2013 Review

Fully funded the emergency fund: $12,000.00
Got engaged on 3/30/13
Paid cash for fiancé to buy a pick up: $3,000.00
Started spend/save/give with daughter
Had our healthy baby boy!
Cash flowed my maternity leave: $1,500.00
Fully funded my Roth IRA: $5,500.00
Savings balance: $1,776.91 ($100.00 minimum balance)
Paid my car off!
Daughter’s savings: $40.00 (this is just a guess)
Son’s savings: $115.00
College for daughter: $1,515.00
College for son: $415.00
Got through two more college classes

Our son started sitting this last Saturday, he got his first tooth on the 17th, and has been saying “Dadda” since the 21st. They grow so fast and are so fun!

We got our daughter for Christmas on Friday, so we opened gifts with them on Saturday. Had Christmas with fiance’s family on Sunday. We also had our first marriage prep class last night. We are Catholic and have to take classes before we can get married in the Catholic Church.

This morning, my sister had her ultrasound to find out if it was a boy or girl. It’s a BOY!!!! Eeeek! I’m soooo excited to be an aunt and for my son to have a little cousin. 

What our family received for Christmas:
Me – $100.00 from soon to be mother-in-law, $200.00 from soon to be father-in-law, gift certificate to tan and a gift certificate to dye my hair from my parents, a cute new pair of black boots, and some bath and body works stuff.

Fiance - $100.00 from his mom, $200.00 from his dad, minutes for his phone from my parents (he uses Straighttalk), and meat injector for cooking his meat.

Daughter – $50.00 and 2 silver coins from her grandparents, and lots of toys from everybody else.

Son – $50.00 and 4 silver coins from his grandparents, a bunch of toys from everybody else, and $100.00 from his great aunt (my aunt) to his college fund through his GradSave account for his first Christmas.

This is the amount my son has received for his first 6 months:
His savings account = $115.66
His GradSave account = $265.00
Plus the 4 silver dollars
I think he’s had a good year!

I won’t know my status on my goals until tomorrow after payday.

My sons great aunt contributed $100 to his college savings through GradSave! So thankful for such wonderful family! Went to the store tonight and bought a variety pack of thank you cards. We'll start sending those out to let people know that we appreciate it!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I have to work half a day. And then it's hurry and wrap presents! At 5 we will go to church, 6 go to my step grandmother's, 6:30 go to my parents for dinner and presents.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Me: Saw in our local paper yesterday that I graduated from Central Community College on December 5th. I was definitely not not aware of this! I called and I graduated with my diploma, but not with my actual degree. I guess that's something!


The kids: I looked at GradSave accounts today and my mom and step-dad contributed $100 to each child today!

Total contributed to daughter through GradSave: $115
Total contributed to son through GradSave: $165

2014 Financial:

My Income: $1,300.00/per MONTH (after taxes) – Yuck!
Other income: $1,500.00 – tax return
$1,000.00 – other

Monthly Expenses (does not include savings, retirement or college):
Bills: $400.00 (Cell phone, internet, tv, gas, electricity, water, car insurance)
Fuel: $120.00 (My fuel)
Groceries: $100.00 (I only pay a small percentage of groceries)
Babysitter: $50.00 - $65.00 (Depends on how many days and how long. I pay 35% toward babysitter. We will have to switch babysitters in June, 2013, so we’ll see if it becomes more expensive.
Misc.: $80.00
TOTAL: $670.00 - $685.00
Other:
Will be left with about $500.00/month for retirement/college/savings

Random expenses in 2014:
1.Wedding Gifts = $100.00
2.Wedding Travel = $500.00
3.Car Registration(s) = $500.00
4.Kids’ birthday parties = $300.00 ($150.00 each for cake & ice cream, party supplies, presents, etc.)
5.Vacation = $500.00 (Not sure we’ll take one)
6.Clothing = $500.00 – we are all really in need of some clothes!
7.Home (random doings) = $150.00 – the house is so blah right now!
8.Birthday gifts/Graduation gifts = $150.00
9.Christmas = $400.00
Total Random = $3,100.00

Investments in 2014:
College:$300.00 for the year (fiancé does another $300.00)
Retirement:$5,500.00 for the year (fiancé max’s out his Roth also)

Savings will go toward:
Shoulder surgery: $4,500.00 $4,000.00/$4,500.00
Recover time: $5,500.00
Roof: $2,000.00
Gutters: $1,200.00

I don't know how to manage next year:
1. Throw tax return and other at retirement so I don't have to budget so much for that - if I do that I'd contribute $58.00/week to retirement; or
2. Throw tax return and other at random expenses so that they are covered and we don't have to worry about it. Save monthly for retirement and surgery, time off, and house improvements; or
3. Throw tax return and other at surgery, time, and house improvements so we can get that out of the way.

I think I could cash flow us through fiance's time off work for surgery if I throw it at retirement. I just don't know the best way to go about it.

Fiance will also help with everything except my portion of college, and retirement.

Any ideas?! We have a lot going on next year!

Tonight I looked at our bank accounts and this is what I found:

Fiances checking: $2, 500
My checking: $200 (I run it pretty low as I always know where I'm at and transfer extra into savings)
My savings: $2, 074 (will pull from this to fully fund retirement by end of year but after Christmas it will be $2, 100)
Fiances 401k: $15, 000
Fiances Roth: $2, 200 (he will fully fund it for 2013)
My Roth: $4, 500 ($5, 500 by end of year)
Utilites account: $800 ($1, 000 by end of year. We deposit average amount of all our utility bills and bring it back to $1, 000 in December)
Investment accounts: $15, 000 (all but about $3, 00 is our EF)
Kids' college: $1, 600

Debts:
House: $82, 500 (assessor says it's worth about 90k)
Attorney: $5, 300
My car: $333.00

Also, GradSave has received $80 from family already! :-)

Fiance got a raise of $0.52, plus a $200.00-something bonus last week!!

And sons gradsave account has been set up for less than a month and now has $50.00 from Grandma! He just turned 4 months old yesterday. It has already been very exciting watching him grow.. smiling, laughing, cooing, rolling over, eating some rice cereal.. I just love him!! :-)

I have been a change saver since I was a waitress. Now when I spend cash for items, I round the total to the nearest dollar and just save the change. While I was pregnant I saved up my change to put towards my sons college fund every month. I wasn’t able to save the full $150.00 (save $25.00/month), but did save about $100.00 of it. Was able to fund the last $50.00 by selling my old prom dress!

For the last two months I have just been putting most of it in my son’s piggy bank. Now that we are going to be letting my fiancé’s daughter earn a little money, the first $3.00 that I save every two weeks will be put aside for her when she completes a “chore” and then I will probably just throw the rest in my son’s piggy bank.

All pennies go into a cute monkey jar that my sister made for him. I have saved several dollars in change for my son the past two months, which has been put into a Humpty Dumpty piggy bank…that I can’t open! For his baptism, he got a Cross piggy bank with $13.00 in quarters in it and then a $20.00 bill from his grandparents. I have been putting the change/money in the piggy bank that I can actually open ever since he got it. So he already has $33+.

When we were getting ready to start the spend, save, give system with my fiancé’s daughter, I counted the money in her piggy bank just to see how much was there. There was about $28.00 in change and $6.00 in cash – more than I expected there to be. I took $6.00 out in change and split it up throughout the three jars. I did that just to help her get the concept as to what is going into the jars. Maybe I should take that out and put it back in her piggy bank so that she can be the first one to deposit money in those jars? Hmm..

So this is what we have…
the monkey jar – holds all of the pennies (I don’t get excited about pennies, but we will cash them in at the bank when it is full)
son’s Cross piggy bank – has about $33.00 in it
son’s Humpty Dumpty piggy bank – has a lot of quarters, but not sure how much ($5.00 give or take)
daughter has a big pink piggy bank – has $28.00 in it ($34.00 if I put that money back in it)
daughter has a small blue see through piggy bank – it’s pretty empty

What would you guys do with the piggy banks? They each have two. If I want to teach them to work for their money and do the save, spend, give system, I’m not sure that I should just put change in there and one day say “Here’s $200.00 for you!”

These are the options I have come up with so far:

1. Just throwing extra change in one piggy bank for each of them and see how much is in there someday when they become interested or request to go cash it in.
2. Use one piggy bank for extra money towards college and one towards their cars someday.

That’s really all I’ve come up with so far. I know you all probably think that I’m thinking into this a little much – I mean, it is just cents, but I have always been able to save a LOT of change. I LOVE change!

I feel like we are saving too little for their college, which is probably where the money should go. We are using a 529 to help fund their college and only contribute $25.00/month/child, but we don’t want to save too much. My fiance’s family has always been good about going to college and getting a degree – although he did not. He had a scholarship for academics to a University, but messed around too much. Most of my family on the other hand has not gotten college degrees – I would say 30% of us have not. I will completely encourage college, but also realize that college isn’t for everyone. Therefore, we will get taxed if we end up not using that money for college and taking it out, so we don’t want to save too much in case they end up not using it/needing it. They will also have to maintain a certain GPA if we are going to help pay for it.