Well, Scott got home last night and was able to put Caleb to bed for me. Of course, I managed to fall asleep on the couch about 10 seconds later. There went all the plans I had for getting stuff done last night.
Tonight I have decided to run away. I am going to go over to a friends house for a couple hours and just chill out. I hope there will be alcohol involved but since I am trying to save money I don't think so. Should be fun and a little time to just get my head back together after this week.
I was hoping to have a "no spend" weekend, but Scott has plans to go to the Deer and Turkey Expo this weekend. That will be about $6 in admission fees and then they will probably go out for lunch. At least I have no plans to spend money, unless you count the gas I will be burning. :) Don't know what the weather is going to be like but it would be awesome to take Caleb to the park again. And I would LOVE to be able to get the kite out this weekend. Caleb has never flown a kite before and I think he would love it.
The spring cleaning bug is starting to bite me pretty hard. The yard needs a lot of work but the inside of the house is even worse. It is going to take us MANY weekends to get it in order. With Caleb demanding our attention so much (specifically mine) lately it has been all I can do just to make dinner. We are virtually piled under mountains of crap that don't seem to have a home. That has GOT to change soon or I am going to hurt some one. Maybe I will ask the neighbor kid if he wants to earn a little money watching Caleb while we are at home. That way we can get something done but Caleb will still be entertained.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Random stuff
Scott has been in Detroit since Monday and I am beginning to unravel. Caleb has been a bit hard to handle the last couple days, plus he didn't sleep well, therefore I didn't sleep well. At one point he was awake and yelling for me because one of his socks had come off. Sheesh! I am going to need a little time to myself once Scott gets home on Thursday.
The discussions started earlier this week about when to start trying for kid #2. We have agreed from the beginning the two is a good number but the added daycare costs are going to kill us. But with our get out of debt plan in full swing we should be able to soon free up about half of what we will need ($500) but that won't be for another year. Where the other $500 is going to come from I have no idea. I am torn right down the middle about wanting another child. On one hand I want another child, but at the same time I really like the fact that Caleb doesn't need constant attention and is becoming more independent. I am finally able to get a few things done around the house without holding a kid in the other arm. I am already exhausted every night, how much more tired am I going to be if there is another person to do everything for?
I feel badly whenever I have the thought go through my head that Scott doesn't help out around the house. The truth is he does help, but usually only with what I tell him to do. I end up feeling like his mother at the same time as Caleb's. No, that isn't fair to him, but when I am looking at the disaster that my house has become and then look at Scott sitting at the computer surfing for Jeep parts we can't afford, I can't help but think that isn't fair to me either. Why should I be the one who has to clean up all the messes? I don't MAKE all the messes, do I?
But I can't expect things to change if we have another child. As a matter of fact, I can only expect them to get worse. Caleb is already insanely jealous whenever I hold another baby. I can't imagine what he will be like when and if we have a baby of our own. He is almost 3 and we may have already waited too long to give him a little brother or sister. WAY too long if you ask any of the 7000 people who seem to ask us weekly when kid #2 is coming along. At this point I think it is illegal in the state of Wisconsin to only have one child. Two is the norm, maybe even three. Heck, even 6 to 8 isn't unheard of. But only ONE!?!?! Why would we even consider such a thing?
Well, I am going to think on this a little more and head to the bank. Then I will be picking Caleb up and heading home to a nasty mess and dinner that I have to make. At least I have it all planned and I just have to put it together. Never got around to starting the dishwasher this morning so I will have that to deal with as well. What a great night this is going to be.
The discussions started earlier this week about when to start trying for kid #2. We have agreed from the beginning the two is a good number but the added daycare costs are going to kill us. But with our get out of debt plan in full swing we should be able to soon free up about half of what we will need ($500) but that won't be for another year. Where the other $500 is going to come from I have no idea. I am torn right down the middle about wanting another child. On one hand I want another child, but at the same time I really like the fact that Caleb doesn't need constant attention and is becoming more independent. I am finally able to get a few things done around the house without holding a kid in the other arm. I am already exhausted every night, how much more tired am I going to be if there is another person to do everything for?
I feel badly whenever I have the thought go through my head that Scott doesn't help out around the house. The truth is he does help, but usually only with what I tell him to do. I end up feeling like his mother at the same time as Caleb's. No, that isn't fair to him, but when I am looking at the disaster that my house has become and then look at Scott sitting at the computer surfing for Jeep parts we can't afford, I can't help but think that isn't fair to me either. Why should I be the one who has to clean up all the messes? I don't MAKE all the messes, do I?
But I can't expect things to change if we have another child. As a matter of fact, I can only expect them to get worse. Caleb is already insanely jealous whenever I hold another baby. I can't imagine what he will be like when and if we have a baby of our own. He is almost 3 and we may have already waited too long to give him a little brother or sister. WAY too long if you ask any of the 7000 people who seem to ask us weekly when kid #2 is coming along. At this point I think it is illegal in the state of Wisconsin to only have one child. Two is the norm, maybe even three. Heck, even 6 to 8 isn't unheard of. But only ONE!?!?! Why would we even consider such a thing?
Well, I am going to think on this a little more and head to the bank. Then I will be picking Caleb up and heading home to a nasty mess and dinner that I have to make. At least I have it all planned and I just have to put it together. Never got around to starting the dishwasher this morning so I will have that to deal with as well. What a great night this is going to be.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Another blog
Since I seem to be writing so much lately about our finances I decided that it would be better to create a separate blog for that and leave this one for the purpose it was meant for....recording family happenings so that I can remember them in the future. If anyone is interested, you can find that blog here.
Where is Caleb?
Scott and I were woken up this morning by noises coming from under our bed. Scott got up to find that Caleb had decided to hide under our bed again. But this time he took his puppy pillow with him and was all the way in the MIDDLE of the bed. When asked what he was doing, he said "Hiding!". Why? We may never know. At that point Scott looked at the clock....it was only 4:20 AM! WHAT!?!?!? It took us over an hour to get him calmed down and back to sleep. Needless to say, we were all late again this morning.
Whoa!
My boss just fired my co-worker yesterday. Don't get me wrong, this is something that I (we) have been hoping for for 3 years now, but to have him actually FINALLY do it was a bit of a shock. We thought it was going to happen so many times before, but it never did that we had convinced ourselves that it was never going to happen. Then it did, and all of a sudden, too. While a very big part of me can't stop grinning, another part of me help but sympathize with the guy. He has a daughter who just turned a year old and his wife is a SAHM. I don't know how I would feel or what I would say if something like that ever happened to me. Don't get me wrong....the man was an anchor to our team and every project he ever touched turned into a horrible mess, but I can empathize with him at the same time.
On another note, we have taken a step forward in our quest to be free of Wells Fargo. I have always hated working with them as they can never seem to post anything in a timely manner and the customer service has always left a lot to be desired. We have had a Wells Fargo credit card since we were forced into taking it as part of our first mortgage when we built our house. Never really used it for much, but ended up with a fraud claim when some one charged more than $2000 worth of stuff to the card both in Canada and Japan. That was a nightmare process that involved the closing of our number and the issuance of a new card. When the new card arrived, I didn't activate it for almost 2 years. Then, Scott decided to use that card to go to Germany with so he activated it. It has been nothing but a nightmare for the past month because of it. BUT, I didn't want to close the card because I was afraid that it would negatively affect our balance-to-limit ratio for the credit report. (i.e. having $10,000 in CC debt looks better if you have $20,000 in limit than if you have $12,0000) So, we decided to try applying for a different card so that we could cancel the WF card altogether. I applied online yesterday for an MTU alumni Mastercard and was approved with a much higher limit than I expected, $15000. That means I can close the WF account and still be ahead! Plus, this card offers a 0% interest rate on balance transfers for the first 12 months so we are transferring all of the balance from the UWCU card (9.9% interest) to the new card and will end up saving $500 in interest over the next year. Since we are planning on being having the balance paid off in the next 12 months, that is a great deal! Then, that frees up the UWCU card, which I have never had any problems working with, for Scott to use as his travel card.
However, here are the other accounts that we have with Wells Fargo:
On another note, we have taken a step forward in our quest to be free of Wells Fargo. I have always hated working with them as they can never seem to post anything in a timely manner and the customer service has always left a lot to be desired. We have had a Wells Fargo credit card since we were forced into taking it as part of our first mortgage when we built our house. Never really used it for much, but ended up with a fraud claim when some one charged more than $2000 worth of stuff to the card both in Canada and Japan. That was a nightmare process that involved the closing of our number and the issuance of a new card. When the new card arrived, I didn't activate it for almost 2 years. Then, Scott decided to use that card to go to Germany with so he activated it. It has been nothing but a nightmare for the past month because of it. BUT, I didn't want to close the card because I was afraid that it would negatively affect our balance-to-limit ratio for the credit report. (i.e. having $10,000 in CC debt looks better if you have $20,000 in limit than if you have $12,0000) So, we decided to try applying for a different card so that we could cancel the WF card altogether. I applied online yesterday for an MTU alumni Mastercard and was approved with a much higher limit than I expected, $15000. That means I can close the WF account and still be ahead! Plus, this card offers a 0% interest rate on balance transfers for the first 12 months so we are transferring all of the balance from the UWCU card (9.9% interest) to the new card and will end up saving $500 in interest over the next year. Since we are planning on being having the balance paid off in the next 12 months, that is a great deal! Then, that frees up the UWCU card, which I have never had any problems working with, for Scott to use as his travel card.
However, here are the other accounts that we have with Wells Fargo:
- Slumberland furniture
- American furniture
- first mortgage on house
Monday, March 19, 2007
More Water Heater Drama
Want to hear something funny? My brother, Jay, who is a contractor, highly recommended the tankless water heater to us from the very beginning. Well, when I talked to him a little more this past week, he said that when he talked to a bunch of his buddies he had changed his mind. He suggested that we try to find an ultra efficient traditional tank model instead. I just had to shake my head in disbelief. But, all of his points made sense and we are going to take his advice(AGAIN) and look at a tank version. Hopefully we can find one this week so that Dad and Jay can get it installed this weekend. The good news is that we are going to be saving a ton of money and I have family who knows how to do the installation for free. There are perks in the end, but I found myself defending the decision to go tankless to a bunch of people and now we are going completely the other way. Oh well...that's life I guess. In the end, at least we will finally have reliable hot water from a water heater that doesn't sound like the house is going to take off.
We had a very nice dinner last night with some friends who we really should have over more often. Eryn went to Tech with Scott and I, even though we didn't know her at the time. Turns out we know a lot of the same people though, which is pretty cool. They just had a baby boy who is about to turn 3 months this week. We are going to be able to share a lot of baby stuff with them which should help lessen the piles of stuff that we have building up in the basement.
Cadbury Carmel Eggs are a tool of the devil. They are so freaking good that there is no way that I could resist them. I did pretty well this year though, considering that I just bough my first one this weekend. I know, I know....bad for me, waste of money, you are on a budget now....believe me you are telling me anything I haven't already told myself. But did I mention the are really really good?
Caleb is back sliding with the potty training and the bad news is that we are letting him. We didn't get him to go potty all weekend and then today at daycare he had an accident and then ASKED to be put back into a diaper. Poor little guy. I can imagine how stressful and tough learning something so completely new must be. Granted he is only 2.5 and is doing great for a little boy, but apparently he just needed a little break.
What do we do with an old computer? It would be a great computer for a kid in HS or MS, but I don't think we are going to get anyone to buy it. Then what? I don't know if we are going to get much of anything from it if we donate it, but I guess any little bit that we can get back on our taxes is going to help.
Speaking of taxes, did I mention that we have to pay in this year? Yeah, that pretty much sucks. Granted, after you figure in what we are getting back from the state we are going to owe $350 to the feds, but that still hit us below the belt. Hopefully, if the same thing happens again next year we will be in a better financial position to handle it. Thank goodness we are going to be getting a big flex spending reimbursement this month, because Scott's increased withholding from his check is hitting us a little hard at the same time. I just have to get everything figured out in YNAB and we will be fine, but things are still going to hurt a little.
Well, I guess that is enough for the moment:). I am going to finish watching TV and then go wake up my DH so we can go to bed. He is currently sleeping upstairs with Caleb, just like I did last night. At least this way one of us gets caught up on our sleep while the other one gets some alone time.
We had a very nice dinner last night with some friends who we really should have over more often. Eryn went to Tech with Scott and I, even though we didn't know her at the time. Turns out we know a lot of the same people though, which is pretty cool. They just had a baby boy who is about to turn 3 months this week. We are going to be able to share a lot of baby stuff with them which should help lessen the piles of stuff that we have building up in the basement.
Cadbury Carmel Eggs are a tool of the devil. They are so freaking good that there is no way that I could resist them. I did pretty well this year though, considering that I just bough my first one this weekend. I know, I know....bad for me, waste of money, you are on a budget now....believe me you are telling me anything I haven't already told myself. But did I mention the are really really good?
Caleb is back sliding with the potty training and the bad news is that we are letting him. We didn't get him to go potty all weekend and then today at daycare he had an accident and then ASKED to be put back into a diaper. Poor little guy. I can imagine how stressful and tough learning something so completely new must be. Granted he is only 2.5 and is doing great for a little boy, but apparently he just needed a little break.
What do we do with an old computer? It would be a great computer for a kid in HS or MS, but I don't think we are going to get anyone to buy it. Then what? I don't know if we are going to get much of anything from it if we donate it, but I guess any little bit that we can get back on our taxes is going to help.
Speaking of taxes, did I mention that we have to pay in this year? Yeah, that pretty much sucks. Granted, after you figure in what we are getting back from the state we are going to owe $350 to the feds, but that still hit us below the belt. Hopefully, if the same thing happens again next year we will be in a better financial position to handle it. Thank goodness we are going to be getting a big flex spending reimbursement this month, because Scott's increased withholding from his check is hitting us a little hard at the same time. I just have to get everything figured out in YNAB and we will be fine, but things are still going to hurt a little.
Well, I guess that is enough for the moment:). I am going to finish watching TV and then go wake up my DH so we can go to bed. He is currently sleeping upstairs with Caleb, just like I did last night. At least this way one of us gets caught up on our sleep while the other one gets some alone time.
Why so long?
I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. So doesn't feel like it. Guess that is just a symptom of my life going at warp speed.
Last week was busy. Caleb got up REALLY early a couple mornings but seems to be back on track now. I hope. One morning we even found him UNDER our bed at 5:30 am! Why he was under there, I don't have a clue, but he apparently thought is would be funny. Scott saw him there only after realizing he wasn't in his bed and then when he came rushing back into our room happened to see the dust ruffle move. We may have to get rid of the dust ruffle! :) Didn't get much done at home, didn't get much done at work. Why do I feel like I have a lot of wasted effort here? Hmmmm.....
The weekend was nice. It was chilly but at least there wasn't much wind so we were able to play outside quite a bit. The playground in our neighborhood was even dry and it wasn't overrun with kids so we were able to use it. Caleb is even big enough to walk there and back himself so we don't even have to worry about the stroller. Which is good since at 2.5 he thinks he is too big for it anyway. He refuses to sit in it ever! So much for spending all that money. Oh well, at least now they can go into storage for the next child and won't be taking up space in the garage OR the back of my truck.
Financially we are struggling. This is just a really weird time right now. We are waiting for our state tax refund so that we can send all of it plus $350 to the feds. Yeah. Also, my reimbursement for daycare flex spending has been delayed for some unknown reason, which means I can't pay a few bills as soon as I would like. This weekend we didn't do very well at sticking to our budget either. I spent too much at Barnes and Noble and then we over spent on groceries. And, horror of horrors, we went out to eat on Friday! GASP! We broke our streak of not eating out, but there was just nothing we could do about it. Unfortunately, we could have chosen a CHEAPER place to eat, like Culvers or Noodles, but we didn't. And I COULD have chosen not to have the 3 margaritas, but I didn't. Other than that though, we didn't do any unnecessary spending, which is good for us. We managed to make it all the way through Sunday without spending any money. Even though we haven't been doing things as well as I had hoped, I am chalking it up to a learning experience at this point. We have never lived under this strict of a budget before and we will continue to adjust things in the near future.
Friday night I had one of the greatest experiences of my life. I got to meet my favorite author in the whole world, Jodi Picoult, at Barnes & Noble. She was there to do a reading from her new book and do a book signing. I was simply blown away. WOW! She is the most outgoing and put together person I have met and the things that come out of her head and onto a page just astound me. I bought the new book and 2 of her older books, which led me to overspend significantly (see above) but I only feel slightly guilty. I know I will make it up by not buying anything for scrapbooking or crafts this month alone. We got there over an hour early and almost didn't get a seat. There were easily 300 people there many of whom had driven from 3-6 hours to attend this signing. I was impressed to say the least. The best part of it all was being able to experience it all with my mom, who got me hooked on the books in the first place.
Last week was busy. Caleb got up REALLY early a couple mornings but seems to be back on track now. I hope. One morning we even found him UNDER our bed at 5:30 am! Why he was under there, I don't have a clue, but he apparently thought is would be funny. Scott saw him there only after realizing he wasn't in his bed and then when he came rushing back into our room happened to see the dust ruffle move. We may have to get rid of the dust ruffle! :) Didn't get much done at home, didn't get much done at work. Why do I feel like I have a lot of wasted effort here? Hmmmm.....
The weekend was nice. It was chilly but at least there wasn't much wind so we were able to play outside quite a bit. The playground in our neighborhood was even dry and it wasn't overrun with kids so we were able to use it. Caleb is even big enough to walk there and back himself so we don't even have to worry about the stroller. Which is good since at 2.5 he thinks he is too big for it anyway. He refuses to sit in it ever! So much for spending all that money. Oh well, at least now they can go into storage for the next child and won't be taking up space in the garage OR the back of my truck.
Financially we are struggling. This is just a really weird time right now. We are waiting for our state tax refund so that we can send all of it plus $350 to the feds. Yeah. Also, my reimbursement for daycare flex spending has been delayed for some unknown reason, which means I can't pay a few bills as soon as I would like. This weekend we didn't do very well at sticking to our budget either. I spent too much at Barnes and Noble and then we over spent on groceries. And, horror of horrors, we went out to eat on Friday! GASP! We broke our streak of not eating out, but there was just nothing we could do about it. Unfortunately, we could have chosen a CHEAPER place to eat, like Culvers or Noodles, but we didn't. And I COULD have chosen not to have the 3 margaritas, but I didn't. Other than that though, we didn't do any unnecessary spending, which is good for us. We managed to make it all the way through Sunday without spending any money. Even though we haven't been doing things as well as I had hoped, I am chalking it up to a learning experience at this point. We have never lived under this strict of a budget before and we will continue to adjust things in the near future.
Friday night I had one of the greatest experiences of my life. I got to meet my favorite author in the whole world, Jodi Picoult, at Barnes & Noble. She was there to do a reading from her new book and do a book signing. I was simply blown away. WOW! She is the most outgoing and put together person I have met and the things that come out of her head and onto a page just astound me. I bought the new book and 2 of her older books, which led me to overspend significantly (see above) but I only feel slightly guilty. I know I will make it up by not buying anything for scrapbooking or crafts this month alone. We got there over an hour early and almost didn't get a seat. There were easily 300 people there many of whom had driven from 3-6 hours to attend this signing. I was impressed to say the least. The best part of it all was being able to experience it all with my mom, who got me hooked on the books in the first place.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Water heater update...sort of
Upon much deliberation we still don't know what to do about the water heater. It is so incredibly LOUD right now that we can distinctly hear it running while we are in the shower. On the second floor....and the water heater is in the BASEMENT!
As I see it we have 4 options:
We will have to talk things over with my parents this weekend and get their take on the whole thing. Since they are accountants maybe they will have a clue what the best idea is. Just have to hope the dang thing lasts that long. *sigh*
As I see it we have 4 options:
- Replace heater with new tankless right now, putting another $1700 on the credit card @ 9.9% (Total cost: $1880.88)
- Fix the existing heater ($300 +/-) and then put money aside each months for approximately 2 years until entire unit needs to be replaced (Total cost: $2000)
- Borrow $1700@ 8.9% on 24 month term from UWCU (Total cost: $1862.16)
- Sell investment shares to replace water heater now (Total cost: unknown)
We will have to talk things over with my parents this weekend and get their take on the whole thing. Since they are accountants maybe they will have a clue what the best idea is. Just have to hope the dang thing lasts that long. *sigh*
Please don't arrest me!
After I dropped Caleb off at daycare this morning I stopped at my usual gas station and filled up. I wanted a juice and a couple other things so I decided to pay inside the store rather than at the pump. Once the pump switched off I headed into the store, picked up a bottle of juice and a couple of things to eat for breakfast (yes, I was running behind AGAIN) and went to the counter. I said very clearly, "I have these things and Pump 8." The cashier rang the things up as I ran my card through the reader, she handed me the slip to sign and then handed me my receipt as I handed it back to her with my signature. I stuffed the receipt in my purse, picked up my things and went back to my car. All sounds pretty normal, right?
Fast forward to the other end of my commute. Being newly budget conscious, I decided to enter the purchase into my spreadsheet tally for gas so I pulled out the receipt. The total was $3.67. WTF!?!?!? There is definitely something wrong with this. That is barely the cost of 1 gallon of gas these days and I was running on fumes so obviously the attendant forgot about the gas. What do I do now? My biggest fear was that they would try to come after me for a drive off, which could cost me my license. Not good. So I called the gas station, explained everything to the very nice lady and got it all straightened out. She thanked me for being honest and offered to give me a free car wash for my troubles.
Now, the weird thing about this is that I NEVER look at my receipts. Bad, I know, but they just get shoved in my purse and I don't think twice about it. I really don't know what made me look at the slip this morning rather than just waiting for the charge to come through on the bank account in the next day or two. Very strange, but it all worked out for the best.
Fast forward to the other end of my commute. Being newly budget conscious, I decided to enter the purchase into my spreadsheet tally for gas so I pulled out the receipt. The total was $3.67. WTF!?!?!? There is definitely something wrong with this. That is barely the cost of 1 gallon of gas these days and I was running on fumes so obviously the attendant forgot about the gas. What do I do now? My biggest fear was that they would try to come after me for a drive off, which could cost me my license. Not good. So I called the gas station, explained everything to the very nice lady and got it all straightened out. She thanked me for being honest and offered to give me a free car wash for my troubles.
Now, the weird thing about this is that I NEVER look at my receipts. Bad, I know, but they just get shoved in my purse and I don't think twice about it. I really don't know what made me look at the slip this morning rather than just waiting for the charge to come through on the bank account in the next day or two. Very strange, but it all worked out for the best.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Time Change Blues
This whole time change thing always throws me for a big loop. It takes me DAYS to get my internal clock straightened out, and even then I struggle. I woke up at 5:00 this morning and I have no idea why. But I was able to watch a movie that has been hanging around our house for almost a month. Grrrrr....This whole Netflix thing isn't working out to the money advantage that I thought it was going to. Might consider canceling it but I really don't want to. We already don't go out to movies and I know that we would never take the time to go to the video store. That would leave only Pay-per-view and that is a big snore. They never seem to have more than one movie we would watch during the month.
Things with Caleb were a little strange this weekend. We let him get away with too much, but we were both so tired that it was just easier that way. Neither Scott or I could fully function yesterday and needed heavy injections of caffeine. So much for sleeping in on Sunday mornings. I really miss that.
The weather here was unusually warm (50°F) and we all had a blast playing in the melting snow. Scott and Caleb each used their shovels to move blocks of ice and snow onto the pavement so that it could melt faster. Probably wasted effort, but when you have been snow bound you just want the stuff to go away as fast as possible. We did get the garage straightened up a bit, but that isn't saying too much. The house is still a disaster.
Biggest accomplishment for the weekend? We gave Caleb a bath! He is the worst about getting clean and we have the hardest time keeping him clean. Granted, he is only 2 and can't get THAT dirty in the winter, but he still only gets 2 baths a week at the best and 1 at the worst. We shoot for Wednesday and Saturday but just aren't that consistent about it. Of course, last night we couldn't get him OUT. Sheesh! Just goes to show that you can't predict a toddler!
After bath time came some snuggle time and then falling asleep (me) while Caleb read his book. I was just so wasted by 8:30 that I couldn't think. However, as Caleb was really snuggling down and getting ready for sleep, he gave me a hug and said "Mom, you best friend". *sniff, sniff* That just made my heart positively MELT! All the chasing and arguing and frustration for the weekend with a toddler just didn't matter any more.
And this weekend we began having our first big test of our new budgeting/spending philosophy. Our water heater is just about dead. Actually, the BLOWER MOTOR on our water heater is just about dead. The water heater is only 5 years old and the blower motor has been going for most of the last year. Now what do we do? Replace the blower motor? $297.....Buy new water heater? tank: $700, tankless: $1500....none of those is what I had in mind right now. There is simply NO EXTRA MONEY and our emergency fund is depleted because I have had to borrow from it the last couple months. I just want to cry!
Things with Caleb were a little strange this weekend. We let him get away with too much, but we were both so tired that it was just easier that way. Neither Scott or I could fully function yesterday and needed heavy injections of caffeine. So much for sleeping in on Sunday mornings. I really miss that.
The weather here was unusually warm (50°F) and we all had a blast playing in the melting snow. Scott and Caleb each used their shovels to move blocks of ice and snow onto the pavement so that it could melt faster. Probably wasted effort, but when you have been snow bound you just want the stuff to go away as fast as possible. We did get the garage straightened up a bit, but that isn't saying too much. The house is still a disaster.
Biggest accomplishment for the weekend? We gave Caleb a bath! He is the worst about getting clean and we have the hardest time keeping him clean. Granted, he is only 2 and can't get THAT dirty in the winter, but he still only gets 2 baths a week at the best and 1 at the worst. We shoot for Wednesday and Saturday but just aren't that consistent about it. Of course, last night we couldn't get him OUT. Sheesh! Just goes to show that you can't predict a toddler!
After bath time came some snuggle time and then falling asleep (me) while Caleb read his book. I was just so wasted by 8:30 that I couldn't think. However, as Caleb was really snuggling down and getting ready for sleep, he gave me a hug and said "Mom, you best friend". *sniff, sniff* That just made my heart positively MELT! All the chasing and arguing and frustration for the weekend with a toddler just didn't matter any more.
And this weekend we began having our first big test of our new budgeting/spending philosophy. Our water heater is just about dead. Actually, the BLOWER MOTOR on our water heater is just about dead. The water heater is only 5 years old and the blower motor has been going for most of the last year. Now what do we do? Replace the blower motor? $297.....Buy new water heater? tank: $700, tankless: $1500....none of those is what I had in mind right now. There is simply NO EXTRA MONEY and our emergency fund is depleted because I have had to borrow from it the last couple months. I just want to cry!
Friday, March 9, 2007
Family Matters
First off, a quick update on the financial side. I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for YNAB Pro and have been working on figuring it out. So far I think it is going to be a very powerful tool, but I am going to have to adjust my entire way of thinking to understand it. The biggest change is going to be the "0 based budget" concept, which means that you look at every penny you are going to be earning for the month and then give it a "job", whether that is savings, bills, etc. Then, when you "available" money gets to zero, you STOP budgeting. Now, this requires that I keep a close eye on what we are spending and when, but that isn't such a bad thing. One of the cool things is that you can either budget from just one account or from your whole "pile of money" wherever it is located (savings, checking, money market, etc.) At this point I think I am only going to look at the main checking account and still keep track of the other account via spreadsheet. That has worked very well for us since the beginning and I hope it will continue to work just as well. But then again I will have to keep figuring it out as we go along.
Caleb is still having issues with the potty training. Last night he peed in his pants and was running around naked (which he usually loves) but then all of a sudden he asked me to put a pull-up on. So we did and then less than 5 minutes later the pull-up was soaking wet. Basically he knew he had to pee but wanted to go in the pull-up rather than the potty. Oy! We will keep working on it but this is going to take forever.
This weekend should be pretty quiet. We are just going to hang around and try not to spend money. I have all the meals for the weekend planned so that should help. If Caleb gets nuts we will try to go to the play area at the mall (free) or maybe see if he would like to play with the neighbor again. We are usually going to many places that he might go a little stir crazy spending the day at home, but it is something we should be doing more often. Now that the basement is finished I hope we can start using it more. It would really be nice to have a TV down there, but that could be a while.
I think we are going to try to invite Keough's over for dinner and cards tomorrow night since we are going to be in town for once. That should be fun, but we will have to see if Caleb will let us play cards or if he will want the undivided attention that he usually does.
Caleb is still having issues with the potty training. Last night he peed in his pants and was running around naked (which he usually loves) but then all of a sudden he asked me to put a pull-up on. So we did and then less than 5 minutes later the pull-up was soaking wet. Basically he knew he had to pee but wanted to go in the pull-up rather than the potty. Oy! We will keep working on it but this is going to take forever.
This weekend should be pretty quiet. We are just going to hang around and try not to spend money. I have all the meals for the weekend planned so that should help. If Caleb gets nuts we will try to go to the play area at the mall (free) or maybe see if he would like to play with the neighbor again. We are usually going to many places that he might go a little stir crazy spending the day at home, but it is something we should be doing more often. Now that the basement is finished I hope we can start using it more. It would really be nice to have a TV down there, but that could be a while.
I think we are going to try to invite Keough's over for dinner and cards tomorrow night since we are going to be in town for once. That should be fun, but we will have to see if Caleb will let us play cards or if he will want the undivided attention that he usually does.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Wake up call
So I was up until 1:30 this morning playing with budget numbers and cash flow balances. Right now, things really suck! But there is some good news along with the bad. Right now we are $21,500 in debt (including car, excluding house). OUCH! But if we stick to our guns and the plan I have currently laid out, we should be down to just two debt payments (besides mortgage) left by November. We should be completely out of debt in less than 3 years. Of course, that means we don't get to eat out for the next six months or go to a movie or buy any gifts for anyone. *Sigh* OK, so maybe I am exaggerating a little, but not by much.
Here was the scariest number I encountered last night: $464....amount of money spent just EATING OUT last month alone. Even scarier: $3400....amount of money spent eating out for the last YEAR. Definitely sobering to look at those numbers. Of course, if we had eaten at home over the same time period we would of have more grocery costs, but not THAT much. We could have probably saved around $3000 just by eating at home more. That makes driving by McD's all that much easier to do these days. Of course, I feel like I am missing out when my co-workers go out but I can really appreciate the fact that I am helping myself get out of debt by staying at my desk.
Wait a minute.....I thought this blog was supposed to be about the happenings of my family, not our dire financial straights. Yes, that was the intention, and for the most part it remains the ultimate goal. But typing all these things out has really helped me with my thought process.
So how is the family doing, anyway? Scott is well and it looks like he is only going to be spending 2 weeks in New Zealand instead of the original month. I wish I could go with him, but it just isn't going to work; the timing is awful, especially for Caleb. We are still working on potty training with Caleb, and of course, consistency is hardest on our part. He does REALLY well at school, but not so well at home. He is getting it but the age old question still persists....when do little boys learn to pee standing up? I have no idea since I never thought I would ever be asking such a question. Besides, I have never peed standing up so what do I know.
Mom's birthday is this weekend and I think we are going to miss it for the first time in a long time. I had hoped to drive up to spend the day with her, but gas money is really an issue right now and I can't afford a gift right now so maybe if I wait a week to see her I can crochet her something with yarn I already own. Might have to give those dish rags I have been meaning to do a try.
Here was the scariest number I encountered last night: $464....amount of money spent just EATING OUT last month alone. Even scarier: $3400....amount of money spent eating out for the last YEAR. Definitely sobering to look at those numbers. Of course, if we had eaten at home over the same time period we would of have more grocery costs, but not THAT much. We could have probably saved around $3000 just by eating at home more. That makes driving by McD's all that much easier to do these days. Of course, I feel like I am missing out when my co-workers go out but I can really appreciate the fact that I am helping myself get out of debt by staying at my desk.
Wait a minute.....I thought this blog was supposed to be about the happenings of my family, not our dire financial straights. Yes, that was the intention, and for the most part it remains the ultimate goal. But typing all these things out has really helped me with my thought process.
So how is the family doing, anyway? Scott is well and it looks like he is only going to be spending 2 weeks in New Zealand instead of the original month. I wish I could go with him, but it just isn't going to work; the timing is awful, especially for Caleb. We are still working on potty training with Caleb, and of course, consistency is hardest on our part. He does REALLY well at school, but not so well at home. He is getting it but the age old question still persists....when do little boys learn to pee standing up? I have no idea since I never thought I would ever be asking such a question. Besides, I have never peed standing up so what do I know.
Mom's birthday is this weekend and I think we are going to miss it for the first time in a long time. I had hoped to drive up to spend the day with her, but gas money is really an issue right now and I can't afford a gift right now so maybe if I wait a week to see her I can crochet her something with yarn I already own. Might have to give those dish rags I have been meaning to do a try.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Financial Oy Vey
OK, so yesterday I spent WAY too much time trying to figure this debt/budget/finance thing out. Currently, we are making about $5900 a month but we have $5800 allocated for in our "budget". I put "budget" in quotes there because what we had before can only be loosely termed a budget. I have discovered that many people are going away from the term budget altogether and instead calling them spending plans, since the point is to allocate every penny to a certain place for the month, whether it is a utility payment or funding a savings plan. As long as everything has a job, that is a good thing. Finding "extra" money to pay down debt is going to be the challenge.
Paying for daycare SUCKS. It is the second biggest payment we have every month other than our mortgage. We pay almost as much each WEEK as we do for our car payment in a MONTH. Now that is a sobering concept. Yes, we can pay for a bunch of it pre-tax through the flex spending plan, but that only accounts for HALF of the amount we pay for the year. But since the flex spending is reimbursement has already come off the top of our take home pay, my goal is to count the reimbursement as "bonus" income that we can use to pay down debt or more importantly, build up our buffer (at least in the short run). But since daycare costs are equal to 1/4 of my total salary, it makes no sense to look at staying home with Caleb. It does make us stop and wait on having a second child, though. If we are struggling this much with only ONE in daycare, I can't imagine having TWO in at the same time. *GULP* Of course, if we were to have little to no money going towards debt repayment each month, we would be able to afford it, but barely.
I have climbed onto this get out of debt wagon in the past and quickly fallen right off. I would create a "budget" in Excel and then vow to stick to it. However, once I had created the "budget" I had no way to track our progress. Even MS Money which I faithfully used would only tell you where you fell short at the end of the month, but what good did that do me? Now I have discovered You Need A Budget and I AM going to try to use it affectively. Of course, I first have to figure out how to find the time to figure the program out and then monitor everything on a monthly (or even better, weekly) basis. I am determined to make this work this time and I am recruiting Scott's help and support. We got ourselves into this and WE are going to get out of it.
The thing that makes me sick is that we are making more money than I ever thought possible, but we can't seem to make the ends meet. It is disgusting! I didn't grow up with this much money and I can't seem to spend it wisely. How can we rack up $4,000 a month living expenses? But when I look at what we are spending our money on, I don't know where to trim. Our cell phones have become essential, DSL is a must, and I refuse to live without DirecTV.
Paying for daycare SUCKS. It is the second biggest payment we have every month other than our mortgage. We pay almost as much each WEEK as we do for our car payment in a MONTH. Now that is a sobering concept. Yes, we can pay for a bunch of it pre-tax through the flex spending plan, but that only accounts for HALF of the amount we pay for the year. But since the flex spending is reimbursement has already come off the top of our take home pay, my goal is to count the reimbursement as "bonus" income that we can use to pay down debt or more importantly, build up our buffer (at least in the short run). But since daycare costs are equal to 1/4 of my total salary, it makes no sense to look at staying home with Caleb. It does make us stop and wait on having a second child, though. If we are struggling this much with only ONE in daycare, I can't imagine having TWO in at the same time. *GULP* Of course, if we were to have little to no money going towards debt repayment each month, we would be able to afford it, but barely.
I have climbed onto this get out of debt wagon in the past and quickly fallen right off. I would create a "budget" in Excel and then vow to stick to it. However, once I had created the "budget" I had no way to track our progress. Even MS Money which I faithfully used would only tell you where you fell short at the end of the month, but what good did that do me? Now I have discovered You Need A Budget and I AM going to try to use it affectively. Of course, I first have to figure out how to find the time to figure the program out and then monitor everything on a monthly (or even better, weekly) basis. I am determined to make this work this time and I am recruiting Scott's help and support. We got ourselves into this and WE are going to get out of it.
The thing that makes me sick is that we are making more money than I ever thought possible, but we can't seem to make the ends meet. It is disgusting! I didn't grow up with this much money and I can't seem to spend it wisely. How can we rack up $4,000 a month living expenses? But when I look at what we are spending our money on, I don't know where to trim. Our cell phones have become essential, DSL is a must, and I refuse to live without DirecTV.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Short weekend
This past weekend went really fast, especially since we have a potty training toddler. We went through so many pairs of pants and undies this weekend that I am going to have to work the washer overtime. At least Caleb is starting to get the hang of sitting on the potty and we had our first REAL victory since he went poo-poo on the potty at home! I never thought that I would ever find discussing the bowel workings of a toddler something to talk about publicly, be here I am. Not that this is all that public since I am the only one reading/posting here. It is meant to be a private record of my thoughts and that is apparently exactly what it has turned into. I can't decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing...
My parents came to visit yesterday and that was a nice breath of fresh air. They had so much fun playing with Caleb that my Dad slept all the way home. Apparently the 2 YO wore him out! Mom and I got to spend a little time together doing some shopping during nap time so that was nice. Against my better judgment, I stopped and picked up the shoes I had ordered from Morgan's. They were way pricey, but I have an incredibly hard time finding shoes to fit my horribly wide feet. I thought it was hard to find shoes before I got pregnant but now it is just plain impossible. OK, I should amend that statement....it is impossible to find STYLISH shoes that don't look like something my grandparents would wear.
Saturday was pretty much a waste of a day. We had gymnastics class in the morning and then I called our neighbor to see if their daughter wanted to come play with Caleb for a while. So she came over and played, but instead of getting the laundry folded like originally planned, I ended up supervising and refereeing the whole time. They had a blast, but couldn't really entertain themselves very well. I am sure that will change soon though as they get older. Fast forward to after lunch and the fact that nap time got pushed off (my fault, of course). By the time I got Caleb down it was a fight, but he must not have slept very well since he woke up grumpy and whiney. If I could have sold him at that moment I would have considered it. Scott was off helping a friend install a refrigerator and we were supposed to join them for dinner once Caleb woke up. But he threw so many fits that it took us an hour to get ready to go. We made it there late, and Caleb stayed up too late again. I was so strung out and tired that I couldn't see straight and the drive home was awful. It was all I could to do go home and collapse. The list of things that I didn't get done is much longer than those that I did. Even though I was busy, the laundry, kitchen, cleaning, finances, etc still suffered.
Getting a hold of this financial situation is horrible. We are so far behind that just getting caught up is going to be a huge challenge. I am already spending the money from the next paycheck and that was just to buy groceries. I am determined not to eat out for the next 2 weeks. Period. That should help, but this only getting paid every 2 weeks pretty much sucks. We JUST got paid and we are already out of money. One mortgage payment, one trip to the grocery store and a couple bills and we are out of cash. Even our reserves are short almost $1000. Yikes! How do I save enough money to pre-budget, when I am always trying to pay myself back after borrowing from the reserve account every single week? And our tax return is going to be little to nothing this year. It may be enough to plug the hole temporarily, but we are still in trouble. Big trouble. How do I break the news to Scott? How do we sit down and discuss this when it is my fault that we are in such a deep hole?
My parents came to visit yesterday and that was a nice breath of fresh air. They had so much fun playing with Caleb that my Dad slept all the way home. Apparently the 2 YO wore him out! Mom and I got to spend a little time together doing some shopping during nap time so that was nice. Against my better judgment, I stopped and picked up the shoes I had ordered from Morgan's. They were way pricey, but I have an incredibly hard time finding shoes to fit my horribly wide feet. I thought it was hard to find shoes before I got pregnant but now it is just plain impossible. OK, I should amend that statement....it is impossible to find STYLISH shoes that don't look like something my grandparents would wear.
Saturday was pretty much a waste of a day. We had gymnastics class in the morning and then I called our neighbor to see if their daughter wanted to come play with Caleb for a while. So she came over and played, but instead of getting the laundry folded like originally planned, I ended up supervising and refereeing the whole time. They had a blast, but couldn't really entertain themselves very well. I am sure that will change soon though as they get older. Fast forward to after lunch and the fact that nap time got pushed off (my fault, of course). By the time I got Caleb down it was a fight, but he must not have slept very well since he woke up grumpy and whiney. If I could have sold him at that moment I would have considered it. Scott was off helping a friend install a refrigerator and we were supposed to join them for dinner once Caleb woke up. But he threw so many fits that it took us an hour to get ready to go. We made it there late, and Caleb stayed up too late again. I was so strung out and tired that I couldn't see straight and the drive home was awful. It was all I could to do go home and collapse. The list of things that I didn't get done is much longer than those that I did. Even though I was busy, the laundry, kitchen, cleaning, finances, etc still suffered.
Getting a hold of this financial situation is horrible. We are so far behind that just getting caught up is going to be a huge challenge. I am already spending the money from the next paycheck and that was just to buy groceries. I am determined not to eat out for the next 2 weeks. Period. That should help, but this only getting paid every 2 weeks pretty much sucks. We JUST got paid and we are already out of money. One mortgage payment, one trip to the grocery store and a couple bills and we are out of cash. Even our reserves are short almost $1000. Yikes! How do I save enough money to pre-budget, when I am always trying to pay myself back after borrowing from the reserve account every single week? And our tax return is going to be little to nothing this year. It may be enough to plug the hole temporarily, but we are still in trouble. Big trouble. How do I break the news to Scott? How do we sit down and discuss this when it is my fault that we are in such a deep hole?
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