So, as far as finances are concerned, we have had a lot of change recently. I started a part-time job back in October, to help bring in a little extra and snowball our credit card debt. I started a spreadsheet in May of 2010 to help track our debt progress (complete debt, as well as broken down into credit card, mortgages, etc...)
Here were the numbers in May of 2010.
Credit Card Debt: $22,489.99
Mortgage Debt (House and Land): $96,204.06
Misc. Debt (Car, Medical, In-laws, etc..): $14,117.30
Total Debt Accumulation: $132,901.35
And now, 9 months later...
Credit Card Debt: $16,064.73
Mortgage Debt (House and Land): $94,190.88 (sad, isn't it?)
Misc. Debt (Car, Medical, In-laws, etc..): $9,873.94
Total Debt Accumulation: $120,149.35
We've paid off almost $13K in 9 months!! WOOHOO!!! Now, we have about $2K in debt for the business that I have not included, but hopefully the photography business will take care of most of it. On top of that, we started sinking funds in January for saving money for different things.
Our Sinking Fund categories are: Car Repair, Medical Expenses, Home Improvement, Luke's Blow Money, Clothing, Holidays/Gifts, and our $1K Emergency Fund.
We have contributed to them as planned so far this year, and we even bought new to us tires for the car in cash. Right now, we are planning a vacation to Florida because Luke's cousin is getting married, and he will be doing the photography. So for now, my paychecks are going straight into a vacation savings so we can pay for the vacation in cash.
We are planning on doing yardsales again this year, and selling some bigger items on craigslist or ebay to hopefully bring in some extra cash for our debt snowball (Dave Ramsey style). I am putting any babysitting money into our Emergency Fund to get it to $1K as quickly as possible as well. (For Dave Ramsey people, we are doing baby step 1 and 2 at the same time). I am also saving up cash to get a few trees cut down this spring, and we are contemplating on how to go about putting up a fence and what the costs would be. We now realize that realistically we will be stuck in this house for a few years yet, and a fence is a must have with the "kind of neighbourhood" that we have :(
We just got our tax refund today, and I paid off a credit card, leaving only 2 left (3 if you count the business expense), so we celebrated by getting chinese food at Asian Wok for lunch. Hopefully, we can continue to be a bit frugal (we've cut cable tv quite awhile ago), and I need to get better at meal planning.
Oh, and a bonus to me working part-time, although I hate to leave the kids. It is close enough to walk to, and since Avery stopped nursing in December, I've lost between 10-15 pounds :) (For everyone that says breastfeeding makes you drop weight, you are all liars to me!!)
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, June 15, 2009
Recapping the Weekend
Friday we booked out to the Lodi outlet malls to look at dresses. I have this idea in my mind that when we go to Florida for the shuttle launch in August, that I want to get really pretty pictures of the girls on the beach, and also some maternity shots. I want the girls to have two dresses for pictures, I will have however many I feel the need to have for a beach shoot, and we will get Luke one or two nice beachy outfits so we can maybe get some family shots or something. We primarily went up there to hit Gap, and we found the perfect dresses, white and blue, and we also found a nice dress for me as well (black). We stopped into The Children's Place and found adorable hats that would go really well with the dresses, and they were clearance at .99 cents!!
Saturday we took pictures of the girls in there dresses, and they are over on the photo blog if you wanna take a look. We took a few pictures of me Friday night in my dress, but Luke didn't really like the lighting he was getting, but maybe I can get him to get a picture ready for this blog. We spent the majority of the day cleaning the living room and dining room, and we ran the steam vac in the living room Saturday night.
Sunday we spent the early afternoon at my dad's just hanging out on the porch and playing, and then we headed for Luke's parents so we could go swimming in the pool. Lexi has been looking forward to it all week. The girls loved it, and Lilly kept screaming "I swimming" while floating around, and Lexi was afraid to get in at first because she said she would sink! I guess we need to look into swimming lessons for her. I have no pictures, because Mr. Photog was swimming as well! We got home a bit late and once we got the girls to bed we ran the steam vac in the living room again. The floor looks awesome now, but we still need to do the rugs before the living room will be back together again.
Today is payday, and since we seem to be failing at our budget, always going over, we are going to grocery shop every week instead of once every pay period. I am busy making a grocery list and meal planning for 7 days. I have volunteered Luke to go out to Wal-Mart on Monday nights after the girls are in bed to do the shopping. It will be easier than dragging the girls through the store, and he will have a detailed list that he won't stray from. The girls aren't allowed in Wal-Mart right now anyways, because last time we went in (before the airshow) we tried putting them in the cart and they both had a meltdown, so we marched them right back out of the store and I sat in the car with them while Luke grabbed what we needed.
Anyways, it shouldn't be so hard to meal plan and stick to it when we do it on a weekly basis. We have an entire cow and half of a pig in the freezer, we just need to use it. I have dry heaving that sets in as soon as I walk in the kitchen, so we need to deep clean that kitchen really soon so I can actually get in there and make meals without getting sick. I guess it would also help if I knew how to cook and organize the kitchen properly. I want to try and do things as healthy as possible, but the budget just isn't there to back it all right now. On top of things, the girls aren't big into meat, but hopefully if we start making the meat in the freezer on a regular basis, they will start to take to it. Otherwise I don't know what they will eat!
On another note, I had a yardsale going Wednesday-Sunday. I threw everything onto the porch and made a sign that said everything was .25 cents. I advertised on Craigslist and the local yardsale yahoo group. I had Luke make a wooden box that we screwed to the porch, and just had a note that asked people to leave the money there. For not manning a yardsale for 5 days, we made $50. I still need to pack up the porch now that it is over with, and I will probably do a repeat next month, and hopefully again in August. Every little bit helps right?
I'm hoping that we can turn our focus onto the bathroom this week, but I've been saying that for months, so we will see how far we actually get. I just keep trying to convince Luke that if anyone would come into this house to get pictures done in the "studio", they would probably never come back because this place is a construction zone of half finished projects.
Saturday we took pictures of the girls in there dresses, and they are over on the photo blog if you wanna take a look. We took a few pictures of me Friday night in my dress, but Luke didn't really like the lighting he was getting, but maybe I can get him to get a picture ready for this blog. We spent the majority of the day cleaning the living room and dining room, and we ran the steam vac in the living room Saturday night.
Sunday we spent the early afternoon at my dad's just hanging out on the porch and playing, and then we headed for Luke's parents so we could go swimming in the pool. Lexi has been looking forward to it all week. The girls loved it, and Lilly kept screaming "I swimming" while floating around, and Lexi was afraid to get in at first because she said she would sink! I guess we need to look into swimming lessons for her. I have no pictures, because Mr. Photog was swimming as well! We got home a bit late and once we got the girls to bed we ran the steam vac in the living room again. The floor looks awesome now, but we still need to do the rugs before the living room will be back together again.
Today is payday, and since we seem to be failing at our budget, always going over, we are going to grocery shop every week instead of once every pay period. I am busy making a grocery list and meal planning for 7 days. I have volunteered Luke to go out to Wal-Mart on Monday nights after the girls are in bed to do the shopping. It will be easier than dragging the girls through the store, and he will have a detailed list that he won't stray from. The girls aren't allowed in Wal-Mart right now anyways, because last time we went in (before the airshow) we tried putting them in the cart and they both had a meltdown, so we marched them right back out of the store and I sat in the car with them while Luke grabbed what we needed.
Anyways, it shouldn't be so hard to meal plan and stick to it when we do it on a weekly basis. We have an entire cow and half of a pig in the freezer, we just need to use it. I have dry heaving that sets in as soon as I walk in the kitchen, so we need to deep clean that kitchen really soon so I can actually get in there and make meals without getting sick. I guess it would also help if I knew how to cook and organize the kitchen properly. I want to try and do things as healthy as possible, but the budget just isn't there to back it all right now. On top of things, the girls aren't big into meat, but hopefully if we start making the meat in the freezer on a regular basis, they will start to take to it. Otherwise I don't know what they will eat!
On another note, I had a yardsale going Wednesday-Sunday. I threw everything onto the porch and made a sign that said everything was .25 cents. I advertised on Craigslist and the local yardsale yahoo group. I had Luke make a wooden box that we screwed to the porch, and just had a note that asked people to leave the money there. For not manning a yardsale for 5 days, we made $50. I still need to pack up the porch now that it is over with, and I will probably do a repeat next month, and hopefully again in August. Every little bit helps right?
I'm hoping that we can turn our focus onto the bathroom this week, but I've been saying that for months, so we will see how far we actually get. I just keep trying to convince Luke that if anyone would come into this house to get pictures done in the "studio", they would probably never come back because this place is a construction zone of half finished projects.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Budget...UGH!
Our budget for January is trashed! Between the busted washer pipe and wire problems, to buying a bunch of photo props for Claire’s shoot, to just impulsively buying way to much fast food and junk, we really screwed up this month. February will have to be the new January, and we will either sink or swim, so let’s hope we get it right this time. We didn’t get to put anything into the Emergency Fund, except for my last paycheck from K-Mart, which was about $76. Our home improvement fund was emptied, and we stole from the thrift and medical savings to help with the cost of the wiring. We went up to the outlet mall in Lodi and spent money we didn’t really have on a few shirts and Christmas dresses for the girls, since they were having a huge clearance sale. This month was just a mess. Luke also spent some money, getting a Maxxum 9, the best film camera Minolta ever made. It's a professional grade camera, and it came with 2 lenses Luke can use on his digital camera as well. So, on we are into February. Hopefully by the end of February, we will have something rock solid in place.
Accounts as of 1/31/09
Emergency Fund: $229.53/$1000
Thrift Savings: $0.00
Medical Savings: $0.00
Home Improvement Savings: $0.00
The minimum on the WAMU card dropped this month, so the new minimum will be $35. We needed that little extra, we had too many runs to Drug Mart this pay period. The price of convenience I guess. I didn’t pay any extra to any of the cards. I decided the best place to put extra cash for now is in the Emergency Fund, until we get to that $1000.
On another note, our snowball has been re-ordered. I'll need to redo the chart and post it, but we got a good promotion on one of Luke's empty credit cards, so we are doing a balance transfer, to get rid of my Bank of America card. It looks like one of the highest interest cards we have a balance on is Luke's WAMU, and it is also one of the cards with the smallest balance. That will now be the first credit card we pay off.
Luke has a bunch of e-Bay auctions going on this week. He is trying to raise money to buy a 100-400 APO lense for his camera, along with a 2x teleconverter. He is hoping to hit a few more air shows this year, and these 2 items will really help him achieve the close-up shots he wants to pull off.
We should be filing our taxes shortly, but all money we get back will go into savings for our upcoming shuttle vacation. I will post lots of details about that vacation plan at another time. Right now I need to get the motivation and make Luke sit down and help with pictures so I can update this blog with all the other life happenings that have been going on. He is working from his brother's today, but hopefully late tonight we can get some things posted.
There are also some new pictures on the photo blog. Claire's newborn photo shoot, and some of Lexi for her upcoming 3rd birthday next month!!
Accounts as of 1/31/09
Emergency Fund: $229.53/$1000
Thrift Savings: $0.00
Medical Savings: $0.00
Home Improvement Savings: $0.00
The minimum on the WAMU card dropped this month, so the new minimum will be $35. We needed that little extra, we had too many runs to Drug Mart this pay period. The price of convenience I guess. I didn’t pay any extra to any of the cards. I decided the best place to put extra cash for now is in the Emergency Fund, until we get to that $1000.
On another note, our snowball has been re-ordered. I'll need to redo the chart and post it, but we got a good promotion on one of Luke's empty credit cards, so we are doing a balance transfer, to get rid of my Bank of America card. It looks like one of the highest interest cards we have a balance on is Luke's WAMU, and it is also one of the cards with the smallest balance. That will now be the first credit card we pay off.
Luke has a bunch of e-Bay auctions going on this week. He is trying to raise money to buy a 100-400 APO lense for his camera, along with a 2x teleconverter. He is hoping to hit a few more air shows this year, and these 2 items will really help him achieve the close-up shots he wants to pull off.
We should be filing our taxes shortly, but all money we get back will go into savings for our upcoming shuttle vacation. I will post lots of details about that vacation plan at another time. Right now I need to get the motivation and make Luke sit down and help with pictures so I can update this blog with all the other life happenings that have been going on. He is working from his brother's today, but hopefully late tonight we can get some things posted.
There are also some new pictures on the photo blog. Claire's newborn photo shoot, and some of Lexi for her upcoming 3rd birthday next month!!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Happy New Year...I still have a job!
I worked 5pm-9pm today, and went in a bit early to talk to HR about my hours. Apparently she lost the note I wrote her about changing my availability to Wed.-Fri. 5pm-10pm and anytime Saturday. I may have an occasional Sunday in there when someone goes on vacation in electronics, therefore, next week I get register trained. WooHoo! (insert sarcasm here) I also had a verbal warning for my attendance for me being sick before Christmas. It's standard protocal for retail. I remember being so mad at Lowe's for going over my attendance because I missed the first week and a half of work because of a surgical complication and was placed on bedrest. Retail has no heart, they don't care what a doctor says. Unless you are dead, your lack of attendance is counted against you. So I guess I don't get to be that full-time stay-at-home-mom again...just yet. I will stick it out since they graciously started me out at more than minimum wage when I started. It will be slow the next couple of months, so I shouldn't get too many hours.
We took all of our Christmas decorations down today and packed them in the basement. The house looks a lot cleaner now. Looks like I'll be working on the living room the next 2 days to keep my deadline. We also plan to do grocery shopping tomorrow sometime...and hopefully soon, we will head up to Akron General for a baby. As it slowly approaches Tuesday, I'm afraid that we will have to sit through an induction, and all the induction stories I have from friends are bad. Hopefully it won't turn out that way.
We are staying on budget so far this month. Hopefully that won't change after the grocery shopping trip tomorrow. I'll check back in when I have more exciting news to share.
We took all of our Christmas decorations down today and packed them in the basement. The house looks a lot cleaner now. Looks like I'll be working on the living room the next 2 days to keep my deadline. We also plan to do grocery shopping tomorrow sometime...and hopefully soon, we will head up to Akron General for a baby. As it slowly approaches Tuesday, I'm afraid that we will have to sit through an induction, and all the induction stories I have from friends are bad. Hopefully it won't turn out that way.
We are staying on budget so far this month. Hopefully that won't change after the grocery shopping trip tomorrow. I'll check back in when I have more exciting news to share.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
