Food in July

First and foremost, I'm going to admit that we spent more money on food then we initially planned to in this area when we drafted our budget... but we have what I consider a very good reason for it.

Sometime towards the end of 2012, our church held a budget and finance workshop to give people practical advice and guidance on paying off debts early, building a financial reserve, and being prepared for whatever might come our way. Then in early January, our Bishop spoke to our congregation about prayerfully asking if living in expensive Southern Orange County was right for their families. Skip forward a few months and our new Bishop has continued with this message. Normally our Ward does a summer humanitarian project to benefit others. One year they raised money for wheelchairs... another year, money was raised for wells to be constructed in a needy developing area... This year we are our humanitarian project.

The church leadership has asked us to take the money we would have contributed to the humanitarian project and help ourselves become more self reliant. For the month of July, we were asked to look at our food and water needs and begin to work on creating a 3 month supply of foods we regularly eat. I believe in listening to the wise council of others, and our Bishop was asking us as a ward to do all we can to prepare of the unexpected... Job loss, higher cost of living... or even a natural disaster. So in addition to the increase in groceries, we also began to purchase some extra personal items like shampoo, laundry soap, etc.

So with that in mind and being said-- here's our Food in July.

Costco:

For the most part, we did our normal shopping, just added some new items we haven't been letting ourselves buy in a while (Nutella, real butter, trail mix & a different type of granola bar). Fresh and Easy also stopped making the bread we used to buy so we found out it is cheaper to buy the Costco brand whole wheat in a 2 pack than an individual loaf at Fresh and Easy-- with SCB's 2 sandwiches a day lunches, we do through 2 loaves a week almost, which is why i stopped making it from scratch. 

SCB also likes goldfish better than potato chips for his lunch, so we started buying those toward the end of the month at Costco since its ultimately cheaper... but we like the "penguins" from Walmart better, so who knows if we will buy the big box again from Costco when they are all gone.

Fresh & Easy

We actually really lucked out this month with our Fresh and Easy coupons. Since we live so close to the store, and since we are in a complex with one central mail place, we were able to get 3 or 4 of the special 2 month promo coupons that went out for $5 off $20.

Needless to say with the challenge being to stock our pantry this month, this meant we could still get our fresh and easy regular items, but we weren't committed to having to buy a lot of groceries in just one week to use a better coupon (like the $10 off $50).. so we kept to basics here and that let us spend more money at Walmart to really and truly stock up on our pantry items since most are cheaper there. We did love the 6 for $1 corn corn and the really cheap watermelon. I love when grilling holidays show up-- its a great time to stock the freezer with ground beef.

Mission Ranch Market:
We managed to make just one run to the market this month to pick up a few things. Since we had those coupons at Fresh and Easy this month, we only hit the market for produce just the one time to try and stretch our dollars for pantry items. I can't wait to get back to here though. SCB is definitely warming up to eating more veggies as summer is in full swing here in Southern California.

Walmart: 
I lost a receipt. First one all year. It's not listed in the sheet over there, but we bought 2 more lbs of turkey pastrami (about $8), a lb of turkey (about $4), a watermelon ($4), four ears of corn on the cob ($1.00) and maybe a few other things... But that's all I can remember.

All I know is the husband is going through an INSANE amount of deli meat each week... 

Ever since I stopped making his lunch we go through everything twice as fast...

He can't seem to limit himself with "fun" food. Back when I made his lunch, things were "portioned" out... now its like a free for all in our kitchen...

But hopefully things will get a bit better and hopefully I can try to help him with his lunches again...

Again, I wasn't that great at taking our dinner pictures, but here's a few new meal ideas we came up with.

"Korean Beef" - White rice with Ground Beef sauteed in
garlic, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar & topped with
Green Onions

We went to the OC Fair... Best Corn-dog of my life.
(Don't worry-- SCB and I split it.)

The pasta is tossed with olive oil, Italian seasoning, and
Parmesan cheese. We sauteed the zucchini the same way
(plus garlic) and put it on the pasta... SCB said the chicken
 wasn't even necessary. Looks like another meatless meal.

Burgers... It was a Grill Type of month.

Shrimp Fried Rice... Yum

Auto Repairs

"Stitch" our 2004 Toyota Camry hit the glorious 80,000 mile marker... Since it is no longer under warranty with the dealer, we take it in every 5,000 miles to a local mechanic we think is pretty friendly and decent.

Unfortunately, it needed a bit more than an oil change to keep him up and running. A new oil filter, and engine oil... a new bulb for my license plate, my battery needed to be replaced, and both my air filter and my cabin filter needed to changed, again.

Oil filter - $9.95

Engine Oil - $11.96

Bulb - $3.25

Battery - $109.95

Air filter - $24.95

Cabin Air Filter - $29.95

Engine Oil and filter service - $15.00

Hazard waste fee - $5.00

Replace bulb - $12.50

Remove battery - $20.00

Remove and replace cabin air filer - $20.00

Rotate tires - $10.00

Labor Discount - ($10.00)

Tax - $15.20

Total  - $277.71

Next time we'll do the bulb ourselves...

We also spent around $100 buying new speakers for the hubby's car... which we installed ourselves. While he was installing them, he finally fixed the door handle too... so he's loving his 22 year old clunker right now :)

I got promoted...

There, I said it.

Yours truly got a promotion at work.

(Now you know why my "budget" post was a bit more lucrative... ) 
If you did the math, it just didn't add up with what SCB was bringing in from the month before... by a lot...

I had to wait for word to get around the office before I could announce any changes on here, but back in February/March, my boss and my bosses boss pulled me into their office and told me they were going to submit my job for reclassification based on all the extra work and projects I had been taking on over the past 3 years...

I was in shock and appreciation at the same time. For three years I've worked really hard to make some good long lasting changes in my department and I've been very flexible as an employee. People have retired and I've learned how to do their work... as well as keep with the changing times and jump on website programming and digital and graphic media.

It was a lengthy paperwork process where we had to sit down and list all our responsibilities down to a "T" and then elaborate on them and their value to the department... (the document took me at least a week to do proper) and then it was examined by an outside HR company...

and it was denied... and I wasn't the only one either... there were 2 other employees that were being evaluated from my department and the hope was that all three of us would receive the "jump up" in both pay and title... but all three of our applications were denied.

My supervisor told me they were going to see what they could do... but I figured all hope was gone.

The irony of the situation was the day they told me it didn't go through was a day were I was too busy to leave work to go home and throw myself the much needed pity party I was offered... but I'm not really one to just give up on something I want. I told him I was going to try harder and work on more things that would lead me that direction... just after I got over the initial sting of rejection.

Skip a week or two later and the next thing I know I'm talking to my bosses boss about the new budget and he closes the door... He tells me that they re-submitted my paperwork for re-classification because a certain department Director was not satisfied with the response we received... and then he tells me that it went through... and starts to congratulate me.

Pure utter shock and gratitude. I work with some of the best people ever. Not only did they fight for me, but they didn't give up on me. It was my goal to get here by 30-35 years... and i'm 27 now and i'm now a salary employee...

I'll keep doing what I've been doing at work... but I get to do a little less of the more tedious stuff I didn't like as much... and now I get more special projects and events to work on... and staff to supervise... and an 18.51% pay raise... I'll generally do just 40 hour work weeks instead of some of those crazy 50 hour weeks I had to pull sometime during all those summer Lifeguard training sessions.

Ya...  Kind of makes those 3 years without a raise worth it.

Moral of the story-- work hard. When people make cuts, look for opportunities to make yourself more valuable. Always be willing to learn. Be the person everyone will depend on and be afraid to loose. Do the work that no one wants to that's necessary.

The last one is why when they re-petitioned my classification, it went through the second time. I took the projects that weren't fun that people turned down and dramatically improved them.

Man I love what I do... How many people can say that they actually like their job... cause right now, I love mine.

Dogs, Cat, and more Dog sitting

SCB and I just spent the weekend Dog sitting at the McMansion again...  and earned a nice $70 for the 2 night stay!

I'm so glad that we can continue to Dog sit now that we have our roxy! This will give us some nice spending cash for the concert this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, we also start house and cat sitting for my mom... who's going on a trip with my sister and her fiance and friends again... So we are watching her cat and house for her while she's away out of the goodness of our hearts.

Then as soon as we finish that up, we are back at the McMansion for a whole week!

We actually had to pass on an opportunity for another weekend at the McMansion because it coincided with watching my mom's cat and the back track from my mom's place to their place would have been insane and with $4.00+ gas, we would have lost money instead of gaining from the trip.

So here's to a little extra green in our wallets... which will come in handy nicely with all the stuff we have planned for August.

Mortgage Update: July'13

Principle paid down: $317.21
Interest: $352.75
Additional Principle: $223.05
New Balance: $112,459.74

The pay off date is June 2033. If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, I will now pay $47,191.62 in interest (plus the $22,233.51 I've already paid to date-- totaling $69,425.13). The original amount of interest I was going to pay on my first loan was $116,404.23. 

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...

• 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. I also refinanced our condo, costing us $447.00 up front for our home appraisal... but we got a check back at closing for $747.20 and a check from my old escrow account for $489.74... We also got to skip an extra mortgage payment too!

All of that Leaves us $12,456.42 in the hole...

If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it $120,000.00 (Our refinance appraisal hit $150k so I think its safe to say our condo is still worth $120k), then we have $7,540.26 in equity.

Leaving us only $4,732.69 in the hole after 3 years, 10 months. 
If we use our home appraisal figure of $150,000.00, we have $37,540.26 in equity, giving us a gain of $25,267.31.

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 (and those rental figures do not include us getting a pet 6 months into the year either and being subjected to a pet deposit and pet rent). For 2013 we have spent $6,227.54 to live in our condo, instead of $9,527.00 to live in the apartment.

• Mortgage (including additional principle payments:) $5,172.48
• HOA:  $1,845.00
• Small Home Repairs/Improvements:$0
• Earthquake Insurance: $0
• Homeowners Insurance: $0
• Refinance Charges: (-$789.94) This is what we "gained" from refinancing after out of pocket fees. 

Saving us $3,299.46 this year by not renting.

If I sold the condo tomorrow, I'd have to sell the property for $124,672.80 to break even..

• This assumes a 6% total commission ($7,480.37)
• and enough money to refund the amount we are in the hole for ($4732.69)

Getting Sealed...

Since I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints back in August of last year, I will be coming up on my one year anniversary as a member...

Which means in about a month and a half, South County Boy and I will have the opportunity to go to the Newport Beach Temple and be sealed for all time an eternity.


For those of you who aren't familiar with the Mormon faith and our beliefs, we believe that marriage doesn't have to end at death do you part. We believe that you can be sealed for time and all eternity in the temple.

It's kind of a big to-do and as the date gets closer, i'm getting more and more excited about it. Essentially its like getting re-married all over-- without any of the drama hopefully.

SCB and I have started our preparation and scripture study classes to help prepare us for the big day and we have family coming in to town to be there for us, as well as some friends coming from church. Earlier this year we set aside $500 to help take care of some of the expense we knew would come, but now that South County Boy has a job, we have decided to contribute a few more dollars that we will cash flow out of our now happier budget (more on that on Monday).

Since SCB and I already did our formal ceremony and reception, we aren't making a big to-do, but we will be spending some money to help us make it a memorable day.

A friend of ours from church has offered to take professional photos after our sealing for $200.00 (She has photography business and is really good and is giving us a great deal). I also ordered a new white dress on-line to wear for after the ceremony for the photo shoot. The site I ordered it from does custom "made to fit" orders for all their dresses so this dress will be designed to fit me and it should arrive about 2 weeks before our sealing for only $95! (They only had a stock photo of the dress in blue on the site, but mine will be white and it will be something I can actually wear again too which is awesome.)

We will also need to purchase clothes and items for the ceremony itself. South County Boy's parents will be purchasing his attire (white slacks, shirt, shoes, tie, etc as a sealing gift since they have done that for all their sons when they have been able to go to the temple, so we will be picking up my items later in August. Were not sure how much this will cost so we will just say around $200 to be on the safe side.

After the ceremony and photos we are going to be treating our family and a few friends to lunch at stone fire grill (where we did our rehearsal dinner) because the food is amazing and designed for large groups of people so its not too pricey.

All in all I think it will cost us maybe around $800.00. Essentially the dress and the photos are our perk that we are adding now that we can afford to do so with SCB's job!

Free concert tickets!!

So South County Boy was listening to the radio while at work and heard the "cue to call" for tickets on the country radio station.

I was at home cooking his now new favorite dinner "Laura's Pasta" (that recipe from my co-worker that he now begs me to make for him all the time---- and that I refuse half the time so we don't have it every week and so he gets really excited when its on the table), Listening to that same radio station.

I was busy bustling around string the sauce into the meat and chopping onions when my husband calls me...

He asks me what were doing in 2 weeks on a Saturday night... I tell him nothing I can't get out of... and then he then tells me he won tickets for Kenny Chesney, Eli Young Band, Kacey Musgraves, and Eric Church at the Anaheim Stadium!!!!

I get really excited, hang up with him... and then burn my finger forgetting the boiling water is hot because I was distracted... But I digress-- 

So its Happy be-lated 2 year anniversary to us from Go County 105 FM!!!! (We celebrated 2 wonderful years earlier last week on the 9th :)

Tickets go from $43 to $807 and we won't know where they are at until we get them in the mail, but South County Boy is really excited because it will be his first real "i'm not in a park" concert in his life and he really likes Eric Church.

He's come close about 4 times to winning  the "go-fest" tickets they were doing over the 4th of july weekend while he was working... kept getting caller 20 or 18... But he won these! He's never really won anything before, (besides me, that is) so he's to the moon and back right now.

Were hoping his boss will be better about letting him work either a half day or a 6 hour day on the 27th so he can go-- or if the man will give him the day off entirely, but they are so short staffed we don't think a full day will happen. Last time he asked for a day off for the farmers market they didn't give it to him and I had to do the farmers market solo with my book for company.

I apparently already have a list of people that want to come with me if he can't... But hopefully I'll get to go with South County Boy and we will have a wonderful time!

yeah for winning unexpected things! 

Ditching the smart Phone part 2

If you remember back to last month, we mentioned how we were going to be Ditching our smart phones ... well, it finally happened and not a moment too soon...

Literally.

South County Boy began the process of "porting" (taking your old phone number to a new carrier) on July 8th. We waited until the 8th because our billing cycle would start over on July 13th and the process can sometimes take up to 48 hours to go through... and we wanted our smart phones for the last farmers market ---just in case--- while we tested out our portable internet on the go that we picked up earlier this month at Walmart to use with our square reader.

So we figured that would give us plenty of time since it normally only takes a few hours for the phones to port over. Sure enough, 4 hours later I was all set up with my Trac Phone.

But 24 hours later, South county Boy was not... and 48 hours later it still wasn't done and it was July 10th...

We called that evening after the full 48 hours and after hitting a slew of * and # keys to finally got someone real on the phone. We discovered our problem. South County Boy had typed in the wrong phone number to port...

Thankfully the gal was able to restart and open his ticket and told us it would take probably 4 to 24 hours for the transfer to go through...

After 24 hours passed we had to call again because we were worried.... I pressed a bunch more * and # keys... got hung up a few times... and then eventually someone told us we had to wait the full 48 hours before they could do anything since their computer showed it was still porting and being worked on.

That's when we started worrying... because the full 48 hours would end at like 5pm on July 12th... so if it didn't work, hello $100 phone bill for just a single day or two of service.

But we woke up and found out at 8 or 9 am on the 12th that number had ported over. I called Sprint to verify our cancellation and the lady wanted to know why we were not longer continuing with their service. When i told her we were going to trac phones for maybe $20 a month for both our lines with texting and we were just going to use our smart phones on a WiFi network for free she was a little speechless...

Heck, before my husband, I wouldn't have known that was possible and would have assumed that you had to have a contract and pay $50-$60 a month for a cell phone...

The only down side was having to enter in all our contacts since there is no little chip or disk we can insert. Other than that, its great. We have perfect reception and signal, the battery life is really good since its not a smart phone, and my old smart phone still updates my applications on WiFi and works like it always did-- its just not a phone anymore.

The bill I hate to pay the most is officially gone. I promised SCB that we would bump our home internet speed back up a level where it was before we cut it when money was tight now that we will have more things running off the home network. So next month I'll call Cox up and increase our speed a little bit. Well probably budget $30 a month for our phones. We have also been using our wall AC a bit more so when we get our next bill we will budget accordingly and take the extra after that and add it to our gasoline budget.

Guess I don't have to go to court on tuesday!

Sorry this post is a bit late today, but I had to re-write it now that i'm not going to court after all. Court you ask?Well if you remember last year, I petitioned my property tax value on our little condo:

• Challenging My property Taxes
• Challenging My property taxes part 2
• My Day in Court

and I won!!!! They agreed to reduce my condo's value down to $115,000.00 instead of $120,903.00 so I saved around $60.00 on my property tax bill.  When I got my property tax statement for 2012, I decided to petition them again.

• Property Tax Assessment Petition, year 2

I was planning on going to court on Tuesday to present my findings (based on property sales from 2011 values, up to March 30th of 2012 since you use the value the year before)... and instead I got a call from the assessors office. They said if I signed off on a value of $115,000 i wouldn't need to come into court... They would just process the change and issue me a refund.

Which works for me, especially since the lady told me the one "smoking gun" property I was going to use to state my case is outside the sell period i can use (its July 2012 and I need before March 2012-- I miss read the dates originally). Since the 2 bedroom units had such a degree of change (140k to 180k) she was fine signing off on $115K since that was the price the last one bedroom sold for.

The Details:

OLD:

Land: $77,093

Building/structures: $4628.00

Total taxable value: $123,321.00

NEW:

Land: $69,000

Buildings/Structures: $46,000

Total Taxable value: $115,000

I automatically get a $7,000 value discount for living in the property as a homeowner, so before the change, I'd owed $1,224.30 a year... and now I get to pay $1,137.53!

Which means I'll end up saving, $86.78 this year :) and now I get to just spend Tuesday at home playing catch up on blogs, crocheting some baby gifts, and getting some time with my pup-- instead of paying for parking and getting all nervous talking to a judge!!

It may seem silly to petition my property taxes over $86, but that's $86 I can send to my mortgage or put in savings... and if i'm being honest, I don't feel like I should pay more than I have to in property taxes if I'm willing to look into how the system works and follow all the rules and go through the process... which isn't that hard and the people at the office have been really friendly and informative. 

Most people don't even look at the details and just cut a check, but that's never been me. Speaking of bills, I got another notice in the mail from the tax assessor... but this time it was about 2013. They dropped my 2013 value from $125,787 to $123,321... and that's without me doing a petition. I was planning on petitioning because of the $100,000 property that sold in the time period, but since i did refinance this year I wasn't sure if I was eligible to petition. 

So I decided to call the assessors office and ask. 

I told the guy that I had successfully won my case the past 2 years and was wondering if I should go through the process again for a lower value for the current billing cycle based on the value of my property on January 1, 2013.  I told him I had refinanced in May of this year since the values had started going up after that date and he said he would have an assessor look into it and call me on Monday since I had already received a new lower rate notice and I was able to give them the properties I would bring with me to court over the phone. (it makes my research much easier when only 2 one bedroom units have sold in my complex since I bought my place 3.5 years or so ago.)

So who knows... maybe i'll save a bit for for this past cycle too and I won't have to fill out the petition! 

I won't be able to petition for 2014 since the values went up and i used that to refinance with, but if they drop mine for 2013 and just average the 3 properties (mine bought at $120k, another at $115k and the last one at $100k that would knock my value down to $112k -- so who knows! Either way their new notice saves me $25!

Adventures in Dog Food

My husband and i were talking with some people from our doggie circle (aka- the neighborhood pets from all the condos that gather in the park after work to play and visit) ... about pet food.

We know that MEAT should be the first ingredient in a "quality" dog food and when we first got Roxy, we didn't have all the time in the world to compare every bag of food in the store since she was so scared at first. We just took some advice from the people in the store and grabbed a small bag from the "Better" section (At pet smart they segregate their dog food by aisle. Good dog food, better dog food, and Best dog food). We picked up a small bag to make sure she liked it and we figured it would give us some time to test the waters.

We paid around $12 for the 4.5 lb bag.

My husband and I want to be good to our little love bug and feed her quality... but we also wanted to be practical about it. SCB said he was okay with us continuing to get the "better" type foods from pet smart since she seemed to eat it fine-- but only if we took the effort to shop around first and try to compare the labels since the pet store was probably the pricier option.

A lot of time its hard to compare brands together because they are often are not sold in the same stores... or in the same packaging. But the key to comparison is the ingredient list (and if your dog will eat it).

Since we are almost through the bag (1/3 left), we decided now would be the time to hunt around. If we decided to buy something new, we would still have enough of her old food left to slowly mix into the new food so there would be less chance of anything not agreeing with her ... or we would have enough food if she didn't like anything new we tried.

So we started at Walmart. I couldn't remember what the ingredients were in ours from home and I didn't have a list on me, but since pet smart is next door to Walmart, we decided to just take a look and snap photos of any of the brands that listed Meat as the first ingredient.

We turned every bag over and they only had one brand in which meat was the first ingredient in the whole store... and get this... they wanted less than $7 for the small bag (which was a full 5 lbs instead of 4.5 lbs...)

So, we snapped the picture and went next door to Pet Smart so we could look at what we had been buying... and we were a little floored. Meat wasn't the first ingredient...

It was Chicken meal... I turned over the bag in my hands for a bit and kept comparing it to my phone picture. When I looked deep in thought, one of the store clerks (who happened to be the manager) came over to see if I needed any help. I fibbed and told her my "friend" sent me a picture of what she feeds her dog and I wanted to know which one was better... what we were buying currently or the brand from my phone.

The lady looked at my phone and then at me and said hands down, the black bag on your phone,

"Your friend probably bought that at some high end dog boutique..."

It listed both chicken and then chicken meal as the top 2 ingredients... and she pointed out that you could pronounce more of the ingredients in the pure balance mix than you could in the natures recipe so that made it also better. Being the good sales lady she was, she steered us down the isle where the BEST dog food is and told me that the brands on that isle would be more similar to what was pictured on my phone... and of course they wanted WAY more for those then Walmart wanted for the Pure Balance... even their store version was way more.

So we thanked her, left... and went next door... back to walmart and picked up the Pure Balance for $7...

The next day when I fed roxy we mixed in 1/4 cup of the new stuff with 3/4 of the old... Guess what she picked out first, nugget by nugget? The Pure Balance.

Look who's happy! She so belongs to us!

In case you were all wondering.... this is not a sponsored post and i'm not getting anything out of sharing this little story with you all. :)

July Budget and Annual Goals

July Budget...

I'm posting one large combined budget this month instead of a paycheck by paycheck break down. Hopefully I'll be able to share more details with you all about this later this month, but for now you can all guess at my aloofness.  

• Giving $454
• Fast Offering: $10.00 
• Mortgage (Includes Property Taxes): $771.99
• Additional Mortgage Principle: $220.00
• Roxy "Dog" Savings: $50.00
• Groceries & Food: $275.00 
• Prescriptions & Doctor Savings: $50.00 
• Birthday Savings: $50.00
• Discretionary/Clothes/Things/Eating Out: $160.00 
• Vacation Fund: $100.00
• HOA: $262.50 
• Insurance (2 Autos, earthquake, homeowners) $129.00 
• Utility Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet): $230.00 
• Gasoline/Auto: $200.00 
• Christmas: $50.00 
• Kaiser- Health Insurance: $178.00 
• SCG Roth IRA: $275.00
• SCB Roth IRA: $192.00
• New Car and Auto Maintenance Savings: $355.00
• Long Term Savings: $220.00 
• Pocket Money: $40 SCB, $40 SCG
• Technology Upgrades: $220.00

You'll notice some distinct changes from last month to this month besides making sure every dollar now has a name instead of just savings. *wink*

• We have added a $50 a month pet savings account for our little pup. This will also be what we will pull from for food and other items we need to buy for her. 
• We are also upping our grocery budget a little bit more ($25) now that we have some more money coming in and i'd like my husband to stop eating so much junk and convenience food. 
• We have also combined our clothing, eating out and discretionary budget to $160.00 a month to help us balance eating out and buying things. 
• For this next month, we are keeping our cell phone and bill allotment the same because we haven't cancelled our smart phones yet and we'd like to have this money just to cover any accidental fees that may happen. Once our cell phones drop off, we are going to up our internet speed, keep a bit more for electricity usage and actually use our little wall unit to stay cool this summer. Once all the changes are made, any leftovers will be added into our gasoline budget.
• We are bumping up my Roth IRA contributions because we will now be aiming to put the full $5,500.00 away for me this year. We have also decided to add a Roth IRA for SCB with him putting in 15% of his income. 
• There is a new Long Term savings account. We will be using this money after we get SCB's dental work done to beef up our Emergency Fund. Essentially this money will be the start of our future Baby, Bigger house, home improvement, etc savings account. Once we get our $400 escrow check returned to us, I think we will already have enough money for SCB's dental work.
• We are also going to be adding in a new car/auto maintenance savings account because that's the next large expense that will need to be replaced in the next few years... and our last goal for the year. If we start paying the monthly payment to ourselves now, we will be able to pay cash for a new car down the road. This will also help us budget in those pesky once a year car registration and smog fees to just have money every month going in to savings... (more on that later)
• I promised SCB if we cancelled our smart phones that we would start saving up for tablets, a gps running watch for me, and some various other things like a portable WiFi system if he is still able to make and sell his pens at the farmers market now that he's working full time. So we have added a temporary technology savings account.
• We added a small vacation and trip fund to our budget so we can start to save up for a nice vacation for SCB and I... or just a bunch of little day trips throughout the year.
• Pocket money. $40 a month for each of us to spend however we want with no accountability... because everyone needs a little mad money. 

Phew! Talk about some changes. Essentially after making sure tithing and retirement are covered, we are taking each of SCB's weekly paychecks and putting them towards 4 over all areas. 

• Big ticket item - A new car.  We have committed to no new loans or borrowing money with one exception, a house. Everything else can be done by saving money and being patient. We don't want to owe people money... which leads to our next area.  
• Paying down debt - Our mortgage is our only debt. Period. While the interest rate is low because we just refinanced, 3.75%, we should still be trying to pay off our loan obligation faster to build up some equity for 2 reasons. First, we can't get that type of return on liquid money right now (money sitting in a savings account or a CD) and with where we are in life, our money needs to be liquid and easy to get to if its not for retirement. Secondly, we would like to keep our options open to either sell our place and use the proceeds for a down payment to get something bigger in a few years if the market is in our favor at the right time, or continue to pay it off to have the flexibility and equity to either refinance again and rent it out for a positive cash flow and move somewhere cheap to wait out a bad market if prices go down, etc. 
• Long term savings- I mentioned that we are currently in a position where our money needs to be liquid... and here's why. First, SCB is currently a Temp worker. His income could disappear at any moment. We may also want to start having a family in a year or two... and kids are expensive and there is only so long you can have a kid in a one bedroom condo before you need more space for sanity... and if that were the case, most likely SCB would either be a stay at home dad or work part time and take care of our future bundle so having more in savings to get us though that transition period is important. We may also need to replace some home appliances and get some new furniture (considering all my furniture is almost a decade old, are hand me downs, or garage sale and freebie finds).
•  Spending/technology- There's always something you want to save up for that's a few $100 once or twice a year. This will help us do that!

Remaining Financial Goals

1. Make one extra Mortgage payment this year:  ($162.66 / $650.64) 25%
2. Put at least 15% of our income into retirement: 10.16% thus far 
1. Deferred Comp: $50
2. Roth IRA: $965.15 / $5,000.00
3. Pension: $791.06
3. Save $1,500.00?????? for dental work for SCB
4. Save $1,000.00 for future car repairs and the start of a car replacement fund.
5. Change the last name on my credit card.

Food In June

 Food this past month was a little interesting for our house. Since we were living and dog sitting again, we ended up buying a lot more processed junk than normal at Walmart because we HATE cooking meals when we dog sit because they lack basic ingredients in their home so we have to LUG bags and bags of things over there that this month I just went with easy and convenient.

We actually hit Walmart twice for groceries because we wanted to re-stock our pantry since we new June was going to be a larger income month for us...

















Costco went pretty normal. We picked up the basics there and now that SCB is working, we will start to buy Granola bars occasionally in bulk at Costco. If you figure we pay $2.00 for 6 bars at Walmart, we are getting them for $0.30 a piece. When we go in bulk at Costco, we get them for slightly cheaper... $0.26 a piece (and they aren't generic).

Since we were only at home 2 weeks this month, and since we had a rather LARGE walmart trip, Fresh and Easy was on the much smaller side and we only shopped there 2 times last month instead of weekly. I didn't even use any coupons one week because I only spent $14 and was on a time crunch. But with July already here and us back at home, our weekly shopping will return.

Then there's our odds and ends. We hit Ralph's one day because we we were on a walk and needed some bread for SCB's lunches the next day.

Mission Ranch Market seems to be our go to for produce still... and I love the prices. Quantities are in lbs.

Pavilions -- I mentioned how the house we stay at when we dog sit doesn't have basics right? Well we forgot buns, ketchup and ranch at home and had to run down there for some...

Fruitbars were tasty... but really expensive for a small box of 6 of them... but we really like them... We like them so much that my husband figured out how to make our own so now we can avoid paying that much for them and use what we have in the house to make yummy frozen treats...

Homemade Fruit Bar

Isn't my husband handy? I keep forgetting to snap pictures of of dinner before we have them... but I remembered a few days last month.

Spinach Bites

Burgers and Artichokes

Tuna Melts

My co-workers Healthy Casserole.
1 lb browned ground beef -drain fat- mix in 8 oz tomato sauce,
salt, pepper, & garlic Powder... Set aside and Cook 1 box whole
wheat pasta... when the past is done, drain it and add one chopped onion,
a cup of fat free cottage cheese & 1 cup fat free Greek yogurt.
Layer noodle mixture, meat mixture, and more noodles then top
with cheese and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
HUSBAND WENT NUTS FOR IT!

June Spending

Holy Batman folks! Money has been really crazy in the South County household the past 2 months with the refinance and SCB's full time job. Having money is a really weird concept after being on a tighter budget for so long. We definitely let out the reins and enjoyed the fruits of our now joint labor.

Despite eating out too much (like 4 times what we normally do) and just picking up things we have wanted for a while but have had to say no to because they didn't fit in the budget (clothes, dog, kitchen stuff)... we did end the month with a surplus of $600.00 AFTER putting away the rest of the money for our Summer family Stay-cation and then another $300 for our winter Utah Trip.  

So just keep in mind that we didn't just spend every dime that came in... but for what we normally spend, we spent a lot.

Now that we've had a month to "cool" our tightwad jets and get a bunch of "wants" out of the way. (You have no idea how fun it is to tell my husband "sure" "yes" and "ok" and watch his face light up instead of  always saying "no" for a change). 

Here's the damage:

What we have spent this month

Groceries:  $318.27

Gasoline: $228.76

Health Insurance: $178.00
Prescriptions: $60

Eating Out: $190.98 <--- insane="" p="">

Housing: $1,065.48 (may's payment)

Giving: $565

Anniversary: $52.49 (its next month)
Gifts: $16.02
Electricity: $51.35

Cell Phones: $137.91

Internet: $28.99
Pocket Money: $45.00

Clothes: SCG- $23.72

Clothes: SCB- $177.01 (had to replace all my bras!)
Our Doggy: $520.78

Other: $341.73

Groceries were higher because we filled up a propane tank and I did another grocery run at the tail end of this month instead of waiting for next month. I totally gave in and let my husband go crazy with the eating out. It's his favorite thing to do and with us still balancing his working with mine, we ate out A LOT. While we don't go really expensive places-- we almost blew $200 on eating out. We hit a "treat out" 12 times in June. Sure, some were only $5 here, BUT MAN! That category is going DOWN next month for sure.

I also dropped almost $200 this month at Victoria Secret. I had to literally replace all my bras because after loosing 15 lbs and keeping it off, none of my bras fit anymore and I could no longer get away with trying to wear sport bras under everything. With his new job and their semi annual sale lining up together like magic, there were no regrets there... especially since those bras hold up forever!

After we got through the month and started to see the damage as I was adding things in, we realized that we needed to institute the pocket money idea again. Having mad money we can spend without telling one another is amazing. It means my husband can curb his "treats" on a lunch break and my plans to cook a great meal don't get tossed down the drain.

The $300 of other expenses includes:
 $15.00 Relay for Life
 $76.78 Amazon -2 trac phones, TV Wall mount, craft supplies
 $0.99 application
 $52.05 produce slicer and lint roller
 $27.00 Super Cuts
 $39.70 Tupperware and Kitchen stuff
 $47.95 Our first 2 prepaid Cell Phone Cards and candy
 $49.26 water hose, spare keys from Home depot
$33.00   Notary and application fee for my dad's birth certificate.

Basically stuff we have been wanting and haven't been able to get. Our kitchen Tupperware needed some replacing and while we were looking around, we found a better deal for a produce slicer so we will be returning the one we bought.

What we spent money on in 2013:

• Church Giving: $2,437.00
• Groceries/Household Supplies: $1,390.83
• Wanda and Stitch (our '91 Ford Escort & '04 Toyota Camry):
• Gasoline: $925.77
• Car Registration: $189.00
• Car Insurance: $520.34
• Car Repairs: $109.20
• Date Night/ Eating Out: $579.24
• Cell Phones: $829.63
• Internet: $181.73
• Electricity: $274.26
• House: 
• HOA: $1,575.00
• Mortgage: $4,177.44
• Refinance: $447.00
• Clothes:
• SCG: $268.75 
• SCB: $153.03
• Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions
• Heath Insurance Premiums: $890
• Prescriptions: $110.00
• Dr Bill: $8.00
• Holidays/Gifts:
• Valentines Day: $8.50
• Easter: $13.47
• Birthdays: 320.31
• Mother's Day: $23.73
• Gifts: $16.02
• Anniversary: $52.49
• Roxy: Our pup!
• Adoption fees: $165.95
• Vet bills: $215.54
• Food/Toys/Supplies: $139.29
• Pocket Money
• SCB: $25
• SCG: $20
• Other:
• Expungement Fees: $292.81
• Tax preparation Fees: $56.98
• Computer Parts: $297.32
• Stamps, Toothbrush heads, Grill Hose $81.52
• Resume Copies, Plant Container, Craft embroider, Relay For Life Fee: $43.25
• Camping Backpacks (2): $113.38
• Yarn for Relay For Life: $93.24
• Disneyland: $115.00
• Relay For Life: $15.00
• 2 trac phones, Wall mount, and craft eyes: $76.78
• Slicer and lint roller: $52.05
• Hair Cut: $27.00
• Kitchen Items: $39.70
• Pre-paid Cell phone cards: $47.95
• Garden Hose, house key/car key copies... $49.26
• Notary Fee + Birth Certificate $33.00

June'13 Mortgage Update

Our mortgage is now refinanced... and since we didn't have to make a payment for June, i'll use this post to update all our figures to the new loan amounts.

Principle paid down: $0.00
Interest: $0.00
Additional Principle: $0.00

New Balance: $113,000.00
3.75% on a 20 year fixed rate mortgage

The pay off date is now June 2033...  which is 65 months (5.41 years) ahead of our old payoff date of November 2038... which was 10 months ahead of the initial schedule from our first loan. 

If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, I will now pay $47,791.31 in interest (plus the $21,880.76 in interest I paid in just 3.75 years before my refinance) instead of the original $116,404.23. Refinancing is EPIC! 

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...

• 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. I also refinanced our condo, costing us $447.00 up front for our home appraisal... but we got a check back at closing for $747.20 and a check from my old escrow account for $489.74. 

All of that Leaves us $12,272.95 in the hole...

If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it $120,000.00 (Our appraisal hit $150k so I think its safe to say our condo is still worth $120k), then we have $7,000.00 in equity.

Leaving us only $5,272.95 in the hole after 3 years, 9 months. If we use our home appraisal figure of $150,000.00, we have $37,000.00 in equity, giving us a gain of $24,727.05.

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 (and those rental figures do not include us getting a pet 6 months into the year either!). For 2013 we have spent $6,199.44 to live in our condo, instead of $8,166 to live in the apartment.

• Mortgage (including P&I, Property Taxes, MIP, & additional principle:) $4,177.44
• HOA:  $1,575.00
• Small Home Repairs/Improvements:$0
• Earthquake Insurance: $0
• Homeowners Insurance: $0
• Refinance Charges: $447.00

Saving us $1,966.56 this year by not renting. (This number doesn't include the money we got back from refinancing either).

If I sold the condo tomorrow, I'd have to sell the property for $125,822.29 to break even..

• This assumes a 6% total commission ($7,549.34)
• and enough money to refund the amount we are in the hole for ($5,272.95)