It's good to be back and what a busy week we have had! Between the cleaning and getting back to work, dealing with the flu, and trying to play catch up, I find that time is just slipping away from me. We're still tossing things out and donating things left and right... guess its just a new year and I feel the need for a clean start :)
But I finally managed to get a few things done.
I had to call up our dental insurance company because our "Credit" of $1,933.00 has not posted to our dental loan at Wells Fargo and the 45 business days had already passed from when our award letter was dated. I left a message and she contacted me the next day and told me they would cut us a check directly and that it would take a few weeks to process it. Then I got a surprise call from her the next day telling me it will be a matter of days instead of weeks because she had already started our refund process a few weeks ago all on her own accord. Then the next day we got the check in the mail! Bueno. Looks like we'll wipe that bill away this month and I can take down the progress bar!
We also had to have the Toyota brought in for a 5k maintenance check. When we were driving back home from Utah you crossed 65,000 miles on my Car so this week we took it. It pays to ask for old discounts apparently. I still got my 10% AAA discount because I asked for it... normally they ask if your a member and remind you of the discount, but they apparently aren't doing it anymore but because I asked, they honored it.
I also carved out 12 miles with my friend this week as we continue training for our marathon in march. SCB found a nifty calorie counting app that I can use to help me reach my goal of loosing 15 lbs this year!
While we were out and about we picked up a few small stocking items since we'll be celebrating Christmas on Sunday with my family and we had a little extra money left in our Christmas Account when we got back. We also got the last paycheck SCB earned from his work in the mail so we have a little buffer money for the month if we need it since we've been needed to re-stock an almost empty house grocery wise.
I've also decided to just start up with the new year in terms of tracking our spending. Before we left and during the trip I just kept track of the money in our accounts to make sure we didn't over spend, but i didn't keep good records in terms of every dime we spent at each location or on what so instead of letting my head hurt, we'll just pick up with January.
January 1st: No spend day!
January 2nd:
- Costco: $29.86
- Gasoline (SCG): $52.87
- Lunch (Costco) $4.92
January 3rd:
- Gasoline (SCB): $37.27
- Pick up Stix: $11.29 --because I was sick...
- Groceries/House items (Walmart): $23.18
January 4th:
- Toyota: $73.85
January 5th:
- Wood Turning Supplies: $47.95 SCB ordered a belated Christmas Present from the online store since we couldn't pick these up when we were in Utah and we had put the money aside so he could purchase some pen kits.
- $18.19 Walmart ($10 Gift, $8.19 Marathon fanny pack)
- $4.57 Target (Gift)
- $27.43 California Fish Grill -- For our date night.
- $53.20 Fresh & Easy (Groceries)
January 8th: No spend day!
Money Goals:
For now our goal is to stay in line with our monthly budget and slowly add the remaining amount to my 2011 Roth IRA to max it out now that we have all the funds together to do so. I have added $2k thus far and over the next few weeks if things keep going okay, we'll drop in the remaining 3k.
Any money we are able to keep at the end of the month will be going towards 2 goals simultaneously. Our first being to save up another $5k for maxing out a Roth IRA for me in 2012 AND the second, adding $1,200.00 to our emergency fund. When SCB and I worked out how to prioritize our goals for the year, we knew maxing out 1 Roth IRA needed to be at the top, and with his work situation being shaken, we new it would also be wise to add more to our EF.
We are hoping over the next three months to get the Emergency fund taken care of. Between the tax return we may be getting back from the Feds (crosses fingers), the hubby's last paycheck we just got, some overtime from some events I have scheduled at work, being careful with our money, and possibly a unemployment check or two, that our emergency fund should grow by $1,200.00 (it's at $11,092.80 at present since we had some interest added, so were hoping to add $1,200 more.)
We have some money set aside in the budget for the Roth IRA, so we'll set that aside if we can, but anything extra will go towards the Emergency fund first.
For now our goal is to stay in line with our monthly budget and slowly add the remaining amount to my 2011 Roth IRA to max it out now that we have all the funds together to do so. I have added $2k thus far and over the next few weeks if things keep going okay, we'll drop in the remaining 3k.
Any money we are able to keep at the end of the month will be going towards 2 goals simultaneously. Our first being to save up another $5k for maxing out a Roth IRA for me in 2012 AND the second, adding $1,200.00 to our emergency fund. When SCB and I worked out how to prioritize our goals for the year, we knew maxing out 1 Roth IRA needed to be at the top, and with his work situation being shaken, we new it would also be wise to add more to our EF.
We are hoping over the next three months to get the Emergency fund taken care of. Between the tax return we may be getting back from the Feds (crosses fingers), the hubby's last paycheck we just got, some overtime from some events I have scheduled at work, being careful with our money, and possibly a unemployment check or two, that our emergency fund should grow by $1,200.00 (it's at $11,092.80 at present since we had some interest added, so were hoping to add $1,200 more.)
We have some money set aside in the budget for the Roth IRA, so we'll set that aside if we can, but anything extra will go towards the Emergency fund first.
I remembered your hubby drinks a lot of mountain dew and thought you might find this interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.naturalnews.com/034602_Mountain_Dew_mouse_dissolved.html