Weekly Updates (Spending & Money Goals)

Weekly Updates:
This is huge so i'm going to open our Weekly re-cap with it... OUR DENTAL LOAN IS GONE! I went ahead and paid the remaining bill for $2,318.00! BAM! It feels fantastic.

I had to deposit the rest of my Christmas money because we spent it this week.

Harry potter Lego, years 1-4 for XBOX ($21.54)... i'm so addicted!
Vanilla Candles, ($10.75)
History Book off Amazon, ($17.25)
Book, Stuffed Animal, Car Charger, Crochet book($34.80)

We also made our first run at the EDD card since we had to deposit our Christmas spoils. We were able to pull the $107.00 off the card and just switch it to our checking account. (I pulled $5 out for the farmers market I now go to on Friday's).

SCB and I combined our date night with an opportunity to give. Chili's is doing a "give back night" for our local Relay for Life so we decided to do date night on Thursday instead of Friday and went to Chili's so 15% of our bill (we also had a friend come with us) would go towards Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.

I'm also training for the LA Marathon on behalf of Child Share. My partner and I did 14 miles last week and 16 this week. I went ahead and matched a few donations that came in this week with funds we had earmarked for giving prior to the lay off.  If you would like to donate to help me find a home for an abused, neglected child in the foster/adoptive system, you can visit my donation page! I'm trying to raise $2500.00. If you have read my About Me Page, you know why an organization like Child Share is so near and dear to my heart.

We may need to start shopping around more and outside of fresh & easy. Cheese slices used to be 2 packets for $5.00 on sale when the store opened... then they started going to $2.99 each with the 2 for $5 sale being less frequent. Just this week alone they jumped from $2.99 to $3.49! To that I say no... We hunted through Costco and found out we can get the equivalent of 4 packets of cheese (4 different types) for $8.29, making it about $2.07 a package so we purchased the cheese at Costco this week...

Ground Beef patties at Fresh and Easy run 8.99 for 3lbs... at Costco, we can get a 6lb bag for $17.19 making it an $8.60 equivalent. Last week we picked up frozen chicken breasts because the Costco equivalent put them at $1.99 lb, and fresh and easy was $2.50 lb for fresh chicken... more for frozen. And whole wheat pasta is now sold in 13.25 once boxes for $0.99 instead of 16 oz packages like the normal pasta... Oh, and tomatoes, no longer $0.99 for a package... $1.49 now so they didn't make their way into the cart.

I didn't get a chance to check the price of tortillas at Costco, but we will next time we go since they are now $1.29 at Fresh & Easy instead of $0.98.... and carrots are now $1.49 for 2 lbs instead of $0.98. I might have to try getting SCB to go back to making bread on a regular schedule since a small loaf is now running $2.29. We stopped making bread when he got laid off because we weren't going through it fast enough and I thought it was wasting money by getting tossed out (Store loafs go into the freezer so if we don't eat it one week, its okay)... but we may need to make that adjustment and go back to making our own.

I've also been going to a farmers market to pick up broccoli each week because I can get double the amount for the same price and it lasts longer, but we may start picking up more of our produce if prices start to rise.

Since we picked up a few extra items in bulk this week, we will probably spend more money on groceries than we planned, but with the overtime and some leftover gas money we have from this month we should be fine.  

Weekly Spending:
January 23:

• Target: $5.82 (Mnt Dew)

January 24:
January 25:
January 26:

• Marathon Matching donations: $37.69
• Prescriptions: $4.00
• Date Night: $48.00
• HOA: $262.50

January 27:

• Farmers Market, Broccoli & Strawberries-- $3 (Got a $2 parking coupon for walking part of the way there).
• Cell phones $134.08
• Internet: $38.94

January 28:

• Costco: $30.86 (6lbs of frozen burger- $17.19); (Cheese slices $8.29); (Roast Chicken $4.99)
• Costco: $4.79 -Lunch
• Fresh & Easy: $29.94

January 29:

Money Goals:

1. 2011 Roth IRA: $5,000 / $5,000. We have deposited $4k of the $5k we have saved so far. 
2. 2012 Roth IRA SCG:  $220.00 / $5,000.00 (4.4%) If we put $220 a month in the Roth IRA, and take my 2 "extra checks" we will be able to max it out. This combined with my pension and my $5.00 a paycheck deductions to a 457 account is 15% of my earned income. 
3. Emergency Fund: $11,192.80 / $12,500.00 (89.5%) We added $100 from SCB's unemployment card and that with the interest that's been growing in the account, puts us at almost 11,200.00. Why $12.5K? its 6 months of expenses for us and 3-6 months of expenses is the recommended amount for an emergency fund so the "money guru's" declare.   
4.  Paying Extra on the House:  $0 / $1,301.28 We want to pay 2 additional mortgage payments this year.
5. $1,000.00 Car Fund: $0 / $1,000.00 Our cars are both getting older and starting to get up in mileage and since we drive more frequently to and from Utah we need to start saving up money for larger repair bills and to ultimately replace them down the line.
6. 2nd Roth IRA: 15% $0 / ? We're just aiming to put 15% of what SCB earns in this account when he goes back to working so as a household we put 15% of our income to retirement.