Woohoo!

DH paid $2.799/gallon for gas this morning and I paid the same at a different station this afternoon!  Usually we've been paying up to $65.00 to fill up DH's truck and about $40.00 to fill up my car.  But today it was $44.50 and $27.02!  I am so happy!  I know it would be better if it went even lower, but for now this is exciting to me!

On another note...DH made a mistake and bought something using the debit card instead of using the credit card that I told him to use to replace a piece of important computer equipment that died on us.  It totally threw off my entire budget for these two weeks.  Especially since things were already tight because it was a 2-week period where it seems all the bills decided to be due.  In the next 2-week period coming up there are absolutely no bills due!  So I've had to borrow from our blow money "accounts" and will replace it when we get paid later this week.

September Update

I finally got around to taking care of end of month activities.  Phew!  This year is just flying by!

I've updated my sidebar including NetWorth IQ.  Did you notice the truck payment?  I'm now under $7,000!  My last two payments have posted and the remaining balance is at $6,697.32!  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!  Sorry for screaming, but I just cannot contain myself.

My emergency fund is trickling along, but at least it's moving up.  It's now at $3,273.04 and I earned a whopping $8.65 in interest last month!  This is the most I've ever made in interest.

I earned a measly $0.29 interest in my checking account, which I promptly put in my round up fund, and $0.71 interest in my "mortgage" savings account.

I've already paid most of my bills for this month.  The credit card, cell phones, water/sewer/garbage, and the electric bill (which was horribly high for us at $153 and some change) have now been paid.  I only have two bills left for the month--other than the mortgage, which is automatically taken out in a couple of days.

I seriously need to go through our food and set up a menu plan so I can use all the food we have efficiently.  I know I'll be running out of a few items soon, but for the most part we have a lot of food to eat if I would only start writing it down!  That will help me save money on running out for food I don't really need yet.

Attempt to Get Back on Track...

...Or at least I'm going to try.  

I've updated everything on the sidebar now as well as NetWorthIQ.  It's not looking good, but I didn't expect it to what with the student loans being added to it all.

I made several payments to the truck loan.  We are now down to $7,131.24 left on it and I don't owe them another payment until January.  Of course, I'll continue to send them in because I want it gone!  My extra loan payment "savings" is up to $145.69 so I'll only need $87.07 to send in another extra payment along with my regular payment.

I received my homeowner's insurance statement.  The payment is due in December and is paid through my mortgage escrow account.  I would love to not have a mortgage escrow account, but they are required on VA loans.  As usual the policy covers some pretty stupid things like volcanic eruption, which may be needed if I lived in Hawaii, but I live in a flat state with barely a hill; and grave markers (is there something I don't know about?).  The good thing is that it looks like it will be going down $14.97 from last year's premium.  It's not much, but it'll still lower my monthly mortgage payment.  That's $1.25 a month that I can put towards something else.  

I have all my monthly bills paid for the rest of the month and we still have another payday to go this month!  The next bill is not due until the 7th of next month and it's the only one for the next two pay periods!  I've already made sure I did a big grocery shopping.  We are set for food other than refrigerated items we go through quickly.  I spent over $215 so it better last!  So I think this is a good time for auto maintenance.  I need an oil change and new battery and DH needs an oil change, some other routine maintenance yet to be determined, and a couple of new tires.  We'll have to do some pricing.  For tires we like to check them out on Tire Rack to get reviews and pricing.  We bought my new ones on there earlier this year.  We had them delivered to a local shop to be put on and we couldn't be happier with them.

I believe that may bring me up to date for now.  If I think of anything else, I'll add another post later.

Final Dentist Bill and Incoming Money

I received the last claim statement from the insurance company so on Wednesday I went into the dentist's office to settle up with them.  The final bill came up to $299.50 so my total out of pocket for all their dental work was $671.60.  I'm glad I took care of it and got it out of the way.

I'm now waiting for the remaining balance of my student loan to post to my account.  You may wonder why I take the full amount when I also get a grant.  The reason is that it still doesn't cover everything.  I only get $600 a term in grant money.  That is about the cost of my books in a fall or spring term, which I pay out of pocket and then reimburse myself with the loan.  My tuition is around $1,800.  Any left over goes towards paying down my credit card to prepare for the next term.  The remaining also covers my summer term costs, which I receive a small grant for but no student loans.  

This is what this term cost:

Tuition--$1,831.28 minus $600 Grant = $1,231.28 minus $2,722.50 = ($1,491.22) remaining.

Books/DVD's--$582.18 minus $1,491.22 = ($909.04) remaining.

That remaining $909.04 needs to be "saved" for the summer term's tuition, books, and supplies, as well as any additional supplies needed for this term.  I'll add whatever is extra from the spring term to the fall term's remaining balance, too.

Doctor/Dentist Bills, Red Cross, End of Month

I received a bill from one of my doctor's for an appointment I went to in December.  I've actually had 2 other appointments since that appointment, but for some reason they messed this one all up by putting in the claim 3 times!  Pretty unorganized of them!  So now I have to fit in a payment of $125.32 to them.  I'll take care of that this weekend and get it out in the mail on Tuesday.

I've also received some more of the claim forms for my boys' dentist appointments.  So far it looks like I'll owe them $209.30 at least until I get the last claim form.  I underpaid on a couple of appointments and overpaid on one.  This is not as big as a deal because I was pretty much expecting it.  Plus the dentist office has not sent me a bill as yet either.  So we'll wait and see on that one, but I'll probably go in as soon as I've received the last claim form and settle up with them.

On the sidebar you'll notice a banner for the American Red Cross.  They are one of the few organizations that I support and believe in.  I do not in any way receive money or endorsement from the Red Cross for placing the banner on my blog.  

Since today is the last day of the month I'll probably be closing everything out.  It looks like I'll have $38.17 to transfer over to my emergency fund (other than the normal $117) from my round up fund from the checking account.

These are the final month end numbers:

Groceries: $379.07

Dining Out: $249.53

Gas: $540.41

DH's Work Lunches: $108.06

I'm not sure if I've missed anything.  The progression bars will be updated in a week or so when the mortgage, truck payments, and emergency savings are shown to be updated in their systems so I can get exact numbers.  Though I believe the emergency fund will be above $3,000 and the truck loan will maybe be close to $7,000.

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!

Working on school work and online spending

Oh my I haven't posted for a few days.  Really I've been pretty busy with school work.  Only three more weeks until this term is over--five more weeks until the boys go back to school--six more weeks until the next term for my new classes start.  Phew!

I've been doing some shopping lately online.  I put through another order with drugstore.com through ebates.com (got to get the cash back on my purchases).  This time I went through the house (what I should have done the first time) and made sure I had a list of anything that was needed.  I got a lot of great deals on the items I needed so it wasn't a total waste to put in another order.

I also bought some items for our home office.  I noticed that my computer that I've set up temporarily on the first table complete sticks to it sometimes and removes the paint a bit.  So I picked up some clear desk mats to protect the tables I'm making.  Those should be in next week.  

Today I bought some things for my oldest son at PetSmart.com (also through ebates.com).  We promised him a parakeet.  The new PetSmart here in town doesn't open for another two weeks, but I figured we could get all the supplies now, set it up, and then go pick out a couple of parakeets when the store opens.  He's really happy about it.  In addition to the cash back with ebates, I also got 15% off from PetSmart.com so that was great as well!

I think my shopping days will be over for a little while now.  I've pretty much bought out everything I've been meaning to buy for now.  Though I do still have my bi-weekly blow money coming up.  Gotta keep the UPS guys in business, right?

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.

I'm Anxiously Waiting...

...for this month to end so I can do all the updates.  I'm pretty sure it won't look that great, but that's ok.  I really just want to close out June and move onto July with three paychecks.

Yesterday was my birthday so we went out to eat for dinner.  Nothing extravagant...we spent $29.99 including tip for the 4 of us.

The blow money idea seems to be working out well so far.  My husband hasn't mentioned once how he doesn't have any money to spend on what he wants.  Yay!

Tomorrow should be a small spend day.  My husband will probably get lunch at work and that's it.  Interest should start showing up in the accounts tomorrow, too.

With the extra paycheck next month I'll be transferring $100 each pay period over to the auto insurance savings for our January payment.  

Movie Expenses

We went to the movies yesterday.  Total spent was $49!  It's outrageous!  It's also why we don't go see movies often.  The last one was Horton Hears a Who and before that was Harry Potter 5.

My youngest is really obsessed about the Hulk.  He has watched almost all of the original series, the first movie over and over, and sings the movie music while he plays.  He has tons of Hulk toys and clothes.  So my husband took him to see the movie.

My oldest didn't want to see The Incredible Hulk so we went to see Get Smart instead.  It was very funny!

The next movie we go to see in the theatre will probably be the next Harry Potter.  It's just too expensive to go all the time.  But I do have a list going of movies I would like to buy when the price is right.

Vanguard, Water, and 2-Week End

Lots of different things to discuss this time.

Vanguard got my check and promptly applied it to my account.  I've already made an additional $0.01 too!  :-)

This morning I woke up, put water in my kettle to make tea, and started a load of laundry.  The washer was almost filled up and the water stopped!  Apparently someone broke the main water line--I'm not going to mention who, but "idiot who was doing construction on new 4-lane road near our house" is probably the most likely candidate!  

Because of this, I brought the boys out for lunch at McDonald's.  I did have a coupon for a free kid's meal from when my youngest went to a birthday party.  Free is always nice!  Since we were already out I filled up the car ($41.82!  But it has been 18 days since my last fill-up!) and stopped by Walmart for a few needed supplies and two 2-drawer filing cabinets to complete the first desk in my office makeover.

Again another 2-weeks has passed!  I had $19 left, which I split among the "savings funds", though some just replaced what I transferred back due to the stupid Dish Network bill.

All the bills have now been paid for the rest of the month:

$442.60 transferred to savings for 1/2 July mortgage payment

$36.75 paid for my car registration--yep it's my birthday this month!

$69.60 bill set up to be paid 6/20 for water/sewer/garbage with city

$139.14 bill set up to be paid 6/23 for electric

$62.22 bill set up to be paid 6/23 for landline and internet (we would love to get rid of the landline, but it would take a lot of shuffling around other services to do it--so for now we are keeping it)

I'm now just waiting for June to be over to update my debt, net worth and move into July with 3 paychecks!

Filing Expenses

Lately I've been looking into 2-drawer filing cabinets.  I was planning on buying 4 of the metal ones and creating back-to-back desks from our closet doors and then using the current 4-drawer wood filing cabinet as a clothes storage in my room.

The problem is they are: 1) too short; and 2) too expensive.  I remember when metal file cabinets were cheap--now you can barely find one for under $100!  I did find some at Walmart and Target (not online--in store only) that were around $25 each, but again they were too short.

I believe I'll just buy metal table legs.  I found a scratch and dent section of an online table leg store and even though they are not the right color, I may buy them since they are $20 off the original price.  A little spray paint works wonders!

So you may be wondering what I'm going to do with all my files.  I already have plans to put up track shelving and figure decorative file boxes (plastic is preferable) will do the trick along with a fire-proof safe for very important papers.

While looking around at different file systems I found one that was interesting.  It's a pre-labeled home filing system over at Stacks and Stacks.  Sure it looks nice, but why pay $70 for this?  It's only a bunch of files!  Plus they give a whole list for their filing system right on the website.  I'll definitely be using this to organize my files better into separate file boxes for my shelves.  

It'll probably look something like this:

1) Medical Files--will include one file for each doctor per person plus a health insurance folder

2) Emergency Files--will include files in case of an emergency (death, natural disaster, evacuation, etc.) such as account numbers, passwords, doctors numbers, inventory, etc.  This box would need to be sturdy and possibly lockable, yet able to be easily picked up and carried if there is an emergency.

3) Important Documents--these (social security cards, husband's citizenship paperwork, passports, wills, birth certificates, etc.) will be in the fireproof safe.  In the event of an emergency they will be secure in there, but copies will be in the Emergency Files box.  Carrying a safe wouldn't be that easy to do in an emergency.

4) Tax Return Files--one file for each year saved.

5) Investment Files--will hold files for each retirement account and any other future investments.

I know there are more, but these are the ones that came to mind initially.

Now it may have occurred to some of you that I'll be spending more money initially to set up this new filing system than it would be just to buy those 4 filing cabinets in the first place.  You're probably right!  But I'm looking at it in a way more than money (though I will look for the lowest price I can)--it's also a matter of convenience, safety, and organization (because we just cannot seem to keep the office neat and organized).  A good fireproof safe will probably run me anywhere from $50 on up.  To me it's a lot better to spend this money than keep my important papers in a wood filing cabinet or spend money monthly on a safe deposit box.

I'd love to hear suggestions on other filing system options.  I haven't started setting up the office yet.  I'm still on the first stage of preparing the walls for paint!

May Numbers

Here are some numbers for May now that the month is over:

Savings--

• From our credit union we got a whopping $0.24 interest in our checking account and $0.82 interest in our savings account.  Woohoo...$1.06!!!!  Do you hear the sarcasm?  
• In our online savings account we got $6.59 in interest.  That really is a BIG woohoo!
• My VA benefit is scheduled to be transferred into our online savings account
• I've scheduled for $33.99 from our round up from checking fund to be transferred into our online savings account.  This is down from the April amount of $42.11, but my theory is that it also means we spent less.

Spending--

• Gas--$651.20 (I was really surprised this is still in the $600 range)
• Groceries--$423.40 (This comes out to $105.85 per week for a family of 4--not too bad)
• Dining Out--$147.85 (This is about $36.96 per week in dining out)
• Dining: Work Lunches (hubby)--$109.29 (This is better than April.  I'm hoping it will go down with him taking lunch to work a couple of days per week)

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.

Decorating Costs

There are so many things I want to do around the house, but you know what?  They're going to cost me.  Yikes!  

Some things I need to do eventually.  Remember that partial concrete kitchen floor?  Yep eventually I do need to buy something to put down on it.  

And I'm tired of white walls with hand smudges around the corners.  That'll take some paint (though I do already have both bathrooms and two bedrooms done).

And my office is a disgrace!  I do have some ways to save money there, but I'll need to spend some money, too.  At some point the carpet will come up.  I need to paint the room.  I'd like some wall shelves (brackets are pretty cheap, but I'd have to price wood boards).  I'm planning on using the closet doors to make desks supported by 4 filing cabinets (2 for me and 2 for my husband), but I need to buy the filing cabinets (I did see some for under $30 at Walmart, though the $45 ones would be better for organizing due to a third drawer *sigh*).

Then there's my backyard!  We won't even go there!

I may need to make some choices and do a little bit at a time to not spend too much at once.  I figure the main areas would be the kitchen floor and some of the office--some paint maybe and the file cabinets for storage and better working space.  

The rest may have to wait.

Staycation Splurge

Yesterday we went on a staycation splurge by going to the town next door to us and acting like tourists for the day with our boys.

We parked our car in the parking garage and walked the rest of the day.  We were tuckered out by the end of it.  It was nice to get out of the house for a day and go out and do something.

We spent:

Lunch: $47.97 (for 4 plus tip)

Attractions Admittance: $19.08 (for 4 with local discount)

Parking: $5.00

Total: $72.05 (plus I only used 1/4 of a tank of gas getting there and back)

Grocery Shopping Day

I went grocery shopping today.  I really had no choice.  We still had food, but didn't have enough to actually put a meal together.  We were down to some serious scrounging!

Since we are at the end of a two-week pay period, I had to be careful in what I bought.  I was able to buy some extras, but really had to try to stay with items we really needed (at least until my husband gets paid).

Luckily, the grocery store we go to usually has buy one, get one free items every week.  I rarely use coupons unless I find them in the store for items already purchasing.

I spent $93.77 for $124.76 worth of food...saving $30.99 in total.  I used three coupons all found in the store.  I got 7 items free and found other items we use on sale.  I do buy some items that are generic, but not many.  Most of the items bought were brand name items.  In total I bought 48 items.  Of those 12 were generic store brand (8--frozen vegetables, 3--dry pasta, and a gallon of milk).

I've done better, but this wasn't too bad of a grocery shopping trip.

Staying at Home

Today is a no spend day for us because we are just planning on staying at home. I love days when nothing is spent.

Technically, yesterday would be a no spend day, too, but we had bills go out. The credit card and cell phone bills were sent out through the billpay I set up in advance and I mailed out my $300 heloc payment. Other than those, we didn't spend any money outside of the bills.