Monthly Archives: January 2015

Life Happens….

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10433159_10203603076506430_892410298076543538_n[1]This could be an example of how I viewed my life over the past week and that would be an accurate picture indeed; however this is actually the windshield of our new to us white van.

We purchased this van back in November with the idea that it would become a vehicle for us to use for travel, in addition to next school year replacing my car as a daily driver because all three kids don’t fit well with book bags and lunch boxes. Prior to the purchase we knew it needed work on the rear brakes and after driving home I knew it needed work on the front brakes as well. there also was a small crack across the bottom of the windshield which we talked about needed to replace eventually.

Last week, Haley’s car died and she needed to be able to drive to college starting Monday so we made the decision to sell my car to her on a pay as you can parent loan. With this decision, we ramped up our efforts to get the brakes fixed. Matt was able to fix the rear brakes using the parts that were given to us with the van and some good old fashion labor. On Thursday, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we could definitely wait on replacing the windshield because we did not need to get it inspected until next year. Matt purchased new brakes and parts for the front and replaced those today and asked me to take it for a test drive.

The brakes work awesome, I was on my way to my parents house when the hood latch failed, the wind caught the hood as I am driving at 40 to 45mph and above is the result.  I am so thankful that none of the kids were in the van and God’s hand of protect kept the damage to things that are replaceable.

Total Expenses so far for this van:
$126 tags, tax and title
$119 brakes
$217 new windshield
$60 increase in insurance
$20 hood pins to replace the broken latch
$542 total in addition to the initial cost of the van

In January it would appear that Life happens to be very expensive.

 

5 Things Friday- Financial

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I have mentioned before that I really like this format-just bulletin points with a little to no connection between them so I am going to adapt it a little bit , give myself permission to change between them randomly, and attempt to make it a regular part of my blogging.

1. Harris Teeter is having one of their super double events. This means they will double up to 20 coupons a day up to $2.00 each. Of course we shopped yesterday, I spent 17.16 and saved 77.14 or 82%. I was most excited with this because they were out of at least 3 of the items on  my list.  But even more exciting was the fact I bought Band-aids, Tide pods, and dishwasher tabs to name a few.

2. My grocery budget is currently sitting at $302 spent for the month, I am hopeful to keep this amount low for the month to help pay off debt.

3. My gas budget is sitting at $233 for the month. This includes several minor repairs for the white van that we purchased in addition to an oil change for my car as well. I am almost confident that this amount will say under our budgeted $400.

4. We were pleasantly surprised to not have to have the white van inspected prior to purchasing tires for it. We did pay $126 for tags and taxes for the first year. This amount is in addition to the regular gas budget, because this is a one time expense that will decease to less than $50 any other years that we owe the vehicle.

5. Haley will be purchasing my car, over the next several months. I am still debating and deciding how to use and account for this money.   I will be deducting the $126 above from her down payment otherwise I hope to place in a saving account until it is completely paid for and then make a big debit payoff with it!

One Cent Soup Sunday Shopping

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I have decided to change up my regular CVS shopping on Sunday a little bit this year.  One of the hardest things to do with five children for me is to find time to spend with each one individually. In reality, with the older girls this usually is a phone/text conversation once a week or so but to find one on one time with the little ones is hard especially with the girls who are so involved and in school most days. I think I may have found a great solution for all of us….Sunday shopping.  I am going to plan on taking one of the kids only with me each week as I go to grab the deals.  Today was Zach’s turn as Kendall went with me last week.

Zach was really luck as I made 3 stops today, Dollar General, CVS and Aldi.  At Dollar General, I used 2 BIC coupons from today’s paper to grab a set of pens and a set of highlighters for free. I know that these will not go bad and simply added both to the stockpile. I also picked up a box of instant grits as this was a request. Total spent $2.74 , of which the grits were $2.74.

CVS was our second stop. One thing that really helped me out was the fact that winter quarter ECB are printing. So I was receive 3 ECB from my card and 5 ECB  from Matt’s card. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the store they had already sold out of Lipton Tea and the free Gummy vitamins were not in stock either.  But who can be disappointed when both my receipts show 100% savings. I was able to purchase one can of Tomato soup and 2 cans of Progresso Soup on each card a grand total of $0.04   I used 2 progresso soup coupons from today paper for $0.50 off two cans and along with the 0.50 cent off a can of Campbell’s tomato soup printing from the red box.   I was rewarded with 1 ECB back on each transaction so I have a total of 7 ECB left to use either later in the week or save until next week.

Our final stop was Aldi, I mainly needed to grab fresh fruits and vegetables to use in our lunches this week I found an awesome deal on OceanSpray cranberries, $0.25 for a 12 ounces bag. I grab 8 of these and came home and froze as we love fresh cranberry sauce and the bag stated to simply freeze and use as fresh in recipes.

Total spent for the day $37.72….awesome start to the year.

2015 Budget Update and Goals

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We have an unique opportunity this year. Because of my pay schedule I receive 26 checks a year. I base my budget on 2 checks a month just to make things easier for me. This also provides me with two paychecks each year that are not budgeted for. Last year both of these were used to fund vacations/trips. However this year, I am using my first check (which I received today) to reset the budget. What this mean is that as of today, each of the fund that I have established is starting at the level need to meet demands. For example I budget $45 a month to use of AAA and car insurance. At this point I have to pay our insurance in May or five months so I have researched and funded each category to the level to make our budget work. So basically if we just stick to the budget amount then we should not have any surprise in the year and should be able to finally become debt free except for our mortgage without living on beans and rice.

I have promised you real numbers and here you go along with my plan to accomplish and a little explanation as needed.

1.  Pay off all debit , except for mortgage.  I am going to list each of our debt the amount owed and the plan to attack.
a. JC Penny- 79.32– will be pay with clothing money in January.
b. Home Depot- $1807.45-  This amount is all on an interest free plan. I did not pay any interest to Home Depot in 2014 and by sticking to the plan will not pay any this year either.  $210 a month Payment.
c. American Express   $9232- Again this currently is on a no interest plan which will expire in April. Currently the goal is to pay $12OO a month and all my tax return to get this amount down and gone. 
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) $2704.88  The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. I have actually included this as a line in our budget this year. I mostly likely will not be able to achieve the full $2000 without some extra work and saving but I am leaving as a goal so I have go be accountable at the end of the year.  The current plan is also to address a long term septic issue once our EF reaches this amount. I am totally unsure what the actual cost will be but this should cover it. At the point, this repair becomes necessary it may wipe out the EF but at least we have a plan.

Several other changes are occurring this year with our budget as well.

  • We are purchasing a new to us mini van which after it is completely purchased and new brakes applied will replace my car. I am unable to transport all three kids to school in a manner I consider safe with  my current car. The plan includes selling my car as soon as this vehicle is in service, Overall we will likely see an increase in the cost of gas but that is the only additional cost I am budgeting for.
  • I have officially started saving for Retirement. My company has a mandatory 2% retirement contribution which they match, In November, I elected to place an additional 2% in a ROTH IRA. The even better news is starting mid January the hospital will also match this additional 2% contribution.
  • We have cancelled our membership to the local YMCA but instead of deducting this expense have replaced it with “pool” which will be used for our membership fee and swim team cost.
  • Several categories including hair and piano are entire cash based so this will allow for more accurate use and spending of these funds.
  • Matt is expecting an initial decrease in his projected salary but has already starting seeking out opportunities to increase not only his web design business but is also looking at establishing other routes for steady income.

I am excited to have  chance for a true budget reset and hope to use this as a springboard board for both paying off debt and saving money in 2015!

 

First Coupon…2015

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Although I did not have any plans for leaving the house today, I ended up taking Haley to the doctor, confirmed that she has the flu.   I decided to use my first coupon of the year.

10906233_10203493011954885_4338929245926770533_n[2]These can be found on a calendar that is purchased for $5. I think we purchased this back in November. This calendar has 3 coupons per month that usually include a “deal’ on a dozen donuts. This month it has 3 total freebies so I was really excited. Hot Krispy Kreme donuts are my absolute favorite food and even Lily knows the only thing better than donuts are free donuts. A normal dozen cost $8.00 with tax so even after purchasing the entire calendar a few of our donuts were totally free.

I also ended up shopping at Walmart in the Christmas clearance section while waiting for Haley’s prescription.  I found some awesome deals on wrapping paper and several different “gift set” I am already planning to use some of these sets as Easter gifts and will be using the other during the year for Birthday parties and such.

What is your “first” for the year?

 

2016 Goals

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I need to stick to and achieve the same personal goals that I have kept for the past few years, so I am going to include them again with some slight modifications.

Blogging-  Goal: 20 post per month

Weight: Goal:  Met and maintain weight of 175. This goal will be considered met each month that weight loss is achieved and once this weight is achieved, each month maintained is considered achieved.

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year.  I started a plan to read the Bible in a year 2 years ago and currently am 80% finished. I want to definitely finish this plan.

My financial plans are definitely different from last year and I am going to include measureable steps to reach each of these. I am going to be upfront and honest. I did some extra shopping today to prepare to start out in January with a bang.

1.  Full Fund the budget each month. Sounds simple but honestly, we have at least 3 categories a month that are not funded without some assistance.  For the month of January I am going to participate in .  If we can eliminate all non-essential spending, it will allow me to fully fund each of our budget categories and start the year on a solid foundation.  I plan to pay on my purchases from JCP with the clothing budget this month. The only clothing want that I am aware of is jeans for Matt. I do expect to receive some reward dollars and hopefully use these to grab at least one pair. I also need to find a good way to sale clothing on line as we are starting to get quite a bit.
2. Establish and maintain an Emergency fund with a monthly deposit of at least $100.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $700. I am going to take this a step further and use only cash for the month of January for groceries. My goal is to spend $200 or less this month. It has become really easy to just purchase things that are on sale or a great deal and I want to focus on using what we have. I do know that we need to add some male body wash and deodorant to the stockpile. I am hoping to find these at CVS over the next month but if not they will go on the list for February.
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month. This should not be too difficulty with gas prices expect to continue to remain under $2.00 a gallon.  In addition we purchased a maintenance  plan with the new van. This fund will continue to cover any repairs and maintenance on the other van. We may need to purchase tires for the new van so this would also need to come from this account. I don’t want to change this amount but instead will use any and all overage to paid down our credit card debit, but will first try to get $500 in a separate fund to pay for tires when needed.
5. Eating Out- After tracking this expense the last 6 months of 2015, I have decided that we need to budget to cover this. $200 will be the amount for each month with roll over for the next month as needed. In January, in the spirit of the Diet, we are going to not spend any money eating out but with two scheduled cheer competitions, I would assume that we may end up spending some of this.
6. Make at least 2 principal only payment to the van.  By completing this, we will reduce our schedule payments by one year. I receive 2 “additional” checks each year so I should be able to use these to cover this goal.
7. Pay at least $10 more than minimum on all credit card debit. I was very hestitant to actually write this goal but I need the accountability of addressing it each month. My ultimate goal is to pay off all credit card debit this year but I want to be realistic so this is my small steps. I will be using our tax refund and most likely both of my “extra” checks to work toward the ultimate goal but I also need to do a small step each month.