I have spent 3 days working on this post to shorten it. With constant interruptions, this is the best it is going to get. Sorry for the length!
****
Last year, we did a RESET of the the debt. For tracking purposes, this was going to change the annual date of looking at the big picture, although I do continue to give a nod to the blogiversary too (in August).
So the RESET entailed taking a loan from G-man's retirement account, after paying off a different loan and waiting the 60 days, per regulations. We never included that older loan in our debt number, although we do count this newer loan. This all happened in late April 2012, and it was early May when we had officially paid things off with this loan.
The loan was for $38,000, which consolidated 3 CCs and Lending Club, and included some money for the new mattress we purchased last winter. This loan is autodebited from G-man's bi-weekly paycheck, at $380.15 a payperiod. The interest rate is 1.875% (I think!). It is a 4 year loan, so if we do absolutely nothing but the minimal, it will be paid off in late April/early May 2016.
Because this loan has such a low interest rate, most of the payment goes to principal, which is just refunding our retirement account. Previously, the interest rates on the CCs were 15.99, 11.99, and 9.24%. So obviously, our new rate was WAY better!!!
Taking this money from our retirement account sparked alot of debate. Very few people thought it was a good idea. I will say, one year later, it absolutely was the right choice for us. While our CC debt did go up (more in a minute), we were able to pay off just shy of $10,000 in the past year on this loan. With the interest rates such as they were, there is no way that would have happened without the loan.
***
So where do we stand now? Current numbers are posted on the side bar.
Retirement loan - One more paycheck (next week), and we will have paid off $10,000 of this loan! We are very happy about this, and while it stinks that we pay just under $400 a payperiod, at least we are paying it back to ourselves, and not to a big credit card company. We have toyed with changing the amount we pay (we can pay as much as we want, but the $380 is the minimum). But for right now, it stays as is. We would like to get a little further down the line before we make any changes.
Student loan - Not a whole lot to say on this. The monthly payment is $229 at 3.375%. This consolidated loan is technically is 2 loans, where one has a balance of $1200 (the very last of my undergrad degree), the remainder is my graduate school. Long story why it isn't one in the same. And if we were to pay extra to this loan, we would designate it to the little part. But since we don't do that....it is a non issue. The payoff date is 2024, based on the minimum. Um....that is the year my KIDS will graduate college. No, that won't work. There is NO WAY the loan will be around then. Based on current plans, the whole kit and kaboodle will be paid off in 3-4 years, so I don't pay attention to the 2024, other than to remind me that I wish I understood all of this better when I was younger.
Car loan - Again, not much to say on this. $230 is autodebited on a monthly basis, and is slated to be paid off in late 2016 if we don't speed up the process.
Credit Card - This one is the thorn in my side. It was under $1000 when we did the retirement consolidation loan. And then there was a car repair. And the *(^&*#$^ trip to see my parents. And a few other slip ups. And another car repair. And here we are. It is on its way back down, but it is frustrating that it was almost paid off and we used it again. The slip ups are on us. The car repairs....that is a function that we can't seem to go a decent amount of time without SOMETHING happening, despite saving for car repairs. And the trip to my parents was certainly NOT vacation....but it was something that had to be done.
Dentist - This little darling bill was much smaller a year ago. Then I needed a root canal and a crown. Since our insurance didn't cover it, we had to foot the bill. The first part of the money came from our FSA, which then dried up shortly after. And we have been paying since. But since our insurance doesn't cover even a cleaning, regular dental stuff contributed to the bill. At least it is under $1000 now.
Bossy's supplies - Earlier this year, we received a financial waiver that reduced our bill by 60%. We had a 100% waiver several years ago, but when the company changed hands....all that went away. The bill continued to rise until the company changed hands again, and we got some much needed help. One thing that has helped us this year is that Bossy is being weaned from this, so we aren't using as much. However, we were able to order "extra" when we hit catastrophic at the end of 2012, and that extra has been carrying us this year. We haven't needed to order food for him since December, and we probably have another 2 months worth before we have to order.
Right now, we are about 5k less than where we were when I started this blog. And 9k less than a year ago. Based on the minimums, we will pay off at least another $11k just on the retirement, car, and student loans. So by the end of the year, we should be at the lowest debt number we have had since starting the blog!!!
Our goal is to be under 60k by calendar year end. We are optimistic that this is possible. It really will be about our personal spending. The 3 loans do what they do. The credit card just needs to continue to go DOWN. And dental emergencies need to stay away!!!
There ya go!!!! Long winded, kind of boring, and not sexy at all. Need to think of a financially sexy post, to spice things up......suggestions welcome!
Showing posts with label financial goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label financial goals. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Just for Prosperity
Since I update our sidebar totals, if I don't note the starting amounts, I will never figure it out later.
On 1/1/13, our numbers stand at:
Here is the kicker with this stuff....the Retirement Loan, Student Loan, and Car all have fixed minimums. None of them are going to go back up since they aren't "revolving". Just the minimum payments for the year equal $15,388 (give or take a few dollars for the miscellaneous cents we pay). Doing nothing else but paying the minimum pays off 22% of those loans this year. Doing nothing but what we are already doing....those 3 loans will be reduced to $52,850 from $68,238.
The remainder...that is the problem. The medical/dental will go up. As long as we continue on the payment plan we are on, it only satisfies the company that we are paying SOMETHING. Each month, the amount we are charged is more than what we pay. So that impacts the bottom line.
The CC....as long as we don't use the card, it will go down. Any "extra" we have toward debt repayment will go toward the CC. But again, the medical will go up by roughly the same amount we are paying. In the end, I don't see the CC and Medical numbers really "moving" over the coming year. They will probably end up swapped.
My as long as we can handle any emergencies (using EF, overtime money, side hustle money)....our grand total number a year from now will be about $62,000.
Let's see how it goes.
I am not setting any real goals this year financially. I do understand goals...but for me, the disappointment of not making a goal is way harder on me than the excitement of reaching a goal. I just end up not feeling good about anything. So I am not doing it this year. I will say that I am hoping that we will just be able to maintain what we are doing. Tax hikes, gas prices (we spend over $600 a month in gas....)...those will drastically impact our bottom line.
We have a few home maintenance projects that we need to complete. We would love to do some IMPROVEMENTS, but I don't see that in the cards at this junction. The few dollars we may be able to save toward the improvements won't be enough to actually complete any part, so it will just be a continuing saving effort.
I wish I could have the enthusiasm that we are going to beat debt this year! That we are going to hit it hard and intense! We are going to have a great year!!! But I have done that already....hasn't happened. 2013 is going to be the year of.....let's just get by the best we can.
On 1/1/13, our numbers stand at:
- Retirement Loan - $31,603.91
- Student Loan - $26,314.80
- Car Loan - $10,320.08
- CC - $4,877.75
- Medical/Dental - $2,965.61
- Grand total - $77,245.15
Here is the kicker with this stuff....the Retirement Loan, Student Loan, and Car all have fixed minimums. None of them are going to go back up since they aren't "revolving". Just the minimum payments for the year equal $15,388 (give or take a few dollars for the miscellaneous cents we pay). Doing nothing else but paying the minimum pays off 22% of those loans this year. Doing nothing but what we are already doing....those 3 loans will be reduced to $52,850 from $68,238.
The remainder...that is the problem. The medical/dental will go up. As long as we continue on the payment plan we are on, it only satisfies the company that we are paying SOMETHING. Each month, the amount we are charged is more than what we pay. So that impacts the bottom line.
The CC....as long as we don't use the card, it will go down. Any "extra" we have toward debt repayment will go toward the CC. But again, the medical will go up by roughly the same amount we are paying. In the end, I don't see the CC and Medical numbers really "moving" over the coming year. They will probably end up swapped.
My as long as we can handle any emergencies (using EF, overtime money, side hustle money)....our grand total number a year from now will be about $62,000.
Let's see how it goes.
I am not setting any real goals this year financially. I do understand goals...but for me, the disappointment of not making a goal is way harder on me than the excitement of reaching a goal. I just end up not feeling good about anything. So I am not doing it this year. I will say that I am hoping that we will just be able to maintain what we are doing. Tax hikes, gas prices (we spend over $600 a month in gas....)...those will drastically impact our bottom line.
We have a few home maintenance projects that we need to complete. We would love to do some IMPROVEMENTS, but I don't see that in the cards at this junction. The few dollars we may be able to save toward the improvements won't be enough to actually complete any part, so it will just be a continuing saving effort.
I wish I could have the enthusiasm that we are going to beat debt this year! That we are going to hit it hard and intense! We are going to have a great year!!! But I have done that already....hasn't happened. 2013 is going to be the year of.....let's just get by the best we can.
Monday, March 26, 2012
How do you define Progress?
***ETA: I wrote this post last night, and scheduled it to go live today. Almost no one actually GOT the point of the post. Everyone is still on the "should we buy tickets" bandwagon....which for the record, I never asked if I should or shouldn't.
In my GBU yesterday, I mentioned that we were "thinking" about getting concert tickets. Our last concert was almost 10 years...oops....8 years ago (the kids were ALMOST 2). Are they pricey? Yep. We were thinking about it; no decision made. We have had 2 big date nights in the past year....and this would be the next one (not counting the wedding we have in May).
Is it the BEST use of money? Depends on your definition of BEST. No, it isn't going to debt. But if you define BEST as "the ability for a couple to have a night out, see a show we both would enjoy, and have a night off from the stress of our life," then yes. We have also considered only having G-man go (as he wants to go more than I do, even though I do want to go). Then we would only have 1 ticket and parking. No sitter or anything.
Consuelo made a comment regarding our numbers and our "lack of progress" in the past few months.
I am not going to deny that numbers are ugly. I never have. We were making progress, and last year really wrenched that. No denying that. But to say "lack of progress" in the past few few months isn't accurate. I haven't updated our sidebar in the past few days because I know it is all about to change, and decided to wait until the big change to do the update. But the comment really upset me, so I looked a few things up....a few things that may not be as apparent to you all because I don't share EVERY detail.
Since January 1....
Once we take out the loan, I will update all the numbers. At that point, all of the debt will be at an interest rate of 3.375% or less. I know that not everyone will agree with the retirement loan for this purpose. It is taking money from our future. But in no more than 4 years, it will be paid off, and we will be just about debt free other than the mortgage (right now we are at 5 years to be debt free....but I think we may be able to shave at least some of that off).
I know this is a long post. So if you made it this far....good for you!!! But we HAVE made progress. It isn't gazelle intense....never has been. But it IS progress.
So to Consuelo....thank you for reading and spurring me to investigate this further. I am sorry you don't feel like we are making progress, but in the end, we only have to account to ourselves.
In my GBU yesterday, I mentioned that we were "thinking" about getting concert tickets. Our last concert was almost 10 years...oops....8 years ago (the kids were ALMOST 2). Are they pricey? Yep. We were thinking about it; no decision made. We have had 2 big date nights in the past year....and this would be the next one (not counting the wedding we have in May).
Is it the BEST use of money? Depends on your definition of BEST. No, it isn't going to debt. But if you define BEST as "the ability for a couple to have a night out, see a show we both would enjoy, and have a night off from the stress of our life," then yes. We have also considered only having G-man go (as he wants to go more than I do, even though I do want to go). Then we would only have 1 ticket and parking. No sitter or anything.
Consuelo made a comment regarding our numbers and our "lack of progress" in the past few months.
I am not going to deny that numbers are ugly. I never have. We were making progress, and last year really wrenched that. No denying that. But to say "lack of progress" in the past few few months isn't accurate. I haven't updated our sidebar in the past few days because I know it is all about to change, and decided to wait until the big change to do the update. But the comment really upset me, so I looked a few things up....a few things that may not be as apparent to you all because I don't share EVERY detail.
Since January 1....
- We have increased our EF by $324. Prior to my root canal, we had just under $1,300 in there. We withdrew some to float that money to get a discount. When our FSA reimburses us, it will go back to the EF, and we will have the $1300 again, and are working toward
- We have saved over $500 towards the kids' camp for the summer, which acts as day care for us while we work.
- We have saved $550 in overtime pay. Part of this is paying for G-man's speeding ticket and fishing license. The rest is going toward our weekend trip to Sesame Place for Autism Day (entrance to the park is free, other than a $25 parking fee which goes to charity. We have a gov't discount for the hotel).
- We have saved enough so far to pay for our water bill, which will come in May. And we are on track to have the money saved for our personal property taxes in July.
- We paid off our retirement loan (whose numbers were never added into any of the tallies, but at the start of the blog....we had about $7100 left), a few year early.
- We established a "cat fund" that currently has enough for all three cats' check-ups, and have been working on saving per month for food and litter.
- The student loan has decreased $456.
- The car has decreased $642.
- Medical has increased $50, but as long as Bossy has medical needs, this bill will always be in flux. Considering I had a $700 root canal, and the overall bill has only gone up $50, I am happy.
Once we take out the loan, I will update all the numbers. At that point, all of the debt will be at an interest rate of 3.375% or less. I know that not everyone will agree with the retirement loan for this purpose. It is taking money from our future. But in no more than 4 years, it will be paid off, and we will be just about debt free other than the mortgage (right now we are at 5 years to be debt free....but I think we may be able to shave at least some of that off).
I know this is a long post. So if you made it this far....good for you!!! But we HAVE made progress. It isn't gazelle intense....never has been. But it IS progress.
So to Consuelo....thank you for reading and spurring me to investigate this further. I am sorry you don't feel like we are making progress, but in the end, we only have to account to ourselves.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
One Goal for the Year - FAIL
I wanted to decrease our cell phone bill. I just couldn't believe that we were actually getting the best deal. It seemed ridiculous the amount we were spending.
The plan we had was for 2 lines at 1400 minutes, with 10 "friends and family" numbers that were unlimited. If you looked at our minutes...we only used a few hundred minutes at most. But of the 10 special numbers....it could be 1500 or more. Texting was a cobbled together plan. Long story. We also had the data plan, and insurance on G-man's phone. We got a discount on ONE line (15%). With taxes, we were at $148 a month.
We spent 3 weeks going through all the plans and companies. What we found out was that what we really wanted in a plan....we sort of already had! No other plan gave us what we already were using, or at least not at a significant cost increase.
The only way to keep the talk usage the same...was to go unlimited with other companies. And that was almost $200 just for that. Texting...again, we would have to go unlimited.
We looked at Metro PCS, but there coverage in our area was poor. AT&T was too expensive and limiting for what we wanted. We ALMOST switched to Sprint, and the cost would have gone down a tad, but again, the coverage was poor.
In the end, we decided to stay with Verizon, and keep what we had in plans. The only differences in the plans now are:
We now are the proud owners of a Samsung Stratosphere. We are a little overwhelmed at how much the phone can actually do!!! But we were able to get both phones for $150 (which includes the $100 rebate). We are happy with our purchase.
So, as for decreasing the cell phone bill....FAIL. We tried, but for what we wanted (yes...WANTED), it wasn't going to happen. Moving on....next on the timeline of goals is the Will and Life insurance!
The plan we had was for 2 lines at 1400 minutes, with 10 "friends and family" numbers that were unlimited. If you looked at our minutes...we only used a few hundred minutes at most. But of the 10 special numbers....it could be 1500 or more. Texting was a cobbled together plan. Long story. We also had the data plan, and insurance on G-man's phone. We got a discount on ONE line (15%). With taxes, we were at $148 a month.
We spent 3 weeks going through all the plans and companies. What we found out was that what we really wanted in a plan....we sort of already had! No other plan gave us what we already were using, or at least not at a significant cost increase.
The only way to keep the talk usage the same...was to go unlimited with other companies. And that was almost $200 just for that. Texting...again, we would have to go unlimited.
We looked at Metro PCS, but there coverage in our area was poor. AT&T was too expensive and limiting for what we wanted. We ALMOST switched to Sprint, and the cost would have gone down a tad, but again, the coverage was poor.
In the end, we decided to stay with Verizon, and keep what we had in plans. The only differences in the plans now are:
- The plan includes 2 lines (vs one line plus one line as before) at the same price, EXCEPT our discount will now be on both lines.
- Texting was costing us $30 a month with the cobbled together plan. We switched to unlimited, for the same price, EXCEPT our discount will now be applied!
We now are the proud owners of a Samsung Stratosphere. We are a little overwhelmed at how much the phone can actually do!!! But we were able to get both phones for $150 (which includes the $100 rebate). We are happy with our purchase.
So, as for decreasing the cell phone bill....FAIL. We tried, but for what we wanted (yes...WANTED), it wasn't going to happen. Moving on....next on the timeline of goals is the Will and Life insurance!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Financial Goals 2012
A long time ago, I said...if we could just get through 2011, we will be ok. This was probably 2 years ago. I knew that by the end of 2011, my small student loan would be gone. The payment on G-man's car would be gone. And that once the dust settled of all of those changes....we would be able to make real progress.
Yeah, little did I know what 2011 had in store. Non-stop car repairs which led to the complete dying of my car, and further the purchase of a "new" car. A complete upheaval between me and G-man. Increased medical co-pays. Oil bill that went up almost $150 a month. Pool repairs. Two major power outages, leading to the loss of a ton of food and increased expenses for those 2 weeks. But we are past that now. New year!!!
Let's see where we are starting our new year.....total debt is $80,191.29.
It is bad. I know. But....we will keep working at it. Our goals this year are based off of lessons learned in 2011, and in the spirit of the 12 in '12.....
1) Increase EF to $2,000. It currently stands at $961. We had to dip into it a few times, and I think I will feel better if it is at $2,000. I know Dave Ramsey will say $1,000. But my comfort level is $2,000. Right now, I plan on "paying ourselves first" and putting $50 per paycheck in the EF.
2) Decrease cell phone bill. When we got the plan in 2010, we thought we were doing great. As a whole, it isn't. We need to shop around and find a plan that really fits us. G-man won't go the pre-paid route, so we have to shop the deals. We are considering some kind of bundle plan. The contract is up in February, so this one should be done sooner than later.
3) Make will. We still don't like our options for guardians for the kids. But this is long overdue. As many of you have stated, we should have done this a long time ago. We have a Suze Orman kit that my parents bought us a long time ago....need to open that bad boy up.
4) Life insurance. We dropped the ball last year. Time to pick it back up. Yeah, we would be screwed if something happened.
5) Start Overtime Fund. Overtime should be accounted for separately. It isn't part of the budget. The goal is 100 hrs of OT for G-man at his office (he hit this in 2011, so this shouldn't be too hard) and 40 hrs for me. As for me...mine will be defined as "hours over my 23 hrs of scheduled time per week." Any money earned from OT will go into a separate ING fund, and a quarterly bulk payment will be made to something. Look for a new progress bar to keep track of the hours! Holiday pay for G-man will not count in this.
6) Figure out how to best use gift cards. I have all sorts of random gift cards with varying amounts of money on them. They range from Gap to Atlanta Bread to Disney Store. Plus, I have over 16,000 points from MyPoints, and at the time of this writing...over 8,200 Swagbucks. I have no idea what I am saving them for. Gotta figure that out.
7) Start researching orthodontic costs. We already know that Bossy needs braces (cross bite AND under bite). What I don't know is what that is going to entail or how much it will run us. I need to find out and start planning for that expense.
8) Keep track of credit card interest and payments. I have set up a very simple spreadsheet that lists each of the credit cards, and I will input any charges (which I hope will be minimal, or ideally just for convenence sake), payments, and the interest charged. I am starting with the statement that has a due date in January 2012, through statement due in December 2012. It isn't a perfect year, but it gives 12 statements.
10) Save $500 towards SOMETHING. Yeah, it could go towards debt. But it is so depressing to think that we can't splurge a little somewhere. No idea if this will go towards new furniture, vacation, or what. But it will be something for US.
11) Reduce check writing. Checks are expensive!! I have a few medical bills I write checks for because I mail them in. But things like the kids' lunch, co-pays....those are just laziness. I need to plan ahead and have the cash for lunches. And some of the co-pays can be done by debit. I would like to not have to buy checks until the end of the year!!!
And last but not least.....
12) Pay off $12,000. Not once have I made my "pay off X amount" goal. $12k in '12....I am GOING to do it this time!!!
There they are. Nothing sexy about any of them. Just down and dirty.
Yeah, little did I know what 2011 had in store. Non-stop car repairs which led to the complete dying of my car, and further the purchase of a "new" car. A complete upheaval between me and G-man. Increased medical co-pays. Oil bill that went up almost $150 a month. Pool repairs. Two major power outages, leading to the loss of a ton of food and increased expenses for those 2 weeks. But we are past that now. New year!!!
Let's see where we are starting our new year.....total debt is $80,191.29.
- Credit Card - $37,164.32
- Student Loan -$28,142.57
- Car- $12,801.07
- Medical - $2,083.33
It is bad. I know. But....we will keep working at it. Our goals this year are based off of lessons learned in 2011, and in the spirit of the 12 in '12.....
1) Increase EF to $2,000. It currently stands at $961. We had to dip into it a few times, and I think I will feel better if it is at $2,000. I know Dave Ramsey will say $1,000. But my comfort level is $2,000. Right now, I plan on "paying ourselves first" and putting $50 per paycheck in the EF.
TIMELINE: Based on the current budget, it will take us about 10 months (October), but I am hoping I can get it closer to 6 months (Late June).
2) Decrease cell phone bill. When we got the plan in 2010, we thought we were doing great. As a whole, it isn't. We need to shop around and find a plan that really fits us. G-man won't go the pre-paid route, so we have to shop the deals. We are considering some kind of bundle plan. The contract is up in February, so this one should be done sooner than later.
TIMELINE: Mid-February.
3) Make will. We still don't like our options for guardians for the kids. But this is long overdue. As many of you have stated, we should have done this a long time ago. We have a Suze Orman kit that my parents bought us a long time ago....need to open that bad boy up.
TIMELINE: March.
4) Life insurance. We dropped the ball last year. Time to pick it back up. Yeah, we would be screwed if something happened.
TIMELINE: March.
5) Start Overtime Fund. Overtime should be accounted for separately. It isn't part of the budget. The goal is 100 hrs of OT for G-man at his office (he hit this in 2011, so this shouldn't be too hard) and 40 hrs for me. As for me...mine will be defined as "hours over my 23 hrs of scheduled time per week." Any money earned from OT will go into a separate ING fund, and a quarterly bulk payment will be made to something. Look for a new progress bar to keep track of the hours! Holiday pay for G-man will not count in this.
TIMELINE: Account set up December 2011, funding will be on-going.
6) Figure out how to best use gift cards. I have all sorts of random gift cards with varying amounts of money on them. They range from Gap to Atlanta Bread to Disney Store. Plus, I have over 16,000 points from MyPoints, and at the time of this writing...over 8,200 Swagbucks. I have no idea what I am saving them for. Gotta figure that out.
TIMELINE: Use up gift cards by August, or at least allocate them if used for future purchase.
7) Start researching orthodontic costs. We already know that Bossy needs braces (cross bite AND under bite). What I don't know is what that is going to entail or how much it will run us. I need to find out and start planning for that expense.
TIMELINE: October, so we can prepare our FSA in November.
8) Keep track of credit card interest and payments. I have set up a very simple spreadsheet that lists each of the credit cards, and I will input any charges (which I hope will be minimal, or ideally just for convenence sake), payments, and the interest charged. I am starting with the statement that has a due date in January 2012, through statement due in December 2012. It isn't a perfect year, but it gives 12 statements.
TIMELINE: Spreadsheet set up December 2011, tracking will be on-going.
9) Cash out Adsense, InBox Dollars, and SurveyHead balances. All of these have a minimum level to cash out. I am closing in on all of them. I would really like to actually get to that point!!!
TIMELINE: June.
10) Save $500 towards SOMETHING. Yeah, it could go towards debt. But it is so depressing to think that we can't splurge a little somewhere. No idea if this will go towards new furniture, vacation, or what. But it will be something for US.
TIMELINE: December.
11) Reduce check writing. Checks are expensive!! I have a few medical bills I write checks for because I mail them in. But things like the kids' lunch, co-pays....those are just laziness. I need to plan ahead and have the cash for lunches. And some of the co-pays can be done by debit. I would like to not have to buy checks until the end of the year!!!
TIMELINE: On-going.
12) Pay off $12,000. Not once have I made my "pay off X amount" goal. $12k in '12....I am GOING to do it this time!!!
TIMELINE: December.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
A review of Financial Goals 2011
Yeah....this isn't going to be pretty.....for the full list, check out Financial Goals 2011.
Here is where the numbers stand, compared to a year ago:
Our specific goals were:
1) Pay off G-man's car early. DONE!!! It was paid off in May 2011, vs January 2012, as originally scheduled.
2) Pay off $10,000 in debt (not including the retirement loan). HAHAHA. Look at how optimistic I was a year ago. Oh Mysti....little did you know.....
3) Side Hustle $2000. I originally signed up to be a ChaCha worker, and decided I didn't like it. I was spending way too much time for way too little money. Our yard sale brought in some money, but not a ton. All in all, this was a moderate fail.
4) Open ING Christmas Account. DONE!!! This worked great for us this year, as we had the money saved up for Christmas, and had money available early as some deals came our way. We had some confusion over where what money went...but figured out how to solve that.
5) Continue to work on zero-based budget. Still not there...but getting closer.
6) Curb food spending. *sigh* Still an area that needs improvement.
7) Get life insurance. We started to look at this back in June, but didn't follow through. Bad us.
8) Make will. The upheaval of the year made this one a non-contender. We didn't even talk about it.
9) Resume retirement savings. Nope. Not even close.
10) Find one "free" family thing to do per month. I would say this wasn't a complete success, but it wasn't a complete fail either. We definitely did more things together as a family this year than we have in years past.
I don't even know what to say about all of this. It has been a bad year all around. I would love to say "It could be worse" but really....how much worse could it really be??? We are now worse off than we were 2.5 years ago. All I can do is move forward.
It really is depressing to see how much you DIDN'T accomplish. But it is what it is. I have committed to being honest with you guys, so here it is. In all its glory...or lack there of.
Here is where the numbers stand, compared to a year ago:
- Credit Card - was $35,065.23 now $37,164.32 (increase of 5.99%)
- Student Loan - was $29,225.79 now $28,142.57 (decrease of 3.70%)
- Car- was $4,156.35 now $12,801.07 (increase of 308%....OUCH)
- Medical - was $208.00 now $2,083.33 (increase of 1002%...DOUBLE OUCH)
Our specific goals were:
1) Pay off G-man's car early. DONE!!! It was paid off in May 2011, vs January 2012, as originally scheduled.
2) Pay off $10,000 in debt (not including the retirement loan). HAHAHA. Look at how optimistic I was a year ago. Oh Mysti....little did you know.....
3) Side Hustle $2000. I originally signed up to be a ChaCha worker, and decided I didn't like it. I was spending way too much time for way too little money. Our yard sale brought in some money, but not a ton. All in all, this was a moderate fail.
4) Open ING Christmas Account. DONE!!! This worked great for us this year, as we had the money saved up for Christmas, and had money available early as some deals came our way. We had some confusion over where what money went...but figured out how to solve that.
5) Continue to work on zero-based budget. Still not there...but getting closer.
6) Curb food spending. *sigh* Still an area that needs improvement.
7) Get life insurance. We started to look at this back in June, but didn't follow through. Bad us.
8) Make will. The upheaval of the year made this one a non-contender. We didn't even talk about it.
9) Resume retirement savings. Nope. Not even close.
10) Find one "free" family thing to do per month. I would say this wasn't a complete success, but it wasn't a complete fail either. We definitely did more things together as a family this year than we have in years past.
I don't even know what to say about all of this. It has been a bad year all around. I would love to say "It could be worse" but really....how much worse could it really be??? We are now worse off than we were 2.5 years ago. All I can do is move forward.
It really is depressing to see how much you DIDN'T accomplish. But it is what it is. I have committed to being honest with you guys, so here it is. In all its glory...or lack there of.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Another Rainy Day here....
It seriously needs to stop raining.....
The pool liner is STILL on hold until the weather clears. Not like it really matters....the temperature is no where near pool weather. Considering that we are approaching July, and by the end of August we are done with the pool....the $700 we are spending on this seems comical.
Sassy Girl has been having a rough go of it. She is a sensitive kid, and is just needing a little extra time. She and I are supposed to have a "girl date" tonight. I am feeling much better, but she is a little under the weather. Hopefully she will be better later. She wanted to go to mini golf, but the rain put an end to that. So we will go to the movies (Mr. Popper's Penguins....her choice).
The rain makes me very introspective. And overwhelmed. Like....we still have over 64 THOUSAND in debt. That number makes me sad, and scared, and anxious. I know we are working at it...maybe not Dave Ramsey Gazelle Intense....but I just don't think that level is practical for us.
We are missing goals left and right....I doubt we will make the under 60k goal by August 6. I had wanted to pay off 10k this year (really 12.....), that one will be close. Food budget is still wanky (although our no eating out challenge is going ok...minus one $4.97 slip up).
I wish I had figured out this stuff sooo much sooner. What a different life we would have.....
The pool liner is STILL on hold until the weather clears. Not like it really matters....the temperature is no where near pool weather. Considering that we are approaching July, and by the end of August we are done with the pool....the $700 we are spending on this seems comical.
Sassy Girl has been having a rough go of it. She is a sensitive kid, and is just needing a little extra time. She and I are supposed to have a "girl date" tonight. I am feeling much better, but she is a little under the weather. Hopefully she will be better later. She wanted to go to mini golf, but the rain put an end to that. So we will go to the movies (Mr. Popper's Penguins....her choice).
The rain makes me very introspective. And overwhelmed. Like....we still have over 64 THOUSAND in debt. That number makes me sad, and scared, and anxious. I know we are working at it...maybe not Dave Ramsey Gazelle Intense....but I just don't think that level is practical for us.
We are missing goals left and right....I doubt we will make the under 60k goal by August 6. I had wanted to pay off 10k this year (really 12.....), that one will be close. Food budget is still wanky (although our no eating out challenge is going ok...minus one $4.97 slip up).
I wish I had figured out this stuff sooo much sooner. What a different life we would have.....
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Adventures in Yard Sales - Part One
Despite reading alot about how to have a yard sale, we have never actually done it. Talked about it...but never did it. Most of what I read said it is better to have several smaller ones over the course of years, than saving it all up and having a huge one ever 10 years. Mostly so you can sell stuff while there is still some interest in fad type items.
Oh well...we are having a huge one with a decade worth ofcrap treasures waiting for a new home.
This yard sale has several concurrent objectives:
It is somewhat appalling how much stuff we have. Granted, it was collected over time, but seriously.....some of this is absurd. For example, we have like 20 sets of sheets. I think my mom bought them for us over time. Unless we are running a hotel, we don't need this many. Most of them I don't even like. So I washed and folded them, and if they can go to another home....great.
I also found binders from 2006 when the kids were in preschool. I kept every daily "schedule" of what they did....all in order, in a binder, sorted into tabs by month. OK....do I really need to know that they fingerpainted on 2/16 and had carrot sticks for snack? NO. Those were pitched. I kept the boxes of all the art and such to go through later and streamline. No time right now for that, but I have the boxes together waiting for me (it isn't like I was selling that stuff....unless....maybe my kids are Ar-TEESTS, and I can sell it for thousands!!!)
Our first pass at emptying the attic went well. Our playroom now looks like the attic barfed all over it, but we needed somewhere to put it. There was only one item that G-man and I had to discuss getting rid of vs. keeping. That was Bossy's bouncy chair. I said get rid of it, but with tears running down my face. I was trying to be practical. But there are so many memories with that chair. In the end, we kept the cover (for his memory box) and pitched the frame.
I can't wait to show you what the attic looks like now!!! But alas, you will have to wait. I know you are as excited as I am.
Oh well...we are having a huge one with a decade worth of
This yard sale has several concurrent objectives:
- Clean out Attic (see Personal goals 2011)
- Make money (see Financial goals 2011)
- Entertain you guys.
 |
| Looking down the length of the attic |
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| Far end of attic |
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| Christmas stuff |
 |
| One side |
 |
| Dormer Area |
 |
| Other Side |
It is somewhat appalling how much stuff we have. Granted, it was collected over time, but seriously.....some of this is absurd. For example, we have like 20 sets of sheets. I think my mom bought them for us over time. Unless we are running a hotel, we don't need this many. Most of them I don't even like. So I washed and folded them, and if they can go to another home....great.
I also found binders from 2006 when the kids were in preschool. I kept every daily "schedule" of what they did....all in order, in a binder, sorted into tabs by month. OK....do I really need to know that they fingerpainted on 2/16 and had carrot sticks for snack? NO. Those were pitched. I kept the boxes of all the art and such to go through later and streamline. No time right now for that, but I have the boxes together waiting for me (it isn't like I was selling that stuff....unless....maybe my kids are Ar-TEESTS, and I can sell it for thousands!!!)
Our first pass at emptying the attic went well. Our playroom now looks like the attic barfed all over it, but we needed somewhere to put it. There was only one item that G-man and I had to discuss getting rid of vs. keeping. That was Bossy's bouncy chair. I said get rid of it, but with tears running down my face. I was trying to be practical. But there are so many memories with that chair. In the end, we kept the cover (for his memory box) and pitched the frame.
I can't wait to show you what the attic looks like now!!! But alas, you will have to wait. I know you are as excited as I am.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Where do we go from here???
Excellent question, bloggy friends. I have some lofty goals....not sure if it will all work out, but I am gonna try!!!!
Debt Snowball. The next victim on our list is G-man's car. Actually, the end is near on that one. Taking $2,000 from our refi money plus the regular payment for May only leaves a few hundred left on the loan. With three paychecks in May, this is a no-brainer. I am tenatively setting May 16 as the pay off, but depending on how things go, we might wait until the end of the May to make the official payoff.
After the car....CC1. That stupid card was paid off for a blink of an eye, and it needs to go back to that. With the money freed up from paying off the car, we should be able to work through this one fairly quickly. The catch to this....we only really have this money freed up for 4-5 months.
As of Sept 25, Student Loan #1's monthly payment will increase from $82 to $229. We had always planned for the car to be paid off before that happened so the "car" money will become "student loan" money. It will still leave $200 in play to snowball, so we have to take advantage of the full amount while we can.
Once we get to the fall, we will have to reexamine everything. I am not sure where all the numbers will be by then. As a general idea the snowball will go: Car, CC1, CC2, CC4, Student Loan.
Notice I didn't put Lending Club in there. That is because I "think" that will be paid off around the same time CC4 will be, so it really isn't getting any extra action. But we will see.
My Car. Alas....my car turned 150,000 miles this morning. And while it is still chugging along, it won't last forever. I would like to start saving for a new car, but haven't quite figured out how to pull that one off yet.
Insurance Stuff. One of our goals for the year was to get more life insurance. Since I will be 36 next week, and G-man will be 40 this fall....I would like to figure this out this summer. I know we can't afford as much as I think we will really need, but I would like to at least get the ball rolling on this one.
So now...for the goal of the moment....
I would like to be under $60k in debt by my blog anniversary in August. That is a little under $8,000 to pay off in 4 months. The car will be about a third of it, so I think it possible. We are sure gonna try! G-man has been putting in for overtime, so as long as we stick to the plan, I think we should be ok!!!
Thoughts? Would you do it differently?
Debt Snowball. The next victim on our list is G-man's car. Actually, the end is near on that one. Taking $2,000 from our refi money plus the regular payment for May only leaves a few hundred left on the loan. With three paychecks in May, this is a no-brainer. I am tenatively setting May 16 as the pay off, but depending on how things go, we might wait until the end of the May to make the official payoff.
After the car....CC1. That stupid card was paid off for a blink of an eye, and it needs to go back to that. With the money freed up from paying off the car, we should be able to work through this one fairly quickly. The catch to this....we only really have this money freed up for 4-5 months.
As of Sept 25, Student Loan #1's monthly payment will increase from $82 to $229. We had always planned for the car to be paid off before that happened so the "car" money will become "student loan" money. It will still leave $200 in play to snowball, so we have to take advantage of the full amount while we can.
Once we get to the fall, we will have to reexamine everything. I am not sure where all the numbers will be by then. As a general idea the snowball will go: Car, CC1, CC2, CC4, Student Loan.
Notice I didn't put Lending Club in there. That is because I "think" that will be paid off around the same time CC4 will be, so it really isn't getting any extra action. But we will see.
My Car. Alas....my car turned 150,000 miles this morning. And while it is still chugging along, it won't last forever. I would like to start saving for a new car, but haven't quite figured out how to pull that one off yet.
Insurance Stuff. One of our goals for the year was to get more life insurance. Since I will be 36 next week, and G-man will be 40 this fall....I would like to figure this out this summer. I know we can't afford as much as I think we will really need, but I would like to at least get the ball rolling on this one.
So now...for the goal of the moment....
I would like to be under $60k in debt by my blog anniversary in August. That is a little under $8,000 to pay off in 4 months. The car will be about a third of it, so I think it possible. We are sure gonna try! G-man has been putting in for overtime, so as long as we stick to the plan, I think we should be ok!!!
Thoughts? Would you do it differently?
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Financial Goals 2011
I know that some of these are a stretch. I also know that some of these are a little subjective. But here we are!!! We are set to kick some major butt this year.
In order to have some perspective, as of January 1 our current debt total is $68,685.37 broken down to:
- Credit Card - $35,065.23
- Student Loan -$29,225.79
- Car- $4,156.35
- Medical - $208.00
1) Pay off car early. It is scheduled to be paid off December 2011/January 2012. I would like to have it paid off earlier. I am not setting a deadline (but August is the one in my head!), but I just want it done ahead of schedule. DONE!!!
2) Pay off $10,000 in debt (not including the retirement loan). OK....really, I want $12,000 which is about 30% more than we paid off in 2010. But I am setting the bar a little lower in the hopes of SMASHING this goal, and then motivating myself to get to the REAL goal of $12,000.
3) Side Hustle $2000. This will come from blogging money, selling items, odd jobs (including my new gig as a ChaCha guide!), etc. This will be a combined Mysti/G-man goal, but it also includes 1/3 of the hustle money to be "mad" money. See the new tally on the side bar to help me keep track. We aren't setting it up as $1000 each, but I am hoping that G-man gets motivated since he will get to keep 1/3 of it to "play" with.
4) Open ING Christmas Account. Let's not have a repeat of 2010. *sigh* DONE!!!
5) Continue to work on zero-based budget. This is still hard for us!! But we are getting there.
6) Curb food spending. Eating out has gotten out of hand. Processed foods are too plentiful in the kids' diet. Better food planning should help on both accounts.
7) Get life insurance. We have been irresponsible on this. I know that we can't afford what we really should have. But we have to start somewhere. We can always modify the amount and type later...but right now, we just need to do it.
8) Make will. The biggest reason we haven't made a will....we really don't have a guardian for our kids. No one is the right decision. But we have to bite the bullet and just do this too. Not planning on kicking the bucket, but need to make sure the wee folks are taken care of.
9) Resume retirement savings. We stopped contributing so we could increase our cash flow. I am hoping as the balances continue to go down on our debts, we can start contributing again. At least to get the employer match of 5%.
10) Find one "free" family thing to do per month. It might be a picnic, a school event, or something I haven't thought of yet! No one says you have to spend money to have family time.
Don't forget to check out my blogging and personal goals too!!!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
A final look at Financial Goals 2010
Of course as the year is ending....we can't help but think about the future. What changes do we need to make...where have we veered from the path. But we have to look back to know where to go. So how did we do.
1) Become a better team member of Team Mysti/G-man Financial Debt Relief by actually INCLUDING G-man in my plans! I would give myself a B- on this one. While I think I tried to include him in the final decision, most things were driven by my thoughts.
A) TOGETHER, find a minimum of $150 of expenses to cut per month. - Big fat F on this one
B) TOGETHER, pay the bills, so he can have a better sense of where our month goes, and what it FEELS like to do it.- Another big fat F. I still do it all. And he has no interest in it.
C) Remember we both deserve to have a small amount of money that we don't have to account for to each other; therefore, TOGETHER decide what is appropriate and budget that in. - I would say D on this one. We agreed this needs to happen. We agreed how it would happen (auto debit into ING account). We just haven't figured out the appropriate amount. And I am having a hard time with letting part of the budget go towards this.
2) Pay off G-man's retirement loan. I outlined the plan for this here. - Well, this totally got busted here.
3) Pay off $5,000 worth of debt, outside of the retirement loan. - A+ on this. I erred and didn't quite note what our January 1 balance was. However, I found a post in January where we had paid off $1000. At this point we are at just over $8000 paid off.....or about $7000 more than we were in January. It would have been more, but we also incurred some debt and then had to pay THAT back. Anyway, we are over the $5000 goal.
4) Track expenses as they happen...not after! - Eh.....C+ for this. I am better about tracking, but it still tends to be afterward.
A) Work toward a Zero Balance Budget - I have one.....but we still aren't actually consistent with it.
B) Finalize usable spreadsheets (Excel and I are intimate friends ;) ) - sadly, my spreadsheet was lost in the Computer Crash February 2010. I have new sheets, but they aren't really usable. I am constantly messing with it. Right now I am playing with one on Gail Vaz-Oxlade's site.
C) Keep track of our coupon usage, to help spur us on! - *sigh* I think all my coupons are expired. We stopped getting the newspaper, so my coupon usage slowed. Then I ran out of printer ink. I am hoping to get back to this.
5) Open ING accounts for A) Christmas and B) Long term saving goals. Continue to fund as we go. - WOO HOO. Did good on this!! Even though we didn't start the Christmas one, we do have funds for camp, the car maintenance, home repair, Lending Club, and savings for particular items.
6) Find one thing each day to be proud of that I did or didn't do, related to finances. - nope
7) Keep coupons organized in new binder, allowing maximum usage, and minimal waste! - nope
8) Send in rebate offers within 1 week of purchase of said product, before I can lose the receipt, forget, or some other lame excuse.-Of the rebates I could send in, I did. But I didn't actively seek anything out.
9) Start teaching Sassy and Bossy about money!!!! This will include starting a weekly allowance for each, and teaching them how to save for later, give to charity, and how to responsibly spend!!! - This will start for January 1. So F for 2010. But we do have the process down, the amount, and the concepts.
10) Respond to 75% of MyPoints and Paid Email entries..- I think I did pretty well on this one. I added in Swagbucks, and so far so good. I am saving points, money, GC for a new dining room set....funded completely from these type vehicles.
I would say we certainly could have done better this year. But at least we gained insight. We aren't superstars.....but we are more aware than we were, and we are making some progress...minus the Christmas backslide. ;)
Stay tune for our 2011 goals!
Financial Goals 2010
1) Become a better team member of Team Mysti/G-man Financial Debt Relief by actually INCLUDING G-man in my plans! I would give myself a B- on this one. While I think I tried to include him in the final decision, most things were driven by my thoughts.
A) TOGETHER, find a minimum of $150 of expenses to cut per month. - Big fat F on this one
B) TOGETHER, pay the bills, so he can have a better sense of where our month goes, and what it FEELS like to do it.- Another big fat F. I still do it all. And he has no interest in it.
C) Remember we both deserve to have a small amount of money that we don't have to account for to each other; therefore, TOGETHER decide what is appropriate and budget that in. - I would say D on this one. We agreed this needs to happen. We agreed how it would happen (auto debit into ING account). We just haven't figured out the appropriate amount. And I am having a hard time with letting part of the budget go towards this.
2) Pay off G-man's retirement loan. I outlined the plan for this here. - Well, this totally got busted here.
3) Pay off $5,000 worth of debt, outside of the retirement loan. - A+ on this. I erred and didn't quite note what our January 1 balance was. However, I found a post in January where we had paid off $1000. At this point we are at just over $8000 paid off.....or about $7000 more than we were in January. It would have been more, but we also incurred some debt and then had to pay THAT back. Anyway, we are over the $5000 goal.
4) Track expenses as they happen...not after! - Eh.....C+ for this. I am better about tracking, but it still tends to be afterward.
A) Work toward a Zero Balance Budget - I have one.....but we still aren't actually consistent with it.
B) Finalize usable spreadsheets (Excel and I are intimate friends ;) ) - sadly, my spreadsheet was lost in the Computer Crash February 2010. I have new sheets, but they aren't really usable. I am constantly messing with it. Right now I am playing with one on Gail Vaz-Oxlade's site.
C) Keep track of our coupon usage, to help spur us on! - *sigh* I think all my coupons are expired. We stopped getting the newspaper, so my coupon usage slowed. Then I ran out of printer ink. I am hoping to get back to this.
5) Open ING accounts for A) Christmas and B) Long term saving goals. Continue to fund as we go. - WOO HOO. Did good on this!! Even though we didn't start the Christmas one, we do have funds for camp, the car maintenance, home repair, Lending Club, and savings for particular items.
6) Find one thing each day to be proud of that I did or didn't do, related to finances. - nope
7) Keep coupons organized in new binder, allowing maximum usage, and minimal waste! - nope
8) Send in rebate offers within 1 week of purchase of said product, before I can lose the receipt, forget, or some other lame excuse.-Of the rebates I could send in, I did. But I didn't actively seek anything out.
9) Start teaching Sassy and Bossy about money!!!! This will include starting a weekly allowance for each, and teaching them how to save for later, give to charity, and how to responsibly spend!!! - This will start for January 1. So F for 2010. But we do have the process down, the amount, and the concepts.
10) Respond to 75% of MyPoints and Paid Email entries..- I think I did pretty well on this one. I added in Swagbucks, and so far so good. I am saving points, money, GC for a new dining room set....funded completely from these type vehicles.
I would say we certainly could have done better this year. But at least we gained insight. We aren't superstars.....but we are more aware than we were, and we are making some progress...minus the Christmas backslide. ;)
Stay tune for our 2011 goals!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Another Financial Goal for the year complete!
One of my 2010 financial goals was to open an ING account for long term saving goals. I would like to thank Jeff at Deliver Away Debt for providing me a referral link for ING Direct.
G-man and I are the proud new owners of an Orange Savings Account (look....he has my eyes!), nicknamed "Home Improvement." Our tax refund is set to transfer as soon as the electronic banking gods deem us worthy of the account.
Once we are secure we like this...we plan on opening several more accounts and budget in a small amount to fund them. Things like camp for the kids, car repair, and vacation (I had this WONDERFUL idea that I was going to save a nickel or dime for every dollar we repaid. Well, that hasn't happened yet.....but I am gonna try and make it happen),
As I have frequently said....money gets used up around here if in a collective pot. Gotta have separate pots!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
ING Direct Banking
One of my goals for the year was to set up an ING (or possibly more than one) account. I am getting closer to doing that. So what is the hesitation? This is going to sound so stupid. I can't believe I am about to admit this....
Last fall, they offered bonus money for opening an account (beyond the referral bonus money they offer). I think it was something like $121, as long as you made a few transactions within a specific period of time.
I am sort of waiting to see if this type of opportunity comes back around.
My main goal of the ING account(s) were to have someplace "safe" to put money we are saving for Christmas, the kids' camp expense, money from Craigslist, etc. We just aren't ready for a total cash system, and if there is too much padding in an account, it is in danger of being used for something other than its intended purpose. With the ING account, we can get it out of our main accounts, out of our hands, but still have access to it.
I will kick myself if I open the account, and then the following week, some fabulous deal happens. So, if you have an ING account, did you open it and "get a deal" or did you just do it? And if you have been with them for awhile, when do "deals" typically happen?
Last fall, they offered bonus money for opening an account (beyond the referral bonus money they offer). I think it was something like $121, as long as you made a few transactions within a specific period of time.
I am sort of waiting to see if this type of opportunity comes back around.
My main goal of the ING account(s) were to have someplace "safe" to put money we are saving for Christmas, the kids' camp expense, money from Craigslist, etc. We just aren't ready for a total cash system, and if there is too much padding in an account, it is in danger of being used for something other than its intended purpose. With the ING account, we can get it out of our main accounts, out of our hands, but still have access to it.
I will kick myself if I open the account, and then the following week, some fabulous deal happens. So, if you have an ING account, did you open it and "get a deal" or did you just do it? And if you have been with them for awhile, when do "deals" typically happen?
Sunday, January 24, 2010
A short lived celebration
So, I started this post a few days ago, and while writing it, a few things came to light and I decided to delve deeper.
As of right now, we have paid off $1,004.95 of our debt! This number is going to probably change once some finance charge hit, dragging it closer to $900. My first reaction was WOOO HOOO! PROGRESS!!
Then it hit me....how much did we spend to get to this point? This is our total debt....I know we have paid more than $1000....why did it take almost 6 months to pay off a grand. Enter my goal to track better. So being the geek that I am, I did a spending analysis.
In this exercise, I focused on just the credit cards. For my purposes, I took CC statements Aug 2009-January 2010 for this exercise (the only exception is that I don't have the January statement for one bill, so I just took the purchases and payments...not the finance charges). They each have slightly different closing dates, so these aren't "exact" by month...just by statement.
Here's what I learned....
Total Paid: $5,945.55 (I thought it was closer to $4,000)
Total Purchases: $3,183.72
Total Finance Charges: $2,726.85
I thought we really had stopped using our credit cards. I know I dipped into one card a bit at the holidays. My bad. But seriously....how did charge $3,100?(wait...I will tell you!) Of the amount purchased...G-man was responsible for 68.6%, and I did the remaining 31.4%. I didn't think I had charged that much. Really didn't realize he did either.
I looked at the spending and made this little chart:
Turns out that 21% of the purchases were gifts (which includes a wedding, kids' birthday, G-man's birthday, and Christmas). Just over 1/3 was gas and groceries.
This leaves just under half left...which was miscellaneous stuff, most of which probably could have been avoided. In particular, the fees. Two were late fees, and one was reward card fee for having the reward card. Discount stores....I am sad to report that I have no idea what those purchases were. Could have been stuff....could have been food....could have been anything. No idea.
Finance charges....WOWZA! We paid just under half of the total amount paid, just in finance charges.
And the scariest number of all....$34.98. Wanna know what that is???? That is the actual amount we paid toward CREDIT CARD DEBT. Yes....if you add up our purchases and finance charges.....and subtract them from the total paid....you get this sad little number. In 6 months, we managed to pay $35.
I am more than disgusted with us. This exercise has been a HUGE jolt. G-man and I have another talk coming up, and this is going to be at the center of it. Gifts....we both blew it. Groceries and Gas....that was mostly him not using our checking account. Stuff I can't account for....that is bad.
So my celebration of repayment was very short lived. This is not good. But at least I know now and can move forward.
As of right now, we have paid off $1,004.95 of our debt! This number is going to probably change once some finance charge hit, dragging it closer to $900. My first reaction was WOOO HOOO! PROGRESS!!
Then it hit me....how much did we spend to get to this point? This is our total debt....I know we have paid more than $1000....why did it take almost 6 months to pay off a grand. Enter my goal to track better. So being the geek that I am, I did a spending analysis.
In this exercise, I focused on just the credit cards. For my purposes, I took CC statements Aug 2009-January 2010 for this exercise (the only exception is that I don't have the January statement for one bill, so I just took the purchases and payments...not the finance charges). They each have slightly different closing dates, so these aren't "exact" by month...just by statement.
Here's what I learned....
Total Paid: $5,945.55 (I thought it was closer to $4,000)
Total Purchases: $3,183.72
Total Finance Charges: $2,726.85
I thought we really had stopped using our credit cards. I know I dipped into one card a bit at the holidays. My bad. But seriously....how did charge $3,100?(wait...I will tell you!) Of the amount purchased...G-man was responsible for 68.6%, and I did the remaining 31.4%. I didn't think I had charged that much. Really didn't realize he did either.
I looked at the spending and made this little chart:
Turns out that 21% of the purchases were gifts (which includes a wedding, kids' birthday, G-man's birthday, and Christmas). Just over 1/3 was gas and groceries.
This leaves just under half left...which was miscellaneous stuff, most of which probably could have been avoided. In particular, the fees. Two were late fees, and one was reward card fee for having the reward card. Discount stores....I am sad to report that I have no idea what those purchases were. Could have been stuff....could have been food....could have been anything. No idea.
Finance charges....WOWZA! We paid just under half of the total amount paid, just in finance charges.
And the scariest number of all....$34.98. Wanna know what that is???? That is the actual amount we paid toward CREDIT CARD DEBT. Yes....if you add up our purchases and finance charges.....and subtract them from the total paid....you get this sad little number. In 6 months, we managed to pay $35.
I am more than disgusted with us. This exercise has been a HUGE jolt. G-man and I have another talk coming up, and this is going to be at the center of it. Gifts....we both blew it. Groceries and Gas....that was mostly him not using our checking account. Stuff I can't account for....that is bad.
So my celebration of repayment was very short lived. This is not good. But at least I know now and can move forward.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Totals...sort of
One of my goals for the year was to keep better track of our spending habits. One flaw in my plan has surfaced. Cash. I rarely use cash. G-man....seems to think that cash is "secret" money. If he uses cash to buy a soda, then it doesn't count toward the totals. Same thing happens with his credit card. I had to add up our checking account totals with his credit card totals to get these numbers.
Grocery Total - $128.33
I looked at our checking account and sorted by transaction name (so all the grocery ones would show up together). Came up with $95.48 to date. Looked at G-man's credit card, and that total went up to $128.33. His credit card accounts for almost 25% of the groceries purchased this month. And this doesn't account for anything he has paid cash for. HMMMM. Interesting. Still doing pretty good this month as a whole though, even though the refrigerator is kind of empty.
Gas - $308.07
UGH. We don't go tooling around town wasting gas. We live almost exactly half way between each of our jobs, which are about 30 min away in opposite directions. Add in gas for taking Bossy to therapy weekly, and the rising gas prices....and here ya go. Sad thing, we still have almost 2 weeks left in the month. What can you say when your gas bill is over 2x your grocery bill???? If this move does happen, we are DEFINITELY living closer to G-man's job.
Eating out - $63.96
This number accounts for cash that I know I have spent, and trackable transactions. This number could be better. And we have already planned on going out for our anniversary, so I know that this number is going to be high this month. Definitely an area to keep a reign on.
Grocery Total - $128.33
I looked at our checking account and sorted by transaction name (so all the grocery ones would show up together). Came up with $95.48 to date. Looked at G-man's credit card, and that total went up to $128.33. His credit card accounts for almost 25% of the groceries purchased this month. And this doesn't account for anything he has paid cash for. HMMMM. Interesting. Still doing pretty good this month as a whole though, even though the refrigerator is kind of empty.
Gas - $308.07
UGH. We don't go tooling around town wasting gas. We live almost exactly half way between each of our jobs, which are about 30 min away in opposite directions. Add in gas for taking Bossy to therapy weekly, and the rising gas prices....and here ya go. Sad thing, we still have almost 2 weeks left in the month. What can you say when your gas bill is over 2x your grocery bill???? If this move does happen, we are DEFINITELY living closer to G-man's job.
Eating out - $63.96
This number accounts for cash that I know I have spent, and trackable transactions. This number could be better. And we have already planned on going out for our anniversary, so I know that this number is going to be high this month. Definitely an area to keep a reign on.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Big step for us
(and as a sidebar....this is my 100th post. :) )
Yesterday, I "let" G-man handle a phone call all on his own. While I wish this wasn't a big step....it is. I am a total control freak, and relinquishing control of something is hard for me to do.
There were two bills we got in the mail that I knew I had paid. I asked G-man to call and confirm the zero balances. First call....no problem.
Second call....they claimed they had no record of payment. He found the entry in the checkbook and gave them the check number, date, and told them it had cleared (based off of my "check mark" next to the entry, which is my internal system that means cleared). They called us back today to say they "found" our check, and the system has been updated to reflect a zero balance.
I am trying not to criticize him. He did great....really. He found the info he needed and gave it to them. If it was me...I would have had all the info (including when the check cleared and a copy of the check) ready before I called and been able to forward them the cleared check right then and there.
But I am used to doing this. He isn't.
At bedtime, we have a "thing" that started years ago...."Why do you love me today?" The idea is to show appreciation for the little things. And he loved me last night for trusting him to make the calls.
Together.....right? Not superwoman conquering the world. TOGETHER.
Yesterday, I "let" G-man handle a phone call all on his own. While I wish this wasn't a big step....it is. I am a total control freak, and relinquishing control of something is hard for me to do.
There were two bills we got in the mail that I knew I had paid. I asked G-man to call and confirm the zero balances. First call....no problem.
Second call....they claimed they had no record of payment. He found the entry in the checkbook and gave them the check number, date, and told them it had cleared (based off of my "check mark" next to the entry, which is my internal system that means cleared). They called us back today to say they "found" our check, and the system has been updated to reflect a zero balance.
I am trying not to criticize him. He did great....really. He found the info he needed and gave it to them. If it was me...I would have had all the info (including when the check cleared and a copy of the check) ready before I called and been able to forward them the cleared check right then and there.
But I am used to doing this. He isn't.
At bedtime, we have a "thing" that started years ago...."Why do you love me today?" The idea is to show appreciation for the little things. And he loved me last night for trusting him to make the calls.
Together.....right? Not superwoman conquering the world. TOGETHER.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The first budget talk
Part of my financial goals for the year included sitting down with G-man and TOGETHER working through the budget. While I wanted to have it all hammered out in one sitting, it became clear as we were talking that this was going to be a multi-tiered process.
We went over all the major numbers (total debt by area). He sort of knew those numbers. He was surprised at the monthly cost on them, and how much we are paying in finance charges. When I showed him how much we would save by reducing this and that, he was surprised.
We talked about cost cutting areas, and came to the following agreements:
1) Eliminating the land line phone - savings of $60/month
2) Pay $75 to have the house looked at by the electric company to seal leaks and make energy saving suggestions
3) Shop around for cheaper electric
4) Take shorter showers (5 min max, unless shaving) to save water
5) Reduce grocery cost by doing better meal planning, and eliminating dessert (that one is sad for us....long story, but it goes back to when I was pregnant with the kids in 2002).
6) Eating out less....which should be easier as long as #5 is in place.
This was as far as we got. There is so much more to discuss, but his eyes were getting glazed over by the end. He told me "glad you are the smart one." I told him that it wasn't about being the smart one....it was about the fact that for almost 12 years, I have solely been doing this and now that we will do it together....it will begin to make more sense.
We went over all the major numbers (total debt by area). He sort of knew those numbers. He was surprised at the monthly cost on them, and how much we are paying in finance charges. When I showed him how much we would save by reducing this and that, he was surprised.
We talked about cost cutting areas, and came to the following agreements:
1) Eliminating the land line phone - savings of $60/month
2) Pay $75 to have the house looked at by the electric company to seal leaks and make energy saving suggestions
3) Shop around for cheaper electric
4) Take shorter showers (5 min max, unless shaving) to save water
5) Reduce grocery cost by doing better meal planning, and eliminating dessert (that one is sad for us....long story, but it goes back to when I was pregnant with the kids in 2002).
6) Eating out less....which should be easier as long as #5 is in place.
This was as far as we got. There is so much more to discuss, but his eyes were getting glazed over by the end. He told me "glad you are the smart one." I told him that it wasn't about being the smart one....it was about the fact that for almost 12 years, I have solely been doing this and now that we will do it together....it will begin to make more sense.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
How are you doing on your goals, one week in?
Me....eh. Haven't exercised yet (but in my defense, I have been fighting a cold for 4 days now). Kitchen floor isn't washed (but today is the 7th, so TECHNICALLY my 1x a week goal still has time). The big financial talks with G-man will start tomorrow. We are both home from work, kids at school....so we have time and quiet to think, discuss, whatever.
So far, we have sold $25 of "stuff" toward our $350 goal for the month. Another $25 should happen today...and possibly another $50 or so next week. Slowly but surely.
I think the one thing that I am happy about right now is that we actually have a basic plan (albeit a crude one) and I am hoping that with some hard work, it will fully form. The unknown still scares me...the move in particular. But I can only account for the past....not the future.
With some positive energy, it will happen. Rome wasn't built in a day.
So far, we have sold $25 of "stuff" toward our $350 goal for the month. Another $25 should happen today...and possibly another $50 or so next week. Slowly but surely.
I think the one thing that I am happy about right now is that we actually have a basic plan (albeit a crude one) and I am hoping that with some hard work, it will fully form. The unknown still scares me...the move in particular. But I can only account for the past....not the future.
With some positive energy, it will happen. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Financial Goals 2010
Obviously this blog is about our finances...so financial goals would make sense.
1) Become a better team member of Team Mysti/G-man Financial Debt Relief by actually INCLUDING G-man in my plans! I am still struggling with this. I can't do this alone. We have to be a team. Trying to fix it all myself isn't going to work, and letting him keep his head in the sand isn't going to work. Therefore:
A) TOGETHER, find a minimum of $150 of expenses to cut per month.
B) TOGETHER, pay the bills, so he can have a better sense of where our month goes, and what it FEELS like to do it.
C) Remember we both deserve to have a small amount of money that we don't have to account for to each other; therefore, TOGETHER decide what is appropriate and budget that in.
2) Pay off G-man's retirement loan. I outlined the plan for this here.
3) Pay off $5,000 worth of debt, outside of the retirement loan. While I am soooo impressed at those of you who have paid off tens of thousands in one year....I don't foresee that happening. This goal averages out to roughly $417 per month, which is really a stretch for us.
4) Track expenses as they happen...not after! I am famous for entering all the numbers at once and discovering that we spent a gazillion dollars on something, after the fact. Groceries, personal care, clothing....all need to be tracked as we go. No way of sticking to a budget without knowing what you are spending.
And as a subcategory to this:
A) Work toward a Zero Balance Budget
B) Finalize usable spreadsheets (Excel and I are intimate friends ;) )
C) Keep track of our coupon usage, to help spur us on!
5) Open ING accounts for A) Christmas and B) Long term saving goals. Continue to fund as we go.
6) Find one thing each day to be proud of that I did or didn't do, related to finances.
7) Keep coupons organized in new binder, allowing maximum usage, and minimal waste!
8) Send in rebate offers within 1 week of purchase of said product, before I can lose the receipt, forget, or some other lame excuse.
9) Start teaching Sassy and Bossy about money!!!! This will include starting a weekly allowance for each, and teaching them how to save for later, give to charity, and how to responsibly spend!!!
10) Respond to 75% of MyPoints and Paid Email entries....gotta save for those free gift cards!
If you would like to read my Personal or Blogging goals, scroll around, or click the links!
1) Become a better team member of Team Mysti/G-man Financial Debt Relief by actually INCLUDING G-man in my plans! I am still struggling with this. I can't do this alone. We have to be a team. Trying to fix it all myself isn't going to work, and letting him keep his head in the sand isn't going to work. Therefore:
A) TOGETHER, find a minimum of $150 of expenses to cut per month.
B) TOGETHER, pay the bills, so he can have a better sense of where our month goes, and what it FEELS like to do it.
C) Remember we both deserve to have a small amount of money that we don't have to account for to each other; therefore, TOGETHER decide what is appropriate and budget that in.
2) Pay off G-man's retirement loan. I outlined the plan for this here.
3) Pay off $5,000 worth of debt, outside of the retirement loan. While I am soooo impressed at those of you who have paid off tens of thousands in one year....I don't foresee that happening. This goal averages out to roughly $417 per month, which is really a stretch for us.
4) Track expenses as they happen...not after! I am famous for entering all the numbers at once and discovering that we spent a gazillion dollars on something, after the fact. Groceries, personal care, clothing....all need to be tracked as we go. No way of sticking to a budget without knowing what you are spending.
And as a subcategory to this:
A) Work toward a Zero Balance Budget
B) Finalize usable spreadsheets (Excel and I are intimate friends ;) )
C) Keep track of our coupon usage, to help spur us on!
5) Open ING accounts for A) Christmas and B) Long term saving goals. Continue to fund as we go.
6) Find one thing each day to be proud of that I did or didn't do, related to finances.
7) Keep coupons organized in new binder, allowing maximum usage, and minimal waste!
8) Send in rebate offers within 1 week of purchase of said product, before I can lose the receipt, forget, or some other lame excuse.
9) Start teaching Sassy and Bossy about money!!!! This will include starting a weekly allowance for each, and teaching them how to save for later, give to charity, and how to responsibly spend!!!
10) Respond to 75% of MyPoints and Paid Email entries....gotta save for those free gift cards!
If you would like to read my Personal or Blogging goals, scroll around, or click the links!
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