2-Week Pay Period: July 31, 2008 and End of Month

It isn't often that both the end of a 2-week pay period and the end of the month coincide.  This was also the end of a 3-check month.

End of 2-Week:

• The first thing I decided to do is to redirect my extra 1/2 mortgage payment transfer amount of $442.60 to my new extra loan payoff savings.  I just don't really need it for the mortgage so I figure it'll do me more good paying off some debt.  So along with some additional funds I managed to move over there, I was able to make two additional payments on the truck loan.  So this month I've made payments for August, September, and October.  And I still have $90.03 left in the extra loan payoff savings.  When it reaches another payment, then I'll send it in as an additional payment.
  

• I paid $100 for my August credit card payment.  I only owed $19.00, but I'm used to paying extra.  Besides I've had to use it more often lately because of the boys' dentist appointments.  
  

• I scheduled our cell phone bill for August in the amount of $63.75 (that's for two phones).
  

• I paid $99.91 on a doctor's bill for what was left after copay and insurance.
• I transferred the blow money for my husband and me; and the allowance for the boys.
  

End of Month:

• Groceries: $213.59
• Dining out: $184.31
• Husband's Work Lunches: $138.10 (can you tell bringing his lunch to work isn't working?)
• Gas: $570.21 (it's going down!)
• Prescriptions: $8.20
• Dental: $313.70

All our bills are now paid through the next pay period due on August 14th.  I may still need to update some of the numbers in the sidebar later because:

1. the mortgage payment hasn't gone through yet and I like to see the exact loan amount remaining after the payment.
2. interest in the savings accounts are not showing yet.
3. I always check the truck loan after the checks have cleared as the total amount due is usually lower (I tend to overestimate the interest and underestimate the principal).

I believe that about covers this last 2-weeks and last month.  Let's hope August is a good one!

2-Week Pay Period: July 3, 2008

I'm a little behind due to some school work (I'm happy to say I received a 96% on my test yesterday) and I still have more to do (another test today and two papers due Monday).  So let's see if we can make this a bit quick today.

Because of the holiday (Happy Independence Day!) my husband got paid a day early!  YAY!  That helped out tremendously because I was in real need of groceries with the boys home for the summer eating everything!

This is what I did:

• Transferred $442.60 into savings account for 1/2 mortgage payment
• Transferred remaining $43.00 ($8.60 each) into 5 virtual savings accounts (set up in my Quicken program): Auto Purchase, Christmas, Home Improvement, Investment Property, Vacation.
• Transferred the boys' allowances ($6 and $2) and our blow money ($25 each) into virtual accounts.
• Transferred $100.00 into virtual Auto Insurance savings account to prepare for January payment.
• Paid bills due prior to next payday: $100 to credit card (already set up), $62.53 to cell phones (already set up), $14.93 to medical bill, $300 to heloc payment (interest and principal).
• Got my husband's medicine refill: $5.48
• Bought $111.17 worth of groceries.

We now have about $467.00 left to last until the next payday on July 17th.  That's not bad considering we won't be going anywhere today or this weekend.  I estimate over the next two weeks my husband will spend about $195 in gas and about $56 in food.  I expect he'll actually spend less.  This leaves us with $216.00 for any other incidentals that may pop up over the next two weeks.

Allowance and Blow Money

I was never really consistent with giving my boys an allowance.  I knew how much to give them (though I've now changed that) and that they have to save 25%, put aside 25% for charity, and they can spend 50%.  But I would forget to give it to them or be lax in how they got it.

Now I have it all set up in my Quicken to pay them every two weeks.  They will receive $1 for each year of school they are in.  So my oldest gets $6/week or $12 every 2 weeks because he will be going into 5th grade.  My youngest will get $2/week or $4 every 2 weeks because he will be going into 1st grade.

The other issue we've had is my husband.  He's been upset that he feels like he can never spend any money.  And he's pretty much right.  I've been taking almost everything extra to either save or put as extra towards debt.  I can also see how we should have some blow money for ourselves that we can do anything we want with and not feel guilty about.

So I've set up a beginning point where each of us gets $25 every 2 weeks to do as we wish.  We'll see how it goes and then reevaluate later whether it should be more or less.  My husband seems pretty happy with this and it should reduce any arguments about whether he can spend money on something or not.

Spent Money Today

We did it.  

We spent money today.

We drove to Target so we could get some things and ended up spending just over $200.  *cringes*  But in our defense most of it was for the house to improve other things--some that could save us more money than the initial costs.

This is the second time in a row my 6-year-old has spent almost a week trying to clean up his room after messing it up in one day.  We've about had it with the mess.  His room is so messy he gets overwhelmed by it all and doesn't want to be in there so he ends up bringing toys into the living room and messes that up!  So before I start taking away all his toys, we decided to try a different organizational approach.  Therefore I picked out (and I say I because "the boys" were all looking at toys) a $17 5-drawer cart, a $15 3-drawer cart, and a $7 19-gallon tub.  We (my son and I) went through a bunch of stuff tonight and I labeled the cart drawers as we cleaned.  It's a good start.

My husband got a really good container and camping fork/spoon to start bringing leftovers to work a couple days a week.  I didn't even mention the idea to him!  Work lunches are some of the things I've worked into the budget and expect to always be there, but now he's decided to try to save some money on his own.  Amazing!  I think it's because he feels guilty because of his truck and all the gas it eats up.  Works for me!

We also bought a rechargeable battery system and some additional AA and AAA rechargeable batteries.  They were $10 each with a mail-in $5 rebate!  We thought it was a good idea to get because we have wireless "mice" that regularly eat up batteries.  We end up changing them every couple of weeks.

Then I bought a rod, rings, and curtain for the office so I could take down the closet doors to start working on them for the desks.  But I realize now that I should have bought two curtains.  Figures!

The other thing was allowing our boys to use their available spending money at the store.  They each bought one item and when we got home they gave me what they had plus I subtracted the rest out of their "bank" (I keep track of their allowances with a check register).

So there you have it--all the good and bad of our shopping trip.

My Boys' Accounts

I have two boys currently ages 9 and 6.  I also take care of their various accounts and keep their money moving around for their future use.

They are always getting checks for birthdays and Christmas, but they also get tons of toys, clothes, games, etc.  The last thing I want them to do is waste their money to buy more toys!  

I take all checks they receive and deposit them into their own savings accounts.  Every time the accounts reach $500, I buy them a 5-year CD.  So far they each have two of them.  I figure that by the time the CDs mature they will be teenagers and will really want the money for other things like going out with their friends, a car and/or car expenses, more expensive clothes/shoes than I'm willing to buy, etc.  This way they will have the money when they will really want/need it.

The totals for them right now are:

DS1: 

Savings: $278.64

CD #1: $573.80

CD #2: $554.44

DS2:

Savings: $135.16

CD #1: $566.74

CD #2: $507.76

They both also get an allowance (though lately I haven't given them one because they haven't been earning it...they will be over the summer).  They can spend 50% of it on anything they want, 25% has to be saved, and 25% is for charity (right now it's not much so we save it up and when they have a charity event at school like St. Jude's they will give it then...I'll give them more options as they get older).

Though I take care of and track all their money in my Quicken, it is not in my totals because it is their money.  Quicken allows me to see and monitor the accounts and check them off to not be included in my totals.