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.

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:

• 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)

The cheapest and easiest option is to put it on the credit card, but seeing as how we have put ourselves on a voluntary freeze and are trying to pay off the huge balance that we have, my gut is telling me that is a bad idea. The most expensive option is to fix it and then save for the bigger replacement cost in 2 years, but that is the one we are leaning towards. At least I am.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.