End of Month--October 2008

Wow!  Another month gone.  The holidays are coming up so fast!

I am amazed with the current gas prices!  Hubby stopped for gas the other day even though he wasn't totally empty yet because he saw it for $2.299!  It cost him $36 to fill up!  Let's hope the prices stay this low or lower.  At least for a little while!

I've updated the sidebar.  Not much to really update, but I did it.  I also updated the NetWorthIQ for October.

We finally ordered the tires for my husband's truck.  They were really needed.  I saved and transferred the money to the credit card and then used it to pay for the tires.  They should be here in a day or two, then we'll make an appointment to have them mounted.  The total cost for four tires was $675!  Ouch!  But it is a worthwhile expense.  His safety is more important than money.  We researched the tires on tirerack.com and were very pleased with the reviews.  These tires should last a lot longer than the ones that came with the truck.  

Other typical end of month tasks:

• I transferred $45.59 from my round up fund to my emergency fund
• I transferred my VA benefit to my emergency fund
• I added any interest given at the end of the month.  We earned $9.22 this month in the emergency fund!  

I also figured out that I should be at $5,000 in my emergency fund in 9 months or less.  If you remember that was the original amount I wanted to save, then I upped it to $10,000.  I'll just be happy to make it to the halfway point because that's where we were before my husband was out of work for 2 1/2 months last year.  It will make me a lot more comfortable knowing we have that money to pay the bills just in case.

I also paid two bills for next month in advance.  Well, I used billpay and set the date for after the next pay period.  At least I don't have to worry about paying them.  The first was a $65 cell phone bill (2 cell phones--family plan) and the second was our electric bill of $159, which just keeps going up no matter how many times I turn things off.  I think it may be because we are on the budget plan though.

How does your electric bill compare?  Do you find it always going up?  Or have you found a way to keep your electric costs low?  I cannot wait until we are debt free so we can afford to put in a solar system!  It is one of the first things I want to do!

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.

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!

June Numbers

Yeah June is over!  That took a while!

You'll notice some updates on the sidebar:  

My net worth went down.  I expect this will happen quite a bit over the next few years due to different reasons.  Right now the stock market is going lower and that is messing with my retirement savings.  I also had slightly less in cash at the end of this month.  And my debt went up due to using my credit card and the payment goes through later this month.  Later my net worth will go way down because of more student loans, but they will pay down the credit card further to take care of college payments already made.

My emergency fund went up.  I earned $7.15 in interest this month!  My new savings total is $2, 776.26.

Our June spending totals look like this: 

Gas: $594.18 (We stayed under $600 this month!  Amazing!)

Dining: $232.31 (We've gone a little overboard on eating out lately.)

Groceries: $260.36 (Not bad numbers for groceries.  Of course, we've been doing more eating out.  I'll probably do another stock up this month.)

Prescriptions: $96.45 (Like I said in my mid-month post June seems to be a big month for prescriptions.)

Work Lunches (Hubby's only): $120.33 (This has been about average for him.)

Medical: $25.00 (This was an expected expense, but I will probably get a bill for this month for anything my insurance doesn't cover since it's for a specialist.)

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.