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October 30th, 2013 at 03:18 am

Fiance got his bonus and it was $700.00!!!! That's about $2, 600.00 we have so far for shoulder surgery.

Here's an update on our goals:
Shoulder surgery: $4,000.00
Fiances time off: $6,000.00
Roof: $2,000.00
Gutters: $1,500.00
Fence: $10,000.00
Siding: $15,00.00

Yikes!! :-(

Some good news!

October 23rd, 2013 at 07:37 pm

Fiance got a letter last month from his bank that he has his mortgage through. The escrow payment is changing...not sure why. But his monthly payment will be $50.00 less a month (starts in November) because of escrow going down. He also gets his surplus returned to him, which is $224.15. What good news! :-)

Also, last year we had to buy a refrigerator because ours broke on us and fiance put it on his Sears credit card, it was no interest for a year and we had no emergency fund back then. Last payment is this month, so that will be another $70.00/month!

Shoulder Surgery

October 16th, 2013 at 07:53 pm

Hope everyone has had a fabulous past couple of weeks. It has been a while since I have posted anything. Haven’t had much going on, just very busy being mommy and working and trying to keep up with the mess at home… haven’t been very successful with that. And homework…well, that’s not doing itself, unfortunately.

Anyways… on another note, fiancé wants to get shoulder surgery done in JANUARY of 2014 . Evidently, he can’t stand the pain anymore… shucks! Our plan is to come up with $10,000.00 for this. He has done some research and believes that after insurance pays, we will have to pay somewhere between $3,000.00 - $4,000.00 in medical bills. His disability insurance will cover 66% of his income for the time he will be off. We expect him to be out of work for 3-6 months… I’m crossing my fingers that he will be able to go back to work sooner than later. We estimate about $6,000.00 to cover the rest of his income. These figures and time-frames are just what we are expecting. We are not for sure on anything as we have not talked to a doctor yet. Fiancé is suppose to be contacting the doctor he wants to see to schedule an appointment in January.

My goal before I knew about the surgery was to have $2,000.00 in my savings account by the end of the year. Now that we are planning on the surgery, that money will go towards that.

How we plan to come up with $10,000.00:

Money already saved: $1,974.00
Only $24.00 to reach my goal of $2,000.00!

Money from tax returns: $2,000.00
We usually file as soon as we can

Other money we will receive: $1,000.00
2 bonuses = $500.00 each bonus/$1,000.00 total (One bonus in December and one in March)

That’s $2,500.00 by January (money we have already saved and at least $500 from one bonus) and $3,000.00 more by March for a total of $5,500.00. The other $500.00 for bonus will not be until March. So in order to come up with the other $4,000.00, we will probably stop funding our retirement accounts beginning next year until everything is taken care of. That should give us at least another $800.00 per month next year. We will have to hit our retirement accounts hard after that. I would still like to max out my retirement in 2014.

Hopefully we can both save a little bit yet this year. We both usually get about $200.00 each for Christmas, so that would be an extra $400.00. I will also get paid for the sick days that I do not take this year. We only get 42 hours a year for sick time and as of today I have used 10.5 hours, so I still have 31.5 hours available. But then again, we do still have two and a half months to get sick and 3 co-workers have been sick this week already. But if I can keep the bug away, that would give me a few hundred extra bucks at the end of the year. I estimate that we could easily come up with an extra $500.00 with Christmas money, sick pay, etc., by the end of the year. And if we don’t use all of our Christmas budget, that would help!

What a headache! I was definitely hoping to get the housework done outside before surgery... oh well!

Productive Weekend

September 23rd, 2013 at 06:42 pm

We had a great weekend! We got our daughter started on doing chores and she LOVED it! We figure it's a good time to start them on chores now when they enjoy it and maybe they'll just be used to it as they get older. She made $1.50 between Saturday and today. We also got a leak under the sink fixed and we all pitched in and got the house picked up - still have laundry to do!

And I sat our son in the highchair on Saturday while the rest of us were cleaning and set his toy on his tray for something to look at and he actually grabbed it all on his own!

We had a wonderful weekend and hope everyone else did as well! Have a productive week, everyone!

September 17th

September 18th, 2013 at 04:43 pm

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. Son had his two month appointment and had to get three shots...poor baby! Fiance and I found out that we are actually going to be able to replace the roof for basically nothing - holding back $500.00 for unexpected expenses. I got a homework assignment turned in for one class and another assignment halfway done for my other college class! Also got some laundry washed and dried..which is the easy part.

My goals for tonight:
1. unload/load dishwasher
2. wash/dry laundry
3. get SOME laundry folded!!! (this is always my problem)
4. complete/turn in a homework assignment

New goals!!

September 16th, 2013 at 10:36 pm

My fiance and I talked to our parents this weekend about what they wanted to contribute to the wedding. The wedding will be paid for! I will probably still hold back about $2,000.00 until we're sure that everything gets paid for.

Our new goals (I really have no idea how much things will cost. I'm just trying to get a ballpark idea and hopefully figuring too high):

1. Wedding (just in case) $500.00/$500.00
2. Shoulder surgery for fiance $0.00/$5,000.00
3. Income for time off during recovery $0.00/$20,000.00
4. Roof $500.00/$500.00 (my step-dad manages a roofing company where we live and can get us shingles for nothing and my biological father can help install it)
5. Siding $1,000.00/$7,000.00 (my step-dad also use to own his own business doing siding and roofing so he can help side our house)
6. Privacy fence $0.00/$5,000.00
7. Replace kitchen cupboards/cabinets $0.00/8,000.00
8. Finish basement (mainly wall under stairs and ceiling $0.00/$5,000.00
9. Family vehicle $0.00/$15,000.00

Saving cents for the kids

September 13th, 2013 at 08:21 pm

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.

Accomplished something!

September 13th, 2013 at 08:14 pm

I got something accomplished last night!! It wasn’t much…but it was something! Load of dishes in the dishwasher, living room tidied up, and kids’ room picked up! I listen to the Dave Ramsey show to help me get through cleaning. I also had to leave my son in his car seat when we got home to keep him asleep for a while.

I can at least breath now in my own home! Hopefully tonight I can get some laundry done!! We’ll see. I’m not getting my hopes up.

Unorganized Home

September 12th, 2013 at 03:37 pm

I NEED to figure out a schedule or something! Every night I put my son to sleep and think, "Okay, once he's asleep I'll get up and do dishes, fold laundry, etc." and every night I end up falling asleep with him and wake up in the middle of the night realizing I missed my chance to clean. The house is such a MESS! I have got to get something done! I might save some money by eating out less if the kitchen/dishes were clean!

It's also a very good thing that my online college classes don't have due dates this semester because I haven't had much time to do homework. Last night was the first night I ALMOST got an assignment done!

Tonight I AM going to get some cleaning done at home. Yikes!

Getting started

September 11th, 2013 at 09:32 pm

I'm new to blogging, but I am using it as a road mao for myself/family. I hope that other people being able to read about our progress/goals will keep me motivated and responsible with money. I also want to prepare my kids financially for when they go out on their own.

Here's a little history on me and my family - I'm 23, he's 29, son is two months old to the day and fiances daughter is 4. We are getting married 9-13-14.

Debt:
$677.00 - My car - not paying on it while in school and it will be paid off in December.
$5,700.00 - Attorney - fiance's debt
$83,000.00 - House - fiance's debt

Attorney and house are not mine until next September, but I consider them when I think about us financially in the long run.

Goals for this year:
1. Fully funded Emergency Fund = $12,000.00 (half funded by me/half by fiancé)
Tax refund helped us accomplish this goal
2. Emergency fund for baby’s arrival = $1,500.00 (I don’t get paid maternity leave)
Ended up needing $1,395.00 total while I was off for 6 weeks
3. Car repairs = $500.00
Actual cost ended up being $350.00
4. Newborn pictures = $100.00
5. Car registration = $200.00
Actual cost = $158.10
6. Christmas = $500.00 – have this saved as cash
7. Retirement = $5,500.00
Have $2,840.00 as of 9/11/13 - $2,640.00 left
8. Savings = $2,000.00
Have $1,800.00 as of 9/11/13 - $200.00 left
9. Dress = $84.54
To be bridesmaid in cousins wedding next summer

I'm going to reach all of my financial goals this year!

I don't have an actual wedding savings because my fiances parents said that they want to help out *a lot* to pay for it - whatever that means. We still need to sit down with them and talk about what they want to help pay for or how much. Number 8 "Savings" will be used for the wedding if needed.

We only have my fiance's daughter every other weekend, every other holiday, and six weeks every summer. When we have her next we plan to do a chore chart with her and the spend, save, give jars. Chores will be things like feed the dogs, help set dinner table, help load washer/dryer and she will get $0.25/chore that she completes. I also plan to go to our local library and find some fund kids books on money.

My sister is also expecting a child next summer, so I'm hoping to give her some financial ideas and maybe get her child involved with the money activities we do with our kids!

We also save $25.00/month/kid into a college savings plan - so only $300 a year per kid (it isn't much).

I would love to hear what other parents do with their kids to teach them about money!


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