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.
The Countdown
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Basic Budgeting
In honor of the Ninja's post today I thought I'd give you an idea of how our budgeting breaks down:
Bills
Jars
Income
Final
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?
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?
Monday, February 22, 2010
Once A Month Mom Cook-off
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.
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.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Food Waste Friday
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?
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?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sort-of Mid-month Check-up
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?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
2-Week Update, late edition
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 | |
| 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% |
| | $4,638 | $4,638 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| | $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 | |
| 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% |
| | $4,638 | $4,638 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| | $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?
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.
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