Category Archives: Goals

March Update

Posted on by
Reply

Financial Goals–

1.  Pay off credit card debit by June.  Continue to make steady progress in this area. Goal MET!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  I was able to not only make the goal for $100 for March but I caught up $100 for February!  GOAL Met!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month-  The goal for March will be $400 or less. I actually spent $403.  I am very happy that I have been able to keep the budget low! I am positive that our spending in April will be close to the $600 mark as we will need to purchase meat in addition to a large Costco trip.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. I have spent $348.00! Goal met! This did not include the $120 we spent on travel for the beach.

I will be adding a goal for the month of April. I need to save $400 to pay for the crown on my tooth. Currently I have $150 of that saved so I must save an additional 250 this month to cover the rest of the expense.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month  This is number 15! Goal met!

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December 2014.
Total failure for the month, between the awful weather and our beach trip. I did not make any progress this month!

A great month overall but I need to focus more on my weight and exercise in the next month!

 

 

Saving Money/Menu Planning/New Recipes

Posted on by
Reply

I have mentioned before that we have 2 freezers in addition to the 2 small freezers that are part of our refrigerators. I love having all the extra space to freeze things and I often have had all of the freezers full. Last year I was able to clean out both of the larger freezers and made one a dedicated veggie freezer and the second one for meat.  The idea is to keep just enough for meals and a couple of convenience meals up in the house. However, what has tended to happen is that we just stick things in the two freezers in the house instead of going to the building. One of the next things on my cleaning list is to organize and rearrange the freezers to make things easier to find.  We have been slowly trying to eat things and rearrange slowly.

We have lots of chicken from our big purchase in October. My original thought was that we would have one chicken meal a week so that should last a year. I am finding that each of the crockpot meals is making at least 2 meals with leftovers. I have also discovered that only 2 of the crockpot meals so far has been worth the effort.  I would say at this point that we have eaten less than half of the chicken that was purchased.

The other meat item that we have in abundance is ground deer meat.  We have been using it in some of our favorite recipes but the “wild” taste was proving to be a little strong for our taste buds. However I have discovered what I hope to be a solution to this problem, bacon grease.  Tonight we used a pound of deer meat fried in bacon grease for cheeseburger pizza, and no one was able to taste any of the “wild” flavor. My hope is that we can use this secret trick to get a lot of use out  of this meat.

After all that let  me get back to the original intention of this post. So other than deer meat and chicken, we only have one more pack of cube steak in the freezer. We do have several packs of bacon and sausage in addition to at least one kielbasa sausage but as you can tell our choices for meat are limited. I really want to use up most of this meat prior to purchasing any more but you can only eat tacos, and spaghetti so many times. So I decided to search the internet for new recipes using chicken and ground deer meat. So far I have collect right at 10 that I am planning on using in the next two weeks. We actually tried a new recipe on Thursday with chicken and one with deer on Friday. Neither of these first two dishes make the cut, they were not awful just not good enough to repeat. My goal is to make it at least 2 additional weeks in April with using just the meat we have on hand and trying the new recipes. However, in my head, I am hoping to be able to not purchase any meat until the last weekend of April.

Do you have any awesome chicken or ground deer recipes to share to help me achieve this lofty goal?

 

Travel Budget

Posted on by
Reply

If you have been reading here long you know that our family travels on a regular basis. The usual standard of travel is to save money while enjoying the trip. This long weekend was a bit different in this aspect. We still travel on a budget, however it was much larger than most of our trips. the reason?  We only took snack foods and drinks, all meals were purchased. If you just want to see some cute pictures of our family, scroll down for a group of pictures

Here is our budget breakdown:

Hotel    $240.72  The hotel also placed a hold on $100 for a security deposit but that was returned on Tuesday
Gas       $120.00  This was 2 tanks of gas in the van. It is in addition to our regular monthly gas budget.
Food      $400.00.  Basically $100 a day. We came close to this everyday and the additional was spent for clothing.
Spending money $240.  We used the majority of this for purchasing clothes and other small treats while shopping.

Total budget amount $1000      Total spent $1200- the additional money will be deducted from clothing and additional regular gas money not spent.

On our food budget we enjoyed pizza, ice cream, daily breakfast, PF Changs, Olive Garden and Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Budget Update

Posted on by
Reply

I have not been posting a lot this week due to the fact that I ended up with a root canal on Thursday evening. Prior to that I have spent a lot of time in bed because I was taking pain medication.  What does this have to do with my budget update? Good question; first I was able to afford this procedure due to having a Medflex spending account through my work. I did decide however that we need to increase our contribution to this account to the max because I still have to pay for a crown to be placed and that will wipe us out for the year.  Now on to the rest of the update:

I have one financial goal left from January- Pay off the outstanding Verizon bill from where we switch names. This is now met! At this point, we have no outstanding bills to pay only except  mortgage, our credit card debt and one personal loan!

In February, I also had one outstanding financial goal- Add $100 to Emergency fund.  Matt has been able to develop a couple of new contracts so I was able to go back and catch up on this goal. Our Emergency fund currently sit at $300. This does not sound like a lot however, it is on track with my plans for the year!

My month goals are as follows with an update:

1.  Pay off all credit card debit by July- I did pay off the JCPenny’s card already which leaves only one more card to go, Home Depot.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Goal Met!  See note above

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month-   The goal for March will be $400 or less. I currently have spent $304 this month, if when I am able to stay under budget for the month. The additional will be use to pay on my Home Depot card as I used it to purchase additional dirt for the garden.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Currently, we have spent $204 for gas this month including the purchase of several items for small repairs on both vehicles.  I did budget an additional $120 in gas this month due to our planned travel so I hope to definitely stay on budget for the month.

Overall, I am very excited about the progress we have been able to make this month with not only paying off some debt but we have a long weekend trip planned. All of this is being accomplished with cash!!!  I am focused on getting us on a solid financial path so that  we can enjoy even the small unplanned adventures that come our way.

Random Thoughts Thursday

Posted on by
Reply
  • It is sleeting outside again.  I am seriously really really tired of cold and nasty.  Matt even joked today about how cold and long this winter has been. I keep trying to remember  that Spring is in 2 weeks. It really can not come fast enough for me!
  • We had a significant bump up in income this month, Matt has gotten two additional web sites. This is awesome news but it also put some things in perspective as decided to list out all the “unbudgeted” expenses I can think off till the end of June. Not a happy picture but at least one that we can work on making better.
  • Our septic system is going to have to be repaired this year. With the expense in addition to the ruining of the entire yard in the process, I am not looking forward to this at all.
  • I am focusing on making ahead some breakfasts any chance I get. Today I was able to make 3 breakfast meal prior to my dentist appointment. This helps keep some thing from going to waste and makes my morning so much easier.
  • My dentist appointment was not cheerful. I had a “significant” cavity  filled and given a list of instruction to try and prevent the need for a root canal. I almost cried.

 

Where Did My Money Go?

Posted on by
Reply

I often asked this question and one of items that I have been focusing on this year is knowing where I am spending money. My idea is that  is where you spend money is what you see as important.  I often wonder how I am doing in comparison to others but even with research it is hard sometime to find some real numbers. I did find this neat graph.

I also did some further research that I am going to share as we go along as well. I am going to do an honest comparison between the numbers I found and our spending during the month of February. I will say that our spending is up for February simply because of the extra income from tax refunds we received.  Please leave a comment if you think this numbers are correct or if you see something totally off.

15% of our spending this month was on Debt Reduction  including Credit Cards. I know this is a high number for us. We pay off our lawn mower so that we did not have to pay any interest on this transaction.

14% was Utilities. This is a high number for us, the reason is that it included an additional cell phone bill we received when switching names on our account. Normally I would estimate that utilities are about 6% of our spending.

Our mortgage $594.80 represents 8.8% of our spending, combine with utilities approximately 25% of our spending which is significant less than the 33% above for housing.

9.69% of our spending is on groceries which includes cleaning products. I did overspend our budget by $55 last month but in comparison to the 13% above I am still way below.  In research, I did discover that a “thirty family of four” spends an average of $632 a month of groceries. Dining is an area that I am really trying to monitor this year. In January, we spent over $450 on eating out, by becoming aware of this, in February we reduced this to $200 or 2.97% of our budget.   This will definitely be an area I continue to monitor as the average for dining out is $223 a month but I am unsure how many people this amount represents.

$383 or 5.68% of our spending was for Auto/ Transportation cost in February. I typically budget $400 a month.  I was surprise to find out that the average fuel cost is $243 a month.  We definitely always exceed this amount but due to the fact that all of our vehicles are paid for we still are way below the 17% average noted above.

Charitable cash donations represented 5.48% of our spending. The averages I found ranged between 3 and 4%.  This is a significant decreased from the 10% I expected to find.

12.38% of $836 represented our spending on clothing in February. I do know that this included a new wardrobe for Zach and at least half a new winter wardrobe for Lily. In addition, I purchased clothing for our trip to Michigan in January in this same category. Both the kids have sudden grown significantly in the past couple of months. The reason this amount is so high for February is that I intentionally used our tax refund to pay off credit card debit for these clothing items. The only averages I could find were based one adult which was $121 a month on clothing.

Household or as call above other spending represented 7.34% of our spending. I use this category for things such as our YMCA membership or expenses that I don’t know where else to place them. I am pleased to find out that this is probably close to the national average of 7% .

February Goal Update

Posted on by
Reply

This month brought a welcome 4.5 day break for me due to snow!  Unfortunately, I seem to have some difficulty getting back into the swing to things. But time marches on so no use complaining.  Here is the goal update for the month

Financial Goals–

1.  Pay off lawn mower by March 2014 to avoid interest being charged.  Goal MET! I am going to change this goal since it is nice to stay accountable.  The new goal is to pay off all credit card debt by July.  This will leave our only outstanding debt as a personal loan.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  I could easily move this money and say goal met however in reality due to a expensive month heading my way, I honestly did not do this because I will be using extra money for March spending.

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month-  I spent $601 for groceries this month. I am going to count this as Goal MET!   The goal for March will be $400 or less.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. $13.00 left in the budget for the month. I am rather pleased as we had a lot of travel this month and this also includes an oil change for the van.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month  This is post number 14! I am really happy with this as I have struggled the entire month to keep on track.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December 2014.  I am continuing to make progress with this. I did lose another 4# this month so GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL met!

 

Random Thoughts Tuesday

Posted on by
Reply
  • We have all been sick. The crud as I like to call it.  I was able to sleep it off this weekend with 12 hours of sleep, Friday night, 2 long naps on Saturday and another long nap on Sunday
  • We have received both our tax refunds back. I am trying to get all the numbers in order before sharing!
  • I planted broccoli seed this weekend. It is only 8 weeks till our last frost date.
  • I am going to try to start several different items from the seeds I already have but if they don’t work I have no shame in throw out all the remaining seeds and buying plants from now on.
  • I ordered another 16 bags of “Mel Mix” to complete  the filling of the garden with dirt!
  • This is the last week at work that I have a student, which means next week I get back to my regular schedule and have to start working a little harder again. I really have enjoyed the extra time to read/research and complete several other task over the past couple of weeks
  • I am really disappointed that in addition to taking a week to ship the items I just ordered from Threds Up! They are also taking 6 weeks to process a bag of clothing I sent them. I seriously doubt I will be using this again!

Random Thursday Thoughts 2/20/2014

Posted on by
Reply

I have lots of things that I would like to share but none is enough to really make a full post so I am going to share some of these random thoughts today!

Budget things- I have one week left in our February budget. So far for the month, we have spent $601.30 on groceries. I decided not to do any shopping until next Saturday. That does mean I will be missing the Harris Teeter Super Doubles event.
-I have a second receipt from CVS this week that shows 100% savings. This time I used 2 coke rewards coupons. 2 12 packs ended up costing me $0.51. I again made the decision not to purchase any additional.
– I am enjoying my gift fund. I have already purchased Haley’s birthday present in addition to most of Easter and re-stocked part of my gift closet using the fund!
– Our hair fund is again empty. I went today and got a color. I would never have guessed that this fund gets the most use. I am very lucky that our hair dresser is very budget friendly but we average $50 a month on hair for the 5 of us!

I have been able to get to the Y to exercise 3 times this week. I am averaging 2 a week but to make it 3 times is an achievement for me .  In addition, I have lost 3 pounds so far this month.

Our water heater in the main part of the house is slow not working. This means we will need to purchase a new one in the next 2 months. Gas is not an option in our area but we are considering a tankless electric one.  This will be a huge expense but one that is needed.

I have purchased the little girls matching dress for Easter and a matching tie for Zach. Hopefully we will be able to coordinate everyone for a family picture! The goal being using it as part of the “collage” over our bed that we want to create.

Matt is picking up several more jobs which will be a nice boost to our goals this year. I just hate the waiting part of this process.

Mid February Budget Update

Posted on by
Reply

I like to post budget updates on a regular basis because they give me a reference point to look back at during the year. As I have been reviewing my updates, I realized that I had a couple of unmet goals that needed to be addressed. I hope by having everything in one place, I can also be more accountable for things.

One of the areas that I am going to start focusing on and trying to reduce significantly is dinning out!  I realized as that we are spending as much each month on eating out as we do on grocery. My initial plan for the year was to use a cash only envelope for this but so far this has not worked. So hopefully by at least mentioning in my budget updates, I can begin to reduce this expense.

This month, our budget has been significantly increased due to our tax refund. Let me state up front that I did not anticipate  it to be as large as it was but I am very thankful. I also have a significant number of deductions for federal taxes so this is not money that the government has been borrowing interest free for a year.  In fact, we are making no changes to our taxes this year.

As I have been reviewing my updates, I realized that I had a couple of unmet goals that needed to be addressed. I hope by having everything in one place, I can also be more accountable for things.

Goals that I had left from January as well as updates on them:

  • Pay off the outstanding Verizon bill from where we switch names this will be completed with our state refund.
  • Deposit for Beach vacation  Paid

Yearly Financial Goals that I have set and updates:

1.  Pay off lawn mower by March 2014 to avoid interest being charged.    This was also paid with our tax refund!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  I added $100 to this in January, my goal is to add another $100 in February.  The ultimate plan is start adding $200 a month in May to met this goal.

3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month Currently, we have remaining $17 for the month. I am pleased because this included a stock up trip to Costco, our annual Super Bowl party and a special dinner for a friend’s birthday.  In addition, we stocked up on drinks for the summer as well. I will also add that we are averaging $576 a month in groceries for the past year. In the near future, I may try to reduce this amount again… just a thought but I may move $100 over to eating out.


4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  So far, $243 has been spent in gas. This is high for the month but includes 2 trips to Chapel Hill. I suspect that less than $100 will be spent for the remainder of the month but both March and April look to be expensive gas month due to in state traveling that is planned.

My unmet goal for last year:

Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June–   I now only have $400 left on the Home Depot card from remodeling Lily’s room in December.  This will be paid as part of our regular bills and should be completed prior to May.   We have a personal loan with $4500 on it as well. I actually would like to eliminate this debt by December but plan to focus on the Emergency Fund so we will see how it goes. I will say that by June 2015 we will have no outstanding debt other than our mortgage!