mjrube94's Blog

Tuesday is my "at home" day, so I'm taking advantage! I went to the fruit/veggie store, grocery store, and brought the car in for an oil change. Now I'm in the middle of my 3rd load of laundry (and loving that drying rack). I spent a lot at the fruit store and grocery store this morning (~$180) but I'm hoping it will last me a solid 2 weeks. It feels so good to have a full fridge and pantry, and fresh veggies! I can't wait for dinner, because for the first time in a while I have a lot to choose from! I could have done better with the oil change. I went to one of those jiffy-lube places which tend to be more expensive (even w/ my $5 coupon) than my usual place, but I was desperate! Both of our cars really need an oil change, and Tuesday is my only day to do it, so I had to take care of one this week! It's a beautiful day. DD has T-ball practice at 6:00, and we're hoping to treat them to ice cream afterwards if we have a good day between now and then. The rest of the week should be pretty quiet...

Why do I have a happy face icon next to the title of "hotel mix-up"? Because it was in my favor!!! Hubby's birthday was last Thursday, and I bought tickets to see the Yankees in Baltimore on Saturday afternoon. MIL watched the kids, so we were looking forward to a great, relaxing trip. Anyway, we booked the Hyatt Regency 2 months ago. It was the only hotel not already sold out when we booked, and ended up costing $300 for the night. So we get down there at 2:15 for a 4:30 game (check-in was supposed to be 4:00 but we had requested early check-in). The clerk informed us that due to circumstances beyond her control, the hotel was overbooked and they needed to relocate us to a Holiday Inn at the BWI airport (about 20 minutes away).

Now this is a sign that I'm growing up, becuase the old me would have absolutely pitched a fit on this poor woman. But the new, calm, serene me (probably because I didn't have my kids with me lol) just listened to her explain that they were going to put us up for free, and pay our parking at the Hyatt (we had already dropped off our car) and give us cab vouchers to get to and from the other hotel, and give us a voucher good for 1 free night at any Hyatt worldwide, for our inconvenience. Well, all right!!! The inconvenience was minimal, and instead of spending $300, I spent nothing and have a voucher for a free night! Love when that happens! Drove back Sunday morning and, other than breakfast, had a spend-free day. WooHoo.

I think I'm up to the "gifts" category on my budget. I've made one big change to get my spending down here, and that's to buy gift cards on ebay for everything. For Birthday presents, I tend to get Discovery Store cards, as I can regularly get them for 30% off face value. So instead of spending $20 I spend $14, which is much more reasonable for all the school birthday parties we go to. For baby showers/bridal showers I get Toys R Us/Babies R Us/Linens N things, or wherever they may be registered. Combined with some coupons I can usually do ok. The 2 areas I'm still having trouble with are "cash events". In my husband's family especially, people tend to give cash for a lot of events (weddings, graduations, communions, etc.). I haven't thought of a way around this. Where I'd be happy buying a $17 gift instead of a $20 gift, I'd feel weird giving a check for $17. Kwim? The second problem area are unplanned gifts, like housewarmings, sympathy gifts, etc. They usually come up last minute so the gift card thing doesn't work. I need to work on this.

Have a great day...

I swear the two things I can never get ahead of are laundry and dishes. It never fails that the minute I start the dishwasher, a plate and glass end up in the sink! It's so frustrating. (God forbid I wash them by hand - they just sit there until the dw is done and I unload it! lol) The laundry is the same way, although in this case, I wasn't even caught up yet before I fell behind! I must have 6 loads to do.

Things are good out my way today. It's the 15th, so both hubby and I get paid, and hubby got his bonus check. Unfortunately, that's already gone, as it was used to pay the taxes and the final payment on a vacation house that we're renting in NC with two of my brothers, a sister, and their families. (8 adults, 8 kids in a house for a week. Should be a great time or the end of family vacations!!!)

DD has a playdate later with a really nice girl from her class, so that means park after school (at least for a little while - it's a bit colder today), and no spending! I'm excited about the trip to Baltimore this weekend, and when we get back on Sunday, it should be in the 70s and sunny. WooHoo!!!

Have a great weekend...

OK, so I just finished photocopying my taxes, and am getting ready to package them together, write out the checks, and mail them off. Nothing like waiting until the last possible second! I'm going to go to the Post Office around 2:00...it's always crazy at lunchtime, even when it's not tax time! I hope I don't have too long a wait. I'll just be so happy to cross them off my list!

I went ahead with the homeowners switch yesterday. Now I just need to have them contact my mortgage company to make it official before I cancel the old policy. Then, after May 1st, I'll cancel my escrow account and start putting the savings toward my home-equity line. Yay!

I'm up to the Church/Charity part of my budget. I'm not inclined to do any cutting here. If anything, I should increase this category! We've been paying the same amount to Church each week for the last five years! I just don't have the inspiration to increase it. As for other charities, one thing I'd like to do is make it more routine and organized. There are some places I give to every year (town fire/first aid, etc.), but I don't think about it until I get their letter in the mail. Then there are places (colleges, other charities) that I give to occasionally, but with no real schedule. Finally there are places (American Cancer Society, etc.) that we give to in memory of someone who's passed away, things like that. In all of these cases, it just comes out of the blue (and usually all at the same time, and usually during a tough month!).

I think I'd be better off making a list of places to whom I want to regularly contribute, then set aside an amount in the budget each month and do it. That way, it's scheduled, regular, no surprises.

Oh well, I need to finish my taxes (blech)...

Actually, I feel better, but I still have no voice. The good news - I dropped a few pounds because I've had absolutely no appetite for the last three days. Gotta love when something good comes out of something bad!Despite my poor voice, I'm going ahead with the house insurance switch today. I'm just waiting for the rep to call me back. It'll feel good to cross that off my list!

Made it to the grocery store yesterday and spent $74 and change. I haven't totalled everything up, but I should be under my goal of $300/month (which is great, because last month we were way, way over). I'd be satisfied if by the end of the year, it balances out to under $400/month. It's tough.

Expecting a no-spend day for the next few days. I brought lunch to work, and am planning on getting the kids from school and heading to the park. Tomorrow is hubby's birthday, and MIL will take us all to dinner to celebrate! Then on Friday, I think we're getting together with some friends for drinks at their place. That will make up for the weekend! We're heading to Baltimore to see the Yankees vs. Orioles (hubby's a big Yankees fan). MIL is watching the kids overnight. Wahoo! I get to sleep late on Sunday! So we'll be dropping some bucks this weekend, but we planned for it a while ago, so it should be ok.

Have a great day, everyone!

...but I need to venture out of the house today. Hubby's birthday is Thursday, so I need to head to the store to pick up a few things for him. After sleeping on the couch all day yesterday, and going to bed at 9:00, I feel a little better, and well enough to go out. I'll also attempt the grocery shopping, but I think I can get by without it.

Next line item on my budget are doctors/RX. This is a pretty good category for me because we're all relatively healthy. Hubby has a great medical plan at work (and the premiums come out pretax), and we use his FSA for out of pocket expenses. I'm not really inclined to cut corners here. I don't mind not going to the doctor myself (who has time?) and I don't really like to take anything, but when it comes to the kids, I don't like to fool around.

Should be a quiet rest of the week. I'm hoping for one or two no-spend days at some point!

I don't know what my kids gave to me, but it is throwing me for a loop! Went into work today (only because I took off last week when DS was sick and didn't want to overdo it), but I should have stayed in bed. I don't get sick too often, but man when I do, look out!

Today was going to be my grocery shopping day, but that just isn't happening! I need to stop by the dry cleaner to pick up one jacket that's been ready for weeks ($4.50), and I spent $.74 on hot soup for lunch. That's it for today!!! I was also going to take care of my house insurance switch, and change a few appointments, but I sound like I've chain-smoked 1000 cigarettes! I have absolutely no voice left! I guess it can wait until later in the week.

Looking over the budget, I'm up to the childcare/preschool portion of the spreadsheet. This one really hurts. My son goes to a great preschool that we really love (dd went there too). He has one more year to go before Kindergarten. The cost? A whopping $635/month, for 3 full days (9:00-3:00). Pick your jaw up off the floor, you read it right...and it's going up to $655/month next year. Unbelievably, this isn't even the most expensive place around! There are less expensive places that we didn't like as much, plus, most of those places don't have the full-day option, which I need while I'm at work. Neither DH nor I want to move him, so we're going to suck it up and pay it for 10 more months until we're free!!! (and the $655 will be funneled right into their 529 accounts). In the meantime, we use the FSA account at my husband's job to get it taken out pretax, and his company kicks in 5% of the cost as a perk. I also pay DH's aunt $50/week to watch DS all day on Thursdays. That's a steal!

For my DD, I need to send her to after-school care on Thursdays when I work late. It costs $85/month for the one day a week, from 3:00-6:00. The nice thing is that if there's a half day, they take her at 1:00 for no extra charge, and if I need to send her on a different day of the week (or in the morning before school) I can just pay a daily drop-off fee. So it really gives me the flexibility I need. This is also eligible for the FSA, but frankly, my son's preschool sucks up all that money ($5000/year pretax) pretty quickly!

As for other kid-related extracurriculars, I'm one of those people who believe less is more. I sign DD up for a lot of the town-sponsored activities, which tend to be inexpensive, and include her friends from school. DS is too young for the town stuff now, so he's not currently enrolled in anything! Other than swimming lessons, which I think is a safety thing as much as a fun thing, I don't sign them up for anything else. This is in sharp contrast to other friends of ours, whose kids' schedules are so unbelievably packed that they don't have time for anything! One friend had her daughter (1st grade) in CCD (religion class) every week, Girl Scouts one day per month, Gymnastics on Wednesday, a competitive swim team (practices 2-3 days/week + meets on the weekend) and tball/soccer through the town. No wonder she's always on the go! I'm more for spontaneous play dates and parks in the nice weather. (Is that just frugal me justifying it? I don't think so, I think kids today need a bit more down time than they get).

Wow, I better get off my high horse now. I usually try not to judge other people (at least not out loud rofl) I guess this cold is making me feel worse than I thought! Have a great day...

I've done pretty well this weekend, and am anticipating a no-spend day today (except for church, which is a planned expense, so I consider it a no-spend day). We're going to visit friends today, even though I seem to have caught whatever my kids had last week

I have a pretty unspectacular week coming up. Dinner home every night, no unusual expenses, etc. We'll see how well I can stick to the budget.

Have a great day, everyone!

I'm out the door from work at 2:00 today. Great way to start the weekend!

I have an update on my house insurance. Remember I convinced hubby that we should start paying the property taxes and insurance directly, because the mortgage company was taking out an extra $50+/month for escrow. I decided to hold off until after 5/1, when our property taxes are due, to ensure that nothing gets screwed up. But the paperwork is ready to go!

In the meantime, I decided to compare house insurance rates. We went with State Farm at the time we bought the house (10 years ago) because we had an in-ground oil tank, and they were the only insurance co. that would cover it. My auto insurance was always with Liberty Mutual (who I love). Anyway, we switched from oil to gas about 6 years ago (and had the tank filled), but never bothered comparing rates because the money was taken out through the mortgage and it just didn't dawn on me. So now that I'm about to pay the insurance directly I gave Liberty Mutual a call. What an eye opener!!

Right now, we pay State Farm a total of $1720/year ($879 for homeowners, through the mortgage, $690 for a $1m umbrella policy, and $151 for personal articles that need to be scheduled separately).

When I called Liberty Mutual, they quoted me $741 for the homeowners and $281!!! for the umbrella (I forgot to get the personal articles quote). Even if you assume that the personal articles quote is the same (though I'm sure it'll be less), that's only a total of $1173, or a savings of $547/year!!! (32%). Every year!!!

So after I'm done kicking myself for not making this switch sooner, I'm going to run the numbers by hubby this weekend and make the switch on Monday.

This weekend should be a bit hectic, but fun. My dd starts T-Ball tomorrow, we promised the kids we would go see the Robots movie at the local theater, then on Sunday we need to visit the friends whose party we blew off last week because the kids were so sick. We'll be spending a bit of cash, as we need to go tonight to buy the baseball mitt, and the movie and pizza will add up.

Next line item on the budget is "clothes and dry cleaning". Clothes are a no-brainer for me. We don't spend a lot of money on this, we buy stuff at the end of the season, and rely on my MIL to get outfits for the kids for different occasions. Also, although it's harder now that the kids are older and they don't grow out of clothes as quickly, we take hand-me-downs when we can. The challenge for me is dry cleaning. We average about $50/month, and could probably cut it in half if we were a little more careful about how we treat our clothes. For example, hanging them up right away instead of dropping them on the floor in a wrinkled mess ! I want to shoot for $25 next month.

Have a great weekend everyone!

It's in the 60's again today and sunny, sunny, sunny. I had to laugh yesterday. I worked late, so my husband left work early to pick the kids up from school. I called him at 5:00 and he told me he was at the park with all of the other town moms. We usually go to the park after school in the nice weather, and I could just picture him there chatting about what they were making for dinner, what stuff they signed the kids up for, etc. Ha!

I met my friends for dinner last night. We were supposed to go a while ago but bad weather forced us to cancel, so we went yesterday instead. You may remember that I spent the $25 I set aside to go out to lunch with my sister, so I had to buck up a new $30 for last night. It was a fun time, nonetheless, and next time we're going to one of the girl's houses.

I'm still going through the budget. The grocery store costs are a never-ending battle. It seems like everytime I have a few good weeks, a big whopping bill follows. It's just something I really need to devote some attention to. Now, eating out, which goes hand-in-hand with groceries on the budget, is another story. We've been averaging about $100-$150/month since September. On Thursdays, I work late, and hubby picks up dd from school. They go to TGIFridays for dinner each week. I don't want to ask them to stop it, because it's good bonding for them, so I've tried to cut the cost by getting TGIF gift cards on EBAY. (Saved 10% on the first try). Then, we usually go out once or twice a month as a family. I'll tackle this by going somewhere relatively cheaper (out for pizza?) or picking up some gift cards for other places (Chilis) that we might go to. I'm happy to say that we've really cut down fast food to once or twice a month (from once or twice a week!), although that money usually comes out of our allowance. Still, it adds up...

That's it for now. Have a great day!

Sunny and mid-50s...walked to school to pick up my daughter, and hung out at the park for an hour. Also hung up two loads of laundry to dry. I love spring!!!

Went grocery shopping today and spent about $52. Not bad for a weekly total (we usually spend between 400-600/month, and my goal is 350. Actually, my goal is 300, but I figured 350 would be a good interim step). So I'm on track as far as that goes, but this didn't include any meat, and not that much else, for that matter

I started a price book toward the end of the year, and it's been great. I've been pretty faithful about writing down all of our expenditures, and it definitely helps when I see stuff on sale in the circular and can't remember what a good price is. It's a work in progress.

Other than the store and another trip to the doctor for my son ($15 copay) I've been at the house all day. Have a great day...

Can't wait for later in the week - temps in the 60's!!!

Had a blah couple of days. The kids are still sick, and between a $30 copay at the doctor and $70+ in prescriptions, I was a bit bummed. But I already turned in the receipts to hubby's FSA and they turn around the cash pretty quickly.

I'm still riding high from my auto insurance score. But I have to focus on some other things. I did the paperwork to get rid of my mortgage escrow but I won't send it in til later in the month, because my property taxes are due May 1 and I don't want anything screwed up. I also need to take a really good look at our homeowners insurance, because I haven't reviewed it at all in 10 years, and our needs may have changed a bit.

Next line item on the budget is groceries/eating out. Man, there are a ton of places I could cut here! First off, I need to leave the kids home because they add a good $10 to my bill each week. Second, I need to plan around what's on sale, because I never do. There are so many more, I'll have to wait until the next entry to think of the rest.

But I am struggling with one thing: Is it better to be organized (big sticking point for me) and go shopping on the same day/time each week and just buy what you need? Or is it better to only go shopping when you need stuff. I really don't know! I'd love to get in the routine of leaving the kids with hubby, doing my shopping and being done with it, but I also know on the weeks I never made it to the store (because I really didn't need anything and was too lazy) I spent practically nothing. I need to watch that I don't run out last minute for stuff, because that's a budget-buster too. What to do? What to do?

Have a great day!

I started a thread in the discussion area for this tip, in case some people didn't bother going through the journals, but what a great deal I got from my auto insurance company today!! They sent me a $277 check, which is a 10% discount on my auto insurance premiums. I graduated from Columbia University, and apparently, their alumni association struck a deal with LM to give their members a 10% break on premiums. On top of that, I qualified for a "college education discount" as a graduate of a four-year school.

Not only did I have no idea I was even a member of the alumni association (I thought they sent the newsletters to everyone!), I definitely didn't know that they did stuff like this. I'll be on their website (and hubby's alumni website) tomorrow to see what other goodies I can find.

So if any of you are graduates, check out your insurance company and alumni association to see what you can find. I'm so jacked up about this right now, I'm never going to get to sleep, which makes losing an hour a lot more palatable. YEAH!

First of all, thanks to whomever gave my journal 4 stars. Although I started writing this for myself, I know how much I enjoy reading everyone else's posts, and hope that others enjoy my journal as well. I'll "strive for five (stars)" going forward.

Second, yet another crummy weather day in northern NJ. Torrential downpours all day, our gutters were clogged, and dear hubby was out bright and early this morning cleaning them out (while I was getting my hair done...nice).

Third, went to the Eagles concert last night. I quickly remembered why I don't go to concerts that often anymore. The tickets were expensive ($80), but worth every single penny. The concert rocked! It was the other stuff that got me. Parking was $10!!!! And for anyone familiar with the Continental Airlines Arena, there is absolutely no convenient mass transportation, so you're stuck driving. Then, we were totally parched (thanks to Chinese take out earlier in the night) and got a 16oz soda and a bottled water for, are you ready for this?, $7.25!! The water was 3.75 and the soda 3.50. Thankfully, we ate right before we got there so we didn't get anything else. Can't imagine what the people with hot dogs and pretzels were paying...

It's been a spendy day already. Between the haircut and shopping for a birthday present for a party tomorrow, and a special dinner out with the kids later, I've separated myself from some cash. But tomorrow should be a no-spend day, and I'm shooting for 4/5 no-spend days this week. I really need to buckle down.

Next line item on the budget is car expenses. (Actually, it's DirectTv but that's the last item I'm shooting to reduce, becasue it's near and dear to hubby's heart!). We have a $17,000 car loan at 4.25% on one of our cars. We have another 3.5 years to pay on it, but I'm going to tackle it as soon as I pay off my home equity line. Hopefully the car loan should be gone by next summer.

Our insurance is expensive, but we go with Liberty Mutual, and it's always the cheapest (by far) every year when I compare it to others. One way I'm hoping to reduce this is by looking into moving our house insurance to Liberty Mut. Combining both policies should drive down the cost.

We spend between $250-300/month on gas. I've tried to reduce it by buying gas cards on Ebay, but any savings I've gotten have been replaced by higher gas prices, so I'm still in this range. I guess it would be even worse without the cards! As for maintenance, we do the regular stuff, and keep our eyes open for coupons and whatnot. I think the key for me is getting the car paid off asap and trying to get the insurance down...

Have a great day!

April will be a tough month for us. We owe federal taxes, and are getting NY state money back. But of course, I didn't file that first, so I'll be out all of the money for federal and won't get back the NY for a month or so. (It's that cost of disorganization I was talking about a few posts ago). Anyway, the net result is that we're out about $1100. We kind of expected it, because it's the same every year, but it still hurts to send in the check. We've also bought a few things for the house that we had been putting off and finally decided to bite the bullet and buy. I hate starting the month off behind the 8-ball!

The kids are going to the doctor today ($30 total copay, plus any medications that are prescribed). We just started doing a healthcare FSA this year, so for some reason, I'm not as disturbed about this, because we'll get reimbursed (even though it already came out of our paycheck). I'm sure that we'll need to pay parking for the concert tonight, and we planned on having takeout, but that should come out of our allowance.

Update on my quest to reduce the electric bill: We're on budget billing, and we're running about $125 under, through the first four months. I'm hoping that even with increased use over the summer, we'll still be able to knock it down to $120 for next year.

The next line items on the budget are phone/cell phone. I just changed my LD plan to some ridiculously low rate (2.7c out of state, 4.5c regional in state). This should knock about $10/month. I need to get better about using my cell phone for more of these calls. We usually have enough minutes leftover at the end of the month that I could do some of the long distance calls using that.

Have a great weekend!

So my kids are sick. The first got a fever on Easter night and it lasted 2 days, and she still has a cough. My son got a fever 2 days later, and seems to be getting over it now, though he still has a cough. Depending on how he does today, a trip to the doctor may be in order.

It's been a pretty good week so far spending-wise. Other than lunch at work on Wednesday and Tylenol for the kids yesterday, I didn't have a lot of out-of-pocket. This weekend will be different, though. Tomorrow we have tickets to a concert. I'm hoping to have dinner home beforehand, but hubby may want to go out. (Free babysitting thanks to my sister). Then on Saturday, hubby wants to go to the Auto Show in NY. We've gone before and it's really neat to see all the concept cars. It helps more that we're not in the market for a new car, because then we can just look without being tempted. Finally on Sunday, we have a 3yo birthday party to go to. (I'm getting the $20 present from the Discovery Store using the gift card I got on Ebay for $13.58. Yea!)

Regarding my budget, the next two line items are water and internet. Can't think of much to do for these. Water costs about $25/month. I can definitely cut back on the amount of laundry and dishes I do. I'll have to be creative about other ways. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to go up more than a couple of dollars in the summer, when we water the lawn. As for internet, I still use dial-up (stop laughing!). I get AOL for $17.95/month. I know that DSL/Cable would be a heck of a lot faster, but it's a lot more expensive, and this seems fine to me. I guess you don't miss what you never had!

Have a super day!

It's an all-time record for me to have 3 no-spend days in a row - the holiday and bad weather sure helped. I'm heading down to Dad's today to take him to the accountant and do his grocery shopping for him, so other than the gas (120 miles round trip) I'm set.

Followup to my life insurance quest: I went to Lowermybills.com and checked out the rates on plans comparable to what I have now. Assuming I still get the super-preferred rate (who knows?) there is one rate that would be less than $2/month cheaper. I'm going to put this on hold until June, when I go to my doctor for my annual checkup. If it seems like everything is in order (cholesterol, weight, etc.), I'll switch plans. Not only will it save me $480 over the 20-year term, I'm already 3 years into my term, so I'll be picking up an extra three years, which won't be bad...

Today's line item is my electric bill. I'm also on budget billing here, and I pay $168/month. It's only supposed to be about $133, but for some reason I went way over last year, so I need to make up the extra over the first 6 months of this year. In June it should go back to $133, but I want to conserve enough so that at the end of this cycle, it gets reduced to $120 for next cycle. The biggest challenge for us is having hubby and the kids turn off the lights. It seems like the place is lit up like Christmas all the time! Between that and more judicious use of the dryer and dishwasher, we should be able to cut enough. Fortunately, I'm not a big Air Conditioning person (though hubby is) so that should only run in the evenings when he's home.

Have a great day!

What disgusting weather we have...the forecast is rain, rain, rain all day with possible flooding. I hate days like this! Good news is that I won't be going out anywhere, which means no spending (yay). Easter was fun. As expected, we have enough food leftover to get us through most of the week. I may need to go out later in the week for milk, but that's about it.

Next item on the budget is our home heating bill, and it's a toughy. We're on budget billing and pay a whopping $236/month (+$9 for a service contract). I have programmable thermostats, keep it to 63 degrees during the day when we're not here, and try to keep it to 67 when we are here. (Usually we end up increasing it to 69 degrees because we're always cold!!!)

What we could do: I need to get better about turning down the thermostat when we're going to be out unexpectedly. For example, normally on Saturdays, we're home and it's at 67. But if we go out for the day, I don't always remember to turn them down to 63. I've heard about using a blanket on the hot water heater, and of course weather-proofing my (pretty old) house. To be honest I'm not really motivated about any of these ideas. Maybe I'll knock out some of my other saving ideas and come back to these when I'm desperate...

I'm off to church in a few minutes, but of course had to start my day on this website! It's unbelievable how I've come to rely on this site - I'm logged on at least 2-3 times each day. Anyway, today will definitely be a no-spend day, except for the church envelope which is budgeted.

The next line item on my budget is my mortgage. We have a $240k mortgage at 4 5/8 fixed, that will be paid off in 12.5 years. We already add an extra $100 toward principle each month. Thanks to the great advice at this site, I've convinced hubby that we should pay the property tax and insurance directly, as the mortgage company takes more than $50/month extra for "escrow". Plus, we have our house insurance and car insurance from two different companies, and never bothered to combine them because the house insurance was always paid through my mortgage and I thought it would be too big a deal. I'm going to call on Monday to get a quote from our auto insurance co. The other good news is that our mortgage company doesn't charge us a fee for paying directly. Yay. I'm going to take care of all of this next week and hopefully start seeing the benefit of this in a month or two.

Today was a bad money day. We needed to get Easter flowers for hubby's mom, and two aunts (and me from the kids ) to the tune of about $50! I've been married for 10 years, and we've been doing the same thing for 10 years, yet it never ceases to amaze me how much we spend on these holidays (Easter, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, etc.). We also picked up about 6 pounds of ground lamb at the store, because it's not usually available, and hubby wanted steak tonight (cha-ching). Not expecting this big bill at all...

Luckily I'm getting off pretty easily for Easter. MIL is bringing a lot of the food, and we got a Butterball turkey breast on sale at the grocery store for $1/pound. Great deal on sweet potatoes, and a few other veggies and I'm set.

Back to my line item budget...the next set of items is insurance.

What we already do: We get our medical through hubby's work (really good plan, and our piece comes out pre-tax). We both have life insurance and accident/disability insurance.

What we need to do: I'm 3 years in to a 20-year term with John Hancock. Although I think it's a pretty good rate, I need to shop around. Although I'm a few years older, it's a pretty competitive industry, so maybe the rates have dropped. Second, Hubby gets his through work, and his hesitant to change. I need to shop around for his too, to see if there's a big enough difference to make it worth discussing. Finally, I need to check into LongTerm Care insurance. I'm 34 and hubby's 37. Not sure if it makes sense to get it yet, or wait a few years, because I think the industry (and the plans) are still evolving. Any thoughts?

Happy Easter!!!

Anytime I feel like I'm not making a lot of financial progress, I try to get re-energized by looking at each line of my budget and coming up with some new way to cut it down. So each day I'm going to look at a new category and see what I can do. (Any help would be appreciated!)

The first line on the budget is Taxes. We pay Federal, State, and FICA/OASD.

What I'm already doing: Hubby and I contribute to our 401(k)s, we use Flexible Spending Accounts for our Health and Dependent care costs, and we save for our kids' college through NY's 529, where we can deduct up to $10k/year from our NY state taxes.

What I can still do (and when): 1) Increase hubby's contribution to his 401(k) in May. His raise is effective in April, so we're going to take 1/2 of it and put it toward this. 2) Increase contributions to kids' 529s in June '06. We're nowhere near the $10k/year that we can deduct, but my little guy has one more year of (really expensive) preschool. As soon as he's done that I can use that money. Any other suggestions?

So my dinner last night was postponed due to the weather, and I was pretty happy to save the ~$25 or so that I would have spent. But then today, my sister called me for lunch. She works a few blocks away from me, but isn't usually in the office on Thursdays, so we can't get together. Good thing, because we went to a real restaurant and I ended up spending the $25 I was going to spend last night. Part of my problem is that I justify it by thinking that I was prepared to spend it last night, so I'm really not out any money because I spent it today. Yeah, right...

Tomorrow will be a big spend day. I have my in-laws coming for Easter dinner (7 adults total). I need to go to the grocery store/fruit & veggie store, as well as the liquor store. I'm going to try to keep the grocery total down, because my MIL is making some of the food, and there will be enough leftover that we should be able to eat all week! We'll see.

The other thing I've been doing lately is taking out personal finance/frugal living books from the library. I've already read many of them before, but I find that if I reread them, I usually come across a tip or two that I didn't pay attention to last time around. I just skim them, so it goes pretty fast, and with the two young kids around, I'm just happy to be reading something that doesn't rhyme! lol

I use verizon for my local and long distance. My plan with them was for .05 regional calls and .08 long distance. Apparently last month, they increased my LD to .10/min. I called to complain and they said a notice was sent out with the last bill. I get electronic copies of my bills, and it wasn't evident to me. Anyway, I asked the rep what he could do in terms of giving me a cheaper rate and he said, "What's the big deal? It's only an extra two cents a minute. Even if you made another 30 calls it wouldn't add up to that much." Smoke was coming out of my ears!!! I told him there were plenty of companies that give long distance for .04/minute, so I was already paying a premium to use Verizon at .08, much less .10! I immediately went to LowerMyBills.com and signed up with Pioneer Telephone: 2.7 cents out of state and 4.5 instate, no monthly fees. I know it won't be that much but still. UGHHHHH!

I thought March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. After a few decent weather days last week, it's no cold and damp, and scheduled to SNOW 3-6" tonight. Ugh!!

I dried a load of towels on my drying rack yesterday. (I think I put too many in the wash, so even after two spins they were still pretty damp. I couldn't bring myself to overwork the dryer by putting them in, so I hung them). It worked out great, the only problem is that I still needed to put them in the dryer with a fabric softener sheet to fluff. But it was nowhere near as bad as it would have been.

I need to figure out the whole liquid fabric softener thing, so I can use my drying rack more. The three problems I have are 1) I've only used dryer sheets in the past, 2) my washing machine is old and doesn't "buzz" when it's time to add the fabric softener, and 3) my washing machine is in the basement, so it's not convenient for me to keep an eye on it and add the softener at the right time.

Can you add fabric softener during the beginning of the load?

Other than that, I'm going out to dinner with friends tonight, and should be able to keep it to ~$25. Haven't seen them for a while, so it should be worth it. I did bring oatmeal to work for breakfast this morning, so no bagel for me!

Have a great day...

I need to start keeping track of how much my disorganization is costing me. I went to the library today and returned overdue books and videos ($1.45 fine). I swear this happens to me every week, because I forget what day they're due, or I don't feel like driving over there, whatever. I think I'm singlehandedly funding their budget!

If this was the only example, I wouldn't feel so bad. But I can think of so many times I couldn't find my coupon, let a coupon expire, didn't go to the dry cleaner on Wed/Sun when they have better deals. And it's all due to the fact that I'm disorganized. I bet it costs me a good $10 per week. SO here's the tally:

Overdue library books: $1.45

Tuesday is the only day of the week I'm home. Well, not really home because I'm usually running errands all day. I had the whopping bill from the car place, but other than that, I didn't spend anything, and actually avoided a $23 charge. EZPass sent me a replacement for a tag that I didn't have, and said they would charge me $23 if I didn't return the old tag. I called and convinced the rep that I didn't have the old tag, so they shouldn't charge me. She said it was taken care of, but with EZPass, I'll believe it when I DON"T see the charge on my account!

Other than that I'll be in the rest of the night. It's early to bed for the kids so I can watch American Idol and House!

Somewhere on this site, I saw an analogy by Jeffrey about how trying to save money is like dieting. Man I can relate! It so happens that I got fast food for lunch (reminding me of how far off I am on dieting AND saving!). My problem with dieting is that I want to eat what I want to eat, and don't want to sacrifice. The problem with spending is that if I want something, I want it when I want it and don't want to wait. Although I'm doing better with the money part then the dieting part, it's still a struggle! So anyway...

Bagel for breakfast: 1.00
Fast food for lunch: 4.85

Other than a few necessary, budgeted items no spending today.

Tomorrow will be another story. We're getting DH's dad's car. It's pretty old (1992) but only has 40,000 miles on it (he never drove anywhere). We're getting the car for free, but we needed to have a bit of work done on it to the tune of $900, which we'll need to pay tomorrow. However, insurance is pretty cheap and it's in great shape otherwise, so hopefully will last a while.

I'll tune in tomorrow...

Today should be a great day. It's Sunday, and the weather is lousy, so we're staying in all day and having a fire. I didn't spend any money yesterday, and was planning on not spending today, but I just ordered a $50 Shell gift card on EBAY for $45. (We spend a ton of money on gas, so anytime I can get it 10% off I jump, especially since the other cards I have are running low).

I need advice on how to deal with a spouse who's not really into the frugal thing. He doesn't spend a lot of money, but he also doesn't share my excitement for saving $5 here or $10 there. I opened up a savings account to put in all of my little savings, hoping by the end of the year he will see how it has accumulated into something more than a "couple of bucks". But I find that all the day-to-day frugality (turning off the lights, turning the heat down, cutting coupons) goes right by him. Any suggestions?

Wow! It's only 9:00 on Saturday morning and I'm having a great day! Two months ago, I made changes to my family share plan with Verizon and signed a new 2-year contract. The deal I got was $59.99 for the first two lines, and $9.99 for each addt'l line (for my MIL), for 500 minutes. Plus my company has a corporate discount with Verizon so I save 17% off the first two lines. Anyway, the bill should be in the neighborhood of $67 or so, by the time the discount is applied and the fees and charges are added.

So last month, my bill comes in at about $115 (which was similar to my bills before I switched to the new plan). When I called about it, they said something about the fact that I switched mid-cycle and blah blah blah- it was a transition issue. This morning, I get an email from Verizon that my next bill is ready, and it's $117! So I call the (very friendly) customer service rep, who tells me that the in-network and weekend calling, which was supposed to be free, wasn't set up properly, thus my bill was so high.

So she credited me $80 for the last two billing cycles and straightened it out going forward!!! I know that I'm basically just getting my money back, but given that the last bill was already paid, I'm going to take the extra money and put it right into savings. Yeah!

The rest of the day should be spend-free! I have that bridal shower to go to, but the gift has already been paid. Then we're going to MIL for dinner. I'm hoping tomorrow should be a no-spend day too, because the weather is supposed to be cold and rainy. That means a roaring fire and family game board day.

It's shaping up to be a great weekend!!!

Ok, so it's really Friday morning. Ever since I had kids I'm incapable of doing anything on time! Thursday was a good day...No unbudgeted money spent.

I've got a big case of spring fever! The weather has only been in the mid-40's, but I haven't worn a jacket all week. Another 10-15 degrees and I'll be set. Can't wait to try my new drying racks outside in the sunshine! (Also can't wait to stop using the gas to heat my house - the bills are unreal. Thank goodness for budget-billing!

That's it for now. We're going to the park after school and to a friend's house for dinner, so I'll need to spring for a bottle of wine/12 pack of beer, but that can come out of my allowance.