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Archive for June, 2017

18% Gross To Retirement

June 30th, 2017 at 12:30 pm

We save 18% of my husband's gross pay to retirement. I'm starting to wonder if it is too much. Only because I've been watching YouTube videos of people following Dave Ramsey and saving 15% gross on Baby Step 4.

Our plan is for my husband to retire from the Army with a full retirement pension. This is equal to 50% of his base income, which if calculated today would be about $3,840 per month. It will be higher as he will get promoted at least one more time before he retires. He might also be eligible for more than 50%, but not sure. If so that will make a huge difference in pay as he will have over 32 years of service.

Obviously, there is risk that something could happen that he won't get to full retirement. He is already eligible for a reserve retirement check that would pay out beginning at age 60, possibly sooner. That check would be far less.

I think part of me is wanting to adjust to 15% so I can use the other 3% (which is just under $300) towards the Big Goal. And I suppose I don't have to change anything, as more than half of our retirement is invested in our Roth IRAs. I can take those contributions out any time.

Just thoughts. How much of your gross income do you/did you save for retirement?

Money News

June 29th, 2017 at 01:41 pm

I redeemed some Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards this week. I would have like to have waited for the beginning of the month to get the discount, but I needed them to buy my daughter birthday gifts! Luckily, Swagbucks have been fruitful with a lot of good surveys and nCraves this last week. In total I redeemed 2800 SB for $28 worth of Amazon gift cards. They arrived within two days, too, so that made me happy!

My husband and I both need to get our vehicles in for repairs. My husband's is just an oil change. My van now has a check engine light on. And no it's not the gas cap. It is driving well, so I expect it is just an oxygen sensor that has failed. That usually seems to be the case for us, if the car is running properly. I have an appointment for Monday and he will stop in for an oil change on Saturday morning.

We earned just over 3100 miles on our Southwest Visa this last month. Yep, that means we charged nearly $3000! We currently have about 20K miles that we can eventually redeem for a flight. I'm planning to use them for my daughter to fly home during Christmas break. I could use some now for her one way ticket back to school in August, but the cost is minimal and December is always a more expensive month.

I wanted to write a blog post yesterday, but there were site issues. I don't think what I wrote above is what I wanted to write. I wish I could remember! I should have written it in a word document. Hopefully it comes back to me, so I can tell you all. Smile

Frugal Wins

June 25th, 2017 at 10:37 pm

I just harvested a bunch of lettuce from our garden. Maybe for the last time this season...it seems a bit on the bitter side. We will still eat it mixed with other greens or add to a smoothie. There was also one cherry tomato and a summer squash ready. I do need to do some fertilizing as the soil here is awful!

I used one of my Frito Lay coupons today at the store. The price of the chips was $3.20, so received that off my bill. I also used two other coupons, that I found in the store, for another $1.50 off products I purchased. I have moved $4.70 from the grocery budget to the BIG goal.

I probably saved more money today, as I made a list and later crossed a few items off. I would guess another $5 to $10 worth of savings by skipping some items that were not needed. I also don't think I added anything extra into the cart...oh actually I did. But both were less than $2 combined. I also had a couple times where I picked up an item I needed only to find the same thing, different brand in another aisle for less!

We have been able to keep our irrigation system from running all but one time in the last two weeks because we have received so much rain! Maybe the water bill will be a bit lower next month.

What are your frugal wins?

In other news...

We have been hearing from our daughter each afternoon. Evening for her. She left the UK yesterday and arrived in France. I know she will be in Paris tomorrow evening. She isn't saying a lot because it seems to be moments before she dives into bed. I think the trip is going well. We have seen pictures on Facebook from a teacher who is posting. I will be interested to see how much of her money she spends!

Frito Lay Coupons

June 23rd, 2017 at 06:20 pm

I received three coupons in the mail from Frito Lay after discovering something like black mold on some bite size tortilla chips. I sent pictures and explanation through some form on their website. We basically had to throw the entire bag out, so I was asking for a cash refund. The coupons work too, as that will buy us three bags of chips which will save me far more than the cash refund.

I received $3 from Pinecone and it is now sitting in my Paypal account with a little money from a small eBay sale not long ago.

I'm working on Swagbucks here and there. I have not been focused enough everyday to meet goal until this week. It has helped to join the Swagbucks Swaggernauts page on Facebook to find a few quick ways to earn. I would like to get to 2500 by this weekend so I can get an Amazon gift card and purchase a few items for my daughter's birthday at the beginning of July.

Trying to stay frugal in this next week. It felt very spendy in the days leading up to our daughter's trip. So far no meals out, and the only spending were some sports bras, which we did need.

My Baby Girl Is Off to Europe

June 21st, 2017 at 08:28 pm

By midnight eastern time, my youngest daughter will be arriving in London for her first international trip! She will be gone 14 days. I will admit I did get a little teary eyed at the airport. I'm going to miss her. I guess a good trial run for next year when she leaves for college.

I'm glad my older daughter is home this summer. With my husband away I would probably be quite lonely!

I'm not sure how much we will hear from her, but we did buy her a very small data plan which included some texts for a whopping $40 with Verizon. One teacher on the trip plans to send at least one text a day, while another teacher is posting pictures to Facebook. As long as I know she is alive each day, I will survive. Smile

And if you are curious, she is in London two days. Four nights in France. One night in Belgium. Four nights in Germany. And finally one night in Austria. I think she is hoping to use a little of the German she has learned while she is there. The theme of the trip is WWII and the Western Front.

I guess I will save on groceries a bit during these next two weeks, with one less mouth to feed.

High Summer Utilities

June 18th, 2017 at 02:26 pm

It's just that time of year. More watering of the lawn, which is very large. And the cooling of our home. Because of the high humidity and heat of the southeast, I cannot set the air conditioning too high or mold will grow.

Last month the water bill was $88 and this month it is $114. Not super happy about it, but the lawn does look better with more water on it. The good news is our neighborhood has put a ban on irrigation temporarily because one of the water pumps isn't working, thus some residents are having low water pressure. It helps those residents with better pressure if we don't irrigate. It has been one week so far and I expect that will result in a slightly lower bill next month.

The electric bill was $122.88 last month. This month it jumped to $220.90. I did compare that higher bill to last year at this time and it was $252. So I kind of feel that there is an improvement in using less electricity in areas we can control. I'm still hanging my own clothes to dry, but I know my girls are still using the dryer. And I do use the dryer for towels and jeans. Reducing the use of electricity is still on my radar. We will keep trying despite the weather!

Returns

June 13th, 2017 at 03:43 pm

I returned a shirt to Kohl's this morning. I received $9.97 back to my Kohl's card and $1.34 in Kohl's cash. I find it odd to get Kohl's cash because the Kohl's cash I received had already been used in full. So a mini bonus I guess. At least I have 30 days to use it.

I have a pair of jeans I bought in April from JC Penney's that I need to return also. That will bring $20+ back to our budget.

The money is all going back to the clothing budget as there has been more spending there as of late.

Do you have anything at home that you purchased, but have now decided not to use? Return it and put that money back in your budget!

Snowflakes to Big Goal

June 11th, 2017 at 01:58 am

Small amounts add up. I'm pretty sure I have said that before!

Our bank reimbursed us for a $3 ATM (incurred while my husband is away), plus gave us $0.07 for interest.

I sold four CDs of an older band on eBay earlier this week for a net profit of $1.67. Considering the used book/music store wouldn't even buy them, I'm happy with the small amount.

Just tonight I listed two books on eBay and one on half.com. One already sold! I expect a net of $4.90.

I think I mentioned in a past blog post that I was using up my change while out doing my normal purchases. I had $5.09 in coins, with over a dollar in pennies. I did get it spent. What I found to be a great place to spend it was at self checkouts that accept cash! Five dollars in coins is heavy in my wallet, so I didn't have it all with me initially.

Last night on a trip to Target, I made a point to take it all so I could get rid of it! Luckily there were no other people waiting while I inserted nearly $2 in coins in the machine. My balance was far more, but the machine lets you pick Pay With Card if you don't have enough cash, so that is what I did. I have moved $5.09 from our spending budget to our savings! And while I would have liked to have just deposited directly to our account, we bank online, so that isn't an easy option for us.

I'm gathering all the snowflakes I can while we rack up the cash towards our Big Goal, which you can get details on the sidebar if you don't know what that is. Smile

Eating Out Costs Since January

June 9th, 2017 at 12:26 pm

OMG!

I say we don't really eat out, but I did a report on YNAB to see how much we have spent since January 1. We have spent $1,158.51 in restaurants. I was shocked. I feel like we only go out once, maybe twice a month.

Here's the monthly breakdown:

January $153.03
February $142.71
March $254.90
April $428.35
May $159.73
June $19.79

I know that in March my daughter was home on spring break, and my husband was off work, I know we ate out as a family at least once and took her to lunch at couple times. In April, we were traveling for eight days and we did buy food out many times during that time.

January, February, and May seem like they may be more normal spending amounts.

In May, there were 9 restaurant transactions. Four of those were my husband eating out for lunch. One was for pizza when I thought a friend of my daughter was going to eat with us. She didn't but I had already ordered it. The other four were restaurant meals for two to four of us. I would say two were for convenience and two were for enjoyment/entertainment.

I'm sure people spend far more than we do eating out, but even basic grab and go at Subway adds up!

Do you know how much you spend eating at restaurants on a monthly basis?

Cancel Basic Cable

June 8th, 2017 at 10:18 pm

We have basic cable here. Before we moved we had an antenna in our attic to receive over the air channels. I did the research here hoping to do the same, however, the signals are not great in our location for over the air. The cable portion for very basic channels is $30.48 which includes two digital adapters and taxes.

But guess what? We don't watch television. We end up watching things on our phones, tablets and computers. And what we watch doesn't require a cable subscription. I did think of one show my husband does often watch on Sunday mornings, but after talking to him he said he could watch it later online. He seemed to think that was a perfectly fine solution.

So I just need to make the change. I need to call the cable company and cut the cord! Once I do, and turn in the adapters, I will save at least $30.48 each month, that is $365.76 a year.

Do you have cable? Did you have it in the past and cut it? Do you rely on just over the air reception?

All The Things I Want to Say About Money

June 7th, 2017 at 02:33 pm

I came across this

Text is blog post today and Link is https://www.becomingminimalist.com/advice-money/
blog post today. I feel like I could have written this post. I think these things. And I usually don't say anything unless I would be asked advice.

I do find it interesting that people don't see the disconnect between their actions (the spending) and the way they talk about money.

If you want to go on vacation (where you fly somewhere) and you earn $100K, you can make it happen. It doesn't have to happen every year. I know people who buy excessive (not necessarily expensive) clothes, eat out frequently, get their nails and hair done professionally, have children in MULTIPLE activities, yet don't have the ability to make a trip happen.

Now everyone has the right to choose how they spend their money, but don't speak as though you don't have control. The majority of the time we have much more control than we think we do.

Retirement Up Since Last Year & More

June 6th, 2017 at 09:35 pm

Retirement is definitely up from last year at this time. In fact, we had just met a milestone of $350K. But now, a year later our retirement accounts at last check totaled $439,848. A nice $89,000+ difference. That change is due to the market rise and our contributions over the year.

I sold an item on eBay yesterday. I only netted a small amount, maybe $2. But the items are gone. That money will go to the Big Goal.

I found a nickel in a store parking lot yesterday. Unfortunately, it didn't cover the costs of what I spent!

I used $30 worth of Amazon gift cards (earned through url=http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/creditcardfree] Swagbucks[/url]) to cover some phone and travel expenses for my daughter. A phone case and screen cover, a travel adapter, a book for her AP Literature class (she has to do a project over the summer!), and a travel wallet for cash and passport that she can wear under clothes. Out of pocket I only spent $6.52!

Today has been a no spend day! Happy about that, since it has been a very spendy June so far.

Paid Summer Tuition in Full

June 5th, 2017 at 11:59 pm

I paid my daughter's summer tuition bill in full this evening. A whopping $1,855.18 in cash out of our checking account. This money was saved since March of this year.

I've also paid for the books she needs. Two were purchased used for a combined total of $14.23. I'm nearly positive she will not want to keep them after the course is over, so they will get resold. The third book we rented for $17.76 on Amazon. I looked everywhere to buy or rent cheaper. The cheapest to buy was $24.99 for an eBook. When you rent a book, it is nearly always free to ship back, at least that is our experience with Amazon.

Feels fantastic to still be student loan debt free!

Big Savings Goal: $2,093.73

June 3rd, 2017 at 03:11 pm

I'm not sure when I announced our Big Savings Goal, but it has been at least two months. I thought it would be good to share how far we have come.

The Big Savings Goal is $160,000.

We have saved $2,093.73 as of the end of May 2017.

I wish it was more, but I also am pleased that we have a decent start. I didn't put the goal out there to forget about it. I also expected progress to be a little slow in the beginning. We have a daughter in college, and some of our cash goes to tuition. We have a rent payment of $1800 for another year (hope to move and lower that amount).

I posted our interest for May in yesterday's post. Yes, that interest is going to our Big Savings Goal!

May Interest

June 2nd, 2017 at 01:39 pm

The interest earned on our cash savings came to $92.26 in the month of May. We do have several 2% CDs where a lot of our money is parked, so that helps a lot.

In fact, I remembered when checking the interest, that at least one of the CDs allows new deposits added to it. I transferred $430 I had in a savings account at the same bank to that CD. I think it is actually two of the CDs that have that option, but the rate is the same, so it didn't really mater which one I picked.

Did you earn any interest in May?

$75 to BIG Goal

June 1st, 2017 at 07:45 pm

We found out last night that my daughter's flute teacher is no longer going to be doing private lessons. As a result her last lesson with this teacher is in two weeks. As it turns out we have credits for three weeks of lessons. The store gave me a refund of one lesson back to my credit card last night of $25.

I had already budgeted $50 for the two lessons in June (the later half of June she will miss lessons due to her trip to Europe) not knowing we had credits. I decided to look at the money as a windfall and put it towards our Big Goal.

We aren't sure when my daughter will restart because a new teacher recommended by her teacher is currently going through the hiring process. So it all ends up as good budget news, but a bit sad my daughter has to start with a new teacher.