Recovering

Phew! What a busy 2 weeks for SCB and I!

As you can see from my last post, I finished my leg of the LA Marathon's Charity Relay...

in 2 hours, 41 minutes!!!

 I totally crushed my PR and my goal!!!!

I also raised $2,281 for Child Share!

Yippie!!!!!!!

But what a crazy week leading up to that milestone. I had all these weekly meetings and appointments then the 1/2 marathon, followed by an insane 63 hour work week... (no weekend) going straight into today where i'll be working another 32 hours before I get a day off...

Why so nuts?

I just spent the weekend teaching a full 3 day lifeguard training course. I'll end up with Friday off and a three day weekend and around 13 hours of overtime when all is said and done... but boy and i pooped!

I've also been knee deep in paperwork for the State of Utah, but that alas is another post all on its own.

Updated to come... I'm exhausted

Look Who Finished???

ME!

Our paperwork reached Utah

A really short post today, but I had to do it and mark this happy occasion.

I logged onto my bank account this morning and saw that SCB's paperwork had reached Utah and was opened and processed because a $56.00 charge hit our account this morning...

One step closer to freedom...

One step closer to employment!!!

Cross your fingers all!

Now we wait for them to mail us our certificate back and for further directions..

But by May 27th, all the paperwork needs to be processed...

Here we go!

Mortgage Update _ March '13

Principle paid down: $169.21
Interest: $481.43
Additional Principle: $54.22

New Balance: $109,854.56

The pay off date is still November 2038 which is 10 months ahead of the initial schedule. If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, I will pay $111,081.60 in interest instead of the original $116,404.23. The extra $1,646.77 I've tossed at the mortgage over the life of the loan has saved us $5,322.63 in interest to date.

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 year.

• 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 also ended 2009 with a refund from my botched tile job that gave us another $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, when we subtract those costs from what we saved by living in our condo instead of renting, we came out ahead $494.04 (See Mortgage Update + Condo Costs December '11 for that break down.)  We also received a small $70 refund check from over paid closing costs. 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.
• In 2012 we finished our Kitchen/Laundry door which cost us $103.24.. We also replaced both our glass slider doors which cost us $2,957.00... and repaired our dryer for $81.42....It ended up being $3,383.47 cheaper to OWN our condo than to rent an apartment on a monthly basis,  (See Housing Costs 2012 for the break down) so even after we subtract the windows and other minor repairs, we still came out ahead $241.81 by owning our condo instead of renting... 
• In 2013 we got $52.53 back from challenging my property taxes in 2012.

Leaving us $13,062.89 in the hole...

If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it (which in this market you never really know...), then we have $10,145.44 in equity...

Leaving us only $2,947.46 in the hole after 3 years, 6 months.

For 2013, we will again assume our monthly mortgage payments are a wash since its cheaper to OWN our home then to RENT an apartment. Check out Housing Comps 2013 for how we figured that one out.

Thus far for 2013 we have spent $3,358.98 to live in our condo, instead of $4,083.00 to live in the apartment.

• Mortgage (including P&I, Property Taxes, MIP, & additional principle:) $2,571.48
• HOA:  $787.50
• Small Home Repairs/Improvements:
• Earthquake Insurance: $0
• Homeowners Insurance: $0

As of today, we have saved $724.02 this year by not renting.

If I sold the condo tomorrow, I'd have to sell the property for $120,002.14 to break even. 

• This assumes a 6% total commission ($7,200.13)
• and enough money to refund the amount we are in the hole for ($2,947.45)

ITS FINALLY HERE!

We have officially received our notice from the State of Utah that SCB can continue with the process of expunging his old misdemeanor from record!

I could dance right now, I really could!

For those of you who who have not been following our story, a long long long time ago SCB was in a really bad place mentally and shoplifted with his buddy and got caught. They were 19 so it went on their record. SCB paid his fines and his case was closed... He assumed that this had fallen off his record as he aged because he had no problems working in part time jobs in the Utah area. Right around the time the economy nose dived, SCB was laid off from his part time janitor job at the local school and he decided he was going to go back to school full time and give it a whirl. Somewhere on this leg of his journey, I entered the picture.

We started our happy long distance relationship... got engaged... and made plans for his move out to California. I had some construction work lined up for him from a friend who was going to "pitch" him out to his buddies for some side work while he dropped applications and found some stead work.

He arrived and on the first day of the job hunt he was offered a job walking distance from my condo at the local gas station. The only condition was he pass a background check.

He didn't pass... and they withdrew the job offer...

A little while later he was offered a job at Walmart, and even after telling the guy about his misdemeanor from way back when on his record, the guy offered him the position! We were thrilled until we got a letter in the mail rescinding the offer because of his record a few days later.

I started researching the problem and looking into other solutions. SCB eventually started going to Labor Ready each morning and trying to get work... Occasionally he would get a gig here or there but the conditions were not fun... he was paid dirt nothing... and he hated every minute of it but he did it.

Then just a week after our wedding, SCB landed a real, 40 hour a week job working as a truck driver hauling construction materials... It was a mom and pop owned company and since my buddy vouched for SCB they gave him the job despite his record.

Unfortunately 6 months later when they slowed down for winter, he got laid off since he was the last person hired...

It was at this time I thought we could originally expunge his record... We applied, paid the paperwork fees and got a letter rejecting the claim saying we had to wait another year...

2012 went by with little work so we started our small wood turning business and we kept feelers out for any small owned businesses that didn't have the corporate structure loop holes to jump through for a job, but nothing came. We tightened out belts, knowing it would only be for another year or so that SCB would be unable to get a job.

Which leads us to now... and the happy letter that arrived in the mail this week and was post dated the end of February. We needed to immediately mail it back with another $50 fee for a certificate that's required--- which will be mailed to us--- and then needs to be immediately sent back to them again with some more paperwork....

But I think we are 90 days out from a free and clear record and the hopeful new prospects of employment for SCB!!!!!!  

Is Capital One taking over the world?

First they take my favorite bank (ING Direct...)

... and now my Credit Card?

my 2% cash back CC that I adore???

Whether I like it or not its true. The other day when I logged into my Household bank card I saw the horrible bunny slippers and their thor like helmet on the sign in page which only means one thing, they just inherited my business on yet another front!

...

If they change my CC terms I might just have to abandon them all together on all fronts... which would really stink for me since I love my old ING web interfacing and all my sub savings accounts and everything... but if I left them i would probably finally get the nerve to just go down to the credit union and make the move. 

But i'm undecided. I'll wait it out and see what they mess with. I mean no one gets between this girl and her rewards points... especially since you can't find a card like this one anymore. 2% cash back on EVERYTHING with no limit and checks at $25 intervals.

We literally use it for everything but gasoline because we get 3% cash back on gas with our AMX from Costco...

*Sighs*

Stupid bank bailouts :(

Food in February

Well another month down and its time to look at what we bought and purchased for food during February.

Costco:

We have started buying our Dairy from Costco again because fat free milk has been averaging $3.40 a gallon at the local market and if we buy two at the same time, we can get them for $2.39 each at Costco. Since we generally drink a gallon a week (more if there are cookies), this is a good savings for us, especially when we plan to also fill the car up with gas and pick up a few other items to make the drive worth it. So we saved $4.02 on Milk alone this month... but our major savings was on cheese. We eat a lot of cheese... and its cheaper at Costco. Fresh and Easy wants $7.99 for a 2lb block of cheese, so instead of spending $31.96 on cheese this month, we spent $21.50, saving $10.46 this month. We still have a full block and a half left, so we probably won't buy as much cheese in March, but we also like variety and we noticed they even have Monterrey jack there too so this makes us excited.

Monthly Costco Savings Vs. Grocery Store: $14.48

 We tried to be really good about not throwing away produce, and we have been getting much better than we used to be, but some mandarin oranges, a head of broccoli, and a tomato got tossed... maybe a few bits of other mini leftovers... but I think that's it. We also eat a lot of broccoli cheese soup when its cold, (and because I had a made for me coupon for it which made it uber cheap), but we got the end of the pot on one of the last containers we purchased, so we might be scaling back because it was nasty...

Walmart is our pantry store. We just can't beat the prices for some of the stuff they have. It's mostly baking items and a few odds and ends, but since we aren't really pantry eating people and I prefer to eat real food, we generally do a once a month visit here depending on how many weeks in a month and what the coupons look like at fresh and easy. We still have a months worth of $5 off $25 so we will most likely be able to do another Walmart stock up again this month since we need some house hold items again.

February Re-Cap + March Budget

Awwww look, he's sleeping with my
bear... Yup. He's a keeper.

A few days, late, but our monthly re-cap is here.

We took $300 from our tax return to order some computer parts to upgrade and fix our desk top computer (one of our annual goals for the year)... Only NewEgg lost our package and it was never delivered... so we had to file a claim... wait 10 days... get the claim approved... and now we are waiting around for a new package to be sent to us... I keep getting all these emails showing $0.46 charge... then a $10 credit, but nothing on my actual credit card so I have no idea what's what... and it looks like we might miss out on $30 in mail in rebates because our packages haven't arrived and we have to mail those off soon... Grumble Grumble Grumble...

You'll also notice our "giving" is a bit higher this month, and no, its not because I got a big raise... SCB and I tithe off of what we receive in our paychecks, so we tithe off our tax return as well, since we consider it a paycheck.

SCB also decided to hold off on the T-Shirt he wants until his birthday (he's hoping he will get two this way because if I have to pay for shipping, I like to make it worth it), so I transferred the rest of the money from our Mortgage Refund check to our birthday savings account.

We also got a check from our Costco rewards credit card. We picked up a few things at Costco grocery and household wise that won't be reflected in our monthly spending since this was "extra" money (and was actually picked up in march-- but it wasn't anything earth shattering, just some Milk, another case of re-fried beans, Laundry Soap, and a pizza from the cafeteria. The rest of the check is just staying in my wallet as "blow money" for the two of us. (As a side note, all our income from jobs, including overtime, and holiday pay, etc is always focused towards our savings goals, but the little extras we tend to pick up from credit card rewards is usually spent since we don't have much lee-way in our budget at the moment for hobbies, shopping, and stuff). 

February Monthly Spending

Giving: $392.00

Gasoline: $151.15

Groceries/Household Items: $247.32

SCB Health Insurance Premiums: $178.00

Tax Preparation Fees: $56.98

Mortgage: $857.20

HOA: $262.50

Valentines Day: $8.50

Clothes: (SCG- $21.00, SCB- $9.07)

Electricity: $40.37

Cell Phones: $137.97

Date Nights/Eating Out: $65.60

Computer Parts: $297.32

Internet: $35.14

What we spent money on in 2013:

• Church Giving: $935 (part of 2012 is in here too)
• Groceries/Household Supplies: $405.66
• Car:
• Gasoline: $240.18
• Car Registration: $81.00
• Date Night/ Eating Out: $111.01
• Cell Phones: $277.93
• Internet: $70.28
• Electricity: $84.89
• House: 
• HOA: $525
• Mortgage: $1714.28
• Clothes:
• SCG: $28.27
• SCB: $9.07
• Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions
• Heath Insurance Premiums: $178.00
• Holidays:
• Valentines Day: $8.50
• Other:
• Utah Corrections Board: $50.00
• Tax preparation fees: $56.98
• Computer Parts: $297.32

March Budget:

My COLA finally went through this past month, and with it also went an increase to the costs associated with my pension, which means its time to run the budget numbers over again... which is a good thing I did because I realized that I made some incorrect math errors the first time, and I had somehow given us an extra $13.00 that we didn't have... but now with my cola, it evens it out almost exactly... So here's our new budget:

Paycheck 1: $1,368.52

Mortgage (P&I, Property tax, MIP, & $54.22 in extra principle): $857.08

Giving: $137.00

Fast Offering: $10.00

Groceries/Food/House Items: $240.00

Prescriptions & Doctor' Visits Fund: $50.00

Date Night/Discretionary Money: $60.00

Birthday Savings: $14.32

Paycheck 2: $1,368.52

Giving: $137.00

HOA: 262.50

Insurance (2 Autos, Earthquake, Homeowners): $129.00

Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet: $230.00

Christmas Savings: $50.00

Health Insurance: $178.00

Roth IRA: $232.02

Financial Annual Goal Progress

1. Make one extra Mortgage payment this year:  ($108.44 / $650.64) 16.6%
2. Put at least 15% of our income into retirement: 11.61% thus far 
1. Deferred Comp: $20.00
2. Roth IRA: $466.68 / $5,000.00 
3. Save $300 to upgrade our computer that's been having issues lately. DONE... if it gets here
4. Save $100 to fix a few things on Wanda "our 22 year old clunker"
5. Save $500 to go camping with the family in southern Utah this summer
6. Save $1,500.00 for dental work for SCB
7. Save $1,000.00 for future car repairs and the start of a car replacement fund.
8. Save $300 for a winter trip out to Utah to visit family.
9. After that, throw everything we have at our mortgage to try and get it under $93,600.00 so we can refinance and loose the MIP payments we currently pay. 

Fun Annual Goals Updates

1. Find something new to crochet-- sweater, pattern, anything.
2. Sew something from scratch or re purpose something I was going to toss out into something I'd wear. DONE... but you'll have to wait to see the post on this!
3. Cook or try to cook 6 new things or recipes
4. Read / Enjoy 6 new books
1. Sabriel by Garth Nix (audio book)
2. Lirael by Garth Nix (audio book)
3. Abhorsen by Garth Nix (audio book)
5. Loose weight (or just get the scale to 148 lbs and stay there or under)
1. at 151, so 3 more to go! (and that's on my work scale fully clothed with shoes and everything!) I'm already smaller than I was at my wedding and approaching college graduation weight!
6. Change my last credit card to my married name
7. Grow a garden with my neighbor
8. Complete a half marathon in 3 hours and 30 minuets or less.