Retirement, Paychecks, Budgetting & The Flu

Well, it looks like my medallion signature did the trick! My funds from Capital One 360 have arrived to their new home in my Roth IRA at Vanguard!

I still have some money left over in a Roth IRA at Capital One, but most of it is in some CD's so when I'm able to close the rest of them later this year, I'll do the final transfer next year and move the rest of the $10K that's remaining in my old Roth IRA.

In other news... our City council finally voted to have all employees pay more money into our pensions... and  they have granted us a small Cost of Living increase to help offset the amount we have to pay. Still no word on whether merit increases will come into effect anytime soon, so even though we are officially done with our agreed upon 3 years without raises it doesn't appear like we will see them return anytime soon... (But as I always say, I'm thankful to have my job and I'm not going to complain about that for the time being... but eventually if SCB and I are going to think of family planning, I will need to have a better paying job... so here's to hoping those come back soon.)

All in all, that means that i'll be taking home a couple of extra dollars each paycheck! I'll re-do the budget for March to reflect the small changes-- The extra bits will be going towards our "birthday" savings account so we don't have to rely on mad budgeting skills when birthdays pop up "so unexpectedly."

But I have to say, SCB and I have been doing really well with the written budget and our goal planning thus far for 2013. We've decided every time we get to cross off a real goal from our list that we can take a little break a funnel some extra money that comes in and do something nice for each other as a reward. Like taking the $50 from our credit card rewards system and spending it like we did earlier this month as a reward for being really diligent is replacing our checking account money from last years car repairs and for not "blowing" our tax return, but setting it aside for important things like our annual bills, new computer parts, and servicing our car.

So, we are thinking that once we get to cross off our next two goals (because we already have the money saved up to get Wanda checked out left from our tax return, so it would be that plus saving up some money for a summer trip to see family), that we will probably do something similar again.

Hopefully that will help "curb" our wants and let us really focus our spending this year.

Me... Sick... Not so Pretty!

Oh, and for those of you out there that keep suggesting I send SCB to the market alone to grocery shop to help save me some time and take something off my to-do list...  I present the following true story... complete with sick photo of me on the left.

SCB gave me the flu despite me telling him not too... I literally was begging him to stop hugging and touching me while he was sick... but he just couldn't keep his distance and my nose decided to run like Niagara Falls. So I was naturally really feeling sick this past week so I sent SCB to the store to get me some generic Night Quil... and some orange juice...

The man paid $7 for a single Gallon of Orange Juice. He bought name brand minute maid... and told me it was the best deal.... **smacks hand to forehead**

$7 for OJ...

That's more than we pay for a gallon of milk... and a gallon of gas COMBINED and that's with gas at $4.30 a gallon!

So, no. He can't go to the store by himself... He must be supervised...