we tabled the discussion for later.

It is all still very surreal for me and I have just been going through the motions. It really hits me at night when it is quiet and my mind goes to racing. I know that some day I will make my peace but right now it all just seems so unfinished.

RIP Momma
March 13, 1947 - December 2, 2009

RIP Daddy
August 16, 1951 - March 9, 2010

Google Reader

2010-03-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

For anyone that has experience with Google Reader, good for you. For those of you that haven't, well, I think it's great and you should enjoy it too. :)

I haven't been keeping up on my reading daily like I usually do. Today, when I sat down to do a little catching up I knew that there would be a lot and I wouldn't get through all of it at once but oh my freaking lord! There were 289 unread posts for me to read.

Holy freaking shnizzle Batman! I'm going to be here for days....

OAMC Big Day Report

2010-03-08T23:25:00.000-08:00

There’s always a first for everything!

I decided, last minute, to go ahead with the Once a Month Mom Cook-off! JD had to work which meant that I had all 3 kids to myself in the midst of trying to do all this cooking by myself. The smart person would have cut everything in half, but evidently I am not one of those people. The big event took place February 27 & 28, 2010.

I started out with grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon; The first trip home to unload was at around 3:30 p.m. This was the trip to Sam’s to buy in bulk. At that trip I was stopped on my way out and asked to answer a survey and in return I would receive a gift card. The gift card was only for $5 but I could use it at Sam’s or at Wal-Mart and since I was headed to Wal-Mart next I was plenty happy with that! Five dollars isn’t much, but it’s still money.

It only took me about an hour at Sam’s, not including the survey, but it took me almost 2 hours at Wal-Mart. I hate shopping on Saturdays, especially in the afternoon when everyone else is there too.

The damage? $661.86! That seems like a lot but for us, that’s pretty good for getting us through almost the whole month. I had plans of making 2 additional menu items but those plans have yet to come to fruition. I also bought other food that we will need this month outside of OAMC, as well as personal care and household items. I did buy a food processor for $35 but I’m not thrilled with it so I’ll be saving up my money for a better one down the road.

So for 53 “meals” (I counted the stuffed pancake cupcakes as 8 breakfasts because it made 32 of them; and I counted the granola as 6 breakfasts) I spent $313.96 with tax. I know some spent less, even up to half, but I am really excited about this! That comes out to $5.92 per meal and approximately $1.47 per serving. WOW! This was totally worth it for us. You can see how much I spent on what here. If there is no price listed that means I already had it.

On the other hand, I wish that I had checked the food stock instead of asking my husband to do it because I still bought stuff that we already had. Oh well, it just means that I won’t have to buy the stuff next month… See there’s always a silver lining.

I put everything that didn't have to be refrigerated or frozen on the kitchen table (which is where everything is still sitting).

At 11 p.m. I began. It was very late but I’m a night owl. I cooked 12 lbs of ground meat (I used 2 lbs of ground turkey that I already had). I’m really anal about things so I busted out the kitchen scale to measure out exactly the amount of meat I needed and cooked each recipe’s requirement out separately then bagged and labeled it to use the next day. I cut up all the onions and half of the carrots. I then cleaned up after myself and went to bed around 2:30 a.m. after starting 7 lbs of chicken in the Crock-Pot. My Crock-Pot has a timer and I put it on low for 8 hours but just in case, I put the digital thermometer in too.

Sunday morning, I got up about 9 a.m., showered, and got started about 9:45 a.m. JD had to go to the office and left around 11 a.m. I peeled, chopped, sautéed, cooked, cut, minced, smashed, browned, baked, and shredded until I could no longer stand, at 1:30 p.m. :D

Actually, I had to stop to feed the kids and myself some lunch. We ordered Domino’s pizza, which was FANTASTIC! *If you haven’t had their pizza since they stepped-up their game, you need to go to the phone right now and order some, NOW!* I have Celiac and am not supposed to be eating things that have gluten in them but my condition is very, very mild and I was dying to eat and it smelled soooo good; not to mention that I knew the kids would never eat it all…

After lunch, it was nap time for the kids. This was a huge relief for me because I was dying for a little peace and quiet. Thankfully JD had made a playlist for me that I had going all day which kept me a little saner than I would have been without it.

The rest of the afternoon flew by. Because I only had 1 Crock-Pot I just served the Hamburger Soup that I was making in it for dinner. I closed up shop about 10 p.m. and was exhausted. I threw out a lot of stuff from the deep freeze that was several years old so that I could get the new food in there. JD did help me clean up and then gave me a neck, back and foot massage afterwards.

All in all, I’m fairly satisfied with what I did and I’m looking forward to March 21 when I do it all over, but with a partner this time!

Modifications:

I couldn’t find any 8x8 aluminum pans so I bought caterer’s half-steam sizes, which are 10 x 12 or something.

In Crystal’s Lazy Granola I added ½ cup sunflower seeds and about 2 cups raisins.

I have not yet made the Banana Buttermilk Pancakes.

I did make the filling for the Beef Empanadas they have not been filled yet. I’m going to make a gluten-free version for the crust.

The Easy Taco Bake only made enough for 3 of my pans.

I haven’t made any pizza crust because I will make gluten-free crust when I need to. I added 2 or 3 cups of the chopped broccoli to the chicken mix for the pizza.

I burned the milk for the Tuna Noodle Casserole (alone with the kids; ‘nuf said) so that didn’t happen. JD was relieved as he H.A.T.E.S. fish.

I can’t wait for March’s big day!

More pictures from my big day:

Before the food...

After the food!

My freezer was already really full and I hadn't even put anything in it yet! Where was it all supposed to go?

That was a lot of onions. I hate onions. Yuck.

That was a lot of broccoli, too. I like how the food processor chopped it up though: little teensie-tiny bits almost like a seasoning.

The food processor mashed the carrots more than it sliced. I figured it probably didn't matter too much since they were just going into the soups.

Hamburger soup! Yummy!

The granola smelled so wonderful. It made a lot of granola. I'm glad that

I couldn't wait to eat some on my yogurt!

I've been a bad hostess

2010-03-07T23:26:00.001-08:00

I've been a bad hostess the last week: no posts, updates, contact, nothing. Sorry. I was sick most of last week and the couple of days that I was not I spent playing catch-up at work. I did do my OAMC Day, alone, and I'll update tomorrow. I know that I will have missed my opportunity to participate in the contest but, oh well.

Until tomorrow...

Food Waste Friday

2010-02-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

I can't find our camera so until I do "Food Waste Friday" will be without photos. This week we threw out:

1. 3 containers of Pumpkin Spice Spread that were left over from a wedding I helped to cater at Thanksgiving.
2. 2 bricks of cream cheese - again, leftover from the wedding.
3. 1/2 quart of heavy cream - wedding.
4. 1/2 quart of half-and-half. - wedding.
5. Chicken Milano without the pasta.
6. 1/4 gallon of orange juice that had been shoved to the back of the fridge.
7. Leftover salad with chicken - from eating out last week.
8. Some shredded cheese.
9. Part of a 2-liter of Diet Coke (a friend came over and that's all he drinks but we don't drink it)
10. A bottle of organic milk that was bad when I opened it.
11. A container of organic yogurt that was bad when I opened it. (The milk and the yogurt came from 2 different places)
12. Some lunch meat.
13. A whole sliced ham given to me by my company for Christmas.

This week we didn't throw away any produce, which is unusual for us. This seems like a lot of food, and it is, but the wedding stuff just was not going to be used and I couldn't find anyone in the last 3 months to give it to; no one seemed to want pumpkin cream cheese or cream cheese.

I'm really irked about the bad milk and yogurt though. I put them back in the fridge to take them back to the stores and get a refund or get them replaced, but DH didn't know that and threw them out. The dates were still good on both of them and had been purchased recently so I don't know why they were bad.

I wish DH hadn't thrown out the Diet Coke. It was only a week old and our friend would have drank it when he came over again next week.

The ham. Well, there's really no excuse for that. We were going to cook it but I didn't realize that DH had gotten it out of the deep freeze and put it in the produce drawer to thaw (it sure would be nice to have a larger fridge with see-through shelves). After it had been there for over a week I found it and by that point it was too late, not to mention it had leaked quite a bit. Too bad. That was free food. On the other hand, I really don't like pork; it's probably the Jew in my trying desperately to come out.

DH was just trying to get the fridge and freezer cleaned out to get ready for my Once A Month Mom Cook Off. I know I said on Monday that I was going to be participating but my partner is not going to be able to do it. Her son is in soccer and they just got their schedules on Wednesday. There is a game, in the middle of the day (well, 10a-12p) and her husband is the coach.

I may go it alone but I still haven't gone to the store. Also, I would be trapped in the house alone with all three kids for most of the weekend as DH has a lot of work to do at the office this weekend (he normally doesn't go in on the weekends but the company has a product release today so there's a lot to be done).

I'll make my decision to either go to the store tonight and attempt it by myself or to skip this month and do it next month.

Basic Budgeting

2010-02-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

In honor of the Ninja's post today I thought I'd give you an idea of how our budgeting breaks down:

Bills

Payee	Amount
Daycare	-$986.92
Mortgage	-$850.00
Groceries	-$600.00
Car 1	-$365.00
Car 2	-$350.00
Household	-$300.00
Gas	-$250.00
Student Loans	-$250.00
School Balance	-$200.00
Cell Phone	-$190.00
Electric	-$110.00
Maid	-$100.00
Car Insurance Car 1	-$100.00
Expensive Vacuum	-$90.00
Water	-$75.00
Lawsuit	-$75.00
Gym	-$65.00
Credit Card 2	-$50.00
Credit Card 3	-$50.00
Credit Card 4	-$50.00
Internet	-$45.00
Dance Lessons	-$40.00
PikePass (Toll)	-$40.00
Gas	-$39.00
School Breakfasts	-$35.00
Netflix	-$23.00
FreeCreditReport	-$15.00
Charity	-$10.00

Total	-$5,353.92

Jars

Priority Jars
Food	$600.00
Household / Personal Care	$300.00
Kaelyn's Breakfast	$35.00



Secondary Jars
Husband Personal	$100.00
Wife Personal	$100.00
Medical Debt	$50.00
Auto	$50.00
Grooming	$50.00
Total	$350.00


Indulgence Jars
Clothing	10%	$31.01
Travel	10%	$31.01
Garden	10%	$31.01
Real Estate License	10%	$31.01

Income

Source	Inflow
Wife	$1,980.00
Husband	$1,628.00
Child Support	$590.00

Worst	$4,198.00

Possible H's Bonus	$1,400.00
Daycare Reimbursement	$416.00

Bonuses	$1,816.00

Best	$6,014.00

Final

Total Remaining:
Worst Case	-$1,155.92
Best Case Minimum	$660.08
With Secondary Jars	$310.08
Indulgence Jars	$124.03
Into Savings	$186.05

These figures are obviously rough estimates. Each month some of them will vary slightly depending on how many weeks actually fall in the month. So, for example, if there are 5 full weeks we will pay more in daycare; there are 2 months where I will pay an additional $50 for maid service. Also, our toll fees don't get charged some months depending on how often we have to use the turnpike. Other bills, such as utilities may vary slightly although we're on an average billing plan that is working out very well.

As you can see, I have a "Worst Case" scenario that is, well, gloomy. H hasn't gone without a bonus in over 2 years but we knew that eventually that bubble would bust and this month is just that. We didn't prepare for this because even though we have previously had intentions of doing so, we've squandered away the money on insignificant things. Currently though, we do have some money in savings to cover it; the money was originally to go to the IRS but must-pay-to-survive bills will come first and I don't have a big problem with setting up a payment plan with the IRS, just so long as we're paying.

The daycare reimbursement is never a guarantee because sometimes they drag their heels or as we experienced in October, November and December, they screwed up our account.

Of the jars, the "Priority Jars" are already figured into the budget; the "Secondary Jars" are just that. If there is enough to give us each our personal money that comes first but if we're really strapped we will give those up as well. Everything else goes in order as listed until the money runs out.

The "Indulgence Jars" are savings jars. These are more long-term to use as available. After everything whatever is left goes to the savings account. Some would say that the savings account should come first but we have so little leftover, if any, I feel like other things have to come first.

February was our first month attempting this concept and we didn't put the cash in the jars, we just tried to manage it out of the account. What was the result? We're way over budget in some categories but I'll review all that next week when I have a final accounting for the month of February.

Do you have a budget? Is savings a priority or a secondary for you? Do you use a cash-based system?

Once A Month Mom Cook-off

2010-02-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited for the February Once A Month Mom Cook-off! I have finally found a friend to do it with me. The way it is set up is for 2 people (representing their respective household) to spend 1 whole day, 8-12 hours, cooking. We're going to be at my house, as my kitchen is just a little bigger and adjacent to a large dining table that we can spread stuff out on as well. The downside is between the 2 of us there are 5 kids, ages 2-5. My husband would normally be home but this weekend he will likely have to work. I'm not sure how we're going to handle it but I'm determined to make this happen; we'll figure something out, surely.

I'll do the shopping this week. I'm going to go home tonight and figure out what I already have in my pantry so that I don't buy extra. I have a pretty well-stocked spice cabinet so I should have all of those with the exception to 1 or 2.

Since I am Celiac (don't know if I've mentioned this before) we will substitute some things but not all. There are nights that I am not home and other nights I just don't eat. Therefore, I don't see that the few meals that do have gluten products will be that big of a deal. If I am home those night and do eat dinner (sometimes I'm just not up for it or have eaten a really late lunch/snack) I have plenty of veggies to make for myself, which I am used to doing now anyway (on mac and cheese or sandwich nights).

I'll take some pictures of our fun (a.k.a. "the mess") and report on it next week.

Food Waste Friday

2010-02-19T07:17:00.000-08:00

In honor of Kristen, I'm going to do my best to participate in "Food Waste Friday" but will make no promises that it will get done on Fridays. I normally clean out the fridge on Sundays when I get home from the store and am trying desperately to fit everything into the fridge and the produce bowl on the counter.

In the past few days we have thrown out:
1. 3# bag of size A red potatoes
2. 1/2 of a 5# bag of new potatoes
3. 4# of clementines
4. 1/4 loaf of bread
5. A package of Thyme
6. 3 Roma tomatoes
7. Some leftovers from eating out last week.

When I say "throw out" I mean compost. We bought a composter 2 weeks ago. Last night we officially dumped stuff into it. While we were waiting to get it we had a tub in the garage that was our holding area. I'm excited about the composter but I think that we will need at least one or two more. We have the composter sitting right next to the vegetable garden so that we won't have to go very far when we do get around to having usable compost.

Gail blogged this morning about impressing people and although my post has nothing to do with that there was 1 part of her blog that did have something to do with one thing that really bothers me: "While North America has 8% of the world’s population, we manage to consume 33% of the world’s resources, and we produce 50% of the world’s non-organic garbage."

In the U.S. few people recycle, at least from what I can tell. Why don't more people recycle? Are we just too lazy? Do we not care? Is it a lack of knowledge of how garbage affects the world?

Here are a few facts:

Statistically the United States recycles just about 28% of its waste today, which is doubled from what it was a decade ago.

In Europe, Austria heads the EU in its recycling efforts with approximately 60% of its waste being recycled.

Greece falls short with only 10% of its waste being recycled and the remaining 90% going to the landfills.

Unfortunately many countries in the European Union as well as the United States efforts in recycling are more similar to Greece than they are to Austria.

The UK is estimated to recycle about 17.7%, and Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Luxembourg being not too far behind.

Even the most conscious minded person who fills their recycle bins each week may not realize the amount of recyclable material that is commonly thrown away in small ways.
Courtesy of Environment-Green.com

Do you compost or recycle? If so, why?

Sort-of Mid-month Check-up

2010-02-18T14:19:00.001-08:00

So how am I doing on February's goals?

Work out - Still haven't worked out even one day.
Get up - I am getting up, just not when I should be.
Don’t sleep in - This is going well for the weekends! Neither day this past weekend did I sleep in late.
Encourage socialization - Husband went out with his best friend last week and then we had him over for dinner this week.
Put $3,000 towards buffer - Well, there's $3k in the savings but not towards the buffer. This isn't going to happen this month, but we're working on it. In my book, that's better than where we were.
Pay down credit cards by at least $100 per card - Not all 4 credit cards got $100 paid on them BUT 1 got completely paid off and one other did get paid down by $125. I'll take the completely paid off one ($714) any day!
Track spending - This is going well.
Make or buy a compost bin - Done. We found one at Sam's for only $50!
Paint the a bathroom - We've overspent this month so this project is not going to happen.
Have 10 no-spend days - There are only 10 days left in the month and there is no way that all of them are going to be no-spend days. So, this is a fail.
Create jars - I never posted the pictures of these and I actually didn't finish all of them. We are sort of using the concept, but not the actual jars yet; that would require being able to see the top of the dresser where they are sitting.
Open children's savings accounts - Again, we've overspent this month but I may go ahead and open them with like $10 each or something.
Pay 2 medical bills - We've paid one but it was only for $9 -- Does that count?
Make payment plans for 2 large medical bills ($200 or more) - We paid off the credit card in lieu of paying 2 large medical bills.
Bring lunch 10 days - I haven't brought lunch one day this month yet. I will be next week because we've hit the budget for grocery shopping and are over budget for eating out. I should have at least 5 days (6 if I do it tomorrow).

As for the 2010 resolutions and the 5-year goals?

The storage space is almost cleaned out. One more trip and it will be done.
Even though I can't paint the bathroom this month we did do a heaving cleaning-out of the kids' toys and I do consider this a "house" project as it resulted in major reorganization of my daughters' closet.
The rest of the 2010 resolutions are in good shape.
We're doing good on getting rid of the debt. We only have so much income and there's just not that much left to paid extra to but we're doing as much as we can.
The piano pieces are the only other thing that I have actively started working on and I dropped the ball the past couple of weeks. I haven't touched the piano in at least 2 weeks. Shame on me.

How are your goals and/or resolutions coming along?

2-Week Update, late edition

2010-02-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have been a very bad girl the last couple of weeks. I haven't updated on, well, anything but in my defense it has been a crazy couple of weeks. Work for both of us has been pretty hectic and we have dealt with a round of sickness between a few of us as well. Here's what I had prepared for the update that should have been posted on February 12th:

	Measure	2 Weeks	Change	LTD
Checking	$467	$1,454	211.4%	211.4%
Savings	$5	$3,498	69856.6%	69856.6%
Investments	$32,000	$32,000	0.0%	0.0%
Assets	$32,472	$36,952	13.8%	13.8%
Mortgage	$115,526	$115,526	0.0%	0.0%
Student Loan	$35,556	$35,556	0.0%	0.0%
Car 1	$16,952	$16,952	0.0%	0.0%
Car 2	$13,499	$13,346	-1.1%	-1.1%
IRS 1	$4,638	$4,638	0.0%	0.0%
IRS 2	$2,158	$2,158	0.0%	0.0%
State Taxes	$1,314	$0	-100.0%	-100.0%
CC 1	$700	$0	-100.0%	-100.0%
CC 2	$167	$65	-60.9%	-60.9%
CC 3	$217	$247	13.6%	13.6%
CC 4	$155	$105	-32.5%	-32.5%
Liabilities	$190,882	$188,592	-1.2%	-1.2%
Total	-$158,410	-$151,640	-4.3%	-4.3%

And for the version without the mortgage:

	Measure	2 Weeks	Change	LTD
Checking	$467	$1,454	211.4%	211.4%
Savings	$5	$3,498	69856.6%	69856.6%
Investments	$32,000	$32,000	0.0%	0.0%
Assets	$32,472	$36,952	13.8%	13.8%
Student Loan	$35,556	$35,556	0.0%	0.0%
Car 1	$16,952	$16,952	0.0%	0.0%
Car 2	$13,499	$13,346	-1.1%	-1.1%
IRS 1	$4,638	$4,638	0.0%	0.0%
IRS 2	$2,158	$2,158	0.0%	0.0%
State Taxes	$1,314	$0	-100.0%	-100.0%
CC 1	$700	$0	-100.0%	-100.0%
CC 2	$167	$65	-60.9%	-60.9%
CC 3	$217	$247	13.6%	13.6%
CC 4	$155	$105	-32.5%	-32.5%
Liabilities	$75,356	$73,067	-3.0%	-3.0%
Total	-$42,884	-$36,114	-15.8%	-15.8%

LOOK AT THAT SAVINGS! WOOHOO!

From here on out I will only be posting the version without the mortgage because there's no way we will be paying off the mortgage in the next 5 years! Unless of course there is some major lottery winnings... one can hope, right?

Speaking of the mortgage, husband got a call from Wells Fargo (one of the car loans is through them) and they talked about refinancing the mortgage. His credit needs to be a little higher but once it is they can refinance it for about 2.5% lower interest rate for a 30-year and 3.5% lower rate for a 15-year! When we crunch the numbers, the 15-year would only make our payment about $150 more than what it is now. Once we cut out some more debt and monthly expenses this is a no-brainer as far as we are concerned.

Back to the debt elimination side, we got rid of Bank of America! YAY! That puts us down to only 3 credit cards, all in good standing. The IRS paid off our state taxes so those are gone, and I made a huge dent in my credit card. I have since made a payment to my husband's student loan which will show in the next update.

Even though it's not huge progress, I'm happy with the little that it is. Very happy, indeed.

Reward Points vs Cash

2010-02-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

I have a dilemma: When we use our credit cards (or debit cards as credit) we earn reward points through our bank. A lot of banks offer rewards programs. Since I signed us up we have earned a lot of points and are hoping to earn enough to redeem for a gift certificate for a large purchase or travel. This originally was a sound idea; not anymore.

JB (my husband) and I came to an agreement about a budget and a spending plan. Having actually accomplishing this is leaps and bounds from where we have ever been in talking about our finances. One piece of the pie is to use jars, the spin-off of the envelope system. We agree that this will make us more accountable for our transactions instead of just whipping out a card every time we turn around.

The downside of this is obviously that by using cash only we will not earn our reward points. The only things we would earn points on are our gas expenses. We will continue to pay-at-the-pump for our gas because most of the time we have at least one, if not all, of the 3 kids with us. We are also comfortable with what we spend on gas because we normally spend right about the same amount each month, except when we go to visit family; even then sometimes we get a little assistance there.

What do we do? Do we continue with the plan of using the jars or go back to using the card and just keep a VERY close eye on the budget? If we go to cash only, will there be a time we are comfortable enough to go back to debit cards?

January Month-end Progress Report

2010-02-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

Since I did not form my 2010 resolutions until the end of January, most of them did not officially start until this month; a few did and here is my progress report:

Get rid of the storage space by March 15 – Pending

I’m waiting for the weather to get just a touch warmer and not be wet/snowy/icy anymore.

Work out 3 days a week – FAIL

Umm, yeah, this didn’t happen. It’s not like I didn’t make it all 3 times, but more that I didn’t go at all. This month will be better.

Get up when my alarm goes off – FAIL

I have a REALLY hard time getting up in the mornings and have lately been oversleeping quite a bit. This morning I did do much better as I only let me alarm go off for 25 minutes instead of 45. You’ve got to start somewhere right?

Don’t sleep in after 10 a.m. both days of the weekend – PASS

The last 2 weekends I have gotten up by 8:30 or 9 a.m. one day of the weekend.

Encourage my husband to socialize more – PASS

It wasn’t directly of my doing but he did go to lunch with a former co-worker today; a couple of weeks ago I told him they should get together and he followed through.

Have a 1 month buffer – Pending

This is not something that is going to happen immediately. Although, I filed our taxes last week and according to the IRS we should be receiving our return by Feb. 9. My husband has some back taxes due but when he called a couple of weeks ago they flagged the account as the money should have been taken out of last year’s return but there was an oversight and it wasn’t. I am praying that we actually get it by the 9^th.

Pay off all credit cards by June 1 – FAIL

I’m saying fail because although this is still 4 months away (wow it’s really not that far off) 2 things happened in the past week: 1) The monthly charge on one card put us over the limit and 2) I had to use my credit card last night for dinner because I had left my debit card at home.

Track spending in YNAB weekly – N/A

YNAB does monthly budgeting and while I could have spent time sorting through all of January’s transactions with only 1 week left in the month, I chose not to. This week I will be setting up February’s budget, so check back next week for this one.

Learn something new – FAIL

Nothing yet…

Make/create a compost bin and garden – ¼ PASS

I haven’t yet made or bought a formal compost bin yet but I do have a container in the garage that is holding the compost-able stuff until I do. I won’t be able to start on the garden until March.

Do a monthly house project – N/A

Again, with only 1 week left in January there really wasn’t much I could do with that little notice and the limited funds.

February’s Goals:

Work out

Get up

Don’t sleep in

Encourage socialization

Put $3,000 towards buffer

Pay down credit cards by at least $100 per card

Track spending

Make or buy a compost bin

Paint the a bathroom
Have 10 no-spend days
Create jars (see tomorrow's post)
Open children's savings accounts
Pay 2 medical bills
Make payment plans for 2 large medical bills ($200 or more)
Bring lunch 10 days

Next week is my week to do a financial update. Stay tuned…

Crunching the numbers

2010-01-26T10:28:00.001-08:00

I have noticed that I spend a lot of time crunching numbers and talking about our “budget” but doing very little to actually stick to it.

I looked at our overall picture of our checking account last year and discovered that from our main checking account we spent $215 more than we deposited in 2009. Granted there was likely a positive balance going into 2009 but I am still disappointed that it was in the negative.

I’ve taken a closer look as to what our overall budget should actually look like on a monthly basis based on our income last year (hopefully, it goes up this year). Here’s what I’ve come up with:

$4,369 base expenses

$1,588 remaining monthly for gas, groceries, clothing, etc.

To many people our base expenses probably seem like a lot but we have a) a mortgage payment, b) two car payments, 3) three children in daycare or after-school care and 4) a housekeeper that comes every other week because there is no way it would get done with the schedules we have. Under no circumstances would I give up the housekeeper, so long as I am working outside of the house and maybe not even if I was at home.

Also, the $1,588 remaining may seem like enough but we have to take into account that we 1) each drive 40+ miles to/from work each day, 2) 2 children are still in Pull-ups, and 3) I have Celiac (gluten intolerance) which means we do a lot of fresh cooking because most pre-packaged items have wheat in them (rye and barley also contain gluten). Cooking fresh can get very expensive but frozen vegetables are my friends!

According to Dave Ramsey (although we do not follow his plan) you should spend 5%-15% of your income on food, including eating out and any indulgences you might have (ahem, Starbucks) and 5%-10% of your income on personal items (toiletries, pet supplies, hair care, school supplies, life insurance, gifts, etc.). He says that child care should be included in the personal items category but because of the ages of our kids, this is not possible.

So going with that (again based off of our income last year):

5% $297 10% $595 15% $893

Ideally, I would like to do 10% on food ($595) and 5% on toiletries ($297) for a total of 15% = $893.

Thinking about this logically, when I make our budget I don’t break up the groceries and toiletries into separate categories since I get it all in one trip; but this year I would like to change that.

When we get to a point of spending what we made last month (the YNAB way) I think it would be easiest to make one trip to Sam’s (aka Costco to some of you) at the beginning of the month to purchase our personal care items and another trip to the grocery store to get all the shelf-stable/frozen items for the month. Doing these major shopping trips once a month would also require me to make a monthly menu that we actually stick to.

Hopefully we will get our tax return soon and can get 1 month ahead on our expenses and start working this plan instead of just talking about it.

Financial Update #1

2010-01-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

I will start making a report every two weeks. I will say that I stole this idea from another blogger.

	Measure	2 Weeks	Life To Date
Checking	$467	N/A	N/A
Savings	$5	N/A	N/A
Investments	$32,000	N/A	N/A
Assets	$32,472	N/A	N/A
Mortgage	$115,526	N/A	N/A
Student Loan	$36,000	N/A	N/A
Car 1	$16,952	N/A	N/A
Car 2	$13,499	N/A	N/A
IRS 1	$4,638	N/A	N/A
IRS 2	$2,158	N/A	N/A
State Taxes	$1,700	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 1	$700	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 2	$167	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 3	$217	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 4	$155	N/A	N/A
Liabilities	$191,712	N/A	N/A
*Total*	*-$159,240*	N/A	N/A

With our mortgage included, it is a really large amount of debt. That is not to say that without the mortgage is a small amount of debt either:

	Measure	2 Weeks	Life To Date
Checking	$467	N/A	N/A
Savings	$5	N/A	N/A
Investments	$32,000	N/A	N/A
Assets	$32,472	N/A	N/A
Student Loan	$36,000	N/A	N/A
Car 1	$16,952	N/A	N/A
Car 2	$13,499	N/A	N/A
IRS 1	$4,638	N/A	N/A
IRS 2	$2,158	N/A	N/A
State Taxes	$1,700	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 1	$700	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 2	$167	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 3	$217	N/A	N/A
Credit Card 4	$155	N/A	N/A
Liabilities	$76,186	N/A	N/A
*Total*	*-$43,714*	N/A	N/A

Checking Balance: This is the reason I have the resolution to have $1,500 in our checking account for more than 6 months in a row. I hope to start moving towards the YNAB budget of month-to-month.

Savings: Hopefully, we'll be able to start adding to this very soon.

Investments: This is my husband's 401(k). We have no other investments at this time. This figure is estimated as I cannot recall the exact amount.

IRS: One is from past due and one is my screw up on our taxes last year. Somehow I managed not to include my income, at all.

Credit Cards: CC1 has been closed by the company, because they felt like it, and we will be paying that off as soon as possible. The other 3 are in good standing and we plan to keep these but lower the debt on them in order to help rebuild our credit.

Keep in mind that this does not include any outstanding bills that we have (medical, school, personal). At this time I don't have a full picture of where we are on those items. I will be working on this and hope to have a full picture by March 1.

Looking at this in black and white is actually pretty depressing. I have no clue as to if we will accomplish resolution #5; although, I would consider it okay if we were debt free of everything except the mortgage and the student loans.

Resolutions and Goals

2010-01-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

I have been feeling very disappointed with myself lately. I have mixed feelings about the choices I have made in the last 10 years (if you know me, I know, but let’s not go there…). A part of me would really like to go back and change things: finishing high school; going to class in college; finishing college; going on to law school (yes, that was my original plan); being able to play numerous piano works; and being completely self sufficient.

On the other hand I have had wonderful things happen in my life as a result of the decisions I made, however juvenile, inappropriate and/or unwise. I have 3 beautiful, and I mean beautiful, (not that I’m biased or anything of the sort), a loving husband, a fantastic extended family, many supportive friends and a good job that I actually enjoy.

As I reflect on these things and the ideas I had 5-10 years ago about where I would be, what I would be doing and what I would have accomplished, I can’t help but feel a smidgen of disappointment in myself.

Since this is the beginning of a brand new year and the count-down to being the big 3-0 (Didn’t you hear? 30 is the new 20!), I have made the “30 Before 30” list; I know, how very cliché of me. I have opted to focus on this rather than my very short list of 2010 resolutions, of which I will also divulge for your entertainment.

2010 Resolutions:

Work out 3 days per week.
Get up when my alarm goes off.
Don’t sleep in until 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. both days of the weekend.
Encourage my husband to socialize more.
Save a 1-month buffer ($4,500 minimum)
Pay off all credit cards by June 1.
Track spending in YNAB weekly.
Learn something new.
Make/create a compost bin and garden.
Do a monthly house project.

I started out with a much smaller list, but have since added a few things. I think that all of these are do-able in the next 12 months or by their respective deadlines. Only a small percentage of people stick to their New Year’s resolutions past March, if they even make it that long, mainly because they make them to difficult to accomplish. I know that I won’t succeed at each of these all the time and I’m okay with that. But, I also know that I have something to strive for and that’s better than not trying at all.

Now for “The List.” I will review a few of the goals every few days. So here goes:

Pay off all debt: I know a lot of people want to pay off all of their debt, but I really think that we can actually accomplish this in the next 5 years. It will take some hard work and perseverance but I truly think that it can be done.

Get a degree: Most people would think that getting a bachelor’s degree in 5 years is reasonable; well, not if you have young children and a full time job. I can barely, and by “barely” I mean almost never, get the laundry done in a timely manner, not to mention the 10,000 other things that we’re supposed to do on a daily basis. I can’t fathom trying to be a full-time student as well. I know people do it, but I cannot voluntarily subject myself to that much stress.

Go camping: I have never actually been camping. I’ve done it halfway, where you stay in the pop-up trailer/tent thing and have facilities to use. I want to really “do it” but I don’t know if I could handle not having a bathroom. I’ll gladly sleep in a tent though! We never did things like this when I was a kid and sometimes I think I might have missed out; on the other hand, maybe I’ll hate it and thank my parents for not subjecting me to such horrors. We’ll see.

Daily Damages

2009-09-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

I've seen other bloggers utilizing the concept of "Zero spending days" and a visual accounting of what they spend each day. I'm going to do this as well from now on. Tallying up everything that I spent over the last 5 days is actually very upsetting. I don't realize how much I actually spend on stupid stuff.

I'm only accounting for purchases that either I made or was directly involved in making, like going to a movie with my husband. Here goes the last few days:

Thursday’s Spending:

$10.23 – Target

$5.07 – Sonic (Breakfast)

$5.43 – Taco Bueno (Dinner)

$35 – Hair Cut

$12 – PTA Membership & School T-Shirt

Total: $67.73

Friday’s Spending:

$30 – School Pictures

$32 – Cookie Fundraiser

$17.25 – Movie Tickets & Snacks

$4 – Movie Snack

Total: $83.25

Saturday’s Spending:

Total: $0

Sunday’s Spending:

$17 – Coin-op Laundry (Washing all the sheets and the comforter)

$76.13 – Target (Household items)

$133.80 – Wal-Mart (Groceries)

$30 – Prescriptions

$2.81 – Taco Bell

$5.63 – McDonald’s (Kid’s meal and ice cream)

Total: $265.37

Monday’s Spending:

$23.76 – Domino’s Pizza

Total: 23.76

Five-day total: $440.11!

Wow! It really does add up fast. The thing is, we don't have an extra $440.11 in our budget; in fact we're seriously over budget for the rest of the month and if the husband doesn't get his bonus next month (not looking good, sales are really down) we're completely screwed. What's even worse, this is in addition to the bills that were paid last week as well.

I do have an item to take back to Target with will be a credit of about $30, if I can find the receipt. Last night we really shouldn't have eaten pizza but the husband is sick, I was exhausted and I didn't want to mess with making dinner while my dad was over visiting with us.

No more eating out for the rest of the week. The kids are home this weekend, as opposed to the older 2 being at their dad's so I will have to cook every day this week.

I was hoping that today would be a "no spend day" but just realized that I'm completely out of gas. I need some fresh thyme for a recipe tonight but I'm going to try dried instead and hope for the best.

I'm also going to make a large pot of vegetable stock to freeze for later use in soups and stews this fall/winter. I'm sure this will only be the first of several batches over the next few months. Hopefully making my own vegetable and chicken stock will save a little money there. I also plan to prepare some soups and stews to freeze; hopefully this plan will help with nights I don't feel like cooking. Thankfully the kids all love soup.

Some failure is inevitable...

2009-08-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

... but not necessarily excusable. As of my last post I had already purchased 1 pair of shoes 4 days earlier. Then, just 3 days later, 2 items on my Wait List of an online store I regularly shop, came available. I justified one of the items as it is a coat for one of the girls for fall. Not only that but it might be a little big this year and will likely fit her next year AND since it is a denim jacket, a rather versatile piece, I can pass it on to her younger sister in a couple of years without having to worry about the style.

But, the other item, the more expensive item I purchased was a skirt for me. Granted it is really to wear to work but still. Well, we are so incredibly close for the next 2 weeks that I have opted to not go with the meal plan for this week since it requires purchasing so many items that we don't already have. We have plenty of food to get us through most of the week until I get paid on Wednesday anyway.

The bad thing is, I was anticipating that only the jacket would ship quickly, as the skirt said it wouldn't ship for 2-3 weeks. I got an e-mail this morning that the whole order has shipped and we simply can't afford it right now. I can't stop it and I can't even return it for a refund, only a store credit. So, it's really a moot point now.

I have to get on track here. I am having a really hard time committing to this. I want to have a savings account that has enough money in the event that my husband doesn't get his monthly bonus that we depend on. At one point there was 3 months worth of what we need out of the bonus to make ends meet but now there's not even half of one month.

I have to focus on the goal. I have to commit to making it happen. I have to, for me, my family and our sanity.

"Anything It Takes" Starts Now

2009-08-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

Anything it takes to have financial freedom.
Anything it takes to save up for my dream house.
Anything it takes to know that we are safe from a financial tragedy.
Anything it takes to make my marriage work.
Anything it takes to position myself to be there for my kids.

Here goes the introduction: I have a shopping addiction. Not just shopping for clothing or shoes either. I shop for EVERYTHING! I'm obsessed with some of the usual things like nice clothing, shoes, purses/bags, etc., but my shopping problem doesn't stop there. I shop for my kids, my house, my husband, my friends, new cars, new houses (we just bought our first house about 15 months ago), new, new, new.

I don’t ever seem to be satisfied with what I have. I’d like to blame it on my upbringing, and I do partly, but not everything can be my parents’ fault. My parents were always bad with money and as I get older, I find out more and more about how bad they really were at managing and prioritizing it.

When I left high school with plans to attend college early and really get a head start on life and a career, I immediately got a full time job. I had no rent and the only bills I had were my car payment, insurance and spending money. I made good money, really good money for a 17-year-old. If I had been a smart 17-year-old I would have put most of my money in a savings account, but I didn’t.

I made bad choices overall, not just with money. I’m not saying that all of the choices I make now are perfect but they are generally much better, except when it comes to money. That’s where this comes in. I’ve tried to make myself accountable to my husband but that generally just ends up in a fight. The fight about money then turns into other things and it ends up like a 90° rollercoaster drop.

I started out the year with the plan to wipe the slate clean and start anew, taking a responsible, smart approach to our money but it hasn’t worked out so well. In my mind I say “We make $X a month/year and we should have something to show for it,” and by “show” I don’t mean our bank account, although that would be the “smart” thing to have.

Now for our wants:
Financial freedom; my 5,000 sqft dream house (okay, that sounds like a lot but 2 adults + 3 kids, I love to entertain, husband wants a theatre room and a library, I want a nice master suite and a H-U-G-E kitchen) on a couple of acres; nice cars that are paid for; husband wants a boat; we both want bikes; I want to be involved in a strong charity or community project; I want to get my masters degree (have to start over on my bachelors at this point); and I want to be a work-from-home mom, preferably doing something in real estate or marketing.

If I continue on the path that I am currently on, I/we will never accomplish any of this. Right now my life revolves around money, how much we have or don’t have or how we’re going to pay bills and still have money to enjoy ourselves a little at least.

I’ve started the YNAB (YouNeedABudget.com) plan (15-day free trial) and will be purchasing the software soon. Budgeting is really where I fall short and I believe that this budgeting software will give me some accountability. Dave Ramsey’s plan is hard to follow with a household of 5, 3 of whom are in daycare.

A budgeting we will go, a budgeting we will go, hi-ho the money-o, a budgeting we will go…