Friday, March 30, 2012

1st quarter income comparison

As we end the first quarter or 2012 (where did the last 3 months go????), I decided to compare my pay stubs from this time last year with the last one I received for this quarter. We have had a lot of changes take place between then and now and I was curious to see how well I was doing in comparison with this time last year.  Last year I was able to cash out my cafeteria cash remainders since I only had to pay health insurance for myself.

This year, I’m actually paying money out of pocket… and I’m married which changes all kinds of withholding information. I won’t be comparing any take home pay since that will truly not be an indicator of anything—but I can look at how much I’ve earned before taxes, medical deductions, etc.

2011
At this time last year, I had earned $10,418.33 before taxes and deductions. Of this money, $681 came from Overtime & $985.56 came from cafeteria cash.

2012
For the year, I’ve earned $10,041.14 before taxes and deductions thus far. Of this money, $658.57 came from Overtime & $0.00 came from cafeteria cash.

Considering I lost $985.56 in potential income from adding SCB to my insurance plan, I’m only $377 down from this point last year with my overtime income being almost equal…  How is that? Holiday’s worked. This year I earned $564.17 from working on actual holidays as compared to only $121 last year. Most of this extra work wasn’t really my choice. Since I work between 2 different facilities with 2 different holiday schedules, I get stuck working more of them (Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

While a lot of the tasks I’ve picked up over the year from work can’t be paid out in overtime (Like Relay activities-- I just get the extra hours worked as added vacation to take at another time), it’s still nice to know that I’m not too far behind where I was in the first quarter of 2011.

And I’m also sitting on a lot of paid vacation right now because of those added projects/work. I have 216 hours stocked away and when I submit my timecard on Friday, I’ll have an additional 12.75 more vacation hours added on top of what I normally earn. It’s nice to know that if something happened and I had to take a whole month off for some freak emergency that I would be able to do it without losing a paycheck.

But I’m thinking a nice day off to play at the beach when it gets a bit warmer is in order… or possibly a day at Disneyland (we know ppl who work there so we don’t have to pay for tickets). Since we don’t really have the money to do anything other than a “Stay-Cation” right now, these would be good options. While I’d love to head out to Utah and see my friends new baby girl and my in-laws, to justify the gas money out there I’d need to take at least a week off—and I’m just too busy at work to do that right now…

Any good cheap stay-cation ideas?
I’m thinking the dollar movie theater… the beach… Disneyland if we can get signed in… and hanging out in the park by our house. It’s important to actually GET OUT OF OUR HOUSE since that’s where SCB spends most of his time.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Could you imagine this?

I was reading an article the other day about how Great Britain is trying to get uninsured motorists off the roads...

By preventing them from getting gasoline (or in their case, petrol).

No joke...

Check out MSN's article here.

Essentially if you were to pull up at a station, they would use a camera to take a picture of your plates and then run the number against a database of insured vehicles and BAM-- if your insurance pops up, the pump works... if not, it shuts off.

Could you imagine that in busy Southern California?

When I first read the article I was a little freaked out because with my luck if I changed insurance companies or did something at the DMV i'd roll into the station and be denied the ability to get gas...

But once that thought drifted away, I started to think about the benefits and it's really an interesting idea.

Lets say we even take away the cameras and just made it so that all drivers had to scan their licence and insurance card before a pump would be activated. It might be a little inconvenient and take a second or so to do, but I have to say that there are A TON of people driving cars without licenses and insurance in California.

If those people were unable to fill up without a licence and insurance card--- imagine the impact on roads, fuel prices, and lives saved from getting those people off the road.

Even if it only took one person off the road who had their licence taken away from a DUI or too many speeding tickets the road would be safer.

It would maybe take an extra minute at the pump to insert the other cards, but I'd be in for it...

Would you?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Crossing our fingers for a No-Spend week...

My budget and accounting is all fried up right now. Despite keeping track of purchases on the blog, my spreadsheet, and by checking account balances, my numbers just aren't matching up right now.

I have no idea if we are over or under. On paper we are over.... in the account we are under... so I have no idea what to believe at this point. I don't know if I accounted for a purchase twice or if something is pending and hasn't cleared.

As of right now, we haven't had to touch the slush fund this month. Mostly this is because I haven't had any time to contact a new dentist so we can use our tax refund to finish SCB's lower dental work now that the upper dental fiasco got resolved. But i'm due for a cleaning and SCB needs to get his lower cavities fixed and filled, so hopefully I can attack that in April. ---but we have been trying to keep our mits off the money because we have no idea how much work we will need to get done for his lower since we only got a print out of the upper from the dental company.

The other reason we've kept it in tact is because i've been able to bring a good chunk of overtime in on every paycheck this year. I actually have no idea what the exact amount my paycheck should be since I haven't gotten a normal one all year (and its been a lifesaver). So we have been able to cash flow a lot of our random bills and other expenses that aren't really in our budget (like the La Marathon, and some clothing replacement).

Relying on the overtime makes me realize how much we don't have budgeted in our current budget. I would love to have an extra $50-$100 a month that we could put aside for replacement purchases for things like clothes, house hold items (like shower curtains, kitchen brooms), etc... But I just don't have it in me to cut our budget any further. I don't want to deprive ourselves of the little date night money we have right now since it helps SCB get out of the house and its good for his moral and its helping with the long hours I've been working.... But its something to think about the nano second I get a raise (if that ever happens again... bad economy)... Thankfully we are on the same page with not adding any more expenses to our budget anytime soon.

So for the rest of the month we are trying to not spend a dime. 4 more days. I'm hoping by then i'll really be able to rectify our accounts and make sure we are in the green.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Weekly Updates (Spending & Money Goals)

As South County Boy and I get back into the swing of things, we sure have had an interesting and busy two weeks. I finished the La Marathon which was awesome, but its now time to get practical and really start trying to make some improvements and changes around our household as we come to terms with SCB work situation.


I'm also starting to realize that its a lot harder to live off my income alone and we have been really grateful for all the overtime that I've been able to get from work (but the hours and the lack of time off are really starting to wear on me). A lot of occasional purchases just keep cropping up and we used to just cover them with fun money or budget them in when SCB was working, but now its becoming a lot harder to do.

But there may be some silver lining.  


I didn't mention this, but a guy from my husbands church has an open position at his work and SCB applied. We think we may have a shot because its kind of a "hire by referral" so cross your fingers there!


Also, on Saturday I volunteered/worked a garage sale for Relay for Life and one of the gals who is on my event committee was there and I found out she works with Apple One, (another temping agency like Labor Ready, but you only get "in" by invitation)-- and she's inviting SCB! Apparently it pays to volunteer!


Here's our massive 2+ weeks of spending since the last time I reported it all.


Weekly Spending:
March 12th
March 13th
  • Walmart: $18.46
March 14th
  • Fresh and Easy $21.78
March 15th
  • Mortgage: $808.18
March 16th
  • Car Insurance: $2.82
  • Target: $4.84
  • Pen State Industries: $60.60 (wood turning)
  • Red Robin: $44.00 (Date Night)
March 17th
  • Big 5: $3.00 (three cheap throw away hats for Marathon)
March 18th
March 19th
  • Woot.com- 3 tshirts $19.98
March 20th
March 21st
March 22nd
March 23rd 
  • Hoa bill: $262.50
  • Islands: $30.00 (Date Night)
  • Kohl's: $32.33 (Used Kohl's cash for my Easter present-- a new dress)
  • Amazon: $3.22 (replace broken charger)
March 24th: 
  • Costco:$30.75 (Groceries)
  • Gasoline: $62.06
  • Cell Phone Bill: $137.79
  • Internet: $42.94 (The new discount applies to next month's bill)
  • Walmart: $23.23 (kitchen broom, medical supplies, flip flops)
  • Ralphs: $26.14 (Groceries)
March 25th:
March 26th:
  • Prescriptions: $4.00
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. 

Monday, March 26, 2012

Doomsday Preppers & The Band-aid Backfire

I don't know if you have ever seen the show, Doomsday Preppers, but my husband stumbled upon it one day and we have been finding it amusing. If you remember back a few months ago, I mentioned that we took out our 72 hour emergency bags just to toss out some expired granola bars and replace them with new ones.

After going through our bags, we added to them (including some comfort items) and made sure that I knew how to use the items inside.

Now before you think were crazy since I mentioned the "Preppers" show earlier, we are not preppers... by any means.

But we do live in earthquake ready Southern California and it is recommended that you do have food and water for 72 hours.

So how does this bring us to the present? Well, while we were out in Utah for vacation, we decided to make an emergency kit for my car since we always take it for long road trips and we had driven out in some bad weather. So our small car emergency kit was born.

Over the weekend, South County Boy stumbled on the bottom set of stairs at our condo and stubbed his toe as we were heading to the store. It was bleeding a little bit, but not too bad, and he said he was okay so we continued to the car. By the time we got to Walmart to buy me a new pair of flip flops (I broke mine over the weekend), he was a bloody mess.

But since we have a little car emergency kit-- it was all good. ---or so I thought.

Once I got the packaging off the first aid kit, I was dumbfounded by what was inside it.

Mainly air.

Sure there were scissors, and a pair of gloves and some disinfectant wipes, but the band-aids in side were so poor that within a few minuets and a few yards of walking, it was coming off SCB's foot completely.

So in addition to some flip flops, we actually found a bunch of first aid supplies on sale and bought good band-aids, gauze, some butterfly closures, and some simple medical tape. It all fit in the "dead" space left in the first aid kit I had originally bought... and now its 10 times better.

While some people take things to extremes like preppers, sometimes simple common sense is all you need.

Do you have an earthquake kit or an emergency car kit?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Priceless.... and too good not to post.

This is a screen cap for the week of people who found my blog through a search engine...

Look at the last one on the list...

It's priceless...

Friday, March 23, 2012

To drivers everywhere...

For those of you who don't know, I don't really commute to work.

For the last year of my college career, I commuted to and from school, planning my commute and schedule around traffic... and a year of that kind of lifestyle was enough for me.

I made the decision to buy property close to where I work so I would not be spending so much of my life in my car, on the highway, & away from my family. I also didn't want the burden of heavy gas costs and toll roads to dictate the decisions I could make with my free time.

But this week has been a bit different for me. I've been going up to another city for some work training and networking. Thankfully the conference isn't too far away, but far enough that I began to notice some horrible California driving traits I had forgotten about.

I sat in the back seat and watched a girl drive and put on her makeup today. And no, it wasn't just a touch up of her lip gloss... She was going the full nine yards with brushes and colors all while going 65 mph on the freeway.... it was just plain shocking...

But to be fair to both genders, I won't stop there.

Maybe 10 minutes later I saw a guy shaving his face while driving.... and no, he wasn't using a electric razor.

We are talking shaving cream and a hand blade....

On the freeway...

Going full California Speed.

It's no wonder the "5" and "405" are always crammed with accidents... How many people are actually only driving their car and not doing something else?

Please, if you don't care enough about yourself to avoid that type of behavior, please consider the other innocent people on the road... I feel blessed that we made it to and from the conference in one piece... Especially since I didn't even mention the lady WHO CREATED HER OWN LANE ON THE FREEWAY in order to NOT merge into a lane...

Thursday, March 22, 2012

A busy work week...

With the LA Marathon absorbing both our Saturday and Sunday (Saturday was the expo, and after 26.2 miles on Sunday you know all I did was plant myself on the bed to re cooperate), SCB and I are still playing catch up.

While he's doing his best to get our home back in order, I've reentered the work week and its filled with Meetings, Conference and Education Seminars, and once I make it through Friday, I'll have yet another Saturday on the job.

Were so behind that we haven't even gone grocery shopping and i'm just glad to say we can live out of our fridge and pantry this week!!! (always have some kind of food around, you never know when all of a sudden your heading off to work at 6:30am and not returning until 7:00pm-- I know for some of you this is normal... but I work 15 minutes from my house and 3 days a week I don't take a lunch so i'm normally only gone 8.5 hours with commute time).

Needless to say we will have a double week of Weekly Updates for you all once I survive and get back to normal.

Thankfully this week is completely run and exercise free since the marathon is done so Sunday i'll be able to kick back and hopefully relax with the hubby in a clean casa.

How do you all survive a real humdinger crazy kind of week?

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Another bill bites the dust...

Since finding out that SCB will be unemployed for at least another year, we have been trying to make an effort to eliminate/reduce some of our re-occurring expenses.

 I decided to start with bills that were increasing (like Cox), and then I called about my mortgage's escrow account, and now i'm hitting my annual and semi annual bills.

I decided to called up state farm and ask them how much it would be to add road side assistance to my car.

Why?

Because I received a bill this week to renew my AAA card.

Now I knew SCB already had road side assistance on his car because we decided last year that one AAA card between the both of us would be fine since we were trying to be wise with our money and 2 cards would have cost us $72 a year... So we opted for one at $48 and I kind of forgot about it until I saw the renewal bill.

We kept the one card last year because it used to save me some serious coin and actually paid for itself in savings. Toyota would give me a nice 10% discount on all my repairs and services for being a AAA member because they used to have a AAA branch in their office to help people with insurance.

But they cut the program. I also changed hair places to save money and no longer receive a discount there for flashing the card.

So for the first time in a while I was faced with the knowledge of actually having to pay for their services. So I did what any good PF blogger does. I pulled out SCB's car insurance policy to see how much he was being charged for road side assistance and let my mouth hang on the floor.

It was only costing us $1.16 every 6 months.

I can't tell you how fast I dialed state farm after that. Apparently for 6 months of road side assistance it will cost me $2.82 for my Camry. If I combine that with SCB's road side costs, it will cost is $7.95 a year instead of $48 to have road side coverage.

So now I get to get rid of another card in my wallet, I don't have to call AAA to change my last name, and I get to transfer the $42 we had saved earlier in the year to pay for the bill to our car fund. Three birds, one stone.

Go me.

Monday, March 19, 2012

I Can Do 26.2

Me at mile 20!!! I forgot to take a finish line photo again :(
This year’s La Marathon was full of surprises. 

While I'm proud to say I finished... It wasn’t easy going.

Fortunately though, It didn’t rain at all during the race—just some bad wind the last mile or so (I actually almost lost my bib it was so windy!). My running partner and I were prepared for bad weather and had used Hot Pink Duct Tape on our shoes in case of rain—but the rain didn’t come and instead we got smiles all along the race for our amazing shoes. 

Since I was being interviewed by KTLA, we got front of the line passes to join the elite runners in Corral A who finish marathons in 3 hours or less. We sure stood out with our pink duct taped shoes at the start line. Our goal was to start and not get trampled by the stampede behind us!

Around mile 5 some guy gave me a “flat tire” as he cut in front of me from behind and my shoe came completely off. Thankfully it was early in the race and I was able to catch my balance, not trip, and just slide my foot in and keep going. 

We were pacing really good the first 8 miles (under 15 minutes consistently which is awesome for us) but the hills started to really get on my partner. We started slowing down and it got to the point where we were doing 20+ miles and walking downhill…

After 13 she was in a really bad place but wouldn’t stop. I had promised to stay with her the whole time so I let her set our pace and did the best I could to support her. Finally after crying for 2 miles she sat on a curb and called our friends to pick her up around mile 15…. I waited with her till they got there, and then she told me to finish so I began the last 11 miles on my own…

At this point I was so far behind in time that I had to haul it to make it passed a few checkpoints so they wouldn’t re-open the roads. (You have no idea how funny it is to see people walking 2 by 2 on a side walk while little old me is bouncing through planters with a sandwich in my hand trying to jog around all the walkers…

Eventually I was able to get  back to the roads that were still fully open, I just don't know how I did it.

When I left my partner, I wasn’t expecting to set a new personal record—there just wasn’t time to catch up since it was so late in the race that long jogging spurts just were not going to happen. My goal was just to finish under 8 hours to make sure all the water stations would still be running since I wasn't sure my friends would be able to meet me since they needed to attend to my partner. 

I ended up averaging around 15 ½ minutes per mile going solo and crossed the finish line after 7 hours and 20 minutes… I set a new Personal Record by 3 Minutes. 

I finished the race and I raise $2,711.00 for Child Share!!! We found a Child a Home guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It just doesn't get better than that!

Thank you to all those who donated and wished me well. You are all amazing and I thank you!!!

updates to follow

im recovering after the la marathon... photos and updated to follow...

Friday, March 16, 2012

Mortgage Update + Condo Costs (March '12)

Mortgage Update:
Principle paid down: $159.34
Interest: $491.30
Additional Principle: $2.91


New Balance: $112,136.63

Since my mortgage payment went down $2.91 since my property tax credit went through, I've decided to add that amount to the mortgage payment to do something to help us get ahead of the ball and get back into the habit of paying a little bit more each month.

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 $111,984.25 in interest instead of the original $116,404.23. The extra $1,342.01 I've tossed at the mortgage to date has saved us $4,419.98 in interest over the life of the loan. Just the additional $2.91 I paid this week has saved us $11.61 in interest.

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 $7,863.37 in equity...
Leaving us about $5,579.12 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 $3,211.63 to live in our condo (Instead of $4,181.55 for the apartment) .
  • All Mortgage Payments (including principle, interest, property taxes, MIP, and additional principle:) $2,424.13
  • HOA: $787.50 ($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 $134,250.19 to break even.
  • This assumes a 6% total commission ($8,055.01)
  • Enough money to refund the amount i'm in the hole for ($5,579.12)
  • 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 $122,467.21
  • This assumes a 6% total commission ($7,348.03)
  • 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 ($4,278.97)

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Cox update

If you have been following the bill increase drama, then you know that we have hit a huge hurtle in finding SCB a real job. To sum everything up, the state of Utah won't let us clean up my husbands old misdemeanor off his record for another year-- and in this economy, that makes him unemployable.

The same day we got this crushing news, we also got our internet service bill-- with an across the board increase of $4 to our monthly service rate. While $4 isn't much, its $48 a year and right now we need to re-evaluate a lot of choices we have been making since we assumed my husband would be hitting the job market full force in the span of a month or so-- but that's just not the case anymore.

So I decided to start with our bills. Since Cox had just increased our bill, I decided to call them back first and see if we could downgrade our speed and save a few dollars. After a much shorter wait time (only 16 minuets instead of an hour and ten minuets where I ended up hanging up), I was able to get through to a Cox rep about reducing my internet services since their automated system was working with my cell phone today.

After explaining that I had called the other day and learned of the across the board increase, I asked if I could get information about downgrading our service plan because we just couldn't do the increase since my husband wasn't working and money was tighter.

He told me they could give us 20% off our bill for a year with no contracts or funny hoops to jump through.

Just like that they will take $7 a month off our bill.

(that makes it less then before the increase!)

A victory for a phone call!

Next stop, AAA/State Farm.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Mortgage Payment Change

I know its not a big to-do, but I got a notice in the mail that my property tax will be decreasing! Last year I sent in a form because I was a homeowner living in my residence. This simple fact qualified me to reduce my property value by $5,600.00-- roughly saving me $57 dollars a year.

Its a free form to fill out, you just have to mail it in and return it, it takes some time, but it looks like i'll be getting a small check from BOFA for the amount I've paid into my exrow account for this year that's too much, and the county should be issuing me a separate check for the overage that I was charged that was already removed from my escrow account.

So my mortgage payment should drop by about $2 a month. I know its not a big drop in the bucket, but its something. Next year the credit expands to $7,000.00 and stays on file for as long as I live in my property.

In case your still wondering, Back in August I contested my property value based on a sale of a 1 bedroom condo in my unit in early 2011. I still haven't heard back from the County about attesting my property tax to the $115,000.00 level from the $120,903.00 they currently have my property at. If I don't hear back from someone in 2 years, they automatically have to reduce my property tax level to $115,000.00.

I'll probably call and speak with someone in their office just to check up since its been almost 7 months.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Bill Increase

It looks like our internet bill is increasing... again.

While its not much ($4 a month) i'm a bit upset because it puts our internet service bill beyond $40.00 and they just raised the price not too long ago.

Yesterday I spent 30 minuets on hold because their automated system wasn't allowing me to press buttons for my response... and all I got was a guy who told me it was an across the board increase and that if I wanted to talk to someone about my plan, i'd have to be patched into another department. 40+ minuets more on hold and I had to hang up and leave the house for a meeting.

So i'll be calling them today again and trying to reduce our bill/service level and i'll be also contacting AT&T since I keep getting low offers from them in the mail...

Why the sudden change and desire to cut back everywhere? SCB found out from the courts in Utah that his case has been rejected and he needs to wait one more year before he can file to have him old misdemeanor sealed/removed from his record.

Guess we will be trying to renew that unemployment after all. Looks like he will be out of work for at least another year now :(

Monday, March 12, 2012

Weekly Updates (Spending & Money Goals)

I'm finally over the being sick hump, and not a moment too soon with the LA Marathon only 6 days away. I'm finally off the night quil and the cough drops and I'm happy to report that I have made my fundraising goal of $2,500 to find a child a home :)

The hubby and I ended our week puppy sitting and came home with an extra $90 for our last minuet efforts which will help with paying my car registration dues and a little shopping we did since we had a
0% off kohls coupon that could be paired with a $10 off $25 that we got in the mail. (and don't worry, we bought necessities with it).

I finally got my HUGE awaiting paycheck with about 12 hours of overtime on it-- but this cash won't make it to our slush fund. In an effort to make my marathon fundraising goal, the hubby and I started to match a few donations to help motivate people and the money came pouring in. In about 3 days I went from $1,300 to $2,500.00-- No Joke- I work with AWESOME PEOPLE. So the $265 that was on it will be going to Child Share :)

SCB is doing better on the health side as well and I think being home will do him some good and help straighten him out.

We had some really random good weather and I spent my first 2 days off in a row relaxing. I forgot what its like to not work 6 days a week. Finally got a full day of church in and noticed how much I really missed it.


Weekly Spending:
March 6th
March 7th:

  • DMV: $118.00
  • Ralphs: $9.68

March 8th

  • Gasoline: $63.68
  • Prescriptions: $20.00

March 9th:

  • Electricity: $39.58
  • Child share: $265.00 (Giving)

March 10th

  • Kohl's: $55.48
  • McDonalds- $15.77 Belated date outing

March 11th

  • Costco: $36.38
  • Fresh & Easy: $23.88

Money Goals:
We have a few things we need to work on outside of our money goals before we can start attacking these with gusto.

  1. 2012 Roth IRA SCG:  $443.60 / $5,000.00 (8.87%) 
  2. Emergency Fund: $11,651.64 / $12,500.00 (93.21%) 
  3. Paying Extra on the House:  $0 / $1,301.28 (2 additional mortgage payments).
  4. $1,000.00 Car Fund: $26.31 / $1,000.00  (2.63%)
  5. 2nd Roth IRA: 15% $0 / ? We're just aiming to put 15% of what SCB earns in this account. 

Friday, March 9, 2012

$4.41 a gallon

You know that gasoline is getting more and more expensive. But the first time gas hit $4 a gallon it was everywhere.

Now it seems that few are mentioning it and just like when gas hit the $3 a gallon mark, it was huge the first time it happened -- then there wasn't much when it came back up and moved in permanently.

I just paid $4.41 a gallon last night.

It cost over $63 to fill my tank up.

That's more then we spend on groceries for a week!!!!!!!!!!!

Part of me is kind of glad SCB isn't driving up to Anaheim every day for work anymore. I don't know if we would really be making a whole lot in return for his efforts.

I'd post my receipt, but i'm not at my home computer and I can't work the puppy's scanner.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Pouts... But I want to Refinance...

Grumble Grumble…

I saw this on the MSN Smart Spending Blog  yesterday and started to get all sad because apparently the FHA will be hiking up their monthly MIP insurance from 1.15% to 1.25% starting April 1st for all new loans because they don’t have any money.

If you remember back to my old post, Refinancing will never happen,  SCB and I have been looking into refinancing since rates have plummeted and we are currently paying 5.25% interest each month…

But despite getting tons of “no cost refinance letters” in the mail, we have been told flat out told that it’s not in our best interest to refinance because we got our loan before the FHA raised their rate the first time around. (So any savings in the interest rate we would get would be eaten up by the how higher MIP payment)…

But then I saw this and got hopeful...

I started to get really excited… 

Until I noticed that you had to have purchased your home on or before May 31st, 2009… I bought in October of that year.

L Now I feel just plain cheated L

Does anyone know if banks are willing to do refinances the old fashioned way and how much they are going charge in closing costs? 

I know we would have to get the home appraised... and I think it will appraise for $115,000- $120,000 (probably $115,000 though) and we owe $112,3000 right now... 

Monday, March 5, 2012

Weekly Updates (Spending & Money Goals)

Cause I so watched this, this week for the warm fuzzies :)
I may be a day behind with this, but i'm trucking along. I'm sick with some nasty cough and some not so pretty mucus/congestion stuff that i'm apparently sharing with SCB... but i'm trucking along and that's what counts.

SCB and I had a nice heart to heart chat the other day and things around our household are massively improving. (which is great for my sanity-- one less stress-or for me-- just work and marathon stuff now).

It also looks like we will be puppy sitting again for a few days so we will have a bit more to add to the slush fund or use to help cash flow some of our goals for the month.

And I love my husband because he's cooking dinner while I write this and it smells incredible.

I want to do a HUGE blog shout out to all the random strangers and people who have sponsored me on my journey to finish 26.2 miles and find a home for a child. The support I've received from strangers, co-workers, media outlets--- It's just incredible. Someone I never met just donated $230.00 to the cause... I'm just blown away. Rain or shine I will finish because all of you give me the courage to do this. If you'd like to help join the cause, donate here... if you want to know why Child Share is near and dear to my heart, read the about me page here... and then go donate so kids don't have to live like i did. But you people are awesome!!!!

Check it out:


Plus I still haven't gotten the copy of the interview I did with Monarch Sports.
Weekly Spending:
March 1st: No spend
March 2nd:

  • Target: $25.47 (Personal Items)

March 3rd

  • Subway: $13.74 (Date Night)
  • Girl Scout Cookies $4.00 (Date Night)
  • Costco: $9.38 (Milk & Cheese)

March 4th
March 5th

  • Staterbros: $6.49 (Orange Juice-- since we are all sick here)
  • Home Depo: $19.20 (Propane tank refill)
  • Ranch market $5.81 (Groceries)

Money Goals:
We received our tax returns and we have placed them for now with all my overtime in an "extra money" account at ING Direct. We have a few things we need to work on outside of our money goals before we can start attacking these with gusto.

  1. 2012 Roth IRA SCG:  $443.60 / $5,000.00 (8.87%) 
  2. Emergency Fund: $11,651.64 / $12,500.00 (93.21%) 
  3. Paying Extra on the House:  $0 / $1,301.28 (2 additional mortgage payments).
  4. $1,000.00 Car Fund: $26.31 / $1,000.00  (2.63%)
  5. 2nd Roth IRA: 15% $0 / ? We're just aiming to put 15% of what SCB earns in this account. 

Friday, March 2, 2012

March Budget

As we gear up for this month, we have decided to keep most of our budget intact for March and just try and cut back with our spending since we don't really know whats going on with SCB's employment status. All the overtime I get from work is being diverted to our slush fund at the moment to help us take care of a few expenses that aren't in our regular budget that we need to account for while I can earn the overtime.

The slush fund is sitting with $2,600 in it since we got our tax returns back and i've been adding all our extra money to it each month. Before we can start using this money for some of our BIG annual goals, we need to get a few things out of the way. This month we will focus on:

  • Registering my car: $118.00
  • Refilling our spare Propane tank
  • & Getting SCB's lower dental work done now that we got everything square with the insurance and know what they can and can't charge us for things.
If we can cash flow these three items, even better but I fear the dental work will be pricey still and will most likely come out of the slush fund. After we get these three things done we will re-assess the slush fund to incorporate doing a small Easter basket for each of us, Fixing the air circulation vent in the bathroom, finishing the trim and paint the kitchen/laundry door, & setting aside $300 to cover one trip out to Utah for the Winter Holidays. 

Then we can add a little giving in and work on our $1,000 car fund and paying 2 additional mortgage payments for the year.


On the job front, I might have a venue come May for SCB to sell his hand crafted pens once a month so we might be able to start a small business for him. This may require more wood turning spending as we will need to buy supplies and start logging sales and expenditures.

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

Paycheck #1:
  • Mortgage (P&I, Property taxes, MIP): $807.77
  • HOA: $262.50
  • Christmas Fund: $50.00
  • Date Night/Spending Money: $64.32
  • Prescriptions: $15.00
Paycheck #2:
  • Birthday Fund: $50.00
  • Prescriptions: $15.00
  • Date Night/Spending Money: $55.00
  • Gasoline/Car: $237.00
  • 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. For one, I'm participating in the LA Marathon again on behalf of Child Share (Click here to donate) and I'm also crocheting some blankets for a cancer ward and an assisted living facility through my husbands church. Add in the fact that I'm also the 2012 chair for Relay for Life for a local city in my area, and a team captain, and you could say there is a lot of volunteering going on in our household.


How we spent our Money Last Month:
  • Groceries/House Supplies: $275.53
  • Eating Out: $157.84
  • Gasoline: $160.22
  • Car Repairs/Other: $42.24
  • Giving: $0
  • Prescriptions: $0
  • Housing: $1,070.27
  • Re-occurring Bills (Cell, Electricity, Internet): $221.83
  • SCB's Wood Turning: $58.96
  • Gifts: $30.00
  • Other: $198.24
  • Medical/Dental/Vision: $288.95
  • Vacation: $374.38

How we spent our Money thus far in 2012: 
  • Groceries/House Supplies: $493.15
  • Eating Out: $280.41
  • Cars
    • Gasoline: $325.25
    • Car Repairs/Smog: $116.09
  • Giving: $123.84
  • Prescriptions: $24.00
  • Housing: $2,140.95
  • Re-occurring Bills 
    • Cell: $271.87
    • Electricity: $77.10
    • Internet: $77.88
  • SCB's Wood Turning: $106.91
  • 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: $206.43

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Weekly Updates (Spending & Money Goals)

SCB trying to cheer me up in Costco...
Well the month is over and I feel the need to catch you all up on what's been going on, but I just don't have the words to be honest. I'm kind of down in the dumps so i'll try and post about that stuff a bit later on this week, but here's the nitty gritty details.

We finished up puppy sitting and gained $125 for our efforts...

I tried out a new grocery store that's on the way home from work that's more of a small "mart" but the produce prices were REALLY awesome. (Better than the farmers market I was looking at) So we are seeing how long things last and how good they are before we will make more purchases there.

But other then that I feel like things are beginning to unravel for me and i'm just trying to stay afloat with all the stuff that's being thrown at me.

I think I'll rest easy once the marathon is over with and I can go back to shorter weekly walks with my friend instead of 6+ hours of training. (You Can Donate HERE to sponsor me!)


Weekly-ish Spending:
February 20th:
February 21st:

  • $2.47 MNT Dew
  • $38.11 Gasoline
  • $262.50 HOA fee
  • $11.40 Little Caesars

February 22nd:

  • Albertsons: $10.85

February 23rd

  • Chili's: $40.00 (Date night and Relay for Life Giveback Night)
  • Woot.com: $12.00

February 24th

  • McDonalds: $9.46 (Breakfast with SCB when leaving the puppy house

February 25th:

  • Fresh & Easy: $61.22
  • Ranchers Market: $9.81
  • Costco: $62.83 (we got our annual rebate back for over $90 so we stocked up)
  • Gas: $53.32

February 26th:
February 27th:

  • Internet: $38.94
  • Target: $16.00 (Running Socks)

February 28th:

  • Gas: $13.16 (Rental Car top off)
  • Walmart: $37.71 (Yarn, Boxer Briefs, Light bulb)

February 29th:

  • SMOG: $42.24

Money Goals:
We received our tax returns and we have placed them for now with all my overtime in an "extra money" account at ING Direct. We have a few things we need to work on outside of our money goals before we can start attacking these with gusto.

  1. 2012 Roth IRA SCG:  $443.60 / $5,000.00 (8.87%) 
  2. Emergency Fund: $11,651.64 / $12,500.00 (93.21%) 
  3. Paying Extra on the House:  $0 / $1,301.28 (2 additional mortgage payments).
  4. $1,000.00 Car Fund: $26.31 / $1,000.00  (2.63%)
  5. 2nd Roth IRA: 15% $0 / ? We're just aiming to put 15% of what SCB earns in this account.