How am I doing--December 2007

Somehow this month got away from me. I had planned to update every two weeks on pay day, but obviously that just didn't happen.

I consider December to be a successful month. In addition to my regular paychecks, I received my pay for the remaining sick days I had from the firm. That amount was $1,758. I used those funds to bring my emergency fund to $1000 ($375), pay for my tires ($300), cellphones and Christmas gifts for my children ($600). The remaining got lumped into the slush fund (checking account) and used for groceries and other expenses.

I did go over my planned $600 for Christmas spending. In the future I'm going to make a written list and place it in a prominent place where I can see it every day. I spent an additional $286 on Mary's ensemble ($57) a gift for my husband and additional gifts for C1 an C2 ($229).

I have been credit card use free for 161 days! I paid $450 on my credit card balance this month, bringing it down to $11,200!

This is still a work in progress. I think I'm going to separate what I consider fixed expenses (health insurance, hsa, commuter fee, 401K) from my every day expenses (groceries, gas, personal care, etc). The fixed expenses are deducted from my pay before taxes. I'm going to focus on my net pay and how I'm using it. I decided to reduce my 401K contribution from 3% to 1% until I reach my debt shackle release goal.

Happy New Year to all! Thanks for reading my blog and thanks for your comments. I love hearing from you! Please consider subscribing via the RSS feed or e-mail.

More on Discover

I am so glad that I posted about Discover. I got some great comments. Ntbeachnc says she pays for everything with her Discover card. I so admire people like her and Elizabeth. They are so disciplined. They understand that the credit card is a means to make purchases. The have the ability to use it as a budgeting tool. Racerx hit the nail right on the head, suggesting that it's great if I can do it. That's a big IF for me. Then there's Wendy. She used the card to get the points. She earned enough points to buy Christmas presents, but she still has a balance. I'm so afraid that would be me.

So I've decided that I'm not going to do it yet. I feel much more successful when I pay as I go with cash. For some reason when I use cash and it's gone, I know there can be no more spending. I have not been able to make my mind work that way when I use a credit card.

Thanks to all for your input. Thank you, Elizabeth, for the pep talk! It's not a done deal. I'm just keeping it on the back burner for now.

Christmas Day

My family and I have exchanged our Christmas gifts. I'm so glad that I finally caught a little bit of Christmas spirit over the last couple of days. My sixteen-year-old son thinks he is so cool. He said he wasn't excited, but it was obviously that he was. He had to work today at 11:00 am. When I asked him yesterday if he wanted to open presents before or after work. He replied, "Before." His tone implied that I should have known. It had that teenager edge to it.

Although it is still fun to watch my children open gifts, it is vastly different from when they were little. When they were younger, we were up at the crack of dawn. You could hear them run down stairs, discussing along the way whether or not Santa had come by. Then they would come to our room to let us know that he had been there and that the reindeer didn't eat all of the carrots, but that Santa ate everything we left for him.

Yesterday, C2 decided that we would open gifts between 8 and 9 this morning. I thought he would be the first one downstairs. Oddly enough he wasn't, but I was. Maybe I was a little excited about opening presents too!

All I want for Christmas is...

After closing at my snowflaking job yesterday, one of the associates asked me what I was getting for Christmas. I replied that I didn't know because I didn't ask for anything. She's a young woman and seemed surprised that I had no Christmas gift requests. Then she asked me what did I want for Christmas. I said world peace. She thought that was funny.

I've been asking for world peace since my children have had means to purchase gifts for me. I really don't want them to spend their money on me, but I do understand that they may derive pleasure from shopping for a present for their mother.

Anyway, that got me to pondering. What would I like for Christmas? World peace would be phenomenal! But that aside, debt freedom would be an awesome gift. So would traveling to Hawaii or Florida or a Caribbean island. I would love to have the money to set up trust funds for my children or be in a position to go to school full time and work towards my master's degree.

I guess I don't feel the need for stuff anymore. If I want something I can buy it myself. Do you thing that's how I got bound by these shackles in the first place? :-)

Anyway, to all of you who read my blog, thank you. I appreciate you stopping by. I wish you all a very, very Merry Christmas.

My Free Cell Phone

C1 and C2 decided that they wanted new cell phones for Christmas. Back in the summer I asked my husband to start researching cell phones so that I could put my money together and use cash to buy the cell phones. Of course, they wanted very expensive phones that have many, many bells and whistles. So my husband and I agreed that this would be the only gift each would get and we would spend up to $300 for each phone. I know that C1 wanted a Blackberry. C2 wanted something similar.

My husband was all set to order the phones online. He even found a couple of rebate deals, which meant we would spend less than $300 for C2's phone. Well, when he went to place the order, he found out that we would have to upgrade our phone service to the tune of $40-$50 per month for each phone! As you well know, I'm somewhat remedial when it comes to technical stuff, but I do know that I am not upgrading to the tune of almost $1000 per year so that my children can have really cool phones.

In the end C1 and C2 settled on the same phone. C2 had it as an option on his Christmas list. But C1 decided that it was good enough for her too. They both were very appreciative. I got text messages, thanking me for the phones. Best of all each phone was only $85, leaving money to get them other items that they had on their Christmas lists.

This leads me to my free phone. My husband, C1 and C2 have been after me to upgrade my cell phone. I didn't think that I needed a new phone. I rarely use mine. The only people who call me are my family and my snowflaking job. I'm old school in that I think the phone is for making phone calls. Well, each reminded me that an upgrade would be free because I'm the primary account holder! I thought, if it truly costs zero dollars, then I'm all over it. So I did it! I upgraded my cell phone for free. I feel like I really saved money too. I was willing to spend $600 for two phones. In the end, I got 3 phones for less than $200!

Discover

A while back, my husband got a Discover card. He said we were going to use it for gasoline purchases because we would get points or credits or cash back or something.

Last night we decided to have a small celebration in honor of his new job. While C2 was at driver's ed class, we went to dinner at a casual restaurant nearby. When the check came, my husband pulled out the Discover card. Sheer panic must have crossed my face because he said, "Don't worry, I'll transfer the money from the checking account to Discover as soon as we get home." He said he uses the card for the cashback credits. He also told me that since opening the card earlier this year, we've received more than $100 in credit that he has applied to the balance. So I asked, "If I used it for groceries would we still get credit?" He said that we would.

Sounds great? Doesn't it? Here's my issue. Am I financially mature enough to do that? If I were to use the card at the grocery store, as soon as I got home I would have to immediately transfer those funds from my checking to the card. Hmmm. Should I, maybe, try it for one month just to see if I'm ready for such a sophisticated financial maneuver? Elizabeth commented on my Discretionary Fund post that she uses three credit cards for all her purchases.

What do you think? Should I try it? Am I ready? I don't know...

More Good News

My husband accepted a job offer today! Yipee!!!!! He starts January 2. It's a contracting/temporary position. There are no benefits, but it's a paycheck. He does have a couple of other irons in the fire that are full time positions with benefits. He is still a candidate for both, so there is hope for something permanent with benefits.

The contracting job offer call came yesterday afternoon. The gentleman left a message, and my husband picked it up last night. He asked me if I thought he should accept the position if offered. I asked him why wouldn't he. My thoughts were that he could continue his job search and if one of these two full time positions pans out, he could quit the contracting job. Plus, the contracting job is with a major corporation. Now he will have his foot in the door and can view internal job postings. Perhaps he could find a permanent position with this company. At least now he'll have income so we can stop dipping into the retirement fund. I must say that I'm grateful that it was only four weeks of dipping.

Once my husband is on the job, I'm going to present him with my rapid debt reduction plan and my retirement plan. I want to encourage him to work with me to get out of debt and retire from our day jobs in 10 years.

Mary's Winter Ensemble

I found Mary's ensemble at Old Navy dot com. I bought a jacket for $29; fleece scarf, gloves, and hat for $3 each and a sweater for $12. With shipping the total was $57. It was $7 more than I wanted to spend, but I forgot about the shipping. In the end I felt good about the purchase. I'm so glad Mary will have a nice warm jacket. Naturally, I had to get everything matching. I so enjoy buying clothes for little girls.

Next came the little boy. I received an e-mail from the religious education director. She was asking for donations for several boys who live in a group home in the city. They have various issues. They deserve a nice Christmas too. One of the boys wanted sneakers and socks among other things. So I thought who better to send for the sneakers and socks than my husband and C2. They spent $50.

C1 and C2 purchased their giving tree gifts: a game and a basketball. And finally, we donated the turkey C2 received from work to the soup kitchen.

My family spent approximately $150 plus the free turkey on giving for Christmas. Now I just have to put it in the budget for next year. Up until now, I would forget that Christmas comes the same time every year...imagine that!

A Health and Wellness Goal

One of the things I've been thinking about since I set my personal financial goal is a health and wellness goal. I'm embarrassed to say that initially I thought I didn't need one. But that's not true. Everyone needs a health goal. Even someone who is very healthy could have a plan for staying very healthy.

I think it's easy to set a health goal of losing weight. I'm not saying it's simple, but it is easy to write down this goal: I will lose 25 pounds in 12 weeks. Then list the action steps. As we all know, the challenge is in working the plan.

Over the last two years, my health and wellness plan focused on competing in amateur natural bodybuilding competitions. One day I'm going to blog about it. It was the most fun I've had in my life to date other than going to Disney. My goal was to compete. My plan was weight training, cardio, supplements, water, eat clean, and pose, pose, pose.

My question is: How should I define my health and wellness goal now that I'm not competing?

How am I doing--November 2007

I've now had one full month of recording income and expenses. This does take focus and commitment. I think I've said that before :-).

During the second half of November my expenses came to $1,550 and my income was $2,083. I spent $160 on new clothes for my new job. That was an unplanned expense. My biggest expense is definitely groceries. I lump a lot into that category including supplements and paper goods, hygiene products (soap, toothpaste, deodorant, etc.) and cleaning supplies. This category totaled $452. This means that I am averaging more per week on groceries than I thought. Up until now I thought I was averaging about $150 per week but in November I averaged $239 per week. I guess it pays to keep track.

As you can see from the side bar, I've made some progress. I was able to make the purchases for C2 and finally pay my husband back for the tires. I owe C2's purchases to my snowflaking job. That money goes into an account separate from my checking. I get very confused when I mix money. I've also listed my 2008 goal, which has now become part of my big goal to retire on December 31, 2017.

Later this week, when the interest posts on my credit card, I'll update for December. I did get my first paycheck from my new job. The net income is more and I received my sick pay from the firm.

Thanks, everyone, for keeping me accountable!

Best Personal Finance Idea of the Year

One of my favorite bloggers, Mrs. Micah, has a great collective post today. She's asked bloggers and readers to submit the best PF idea we've come across this year.

Over the last couple of years a major bank has run television ads stating that they will round up your checking account withdrawal amounts and put that in your savings account. I guess it's supposed to be a way to help people save money. Of course, the bank charges a fee for doing this.

I was intrigued by this idea. But, I didn't want to pay a fee, and I really didn't want the money to go into my savings account. What I was looking for was more along the lines of a credit line, but you very well know that more credit was the absolute last thing that I needed. I was looking for a way to make sure I always had at least $100 in my checking account. So, I made this idea my own. Whenever I make a withdrawal or write a check, I round up in my check register. So if the check was $10.01, I enter $11.00 in my register. Also, when I make a deposit, I round down. If the deposit is $90.52, I round it down to $90. This way I always have a small "cushion" in my checking account. It's come in handy especially when I used to make frequent ATM withdrawals.

A Snow Day

We're expecting a huge snowstorm today in New England. It's not supposed to start until mid-morning, but schools are closed. The interesting thing about this storm coming today is that our department Christmas party is scheduled for this afternoon from 1-6 at a restaurant about 30 minutes from my house. I decided to work from home this morning because it will be easier for me to drive from my house to the party than to drive to work and then drive to the party. Basically, I would have had to take my own car to work rather than get on the van.

So here I sit blogging rather than working and hoping that the party gets canceled. We're supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow. I would prefer not to drive in that.

My Second Meme

I've been tagged for my second meme!!!!! Thanks, iowahippiechick! I absolutely love memes. I think they are a fun way to get to know more about my blogging friends. Plus I like having to dig deep to think of things about myself to share with others.

Now, here are seven random or strange things about me.

1. When I was in the third grade I got caught cheating on my multiplication table test. It really wasn't my fault. My family had just moved to Texas, and I hadn't learned my times table at my previous school. The class in Texas had been studying them for weeks. I only had a few days to memorize the entire table (1s through 12s) and take the test. I just couldn't do it. I was too overwhelmed.

2. I can't swim. When I was 9 years old I jumped off the diving board at swimming lessons. As I was swimming to the side of the pool, I swallowed water and panicked. Since then I've been afraid to go into the deep end of the pool. My children are excellent swimmers as a result. I tell my family that one day I'm going to secretly take swimming lessons and when we go to the lake I'm going to dive in the water and swim out to the raft!

3. When I was growing up, I wished my name were Jennifer.

4. I started smoking cigarettes when I was 12 years old and quit when I was 22. That always surprises people because now I'm somewhat of a health fanatic.

5. I'm a graduate of Dale Carnegie's human relations course.

6. I would love to take ballroom dancing lessons.

7. My favorite bible story is the story of Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.

I'm going to tag seven people.

Good Life on a Budget, Diary of a Reformed Spendaholic, Suburban Wife's Daily Dollar Diary, Debt in Seattle, Debt Dieter, Our Debt, and In Recovery

What is a discretionary fund anyway?

Really? What's the purpose? I mean, I have one, but I'm not sure why. Before I had one, I would go to the ATM every time I thought I needed money for something and take out $20. I probably took $60-$100 each week. I think I visited the ATM 3-5 days a week. However, I couldn't tell you what I was buying with that money. Well, maybe I can. If it were a Sunday, I would go to the ATM after church, withdraw $20 and spend it on coffee and donuts for my family and me. Other than that, I can't think of another reason I frequented the ATM.

In November, which was my first month of tracking my spending, I took $100 each pay. That meant I had $50 a week for discretionary spending. The first week I spent the $50 on groceries. Hmmm. That doesn't seem discretionary to me...that seems like grocery money. Last week, I thought I would buy myself a coffee. I didn't need a coffee, but I had the money in my discretionary fund!

I wonder if the discretionary fund is like a mini emergency fund. Maybe you forget to budget for dry cleaning, but you need something to wear. So you have take an outfit to the cleaners and take the money from the discretionary fund.

I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out. I don't really think I need $50 per week for discretionary spending. Money seems to put a hole in my pocket. If I have cash, then I spend cash.

What about you? Do you have a discretionary fund? If you do, how do you use it? If you don't, why don't you?

Late to the Carnival

If you happened upon my blog this week from the Carnival of Money Stories #37...Welcome! Thanks for stopping by. Many thanks to Loonies and Sense for hosting this week.



As usual there were many outstanding posts. Two of my favorite bloggers the Good Life on a Budget and PaidTwice posted about work trials and tribulations. PaidTwice's husband will now have the luxury of using a debit card at work to buy treats, lunch, snacks, etc. Then the company is going to deduct the money from his pay. That sucks! It seems that jvw is going to have to give back her hard-earned commission. That really sucks!



The most inpiring post was a Tale of Two Men, which is a guest post at Plonkee Money. This is just one more reminder of one of my mantras: It's not what you make, it's what you keep. One of the reasons I love to blog and read other blogger's posts is that it helps to keep me focused on my goals. It also helps keep me accountable.



I hope everyone enjoyed this week's Carnival of Money Stories as much as I did.



Thanks again for visiting!

All this Talk of Retirement...

All this talk of retirement got me thinking. What would I need to do to retire from my day job in 10 years? Let's say, by December 31, 2017. What exactly would I need to do?

The thought of retiring in 10 years really gets me excited! I know I've mentioned many times before that I would like to become a personal trainer and nutritionist and start my own business. Just think, I could have a nutrition blog. I could blog about healthy eating habits and moving more. I could have clients come to my studio. I could help people stay healthy and active. Wouldn't it be great if I could accomplish this and have my business in Hawaii?

When I first got this new job, my first thought was that I would stay with this company for 16-20 years. But after reading the retirement posts at the Carnival of Financial Goals and reading about JD at Get Rich Slowly retiring this year and then My Wealth Builder retiring a couple of months ago, I thought, "I don't have to stay at my day job for 16-20 more years."

So here is basically what I need to do to retire in 10 years.

First, I need to get out of debt. My debt consists of my credit card. I plan to be debt free by June 30, 2009.

Second, I need to help my husband get out of debt. He has two credit cards and a car loan. If we work together, I estimate those could be paid down by end of 2011 or the first half of 2012.

Third, I need to turbo build the emergency fund to at least six months worth of expenses. As I continue working on budgeting (I'm embarassed to say it's a new experience for me) I'll figure out what that will have to be.

Finally, when all of the debt is gone (except the mortgage) turbo, turbo, turbo build the retirement fund by investing the maximum amounts into our 401ks and Roth IRAs.

It's an aggressive plan. But I've got to at least work towards this. One thing I always know for sure is that if I don't work towards this it won't happen at all. If I work towards this goal, I just might achieve it.

One Carnival, So Many Goals

Today was the first edition of the Carnival of Financial Goals. I want to thank Patrick for putting together a brilliant carnival and, of course, including my post. Thanks, Patrick!

The carnival is laid out very cleverly. I say that because whenever I think of financial goals, the first one that comes to mind is debt reduction--probably because I have so much of it,and I've carried it for so long. But this carnival includes 14 financial goals categories.

As much as I enjoyed all of the articles, the Retirement category is my favorite. The Digerati Life and A Renaissance Canuck blog about retiring. The Digerati Life reminds us that life is short and is reassessing her plans to retire as a result of a coworker passing away. A Renaissance Canuck would also like to retire from day job to activities that make her happy. Finally Free from Broke is stepping up his retirement savings next year by planning to make full contributions to his and his wife's Roth IRAs.

With my 50th birthday 40 days away, I often think of retirement. I want to be in control of my next 50 years. That's why I need to free myself from these debt shackles, so that I can move on to saving and investing more. When I'm 80 and I'm sitting on my deck in Hawaii overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I want to look back and have happy thoughts and no regrets.

The Continuing Saga of C1

My daughter decided that she's not going to move 13 hours away. Between you and me, I think it was a financial decision. Although she hasn't said anything, I believe she realized that she doesn't have the income (she works as a bartender at a small local restaurant) to support such a relocation. Also, she only pays her father and me $400 a month for rent. I haven't done the research, but I would think that to live the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed would mean paying three to four times that amount in rent.

She has a friend who lives in New Mexico. She mentions him every so often. I guess they talk on the phone quite frequently. She said that one of the reasons he likes New Mexico is that his allergies don't flare up. Well, C1 has seasonal allergies. I suggested that perhaps she might like to visit her friend. I even offered to pay half of the airfare. I told her that I thought she might like it there especially if she wouldn't have any allergy symptoms. Well, she declined. Something about New Mexico being a land locked state. My heart sank.

Then she announced that she would like to visit her uncle in Europe. I perked right back up. She said that she had researched airfares and that she could get a flight for around $500. Of course, her next question was whether or not my offer to pay half still stood. I said, "Absolutely." But I'm waiting for her to tell me that she has the $250 before I give her the other half.

I really worry about C1. She seems a little wayward to me. I wish she could find direction for herself. I just keep thinking that experiencing a new location might help her find her way.

Wealthy_1's 2008 Financial Resolution

As I've surfed the blogosphere this weekend, I've become energized! Why? Well, Patrick at CashMoneyforLife has announced the Carnival of Financial Goals. Many inspiring bloggers such as BripBlap, Mrs. Micah, and Iowahippiechick have jumped on the bandwagon, so I'm hopping on too!

My primary financial goal for 2008 is to reduce by credit card balance from $11,000 to $2,000 by December 31, 2008. I will do this by increasing my payments from $300 per month to $425 per month from January to June. Then from $425 per month to $1,125 per month from July to December.

I chose this goal because it will help me achieve a longer term goal of becoming debt free by June 30, 2009. I will achieve my goal by stopping my 401K contribution of $110 per month and my financial freedom contribution of $50 per month in January and applying those funds to my credit card balance. Then in June after I purchase the car I'm saving for, I will apply that $700 per month towards credit card.

This financial goal setting got me to thinking. We should set our health goals now too! Why wait until January 1? Let's take the time now to focus on how we become healthier in the new year.