I don't remember the last time this happened...

No, really I couldn't remember so I went back to my transaction history and did some digging... Well apparently my "history" only goes back to 2015 when ING was bought by Capital One.... which is really lame if you ask me... so I did some digging and here's a flash back to 2008 when you could earn 3.3% on liquid money... Holy Cow!

Building the snowball...

Were trying to find some creative ways to build our snowball since we don't have any debt besides our mortgage. The only way to increase is to either bring in more money, or cut back on lifestyle...

or sell things.

We have already life style cut to accommodate day care so our budget is what it is. Its not gazelle but its how I can keep the hubby on board.

So, we have started our annual purge a little early this year. With the selling groups on facebook and sites like Varage Sale, I've been able to post some items for sell and actually been successful in selling them.

Mind you this is stuff we probably would have tossed out for convenience sake to free up space at the end of the year or take down to good will or the DI trailer at church... so were not getting crazy and selling everything we own, but we are making the effort to selling things.

So far this month i've made $155 with my virtual garage sale. So things don't get overwhelming, I'm only posting 3 items at a time on 4 different sites that I can access on my tablet so I check them when I'm pumping. When something leaves, I pull the next thing out and take pictures while the Little guy is sleeping, price them out and then post them up.

We haven't dumped this money at the debt yet, but we are stashing it in our cash reserves at home... we may use it for a month when we don't have any added snowball to keep motivation up or we will use it to buy things for our little one second hand when something comes up that he needs.

Right now we aren't selling anything baby related incase we have a second or if my sister has any use for them, so its just stuff that survived the last purge that we haven't used.

So what have I sold?

• 2 crockpots 4 quart ($15) and 2 quart ($5) (we bought a larger one this month so I can do more batch cooking on the weekends)
• 2 beach folding chairs ($10) SCB hated them because they are too low to the ground.
• Old camping stove ($20) -- Our real BBQ is so portable we don't need a camping stove).
• Grain Mill / Wheat Grinder ($60) -- SCB's parents found us a used one out in Utah and gave it to us. Its more efficient and does a larger load which is what we need now that I bake and cook so much more than before. Ours shut off frequently to make sure the motor didn't overheat.
• 2 queen Bedding Sets ($25 and $20). These were the new ones we bought for our bed... but SCB hates them because they don't breath enough for him so his mom made us a couple quilts that work much better so these were just taking up space in the closet.

We currently have some fishing gear up. If it doesn't sell in a week, i'll drop the price to entice the person who is "watching" the post.... Soon well be adding some folding tables just sitting on our deck and a few other things in the upcoming weeks.

Not sure how much i'll get to do when I go back to work, but for now this is the game plan.

Profit Share...

With all the baby to do list items.... and just the excitement surrounding him and his eventual arrival, we totally forgot that March is South County Boy's profit share month.

Once a year, the profits from his job are divided among the employees and everyone gets a bonus check! We never plan for or count on profit share checks for our budget because there is the possibility that their store might not turn a profit for a few reasons... so its always an awesome blessing when it comes our way...

Especially since it was HUGE!!! Their store has been really busy the last year since another location close to them moved further away and they absorbed some of their clients.

So how big we talking?

$6,140.29

Mind you most of that will end up with the tax man, but after tax withholding, 6% to his retirement account (with his 3% match) and tithing, we will have  $2,800.00 to spend!

What an awesome blessing with a baby on the way!

SCB and I were discussing what we will do with the check, and he said something really profound to me... He thanked me for budgeting and being thoughtful with our funds each month that profit share checks aren't something we NEED to survive, but can be a "bonus" for our family.

Sure, a lot will go to savings and such, but apparently a lot of his co-workers depend on the checks to get through the year... and it made me smile to realize how much my husband appreciates the time and effort that goes into our budget and finances each month. Makes me thankful for many things :)

RAISE!!! He got a Raise!!!

I know the blog title gives this post away, but back in October or November, South County Boy went into his bosses office to ask for a raise...


Apparently when he talked to his boss, it was the perfect time to discuss it because his boss needed to give financial projections to the corporate end of the business for the next year... so if he was going to give him a raise or even consider it, South County Boy sure timed talking about it at the right moment. Now his company doesn't give annual raises at all because they do profit sharing instead if the company has profits... but since South County Boy was hired originally as a driver and since then has done more warehouse and now sales work, he's become far more valuable...

Right now since they fired their old driver, he's technically doing 2 jobs and working his tail off at $11 an hour...

He wasn't going to talk to his boss until February, but he had a feeling or a prompting and so he talked with his boss out of the blue about it when the timing was actually perfect. While his boss understood our predicament (it looked like daycare would cost us more than his take home pay each month so we were possibly considering him being a stay at home dad)... he couldn't make any promises but appreciated the open discussion.

We hadn't heard anything since then... and SCB wasn't going to talk to his boss until early March to see if there was an update...

But this week he was called into his bosses office...

and told he got a raise...

a big one...

22.7% more.... 

because he thought to ask his boss for it.

He now gets $13.50 an hour... and we are feeling so incredibly blessed because this will provide a nice chunk of change for us each month and it makes us feel like we have options for our budget and not just worst case scenarios...

On top of that, South County Boy can keep his job with all the perks that come from it. (Like staying in the workforce... earning 401k contributions, giving us a second option for health insurance, getting profit share checks... and helping to pay for things other than daycare like diapers and wipes)...

It is really satisfying for me to know that my husband feels he significantly helps provide for his family. SCB has always been bummed that he doesn't make that much money, or that I make more than he does.... but with this raise he actually feels like he is helping to take care of his son and his family and that means so much to me. I can tell him how much he contributes and how valuable he is as an earner to our family, but if he doesn't believe it, I can't make him... and its so wonderful to know how much this means to him.

Another Windfall

More money! Its just so exciting!

You see, I haven't turned in my mileage for work since November. For those of you who don't know, when I have to use my personal vehicle for work, my job will reimburse me based on each mile I drive. Some of my co-workers don't bother to keep track, but I do... It's generally just a few dollars, but rather a few dollars in my pocket then not I say.

If I have to run to another center to drop off money or pick something up... or say attend an offsite meeting... I just keep a little notebook in my car and write it down. It takes me just a moment to keep track of and I normally will turn it in every other month of so... only this time I hadn't turned anything in since November!

I know, I know... its really bad of me, but I have been so busy that every time I got a free moment to do it, I always got distracted and then it became this thing I never wanted to tackle and the list of trips just kept getting longer... which made me want to do it even less....

At the beginning of the month I thought we were still going to need to "find money" to make the Roth IRA deadline... so I bit the bullet and did all 6 pages or reimbursement requests...

...

and I got a check for $128.57

It might be a hassle for some, but $128.57 returned to my pocket is kind of awesome right now.

Profit Sharing

I wish their was a word I could type that would convey the sounds of angels descending into our bank account. You know those movie moments where the sound effects literally make the scene? So lets just insert one of those here:

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

The profit sharing check arrived... and blew our expectations out of the water.

Now before I tell you how much it is, MOST of the check goes towards taxes because it's considered a "bonus..." and remember, this check is only for him working half the year.... so we can assume next year might be double the amount we received... which was

$2,200.00

or

$1,314.50 after taxes

YES! 

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.