Category Archives: Goals

Thursday-Budget Post 12/05/2013

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I was able to cross several items off my to do list today including establishing and resetting our budget. For the month of December, the focus will be on staying on track so that we can end the year “even”.  I have made some major allowances for eating out and a couple more gifts that I need to purchase.  I am most disappointed that I did not get an emergency fund in place but it will be a in place next year!

Several major changes will be occurring a couple of highlights are:
budget will be based on two checks a month, and will include Matt’s steady income. In January and July, I will receive an extra check which will be used to pay for vacations and extras.
eliminated the “auto fund” instead small repairs, oil changes, taxes will come out of the gas budget. At the end of each month, any amount left in the gas fund will be transferred to the second account for more majority car repairs or saved.
added dinning out envelope this will allow us to eat out once a month or if we are careful twice a month. The plan is to add to this account with extra money that is found or left from the previous month grocery fund. This is a cash only envelope which is harder for us to spend. Grocery budget will remain at $600 a month as this is our average for the year!
hair fund has been moved to a cash only envelope. This will also be the “petty cash” if needed!

In April or before if we can pay off the Home Depot card, that payment will be transferred to our emergency fund.  I know that it will take several years but I plan to leave this as a regular schedule payment until $5000 is in the account!

I am excited that we are on the right track and I think we are in a good position to succeed this next year!

 

Best Laid Christmas Plans!

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At the start of last week, I was excited, in my mind, I had a list of things to accomplish over the holiday weekend which would have me well prepared for December.  So the best laid plans have now been way scattered. First Lily was sick on Monday and stayed home from school. Next Matt became sick on Wednesday and pretty much was out of commission till Friday. Finally, the Christmas tree that I was so excited to arrive on Thanksgiving morning and even comment how much fun and easy it was to decorate has fallen twice now!  Which resulted in late night re-decorating and cleaning.

Third time decorated!

Third time decorated!

So now I have a list of things that I need to get caught up on prior to Lily’s Birthday, which is Friday.  Here is the short version:
1. Complete and order 3 photo gifts including a calendar for my dad!
2. Seal, address and send Christmas cards.
3. Wrap all presents so that we can use my closet again!
4. Complete decorations outside.
5. Complete Christmas shopping, luckily this involves only 1 more present besides the photo gifts.
6. Ship gifts to family out of state.
7. Budget for December as well as a new system budget for next year!  I may be able to postpone the new budget another week as I am sure this is more brain power than I have left.

Matt has graciously agreed to take over the house cleaning this week so that it is presentable for Lily’s party but I still need to order tickets for Disney on Ice on Saturday!

November in Review

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I am posting these a day early so that I can share a major way to save money tomorrow on home renovations!

Financial goals:  November has been a better month for us, however with the expenses of car insurance, which I had not completely saved this time and lot of Christmas shopping it was an expensive month.  We were able to reduce our monthly expenses by $100 by reducing cable and eliminating our home security system. This new number will begin in December so I will be developing a new plan for the 2014 with these new figures.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment of $100 made, almost a triple payment. Steady progress. I have added to this initial debt with the purchase of flooring but have a plan to still pay all off prior to interest being applied!
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June–  No progress this month but no new debt. We missed this goal obviously but my new goal is June 2014!
  • Emergency fund to $2000–  I have been talking and being in January this will be a major goal and I will be adding a line item to our budget to make it a reality.
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system -Slight adjustments in this area as well. I am going to be moving several items to cash envelopes such as hair to make this easier.
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month  We have spent $453 this month. In December my plan is to stick to less than $200 by eating out of the fridge and pantry!
  • Gas- Goal Met!! We currently have $150 left in our gas budget which we used for part of our car insurance.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month:  This is post number 14 with another post with pictures about our new flooring!

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. I have been consistently exercising 2x a week and actually lost some weight in addition to my clothes fitting much better. I will be continuing to work on this next year.

So my goals look much better this month! In December I will be spending some time reviewing each goal and deciding how to proceed for next year. I will plan an several post on budgeting and at least an update in December with new goals stated for January. Progress should be celebrated!

Saving Money in November

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One of the advice that you will receive reading any financial advise is to check your budget and eliminate as much as needed. I thought we were on top of this; however as we have discovered there were some major savings that we found.

The first of which is our security system. This was initial purchased around 6 years ago. At the time, we had two teenage daughters and 3 very small kids in the house. Our biggest concern was not about someone breaking in but rather someone getting out unexpectedly. When we started to try to find money in our budget three years ago, one of the first things we did was call this company. We were able to reduce our monthly monitoring fee by $10 and received some new free equipment.

Over the past two months, we have again been looking at our expenses with the goal of having a total balanced ( income=expenses) budget to start 2014.

This was an easy decision for us to cancel the contract. One of the biggest factor was that the company no longer supports our equipment.  This of course becomes a problem when we need to replace a couple of sensors and the battery of the main box. Our plan currently is to keep the system in place as we own the equipment. The monitoring  by the company, ends November 30. The one feature that we will lose is that if an alarm goes off, police and/or fire will not be notified by the company.  We did end up throwing away several sensors but for the most part we still like having an alarm on the doors and most windows.

This is an easy saving of $28 a month! Keep reading because a much bigger saving and change are in the works for next week!

October in Review

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Financial goals:  I will start by saying that I almost did not post this update because of how poorly we did in this area.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment of $100 made, almost a triple payment. I have also made a plan to pay this completely off in January!
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– We missed this goal obviously but my new goal is June 2014!
  • Emergency fund to $2000–  Need to start forming a plan to met this goal. I have currently zapped this fund.
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system -I know how much I spent last month but it is way over budget
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month  I have ended up spending double this amount this month.  The only bright spot is that I have an monthly average of $650 for the year so I am going to try and reduce this to $600 for the year.
  • Gas- Goal Met!! We currently have $49 left in our gas budget which is going to help cover the groceries.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month I had 14 post in the month of October. The last week was super busy and I just did  not get caught up. I guess that is why it is a goal!

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. Continuing to look at and think about this goal.. Enough said.

I have met one goal this month… Room for lots of improvement!  Since I failed on both my blogging and budget in October, I am going to set a goal to post at least one post a week about how we are saving money in November. This will hopefully keep me accountable and focused on saving not spending!

What to Do with 120# of Chicken?

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Day Zero- This actually occurred several weeks ahead of time for me. I started searching for a variety of chicken recipes that could easily be frozen. I discovered that the internet is full of ideas but I eliminated first the ones that required ingredients that I don’t normally cook with or just sounded like the same basic idea and second ones that didn’t sound like they would freeze well or be easy to complete. I printed these recipes up and made a stack to be addressed in the next step.

Day One- I will admit that this step took 3-4 hours to complete. I took my recipes decided if I wanted to double triple or just try it out. Next, was a list of the quantity of dishes. Third was the list of ingredient divided into two parts, items on hand and items that needed to be purchased. Finally I made a list of items to be purchased, including which store to purchase at and searched for any coupons I could find.

Day Two- Shopping.  I purchased most items on my regular trip to Costco and Target but did make another stop the week we received the chicken to purchase the fresh veggies that were still needed.

Day Two and half- I again spread this out over 3-4 days of the week of chicken arrival. I clean and made space for the chicken first in our large chest freeze, then in one of our kitchen freezers so initial freezing will be easier for some of the items. We also located several crates that will make transporting to the chest freezer easier. I also clean out space in the fridge to be able to place at least one of the boxes to  take a break on Saturday night to get the kids feed and in bed.

Day Three- I spent about two and half hours chopping up all the fresh veggies and even beginning to label some of the bags.

Day Four- Chicken arrived, the pick up was smooth and the easiest I have ever experienced.  In total we spent 4 hours processing the chicken into the recipes you can find here. I am only counting time that we (Matt and I) were working with the chicken. I did have around an hour that I stopped to get the kids to bed and another 30 minutes that I took a shower while waiting for the crockpots to finish with the chicken to be shredded.  By far, the best tip I have is the Kitchen Aid mixer will shred chicken in 2 minutes!

Total of 48 set meals not counting left overs, so easily 50 meals totally prepared in 10 hours or less.  Now to see how long it actually last!

September in Review

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Financial goals:  September was an ok month for us financially; I was able to get our Emergency fund back to $500 and we are only currently about $300 behind budget for the month. I am hoping/anticipating that by the end of October, we will be even for the year. I am continuing to pick up extra hours at the nursing home in addition to some slow web work that should produce income.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment of $100 made, almost a triple payment. I have also made a plan to pay this completely off in January!
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– We missed this goal obviously but my new goal is June 2014!
  • Emergency fund to $2000–   Currently at just over $500 but at least it exist again.
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – MET!
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month  We are currently at $575 for the month including our purchase of 120# of chicken!  I anticipate that October will be an expensive month as we have to replenish. We have not purchased a lot of groceries since June. At this point our average for the year is $600. My goal will be to stay on budget for the rest of the year!
  • Gas- Goal Met!! We currently have $89 left in our gas budget which will be used to offset a medical bill!

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month This is the 15th blog posting of the month, for the third month in a row. I will admit that this month has been a struggle but I am so glad I have been able to stay on course.

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. Something is better than nothing… with that being said, I have managed to work out 2 nights a week for the past 3 weeks so that is at least better than nothing!

September was a good month!  We have met all goals this month!!!

September Challenge Final Update-Budget

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Have you not heard?       Long ago I ordained it.   In days of old I planned it;  now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified  cities into piles of stone.”
– Isaiah 37:26

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,  “Never will I leave you;     never will I forsake you.
-Hebrews 13:5

Yes, those are the verses that keep coming to my mind as I think about updating our budget status this month.  First I will be really honest, I did not met either of the goals that I had aspired to this month. However, I don’t count this month as a total fail either. In the area of money we have made small but steady progress.

Our emergency fund is currently sitting at just above $500, I was able to make steady payments on our small debt that is left. We are actually under budget in gas and groceries. In addition, I am actually currently under budget for the year on groceries. I will include actual numbers on the month in review post.  Finally, we are currently less than $800 to be even for the year. I am actually really excited by this number!  I have committed to work at the nursing home, one day a week for the next six weeks. This alone will make a huge dent in this $800. In addition, our hope is to finally get a web site published and therefore paid for in October.  Slow and steady wins the race and I am actually seeing a finish line way up ahead in the distance. The biggest blessing is the verses above because I do not have to worry, my God is in control and his timing is PERFECT!

 

 

August in Review

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Financial goals:  August was an expensive month for us with Auto expenses, College and our Vacation. However we are ending the month about the same as July $1000 behind our set budget. The month of September should be better as we are expecting payment for a website, a partial refund of tuition and I have some extra work available this month as well.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment of $100 made, almost a triple payment
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– No new debt incurred! This is a major accomplishment considering the extra expenses of the month.
  • Emergency fund to $2000–   This will receive the biggest push this month as I hope to re-establish and get it to around $1000, because of Auto repairs it is currently at $100
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well! It has really allowed  me to track expenses this month. It worked on vacation as well!!!!!!!!!!
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month   Awesome month in this area, we spent around $200 including  food for the beach!  We are currently only $20 over for the year. We have spent some time cleaning out one of our freezers and making meal plans. The goal for August is to spend less than $200 except for an order of Zaycon chicken that we should receive in October. If we are able to meet this goal, the extra will be placed in Emergency Fund to beef it up!
  • Gas- Including our gas for vacation we spent $550 in addition we spent another $150 on auto repair and service. The Goal is $400 a month, so we did met this goal if you eliminate vacation and repair. I hope to keep this expense low in the next month due to the need for tags, inspection and renewal of our AAA all come this month. My goal will be to use any funds not need to cover these additional expenses as my auto fund is empty!

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month This is the 15th blog posting of the month, for the second month in a row.

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. To be honest, I have not even address this goal this month. I have not gained the 10# I lost but there has been no progress. Repeat from last month…..

On paper, August appears to be a successful month, we really enjoyed our vacation so that makes it even better.

The anticipation is that September will be a better month financially for us in the terms of income.

God’s Timing

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“As for God, his way is perfect:
The Lord’s word is flawless;
he shields all who take refuge in him.”  Psalm 18:30 (NIV)

I often need reminders of God’s provision and faithfulness. This weekend was a needed and very obvious reminder !  We decided to purchase a new to us minivan in late May. The intention was that we would sell our current minivan for the same price as the one we purchased. We immediately placed ads on Craig’s list in addition to several other free sites. Initially we had several “lookers” but nothing serious. So six weeks later,   Matt decides to update the ad to get some more attention. On Wednesday, my car refused to crank and we knew the starter had to be replaced. I was not at all concerned because I just simply drove the red van to work while my car sat in the driveway. Matt was able to get the starter replaced on Saturday morning! The new ad on Craig’s list was already getting a couple of follow-up phone calls but not even a looker yet.  Today, Sunday, we have someone drive down from Greensboro and purchase the red minivan.  Not only does this allow us to pay down our overall debt but also makes it possible for us to afford Haley’s fall tuition without a hardship on our normal budget. I realized just last Thursday that I had not be saving enough to cover the tuition that is due in August. God already had a plan and I am so thankful that I can enjoy it.
God’s timing is perfect, he knew we would need the van last week but more importantly, I need a reminder that we are in his will and he will provide as we need not as we want.