Friday, January 31, 2014

What we ate

Before I get down to what we spent, (and yes... we went over budget...) Lets look at what we ate the second 1/2 half of the month when I remembered to take pictures of our dinners. It's not in order by any means, and I missed a few nights, but it gives you a little idea about what we have been doing.

Chicken Sandwiches (We ate this 2 times in the second half of the month)
Canned chicken mixed with organic fat free Greek yogurt, salt, pepper, organic diced onion. Add you favorite cheese to some tasty bread and heat it in your toaster oven so you don't have to butter the bread and fry them on the stove.

Pork Crock Pot Mex Meal (This was dinner for 3 nights spaced out. We ate this, picked something else the next day, then ate leftovers of this... and we did that one more time).
So I took some frozen pork loin (think three 1 inch-ish thick pork chops we cut ourselves out of a pork loin) and put it in our mini crock pot with a jar of generic mild salsa. I tossed in some garlic powder, salt, pepper, and maybe 1/4 cup of bell peppers I didn't know what to do with with maybe 1/4 chopped onion that was leftover in a container. I stuck that on high all day and then shredded the meat and kept some of the salsa juice.

We made "chipotle" rice. (Little oil in a pan, then toss in the uncooked but washed rice, heat for a little, then add water and cook rice like normal... then mix in a little lime juice and the cilantro), then just did taco fixings like avocado, cheese, lettuce, olives, tomatoes, onions, etc. I ate mine with my fork or with chips and hubs made his into burritos. 



Spinach Bites (This ended up being used for one dinner, and lunch and a snack for me during the week)... then we made them again and I brought some to a work pot-luck too!)
It's thawed and drained spinach, a chopped onion cooked in melted butter, garlic, salt, pepper, a few eggs, a box of unprepared stuffing, Parmesan cheese... mix, roll, bake. I found the recipe here at the Curvy Carrot.


Artichokes, Sweet potato fries, and burgers. (artichokes we ate twice, and we did burgers at least twice this month, but only once in the second half when I was taking pictures)

They are pretty self explanatory, but I steamed the artichokes in the microwave and after i washed and peeled the sweet potatoes, i tossed them in a little olive oil, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and some Parmesan cheese and baked them in the oven. We had some melted butter to dip our artichoke leaves in... and just your basic burger toppings. Since we have been experiencing summer weather, I've kind of reverted to our summer meal plans a bit.

Broccoli Cakes with Baked Potatoes (One dinner, plus a side for another below)
You can find the broccoli recipe here from the Smitten Kitchen but its steamed chopped broccoli with tasty awesomeness. And again, when my husband asks me to make a meatless meal... you know its tasty!

Steak Kabobs! (One dinner, three lunches for me- I did steak taco leftovers 2 days and a steak sandwich melt the other)
I tried to get some organic meat, but no local store had any so we picked some regular meat up from Ralphs. I marinated it in Newman's light Italian dressing and after soaking the skewer sticks in water almost all day, we put the steak pieces on with onions, bell peppers, and potatoes.
This was before we cooked them

Frozen fish (Wild caught Pollock from Costco, and stuffed sole from Omaha steaks) and sweet potatoes (one dinner... but we did a different kind of frozen fish from Costco the week I wasn't taking pictures too. We try and do fish once a week, even if its frozen).  I did the sweet potatoes the same way as before without the Parmesan cheese. The fish was just cooked in the oven.

Shrimp Pea Pasta (2 and a 1/2 dinners and 1 lunch)
South County Boy was craving his mom's shrimp pea pasta, so with his permission I tweaked the recipe slightly because we don't buy mayo anymore. We also normally use whole wheat pasta, but I couldn't find any shell pasta in whole wheat so he got the regular stuff. 

All it is, is chilled cooked pasta, a bag of frozen peas that have been thawed, and frozen cooked shrimp that had been thawed. Squeeze a little lemon in there and then normally you coat it in mayo, but I used the fat free Greek yogurt instead. I has to add a little Parmesan cheese to mask the Greek yogurt taste, but SCB gave it 2 thumbs up and liked the addition of the Parmesan. With my changing work schedule, this helped us when I was working a couple evenings.

Pot Roast and Mash Potatoes (1.5 dinners +3 lunches. I used the meat in  homemade soft tacos, and salads, etc) 
Crockpot a hunk of meat with onion soup mix on high.... then slice and serve with mash potatoes (potatoes are mixed with butter, fat free Greek yogurt, salt, Parmesan cheese and a little milk... topped with green onions.)


Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Groceries for January

In my last post I alluded to how we over spent our food budget for January... We would have been within $5 of our budget, but SCB ran out of bread and goldfish... which then led to a Costco shopping trip... which then led to us spending $78!!!! So, we over spent for January. I learned a few things though.

  1. Don't take husband to Costco... because everything sounds good when we both want it... 
  2. Bring a list and stick to it...
  3. Plan a little better and be more conservative at the beginning of the month.

The third one is where I think I'll be able to make February a better month for the budget. I bought a lot of individual single serve stuff in the beginning of the month (which was pricey) because I couldn't find organic larger containers of things which would have been cheaper... but after a month of shopping around and getting a good handle on what things should cost, I think Feb will go better. Also, since February is a shorter (only 4 shopping days), I think we can get our average back down or at least closer to $300 a month, but we will see. If we can't make it average out, then that is a sign we need to up our grocery budget or make some swapping decisions.

Dairy


We ended up spending $74.96 on dairy this month... which is pretty crazy. Thankfully most of the Fresh & Easy products we picked up this month were free because we had $28 in rewards that we redeemed, so if we take off that $14.76 we spent there, we really only spent $60.20 on dairy... but even that is kind of high. We haven't found a good cheese swap so were still picking it up at Costco. Any suggestions considering we eat a lot of cheese?

For next month, we are hoping to reduce our dairy spending by:

  • Buying milk in a full gallon instead of a 1/2 gallon carton. This month since our milk was free it wasn't a biggie, but after 4 weeks of shopping around all the stores I've learned I can get a gallon of fat free organic milk for $5.99 at Trader Joes and we should be able to drink it down by the expiration date. Sprouts dates can vary and since there are weeks where we drink milk, and others where we don't use as much, I don't want to waste paying $6 a gallon for milk with a short shelf life (cause then buying the smaller container for $3.89 would make more since cause we wouldn't toss as much).
  • I bought a blender for work with my Kohl's cash from the vacuum return and this way I can make my own smoothies instead of buying those little ones from Walmart. 
  • I also found that Trader Joes carries the LARGE plain organic Greek yogurt tubs... which are way cheaper than the individual flavor ones or the smaller container from sprouts (when that's in stock)... So instead of yogurt and granola, (since i can't stomach the plain greek yogurt with just granola), I'm going to just try to do smoothies instead of yogurt as a snack and I can just snack on the granola cause its tasty on its own or eat it with milk like cereal.  

Fruit
I lucked out on that one pound of organic strawberries. The store forgot to change the price sticker from the week before when regular strawberries were $0.99, so they honored the $2.99 organic price for me at checkout. If I had known that it's standard for strawberries to be $5.99 lb for organic, I would have bought more than one.

I thought we were being good with the Simply orange juice, but then hubs goggled the company. We will now be buying organic OJ from Costco since that's by far the cheapest I've seen. Also bananas from Costco are epic. I lucked out on the one bunch from Fresh and Easy. It was abnormally large (normally its supposed to be around 2.5 lbs) but it was green and I like to buy bananas green so they last longer and I like them better when they are green... but the bunch was so large that at checkout the lady had to come over and "ok" it because it was 3.5 lbs and the computer said it should have been closer to 2.5 lbs (not sure who wrapped it up, but thanks!).

So we have been Apples, Oranges and Bananas for the most part for fruit because its either way too expensive for other items (Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries were too steep for my taste this month)... or they just don't have organic versions at the stores.

Things to note for next month:

  • I didn't see the 3 lb bags of apples until this week... so for apples for next month, each time I go in I check to see if its cheaper to buy the apples loose by weight, or in a bag and try and find a good one. Same goes for the oranges since the loose ones are huge and a lot of that is the peal you end up tossing away.  
  • I also found the Walmart up in Irvine sells more organic pantry items then the one near our home, so that's becoming our new Walmart since its next to Costco.
Veggies

I'm excited that we spent so much on produce.... not because we spent a lot, but because we didn't toss any of it out which meant we ate it!! 

Again, after shopping around for 4 weeks and now knowing the standard price for things and how much we eat before things start to go bad and have to get creative, I think we will be better prepared for next month... but we we ate mostly organic here so that's cool! It's also weird how broccoli can be $1.59 lb one week and then $2.72 lb the next (same with tomatoes... $2.49 lb and then $3.49 lb!)... while jicama (which isn't organic), is generally always $0.77 lb. (its one of our new veggies for the year).

Grains


Costco had a great deal on bread... $2 off a package of two organic loaves. It goes to through the first week in Feb, so i'll be stocking up our freezer because $5 for 2 loaves of good organic bread is a steal.

I can't get SCB to drop the gold fish yet.... 

Protein/Nuts/Etc

We ate a lot out of our freezer this month. I've also been making banana nut bread every other week, and after buying nuts in the bulk bin, we bit the bullet and bought a large bag at Costco because it will eventually save us some coin and hubs LOVE the banana nut bread I've been making for breakfast. The buffalo chicken is for him for when i'm working nights...

Pantry items 

Pretty generic and straightforward...


And we had $28 in coupons from Fresh and Easy and  we saved $0.25 at sprouts for remembering to bring our own bags.

All in all, $349.84 in Food, $36.95 for house items (Laundry detergent, dishwasher packets, dish soap, garbage bags)... for a total of $386.79 for the month.

Monday, January 27, 2014

We are taking back our vacuum...

I know we just bought it right? But don't worry it's not broken... and we love it... I just found a better deal on it.

I was browsing online at kohls.com because I have $20 in rewards bucks I need to redeem by the end of the month (leftover from Black Friday shopping that didn't get credited until Dec because they had a computer glitch). So as I was browsing, I found my vacuum on their site.

It normally sells for $699.99 but was on sale for $479.99... which with tax and their free shipping on purchases of $75 or more would ultimately be $7.20 less than what I bought it for at Costco. In my other post, I mentioned how our Costco bundle came with all these special attachments, right?

Well I don't like them.

In fact, I'm quite happy with the 2 standard ones it comes with as they suit all of my needs. So I started playing around with the idea of returning the Costco model and buying it at Kohl's because I could use my $20 in rewards... but the total savings would only end up being $27...

But then I remembered I had a 30% coupon for Kohls that came in the mail just the other day...

$699.99  $479.99 Sale
Minus $20 Rewards, $459.99
Minus 30% made it $321.99
and with tax the total the total would come to $347.75 with shipping

instead of $525.58

A savings of $177.83...

and I'd get $60 in Kohls Cash...
and my purchase should net me an additional $15 in Kohl's rewards because you get $5 for every $100 you spend...

And I wouldn't have to keep the attachments I'm not thrilled with...

So I clicked order...

New one should be here this week and I'm taking the old one back to costco for a refund.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Getting Organized

So back in December we bought a new fire-proof safe because the little one I bought many eons ago was now full and South County Boy REALLY wanted to get one that we could put hanging holders in. So I surprised him with one from Walmart one day.

Now these "fireproof safes" aren't really for "safety" from your average thief... Partially because you can just pick it up and carry it away... and also because you can just pick the lock with a nail file that comes on a pair of nail clippers. Yup, that's right... Just shove it in and jingle it around and the latch will move (True story).

Actually the safe was so cheap that SCB bent BOTH keys trying to open it up the other day. (He didn't fully insert the key before trying to turn it). That meant I had to take a hammer to it this morning and smack one around a bit to bend it enough so it fit into the lock because I couldn't find the small set of nail clippers to use. (yup, I went looking for the nail clippers BEFORE trying to fix the key it came with)

So we mainly got it because it was cheaper then a small file cabinet and it claims to have some fireproofing to it.... Either way, we haven't done anything with it. It's been just living in our living room on the floor... hanging out empty like a piece of random furniture.

So I finally got around to going through the pile of stuff that was in it, purging some and saving others... in ... get this:

FOLDERS... with LABELS... and TABS. It was an office geeks kind of party my friends.


And I learned that I apparently save all kinds of stuff... including my first apartment lease papers from 2007?... (ya, that got shredded... well its in a pile of other random crap that still needs to be shredded)....

Eventually we will go through the desk drawers and random kitchen cabinets and move all that stuff into the safe and hopefully in the process purge the stuff we don't need and add it to the shred pile too. (Considering I have a kitchen drawer dedicated to manuals for random appliances... it may take a while.)

So where was SCB while all this was going down? He was working... But don't you both work Monday - Friday?

Nope. Not anymore.

As apart of my promotion back in July, I was supposed to start working Tuesday - Saturday... with a split shift schedule.... meaning Tues, Wed, Thursday, I open at the crack of dawn and work 5:15am -1:15pm... and  Fridays I work 1-9pm... and Saturdays 11-7pm. (instead of M-F 5:15am - 1:15 pm... with hubs getting home around 3:30 - 4 pm)...

So a little change. The only reason I didn't start my new hours till now was one of my co-workers was expecting and planning a 3 month maternity leave to bond with her little bundle of joy, so they didn't want to make any changes until she was back... and she's back. It will take some time to get used to, but i'm looking at the silver lining despite not having Saturdays with my hubby anymore.

I'm actually going to get a bit more "me" time in the deal then before...

Like Friday mornings I now get to sleep in, make time to work out, blog, clean the house... and then do house projects (like the above)... WITHOUT SCB to distract me. Its kind of nifty for the moment. I love them man, don't get me wrong, but sometimes when I want to clean or do a project its like pulling teeth to get him on board... and in a small space, you really have to have all parties on board or someone will be complaining bloody murder by being bothered.

I'm also looking forward to getting in a fitness class or two or an opportunity to pound the pavement solo... and if you saw my last post about exercising with SCB, I'm kind of loving it (sorry hunny... kisses?).

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Working out with your husband is a whole 'nother thing

So my husband and I have been attempting to work out together for the Dumbo Double Dare (a 10 k followed by a 1/2 marathon)...

So we have been trying to workout together at least when it comes to carving out some weekly mileage (I'm the only one really cross training at the moment)...

It was our second time going out for a walk. The first time we walked a 5k around the neighborhood together and it was enjoyable. We had our pup with us and it was like going on any old walk together, just a bit longer than normal... and it was nice.

The next time we went out, it was supposed to be for a walk/jog of 4 miles... before we left the house we decided we would listen to our own audio books/music since that's how I like to run... (with something to distract me). We both picked different audio books and headed out.

Unfortunately it was along this trip that I learned something valuable... very valuable...

Working out with my husband is not like working out with my friends.

There I said it.

It wasn't fun...

The first half of the 2 mile path we took was a slight gradual incline. Our plan was to walk and then jog little sections along the way to introduce the jogging concept to my husband. It was supposed to be okay... It was supposed to be fun...

I mean, it's always fun when I walk and chat with my friends... even when we jog and have separate music...

But this wasn't fun.

The first half of our 4 mile journey my husband kept mocking me.

Yup, he kept mocking my shorter legs and therefore shorter jogging stride by running circles around me... literally... I would be jogging forward and he would be jogging in a circle around me... making me dizzy... making me think I was going to plow into him because it wasn't a WIDE circle... nope it was close. It was about an arms length away from me...

When he wasn't doing that, he would animatedly start "power walking" right beside me, pointing out that he could walk while I was still jogging... up the slight incline... growing more agitated with each step.

I was a bit fuming at this point... and then he started to waive his walking reflector in my face just to say hello and smile at me... like this was the funnest thing in the world....

I found a new button I didn't know I had.

It didn't help his case that the Santa Ana winds were way crazy and blowing dust at us the whole time, further making me cranky... but lets face it. My husband is like a little kid, and apparently I have discovered that I have a "work out mode." 

A casual walk with our pup, no problem... but toss in the word "training" and apparently I like to get in the zone and focus...

He on the other hand likes to play.

At one point return stretch, a beach ball blew near us (yup, that's how bad the winds were, a beach ball literally flew out of someone's yard sailed across the street through traffic 6 lanes of traffic and then landed on the bike/hike path)... so my husband naturally decided to play with it. He would throw it up in the air and try to run and catch it... repeatedly... well until it bounced and sailed into the ditch... but he was everywhere on the path.

I couldn't take it any longer and responded by jogging the majority of the way home ... solo... I just couldn't do it... my buttons had been pressed and I was peeved. After a mile or so of straight jogging, I felt calmer after escaping the "fun" and saw hubs was in the distance so I back tracked and he jogged a little to meet up with me. We walked a bit together and that was better. As we got closer to home I told him I was going to probably jog most of the way back and just wait for him at the door.

I have no idea how i'm going to help train him for the Dumbo Double Dare... Apparently i'm all business and he's all play!


Monday, January 20, 2014

Housing market and mortgage musings

If you saw my post from Friday, you may have noticed that a one bedroom condo in my complex just sold for $220,000.00......

No, that's not a misprint.

It sold on the 10th of January for $100,000 more than I paid for mine 4 years ago... and my condo was nicer and more improved (new windows, better kitchen, etc.)

That's an 83% increase over almost 4.5 years... That's crazy

I remember looking back when i first started saving up money for my down payment, wondering how anyone ever bought a home... then the market turned and I was finally able to buy something... and now the market is up and while its great to think about the equity we are sitting on... its also a strong reality how much a larger home would be if we were to sell our place and move.

It's just mind boggling...

One things for sure, I won't be petitioning my property tax bill anytime soon... and speaking of property taxes, I got a notice from BOFA telling me I had too much money in reserves for my property tax bills the other day.

They take $102.03 a month and stick it into a special escrow account to pay my property tax statements for me twice a year... and because the county lowered my bill slightly, I had a couple extra dollars that got added to the reserve in the account. My reserve hit $204.70. (Which, considering they are probably going to increase my taxes once they see that 220,000 sale, I think is a good thing.)

But apparently I'm only allowed to have 16.6% of the base amount of my bill in my reserve...

I'm only over that by $1.58, but they have decided that starting in March i'll be sending $101.97 to my escrow account now instead of $102.03... (six cents a month)...

They decided to kill a tree to tell me about a six cent change.

And here's the funny part, i'll probably get a revised statement for the 2013-2014 year in a few months, making me pay even more than I was before they lower it by six cents...

Ridiculous...

Friday, January 17, 2014

Mortgage Update

Principle paid down: $323.56
Interest: $346.40
Additional Principle: $13.00
New Balance: $110,520.58

The pay off date is June 2033. If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, I will still need to pay $45,083.14 in interest (plus the $24,327.11 I've already paid). Before our refinance, we would have paid $116,404.23 in interest.

I tossed an extra $13 at the mortgage this month because that was the monthly debt pay down challenge in the  Proboards WIR WEST group ... to add $1 to your debt for whatever day of the month it is (so since I paid our mortgage on the 13th, I added $13 dollars in extra principle). The extra $13 we paid this month will save us $13.93 in interest over the life of the loan.

Getting the Keys...

It took me $7,057.08 to get the keys to my condo and then I spent 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 got 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 gotten back 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. We didn't Itemize our taxes in 2011.
  • 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 a mortgage payment too! In addition, they automatically lowered my property tax value, giving us a check for $86.77.. and we saved $5,191.81 by NOT renting a place!! (see Housing Comps 2013 $16,977 for an apartment, $11,785.19 for the condo)
All of that "math" leaves us $6,994.37 in the hole. If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it ($120k), we have $9,479.42 in equity...

Leaving us $2,485.05 in profit after 4 yrs & 4 months! Woohoo!

Even though we broke even at the end of 2013, I still want to keep track of how much money our condo is saving us each year. For 2014, we will again assume our monthly mortgage payments are going to be a wash since it's cheaper to OWN our home then to RENT an apartment. (Check out Housing Comps 2014 for how we figured that one out).
For 2014 we have spent $1,115.34 to live in our condo, instead of $1,441.00 to live in the apartment.
  • Mortgage: $669.96 (P&I)
  • Extra Mortgage Principle: $13.00
  • HOA: $270.00
  • Property Taxes: $102.03 
  • Small Home Repairs/Improvements: $60.35 
    • $6.44 fix something under the sink
    • $53.91 New front door deadbolt
So far we have saved $325.66 by owning our condo and not renting an apartment.

Current Housing Market:
One-Bedrooms Listed/Sold in our Complex:
  • Asking: n/a
  • Sold in last 6 months $220,000 (January 2014)
Two-Bedrooms Listed for Sale in our Complex:
  • Asking $264,000 (Days on Market 41)
    • Originally Listed 12/4/13
      • Price drop from $285,000 to 264,000 on 12/18/13
    • Delisted 12/22/13
  • Asking $264,900 (Days on Market 71)
    • Originally listed 11/4/13
      • Price drop from 284,900 to $279,900 on 11/15/13
      • Price drop from 279,900 to $264,900 on 11/23/13
  • Asking $285,000 (Days of Market technically 105)
    • Listed 9/30/13 
    • Delisted 12/18/13
    • Relisted 1/7/14
  • Sold in the last 6 months: $185,000.00 (August, 2013)- Short Sale
  • Sold in the last 6 months: $257,000.00 (August, 2013)

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Groceries thus far...

We have been really focusing on eating healthy with the new year and I'm hoping to get back in the habit of posting our grocery shopping spending. Our goal is to keep it under $300 a month for food and household items and to buy as much organic items as possible... so hopefully no more than $3,600 for the year.

Our Grocery/Household items did average $300 for 2013 but we only started including organic items in the last couple months. We are hoping if we go with more basic and scratch cooked meals, incorporating more "real" foods in our diet, and reducing our glutenous portions, that maybe it will keep even for the year.

While we haven't been able to take pictures of what we are eating for dinner, I'm hoping to start doing that again soon.

The Details

Thus far we have spent $103.31 on groceries and $27.41 on household supplies for January. Since we came home from Utah to an empty fridge we have been buying a lot of produce... I know there isn't much "meat" or things like "bread" listed yet, but our freezer and pantry were stocked up fairly well from November and December before we headed out so were still eating a well balanced diet, even though most of our shopping looks like rabbit food for the moment. (WE LOVE OUR CHEST FREEZER).

Dairy $39.77
 Fruit $14.76
Vegetables $30.00 
 Grains $11.79
 Protein/Meat $10.48
 Other: $1.75

You might be wondering why that doesn't equal $103.31 for food, after I told you that is what we spent. That's because I had $12 in Fresh & Easy Rewards that I redeemed.

  • $2 from prior purchases (you get 1 point per dollar spent in the store so 100 points = $1 off. My "friends" card had 200 points on it.)
  • $10 from scanning a special 1,000 point bonus coupon they sent me in my e-mail. 
So I used that coupon to really get 1/2 a gallon of Organic Fate Free Milk, 1 lb Organic Strawberries, 64 oz of organic apple juice,  14 oz of organic tortilla chips, & a dozen organic large eggs all for $1.97


We also got a nickle off our shopping trip from bringing our own bag to Sprouts.

With the new ownership of Fresh & Easy, I'm not sure how long we will continue to shop there since they:
A) Stopped mailing us a weekly ad... which means no weekly coupon for $5 off $25 or $10 off $50...
B) Started raising prices on regular items...
C) Stopped posting a printable coupon on their website for $5 off $25 (which I would use if my purchase was not enough to use the $10 off $50 or because I only had one $5 off $25 coupon and was buying a lot)...

So we will see. I'll be buying some items there since I have another 1,000 point bonus coupon, a 500 point bonus coupon... but I may skip the week were the only coupon is for 3x your points spent in the store.

Plus Sprouts has a much larger organic produce selection... and Fresh and Easy has limited Organic Dairy options.

Monday, January 13, 2014

They wanted how much for a Key???

We went to Utah to visit family and do some shopping the tail end of December. While we were there, South County Boy managed to bend his copy of my car key (the only spare key to the Camry) to the point were it would no longer start the car nor open the trunk.

We drove home using my keys and when I was out and about, I stopped into the Toyota Dealership to get a quote for making a new set of keys for my car.... and an additional car clicker, since SCB has always wanted one. I handed my keys to the service rep.


A sample of my key

A sample of my clicker
The man in the service department spewed off some numbers really quickly and said something north of $370 and told me it would take an hour. I thanked him for his time and promptly left.

Over $300 for a set? and the guy wanted like 70-80 bucks for just the key? Something couldn't be right... When I told South County Boy about the "quote" he decided to do some research. Apparently most keys now a days have these little chips in them that make them "special"... and so if you car has a chip in the key, copies made will only open the door, and turn the ignition....  (See this You Tube Video if you don't know what i'm talking about).

Since my key looked normal and not like the key in the video... and since SCB's newer Ford Escort "Sally" was currently being driven with a home depot copy key, we decided a little experiment was in order and well worth the possibility of flushing $5 down the toilet to avoid spending $100 for the same thing.

We walked into Home Depot and handed my car key to the clerk and asked him to make a copy. He grabbed a book, looked up our car, and pulled a key out. He told us it was his first time making a key and that he wanted to look everything up to make sure it was correct before trying since the regular key guy was busy. We hung around 5 minutes or so waiting for him to figure out the machine. He told us that they always "cut" the key twice to make sure it really matches the original and to make sure all the excess metal gets cut away.

When he was done, he handed the key to SCB and told him to go see if it would start our car before we paid, offering to try again if it didn't work. The door opened... the car started... so we made a second spare key... and it worked too...

I took both keys and checked out for a grand total of $4.69 with tax.

Talk about a difference. We drove home a few miles with the new key, and then I used the new copy to drive to work the next day, no problems.

Curious, since we still didn't have a second clicker, I called the dealership up on the phone to get a better idea of what they were really wanting to charge. I waited on hold for a while before I finally got a member of the service department to help us out. I asked him for a quote on how much it would cost to get a new key and clicker for my car.

He asked me what type of car I had and I told him an 2004 Camry... not a hybrid but an LE... When he came back, he told me it would be $60 for the key and $129 to program it. When I asked him how much it was for just the key and not the clicker, he was confused. Thankfully since I purchased my car there, he was able to pull up not just the exact make and model of my car, but my exact car. I then spent more time on hold before he told me it would be $43 for a key, $120 for a clicker, and $129 to program the clicker...

How does a clicker that's not also a key magically double the price? You would think a key-clicker combo would be more expensive than just a clicker right? I mean how does my first quote of $60 for a key/clicker combo become $120 for just a clicker since both have the addition of $129 for the labor to program it? (Not to mention how the first quote from the guy HOLDING my keys was $370????)

While I was thinking, he asked if I had the original and when I told him I did, he said good because keys have chips in them and without the Master Key, you can't make copies... We'd have to re-key the whole car...

Playing devils advocate, I asked why a regular old key without any power anything was $43... I mean "couldn't I" just go down to Home Depot and make a copy there? In response, the guy put on his "smart" voice and told me again that keys have chips in them, and if I were to make a copy, the copy would only turn the ignition, not start the car... Like in the you tube video.

When I asked him "what if it does start the car" the guy said, well then I guess its okay, but they don't do that. I had him re-quote just the clicker price to me and he told me again $120 the clicker, plus $129 for the labor to program it.

For now I'm thinking I some how just saved $40... (technically $80 because now I'm using a spare and my precious master key is in our safe now, along with the bent original spare key) ...

but anyone out there know more about cars than me?

Friday, January 10, 2014

January Budget

We have just two major points of focus for the month.

Send $1,275.00 to South County Boys 2013 Roth IRA. ($500 from 2 paychecks, plus the regular $275 we normally send to mine.)

Keep groceries to $300 this month, buying as much organic as we can.


If we can do just those 2 things this month, I'd call that a success. 

The Deadline for contributions for the 2013 tax year for SCB's Roth IRA is Tuesday, April 15, 2014, so if we stick to our plan,

January - $1,275.00
February - $1,275.00
March - $1,275.00
April - $500.00 (SCB will only get 1 paycheck before the deadline)

That leaves us $1,175.00 Short from maxing out his Roth IRA for 2013... 

Hopefully we can "find" that much floating around in the budget over the next three months. If we are super close and we would only be floating some money from our EF for a week or so, I may consider pulling out $500 since SCB would get a paycheck the next week to put it back... and finding $675 seems much more "do-able" over the course of the next couple months. Who knows, maybe we will get a nice tax return?

January Budget:
Mortgage: $771.99
Church Tithe: $572.00
Other Church offerings: $40.00
Groceries/Household Items: $300.00
Date Nights & Eating Out: $100.00
Pocket Money (each) $40
Cell Phone Work Reimbursement: $84.75
HOA: $270.00
Utility Bills: $150.00 (Second cell, Electricity, Internet)
Gasoline: $250.00
Discretionary: $201.08


Savings
Christmas Savings: $50.00
Vacation Savings: $100

Roth IRA: $1,275.00
Insurance Savings: $143.00
Prescriptions/Doctors Visits: $50.00
Roxy (Dog) Savings Account: $50.00

** In addition, January is a three paycheck month so we will Tithe 10% and the rest of the money we spend on the vacuum we purchased. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

We bought a new vacuum!

I know I just got done posting a blog about how we aren't going to be spending South County Boy's paychecks... but in our defense, January is a 3 paycheck month for SCB so we should still be able to save $1,275 towards his Roth IRA this month if all goes to plan.

It all started the other day. I generally try to vacuum once a week since our condo is small and Roxy generally keeps to certain areas of the house, and it was about that time in the cleaning process.

I generally start in the living room and by the time I've covered the area, I generally empty out the container and smack the air filter over the side of the railing to knock out all the dust... Then i'd do the bedroom and the hall way, and do the same thing to the container and the filter... The process finally ends with a final once over of both rooms to pick up a bit more debris and since the container normally just picks up about a smaller amount I generally call it done.

So as I was putting the vacuum away and giving Roxy some attention since she hates the vacuum and it scares her, I noticed I could still see dog hair on the carpet...

But I had just vacuumed not once, but twice.

It became apparent that my 8 year old Hoover wind-tunnel wasn't cutting it anymore with a dog in the house.

It was also that week in Costco where they Demo'd the Dyson DC-41 Animal Plus model.

The suction was unbelievable... and we took it home. They had a $90 instant rebate, but it still cost us $525 with tax to take it and all the attachments home. On the plus side, It had way more suction then our older model and it also is lighter and quieter.


Just going over the carpet in the red box, yielded the result below.




EWW... That my friends was in just one swipe of my carpet. We continued the rest of the living room and when we were done, we had to empty the chamber.


Bedroom and living room....
All in all, were feeling kind of good about the vacuum at this stage in the game... especially because my carpet normally doesn't look "just vacuumed" after an hour later... and it looks just vacuumed THE NEXT DAY!!! 

Impulse buy, yes... but i'm not choked up about it. My carpet looks so much newer too!

We are going to have SCB take our old vacuum to work since the one he uses to clean up around there just doesn't work very well and since our old one works fine without a pet, he thinks his boss will be happy with it.

Monday, January 6, 2014

14 for 2014 (Annual Goals)

I know we are a bit into January already...  and I've yet to do a "goals post..." but I've really had a hard time trying to get into it.

I just feel really blessed when we look at our finances right now. South County Boy and I are starting our first year of marriage where we both have full time jobs. We aren't worried about making ends meet with a solid emergency fund of 6 months of expenses under our belt and with no debt (well minus the now 20 year mortgage on the condo) we feel really free. We even upgraded/replaced a car last year!

I keep remembering back to the things I used to try and struggle to accomplish, like maxing out my Roth IRA every year or sending more money to the mortgage.... and now it's just built into our budget... all I have to do is send the money over there once it comes in each month and its taken care of... For a personal finance nerd, it may sound boring, but it's kind of cool to me. All we have to do is stick to our plan.

Since "Building Wealth" isn't about being handed a wad of cash but rather doing small things regularly, our list may seem "Same old same old" to you but that's our plan for the year. Keep it simple and have a back up plan.

Our 14 for 2014
  1. Max out a Roth IRA for SCB for 2013. Since we have a few months left to go until the deadline, it doesn't make since to start a 2014 Roth IRA for either of us until we work on a Roth IRA for 2013 for South County Boy since you can't go back in time to deposit the money later on if you end up having it. But, we aren't going to pull money out of our emergency fund to make it happen... so, to help this along, the money we normally would send to my Roth IRA each month is going to go to his 2013 until we either hit the deadline, or drop $5,500.00 into it. Lets cross our fingers guys!
  2. Respect the Dirty Dozen list and buy ORGANIC... We finally have an income where we don't have to eat crap anymore. While I don't want to spend a ton of money on groceries, i've read enough and seen enough online to realize that there are more pesticides and crud in our food now then ever before... So our goal is to purchase organic foods on the dirty dozen list and others when they fit into our budget of $300 a month for groceries/household stuff. I REALLY want to get healthy this year because we think we might try and have a goober next year and I want to get myself ready to be a healthy home for a future little one this year.
  3. Keep our emergency fund in tact and round it up to $12,500.00
  4. Participate in the Dumbo Dash WITH SCB. (A 10k followed by a half marathon the next day).Which was his idea since we both would like to loose 25 lbs a piece (I lost 15 last year and then gained it all back....) so this time were going to try together and make good changes TOGETHER so we stick with it.
  5. Max out my Roth IRA for 2014. 
  6. Max out a Roth IRA for SCB for 2014.. (may dip into 2015 to finish it)
  7. Try to live off just my income and save/invest SCB's. We may use a little hear and there for a few things like the Dumbo Dash and for a wedding i'm going to be in... but for the most part we want to save it and pretend its just not there for regular things.
  8. Visit family in Navoo Illinois for our 3 year anniversary! We'll be couch surfing with his folks while they are on their mission, but Illinois here we come!
  9. Save $1,000 towards a new car since our cars are now the same age, we really need to get on a future replacement fund.
  10. Continue to slowly remodel our bedroom and closet. (Eventually we want to get rid of my current furniture and buy more space appropriate stuff from Ikea since we hope to be able to completely empty our walk in closet to convert it to a future baby alcove in a year and a half when we start attempting to have a goober. (which means ripping everything out of the closet, putting in a ceiling fan for good circulation, and removing the door permanently... after of course getting all our stuff out of there! We will use SCB's income for this hopefully after the Roth IRA is done and mine gets caught back up.)
  11. Try 3 new vegetables and incorporate them into our diet. We already tried Jicama and its pretty tasty! 
  12. Toss a little more money to the mortgage...
  13. Be an awesome bridesmaid to my friend Amy!
  14. Go to the temple every other month and try and be better about doing "mormon" things like Family Home Evening, reading the scriptures together, and dong family history stuff.

You may be wondering about the "baby alcove"... and why we are thinking about putting our future some day to be conceived goober in the closet like Harry Potter...  and it all comes down to the fact that when house prices increased, we got priced out of the 2 bedroom market.

We want to afford all our obligations on one income to allow for more flexibility when we start a family and we can't afford to go from a $120,000 mortgage and property tax level to a $300,000 mortgage and property tax level. Even if we sold our place for $200,000 we would only realistically be walking away with 75k after closing costs, etc... which would give us a 20% down payment and closing cost money on a new place, but we'd have a $240,000 mortgage... which is DOUBLE our current mortgage and triple the property tax rates we currently pay... and even then were only getting a 2 bedroom townhouse... and we would have to deal with a higher interest rate...

So we have come to terms with the fact that we are staying put a little longer than we planned. 

Sunday, January 5, 2014

A little re-design

Who likes the new banner and color theme? It's a combination of shots all from 2013! I was sorting our drop-box picture uploads and it was fun to remember all the things we did last year so I figured it was time to update the banner a bit.

Hope you like it! (and in case you missed the others, old ones are below)

New 2014 Banner
Last years 2013 Banner
2012 Banner
Happy 2014 Everyone!



Thursday, January 2, 2014

2013 Year to Date Spending

I'm proud. Despite a crazy year and not always blog posting our spending, I was able to keep track of all our expenses for the entire year. 

What we spent money on in 2013:

Retirement:

  • Roth IRA $5,500.00
  • 401-a: $120.00
  • Pension: $2,307.06
  • Hubs 401k- $361.15

Church Giving: $6,311.00
Other Giving: $120.00
Groceries/Household Supplies: $3,567.14
Wanda and Stitch and Sally (our '91 Ford Escort; '04 Toyota Camry; '03 Ford Escort):
  • Gasoline: $2,634.10
  • Car Registration: $299.00
  • SMOG: 71.24
  • Car Insurance: $1204.51
  • Car Repairs/oil changes: $1,568.24
  • Car Washes: $10
  • Car purchases: $2,000.00
Date Night/ Eating Out: $1,445.70
Cell Phones: $1,364.97
Internet: $365.67
Electricity: $667.88
House:
  • HOA: $3,195.00
  • Mortgage: $9,012.43
  • Refinance: $447.00
  • Earthquake and Homeowners Insurance: $187 +$297
Clothes:
  • SCG: $779.41
  • SCB: $583.30
Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions
  • Heath Insurance Premiums (not thru payroll deduction): $1,602.00
  • Prescriptions: $160.00
  • Dr Bill: $8.00
Holidays/Gifts:
  • Valentines Day: $8.50
  • Easter: $13.47
  • Birthdays: 385.31
  • Mother's Day: $23.73
  • Gifts: $16.02
  • Halloween: $89.39
  • Anniversary: $176.14
  • Christmas: $776.47 (plus $205.68 decorations)
Roxy: Our pup!
  • Adoption fees: $165.95
  • Vet bills: $229.54
  • Food/Toys/Supplies: $338.96
Pocket Money: $510.00
Technology:
  • Portable Wi-Fi: $96.27
  • Computer Parts: $297.32
  • Tablet: $175.00 
  • TV antenna, new key board: $52.45
  • Solar Tech: $191.07
Day Trips
  • Disneyland: $115.00
  • Relay For Life: $20.00
  • OC Fair: $60.00
  • Concert: $100.00
  • La Brea tar Pit $31.59
  • Utah Trip: $574.20
Furniture:
  • Couch $667.52
  • Ikea Table: $214.92 
  • LED Lights (3 sets) and 4 folding chairs: $169.28
  • Bathroom cabinets + Wardrobe tax: $182.07
  • Freezer: $316.41
Other:
  • Expungement Fees: $292.81
  • Tax preparation Fees: $56.98
  • 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
  • Wall mount, and craft eyes: $46.78
  • Slicer and lint roller: $52.05
  • Hair Cut: $83.00
  • Kitchen Items: $39.70
  • Garden Hose, house key/car key copies... $49.26
  • Notary Fee + Birth Certificate $33.00
  • Fan $28.00
  • Make up $43.72
  • Costco Renewal Fee $55.00
  • Amazon (Dog bowls, belt, cables, tablet case)  $59.69
  • Alterations $58.00
  • Baby sitters $30.00 
  • Sealing Photos $200.00
  • 72 Hour kit Food $146.95
  • Sheets for our bed: $48.58
  • Coat Rack: $21.59
  • Hooks: $8.09
  • USPS: $13.09
  • Home depot- Boy Scouts/weblows: $17.28
  • Other: including all those kitchen containers: $231.83
  • Bridesmaid dress: $176.15
  • Other: $1,048.57