Over the wall...

My husband standing on the neighbors
balcony removing my hanging planters...
Thankfully the neighbors doggie was
inside for the day or we would have
had other more pressing issues with SCB
being THAT close to their slider door....

I did it again...

I locked my keys in the house... and this time my husband didn't have his wallet with him (which has a spare car key in it for emergencies--- making his car a good place to also keep a spare house key since there isn't a safe place to put one outside)...

So since he wasn't carrying his wallet we were locked out of our second story condo and the only person who has a spare house key is my best friend who lives and works in an entirely different county... (You all should know by now why my family doesn't have a set of keys...)

So this left us with 3 options...

Try and break into my husbands car...

Call a locksmith and pay through the nose...

or scale the wall.

Now i'm not sure if you remember back to this post (This is the event where we decided to keep a spare house key in his car)... but on this occasion, my husband was able to borrow a small ladder from another neighbor to help hoist himself up the wall... but this time we weren't so lucky...

we didn't have a ladder. or help....

and my husband has not been working manual labor jobs so his physical fitness is not what it once way (His words.... not mine. I still love you hunny and I think your strong and manly!)

My husband decided to try the wall option after I verified that the door was indeed locked.

My husband balancing on my neighbors bamboo privacy fence.... That stuff
is REALLY strong by the way... holds all 230 lbs of my husband!!!!

First and other failed attempts... there just isn't
a good type of foothold.... especially when
you are wearing rainbow flip flops and not
sneakers.

SOOOOO CLOSE.... but no Cigar...

But low and behold a remarkable idea.... SCB takes off his belt and attaches
it to the balcony... and makes a foothold.... 

I was too excited that he made it over the wall to get a picture and there was no way he was going to "re-do" it for a photo opportunity. I think we are going to look for another place to keep a spare key... or keep some kind of a rope up there to help him get over the wall in the future.

I'm just glad my husband wore a belt that morning.

Still recovering...

In the past 8 days I've worked 69 hours.... (Another lifeguard course....) and i'm just wiped... Thankfully I only have a 5-6.5 hour day today, and then i'll be able to go grocery shopping and take a long over due nap.

My 12 for 2012... Updates!

My 12 for 2012... Updates

Put $5,000.00 into a Roth IRA for me.-- So far despite the fact that South County Boy has been unable to find a new job, we have been able to continue to set aside $220.00 a month each month so far in 2012. If we we keep this up and take my 2 extra paychecks I get from being paid biweekly and deposit those into the Roth as well, we will max it out :) $4,335.95 left to go.

Add $1,200.00 to our emergency fund. We have been very diligent about not spending the unemployment funds that South County Boy has qualified for so we can get our emergency fund finally finished. We have only been able to keep this going because I've been working insane hours and have been bringing in a few hundred extra dollars each month. We only need $336.04 more before we can start using the funds from his unemployment checks towards other goals which will help us staff off a longer period of unemployment if SCB is unable to get a new job. 

Pay 2 additional mortgage payments this year. We got our first start on this the other month by adding $2.91 to our mortgage payment. It didn't dent our goal very much, but at least it is a start. This month we did it again and then added our property tax refund. We still have $1,262.55 to toss at our mortgage to make 2 additional payments this year. Since this is our largest monthly expenditure, paying down our mortgage is a must since we can't refinance. The faster we pay it down, the faster our MIP payment gets lowered (a percentage of the balance owed each year) and eventually eliminated. Once its gone, we can refinance to a lower interest rate assuming rates are still favorable.  

Save $1,000.00 to start a "new car" fund. Since I was able to successively eliminate a few of our bills last month, we have $93.22 stocked aside so far. I'm hoping that now that most of our larger car related bills are done for a while, I'll be able to take any extra money in our monthly gas allotment and add to this goal. Once we are done with the Emergency fund, we will divert extra funds here.

Open and put in $5,000.00 into a Roth IRA for South County Boy. This goal has been modified to 15% of any income SCB earns once he gets a job.

Change the rest of my accounts, etc to my new last name. I have successfully changed my name at 20 different establishments and I only have 4 more to go!

• ICMA-RC: I mailed both sets of forms for both of my account there-- and they are done!
• American Express / Costco Card:   I filled out the form for my American Express Card and got my new card--- now i just need to fix my Costco Card.
• County Clerk’s Office: I have yet to receive a date for my hearing about the increase in my property tax… so until I hear about that (which I filed with my maiden name, I’ll be sitting on my hands here.)
• HSBC: We are waiting to get our rewards check to the next $25 interval so we can cash that out and not "accidentally" loose the almost $100 in cash rewards we have waiting...So once we get the check we will look into changing my name here. 

Loose and keep off 15 lbs. Doing the LA Marathon allowed me to loose some inches and a few pounds! While i'm not at the 15 lbs lost marker, I feel better, my clothes fit better and last month I jogged a 5k without stopping... for the first time ever. I know in light of just finishing a marathon its no big deal, but to me (and my non-running self) i'm proud to know I can jog 3.1 miles without stopping and not kill over and die... and I did it at a respectable speed. 5mph. Its now apart of my weekly routine. So, 9 lbs down, 6 more to go!

Finish a Marathon. ya, did that!


Read at least 6 Books. I have been plowing through an old paperback series South County Boy told me I could get rid of after reading since he never really got into it. I'm finding them enjoyable and an easy read. I started book 2 of the series in January and just the other day I started book 5 so i'm 3 books in, 3 more to go :)


Crochet a sweater: Haven't even started... I've been playing with blankets, headbands, and little stuffed critters instead.


Attempt to bake/cook 12 new recipes: I've done one... my easy peasy chicken enchiladas... looks like I need to hunt around for more ideas. I have a pork idea and i'd like to learn to make fried rice and try my hand at some stir fry meals.


Attempt a small vegetable garden on my patio: I don't think this one will happen, but I have started to grow my own sprouts in the sprouter I got for Christmas from my father in law :) Since SCB isn't working, I can't justify starting a garden right now, and truthfully with the hours I have been working, I don't think i'd be able to tend it much and it would be left to SCB for saving and that's just not very nice of me to do to him. So for now, i'm a sprouter. 

Our visit to the B.O.E. & Business Checks

The other day after work we headed up to the BOE (The State Board of Equalization) to obtain our sellers permit so we can remit sales taxes to the State of California.

It was a really pleasant experience. 

We got their at 4pm on a weekday and there was no line. I just walked up and said I had an application for a sellers permit that I wanted to submit and she pointed us to another window and off we went.

We sat down and a gal went over the paperwork, entered a bunch of items in the computer, and gave us not only our blanket sellers permit, but one for online sales and one for the farmers market we are planning on selling at!

In and out in less than an hour--- and not a single fee. From a government entity too. It was free!!!

I wish I could say the same thing about our business checks. I got a call from US Bank, where we opened our free business checking account and she wanted to know if we needed some checks for our account and we started going over the information over the phone...

and then we got to the costs. She wanted to charge us $70 for a set of business checks... Just regular ones like I use for my personal checking account (which I get for free at BOFA...)

When I asked her why business checks were SOOOOO much more money for an exactly identical service offered for a personal account, she didn't have an answer. She just said that business services normally came with larger fees.

I told her we didn't need them.   

If I have to, I'll just write a personal check for the farmers market stall if they won't let us pay for the stall in Cash. That's just plain ridiculous.

Mortgage Update + Condo Costs (April '12)

Mortgage Update:
Principle paid down: $160.18
Interest: $490.46
Additional Principle: $2.91 + $32.91 (prop tax refund) 


New Balance: $111,940.45

The pay off date is still January 2039 which is 8 months ahead of schedule. If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, I will pay $111,874.44 in interest instead of the original $116,404.23. The extra $1,377.83 I've tossed at the mortgage to date has saved us $4,529.79 in interest over the life of the loan.

All in all, it took me $7,057.08 to get the keys to my condo... and another $17,672.29 to remodel and repair it...

In short, I was -$24,729.37 in the hole on day one... 

But thankfully the hole is getting filled in a little bit each and every month.

• In 2009 I got the First Time Home buyer's Credit giving us $8,000.00. I also got to write off some of the property tax I paid in addition to taking the standard deduction. This gave us an extra $90.10... but then I had to pay an Electrician $95.00 to fix an outlet... We ended 2009 with a refund from my botched tile job that gave us $1,265.00.
• In 2010 I saved $1,087.00 on my federal taxes and $461.00 on my State taxes from itemizing my homeowners expenses. (This is what I received ABOVE what I would have with just the standard deduction). 
• In 2011 I spent $12.97 at home depot, and $72.29 on a kitchen door, but I received a small $70 refund check from over paid closing costs. We also saved $494.04 by living in our condo instead of renting (See Mortgage Update + Condo Costs December '11 for that break down.) Since we tied the knot in 2011 we won't be able to itemize our housing costs so there's no savings there for us. 

so this leaves us $13,442.49 in the hole...

• If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it, then we have $8,059.55 in equity...

Leaving us about $5,382.94 in the hole after 2.5 years.

We also assume our monthly mortgage payments are a wash since its cheaper to OWN our home then to RENT an apartment. Check out Housing Comps 2012 for how we figured that one out.

Thus far for 2012 we have spent $4,127.68 to live in our condo (Instead of $5,575.40 for the apartment) .

• All Mortgage Payments (including principle, interest, property taxes, MIP, and additional principle:) $3,077.68
• HOA: $1,050 ($262.50 a month)
• Home Repairs/Improvements: $0
• Earthquake Insurance: $0
• Homeowners Insurance: $0

If I sold the condo tomorrow, I'd have to sell the property for $133,323.09 to break even.

• This assumes a 6% total commission ($7,999.39)
• Enough money to refund the amount i'm in the hole for ($5,382.94)
• and enough money to cover the first time homeowners tax credit i'd have to repay for not living in the property for 3 years. ($8,000.00)

But if I wait out the credit, in November of this year I'd be able to sell for $122,426.97

• This assumes a 6% total commission ($7,345.62)
• and enough money to refund the amount I would be in the hole for 8 months down the line assuming I make just the minimum payments till then ($4,241.74)

Another Checking Account & Updates

After spending the weekend relaxing and focusing on our small side business, we knew in order for it to be legitimate, we needed to open a business checking account.

We do most of our brick and mortar banking with Bank of America, and all of our regular banking at ING Direct. We also keep our emergency fund at Sallie Mae and our major credit cards are with different banking areas as well.

But we really wanted to try out a new bank for the business account-- and with US Bank being walking distance from our house, we decided to start there.

It was really easy. We just walked in, sat down with a representative, and within 15 minuets we had a joint business checking account set up-- with no fees :)

When we got home the next day I went ahead and got our "Square" account set up and we should receive our mini credit card reader in a few days. This means we will be able to do credit cards at the farmers market and we will only be charged for transactions-- no maintenance fees.

I also hit up Vista Print and after creating our business logo, I ordered some business cards and a banner. I had some credit on my account from a botched calendar that they refunded, so I applied that to the total to make it cheaper. We are looking to borrow an ez-up from a friend so we don't have to fork out around $90 for one. We already have a table and a chair.

I also found out that it will cost us $20 for the stall or 7% of our sales, whichever is greater. Which isn't that bad for a shot to see if this is something viable or not.

We are making our own Job Opportunity

In this type of economy where jobs aren't as plentiful and easy to come by as in the past, across the blog-o-sphere you will find more and more people leaving the market place world and trying to create their own job... Old reporters and writers turn into bloggers, and hobbies start becoming the fruits and foundation to a small business...

We are no different.

And i'm proud to announce the South County Boy will be hopefully starting his small business in May. After asking around, it looks like I might be able to get him a stall at the local farmers market to sell his handmade wood turned pens and other items once a month!

The nice thing is i'll be able to help him set everything up on Friday's before I go to work and since there will be one month in between his selling opportunities, he will have enough time to replenish his inventory if things take off. 

We get the final details this week, but it looks like we are going to give it a whirl. The last few months you will have noticed how we have been spending $50-$100 a month gathering supplies and tools to try out new designs and different materials to get a good solid inventory of we can make with the sets we currently have and it has allowed SCB to work out the kinks of transforming the outside shed and patio into a viable work space.

After his dad built him a rolling portable bench for his lathe so it could be stored in the closet and pulled out for him to work on, we realized there were some problems with it. Thankfully after modifying the bench, it now works smoothly with the tiny storage shed adjacent to our patio. 

Earlier in the year, we realized we needed to start placing a tarp down when SCB worked so the dust and pen shavings didn't fall through our patio and into our neighbors dog dish. After solving that problem we have had no issues from the neighbors despite living in a condo on the second floor in a closely spaced association. (We could literally play toss with our neighbors on either side of us if we were friends and the close space would easily make the game boring after a few minutes). 

So since we are so close to the green light, we have started investing more capital into the business. We hit staples the other day and picked up a cash box, an 8.5 by 11 clear sign holder that has space for some business cards in it, and a whole ton of receipt books.

I plan on making him some business cards later on Vista Print and we will be hitting a fabric store so I can make something to cover our small folding table to make it look more professional and polished (the farmers market meets in a parking lot).

We are planning on using some of the unemployment money that we are getting to help offset some of our business start up costs. I'll also be setting up a separate checking account for the business I believe through ING Direct if the local bank down the street will fee us to death.  Then I will be looking into getting a Square account set up so we can take credit cards. If we get that up and running in time, we will be able to take cash and credit cards, if not for our first day of sales we will take cash and checks only (until we get burned by a bad check).

We will also take custom orders with a half down deposit & half at pick up if someone wants him to make something particular.

We should have a good 30 pens or so made by the first farmers market date. In our last order of pen turning supplies, SCB figured out how to make some nice bottle openers and letter openers so we placed a large order to Pen State Industries the other day for some acrylic blanks and 5 more bottle opener and letter opener sets in addition to a few more tools.

If the farmers market doesn't take off, we will open a shop on Etsy and list the inventory there and his dad can continue to sell his pens at the other places he goes when he sells his lace bobbins-- or we will look into more local places for him to sell his items.

Yawn... Sleep is good

Yesterday at work I got two surprises. A day off, and $100!

Apparently my boss can't pay me out 22 hours of overtime without his budget going crazy so i'm typing this after sleeping in to a beautiful 8:30am! I'll probably end up with around 10 -12 hours of overtime from my weekend work since we have been adjusting my hours and having me take a day off-- but the rest is wonderful.

Last night I got to hang out with my best friend for an hour or so as she was heading home from work because I didn't have the nasty 4am alarm clock to look forward to this morning... and I spent my after work hours in the afternoon with my husband window shopping and trying to figure out birthday ideas for him... and how I will spend my $100.00!

What $100?

I'll be celebrating 5 years of full time employment with my company and so I get to pick a $100 gift certificate to any store I want (I pay the taxes like its income on my paycheck-- but I still come out ahead). So i'm trying to decided if I want to get it for a certain store and use it as additional birthday spending money (I won't get it the card until mid May)-- or just get $100 to target and use it for groceries and house items we should probably be getting and stocking up on. (You used to have to pick a place in the local mall, but they have opened it up to any store in the city I work for.)

I'm just bummed there isn't a Walmart in the city because i've had my eye on an $88 "girls" bike (cause i'm too short for adult ones)... but I might ask my mom and sister to get it for me for my birthday instead.

Today my hubby and I will be window shopping around town, maybe seeing a movie at the dollar theater... and just getting out of the house before I have to go to my evening work meeting tonight.

1st Quarter Retirement Update

It's been a really long time since i've posted any updates on my retirement balances and accounts... and with it being the end of the 1st quarter of 2012, it's really about time I list them all out here-- if only to remind myself how much I need to combine my accounts together! A lot of these accounts were once active and now they are just sitting around waiting to be rolled over into something new.

I need to start making calls to move my accounts together...

Investment Accounts
Vanguard Roth IRA--- This is my new Roth IRA :) I'm invested in some target date retirement funds for now and I've been really happy with the low fees and ease of use.

• Current Value $5,855.62
• Amount Invested: $5,500.00
• grown 6.4% since inception.

ING Direct Roth IRA--- This was my initial Roth IRA that I used to learn about investing in different kinds of funds. When i learned enough and broke even, I transferred the funds from sharebuilder to this account and stuck the money in savings/cd's, still as a Roth IRA. Now that my vanguard account is open, I need to start transferring the liquid amounts of money from this account to Vanguard.

• Current Value $19,701.97
• Amount Invested: $19,000.00
• Grown 3.96% since inception.

ICMA-RC 457 Account: This is my brand new 457 account that I opened so I can roll my 2 inactive old work accounts to. For the time being I have it set to take $5 out of my paycheck since the minimum amount you can put in a year is $120.00. I basically opened this account to roll in my other accounts.

• Current Value: $31.38
• Amount Invested: $30.00
• Grown 4.6% since inception

Nationwide 457 Account: This was my first retirement account that was opened for me by my employer when I was 16 and was funded entirely by my employer. Now that I have a new 457 open, I can roll this one in there.

• Current Value: $1,037.06
• Amount Invested: ????? I have no idea.

ICMA-RC 401A Account: This was once another employer paid retirement account... but they have stopped funding it so i'll be rolling it over into the new 457 account.

• Current Value: $1,112.20
• Amount Invested: $928.62 (employer's money)
• Grown 19.76% since inception

Total: $27,738.23




Pension:
The cash value of my pension currently sits at $19,219.05. If I were to quit today I could take this money and run with it or let it sit in the account and earn an automatic 6% interest until I wanted the dough... or, since I've been with my company at least 5 years, I could pull a pension at 55.

If I left today, my annual unmodified pension at 55 would be $8,050.90.

If I wait and continue working until i'm 56, my annual pension in today's dollars would be $34,373.00 a year. If I passed away, SCB would continue to get that same amount until he passed on. If he passes first, I'd continue getting the same check for life. We have decided this is the best "option" to use when we plan our retirement. 

April Budget

April will be an interesting and busy month for us. I'm teaching another lifeguard course in 2 weeks, we have  Easter right around the corner, we need to find a new dentist to finish the last bit of work left for South County Boy... and we have his Birthday at the end of the month!

I also desperately need to replace my running shoes after the LA Marathon.

While we hope to be able to continue to cash flow our expenses with overtime (I'll have 22 hours on my last paycheck of the month from working the first Lifeguard class alone), but we may have to use some of the slush fund for help.

We have decided to spend a small amount of money (around $30) on an Easter basket for SCB. Last month I really wanted a new dress that I could wear to both work and church, so for my "Easter Basket" I got the dress. (We bought it last month and I'm not allowed to wear it until Easter so its still in the closet with the tags on it so it will still feel like a present on Easter morning.) This was a win for me since I'm not a big candy gal. Plus SCB said I could pick at his chocolate and share a Robbin egg or two.

As I mentioned, we also have a Birthday this month and now that we have our birthday savings account set up, we already have money set aside to get SCB a good birthday present. Since my birthday is 9 days after his, we won't have enough in the birthday fund for 2 birthday dinners and 2 sets of presents so we are thinking we won't do an elaborate dinner out for either of our birthdays. Instead SCB wants to go to the movies and his favorite burger joint, so that's what we will do instead (and cash flow the "outting" with the slush fund since its still at $2,600). We are also purposefully celebrating his actual birthday with just the two of us (no family members allowed). I'm not even sure my family will celebrate his birthday, so who knows there. (Last year I had to say we would throw a joint birthday-- mine and his so it wouldn't cause drama)...

But for now, here's our budget for March:

Paycheck #1:

• Mortgage (P&I, Property taxes, MIP): $805.27
• HOA: $262.50
• Christmas Fund: $50.00
• Date Night/Spending Money: $64.32
• Prescriptions: $15.00
• Extra Mortgage Money: $2.91

Paycheck #2:

• Birthday Fund: $50.00
• Prescriptions: $15.00
• Date Night/Spending Money: $55.00
• Gasoline/Car: $237.00 (Any Extra Money to Car EF Fund)
• Groceries: $250.00
• Insurance (2 Autos, earthquake, homeowners) $143.00
• Utility Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet): $230.00
• Roth IRA $220.00

You may have noticed that our budget still doesn't include any "giving" or charitable contributions. Until SCB is able to bring in a paycheck we will be donating our time, talents, and energies instead of our dollars. 

• I participated in the LA Marathon again on behalf of Child Share (Click here to donate) and raised $2,711.00 to find a child a home.
• I'm also crocheting some blankets for a cancer ward and an assisted living facility through my husbands church.--- and teaching others to do the same. 
• I'm also the 2012 chair for Relay for Life for a local city so i'm fundraising and planning events and hoping to get my city up to $150,000.00 for the American Cancer Society.

How we spent our Money Last Month:

• Groceries/House Supplies: $256.65
• Eating Out: $107.51
• Gasoline: $166.77
• Car Repairs/Other: $120.82
• Giving: $265
• Prescriptions: $24
• Housing: $1,070.68
• Re-occurring Bills (Cell, Electricity, Internet): $220.31
• SCB's Wood Turning: $60.60
• Gifts: $30.00
• Clothes: $115.63
• Other: $3.22
• Medical/Dental/Vision: $0.00
• Vacation: $0.00

How we spent our Money thus far in 2012: 

• Groceries/House Supplies: $749.80
• Eating Out: $387.92
• Cars
• Gasoline: $492.02
• Car Repairs/Smog/Reg/INS: $236.91
• Giving: $388.84
• Prescriptions: $48.00
• Housing: $3,211.63
• Re-occurring Bills 
• Cell: $409.66
• Electricity: $116.68
• Internet: $120.82
• SCB's Wood Turning: $167.51
• Gifts: $44.57
• Medical/Dental/Vision: $288.95
• Vacation: $374.38
• $85.52 Shopping
• $168.88 Gasoline / Tolls / Transportation
• $119.98 Food/Eating Out
• Other: $325.28

Weekly Updates (Spending & Money Goals)

As I'm typing this we have a homemade pizza in the oven and i'm coming off my second 11 hour shift in 2 days... yes second 11 hour shift...

After working a 40 hour work week I just finished another 22 hours over the weekend in my first of 3 lifeguard training courses... and tomorrow I start my next 40+ hour week....

I'm exhausted. But I love my husband because he's fantastic and uber helpful and very good at making dinner. 

To update everyone on SCB's job hunt status, he now has his application in with Apple One but they don't have anything for him yet...  

We also decided to take some time to play a bit this week before the crazy weekend of work to help with our sanity. We made it through out No Spend week with only getting gasoline for SCB... and I guess I must have miscalculated our expenses earlier in the month because we ended the month with +$7 after gasoline for SCB to get to his Apple One interview.

Weekly Spending: 

March 27

March 28

• $41.03-- gasoline

March 29

March 30

March 31

Money Goals:

1. 2012 Roth IRA SCG:  $664.05 / $5,000.00 (13.29%) 
2. Emergency Fund: $12,047.10 / $12,500.00 (96.38%) 
3. Paying Extra on the House:  $2.91 / $1,301.28 (2 additional mortgage payments).
4. $1,000.00 Car Fund: $93.181 / $1,000.00  (9.31%)
5. 2nd Roth IRA: 15% $0 / ? We're just aiming to put 15% of what SCB earns in this account.